Crop Breakeven Price: How to Know Your Number
Your crop breakeven price is the most important number in your operation. Here's how to calculate it for corn and soybeans — and how to use it in marketing and leasing decisions.
Your crop breakeven price is the most important number in your operation. Everything else — forward contracts, cash rent negotiations, crop insurance levels, store-vs-sell at harvest — flows from knowing what price per bushel covers your costs.
The basic formula
Breakeven price = total cost per acre ÷ expected yield
Worked example — corn:
| Item | $/acre |
|---|---|
| Seed, fertilizer, chemicals | $365 |
| Insurance, fuel, labor, custom | $110 |
| Land (cash rent) | $250 |
| Machinery & overhead | $75 |
| Total cost | $600 |
| Expected yield | 200 bu/acre |
| Breakeven price | $3.00/bu |
At $4.50 corn, that is $1.50/bu margin × 200 bu = $300/acre profit before taxes and family living. At $2.75 corn, you lose $25/acre on every bushel you harvest.
Use the crop breakeven calculator to run your own line items — university budget presets are a starting point, not your final number.
Context 1 — marketing at harvest
The store vs sell grain guide walks through the full harvest marketing framework. Your breakeven is the floor.
If harvest price is above breakeven, every bushel sold is margin — the question is whether holding for higher prices beats storage cost and price risk. If harvest price is below breakeven, selling still stops the bleeding on operating costs, but you are locking a loss. Knowing the number prevents emotional holds — “it has to come back” is not a marketing plan.
Add storage cost per bushel per month to breakeven when evaluating hold decisions. $0.04/bu/month storage on 10,000 bushels for four months is $1,600 — plus interest on unsold inventory.
Context 2 — evaluating a cash rent offer
Land cost is in total cost per acre. A $50/acre rent increase on 200 bu corn adds $0.25/bu to breakeven.
Before you sign a lease, run the offered rent through the cash rent calculator and your breakeven together. If the landlord wants $275/acre and your breakeven at that rent is $4.10/bu while December corn is $4.00, you are signing a loss before you plant.
Negotiate from breakeven, not from county averages alone. NASS tells you the market. Breakeven tells you what your operation can sustain.
Context 3 — forward contracting
Forward contracts lock price before harvest. The decision rule is simple: if the contract price is above breakeven plus your risk tolerance, contracting transfers price risk to a known margin.
If breakeven is $3.00 and a forward contract offers $4.25, you are locking $1.25/bu margin at expected yield — minus basis and delivery obligations. If breakeven is $4.00 and the contract is $3.85, you are locking a loss.
Recalculate breakeven after major input purchases. Fertilizer bought in November at a different price than budgeted in March changes the number.
What farmers leave out of breakeven
Incomplete costs inflate apparent margin:
- Machinery depreciation — real cost even in years you do not buy equipment
- Unpaid family labor — hours at planting and harvest count
- Crop insurance premiums — cash out the door
- Drainage assessments and tile maintenance on owned ground
Your breakeven is only as honest as your cost list. The calculator above breaks costs into line items so nothing hides in a lump sum.
Crop breakeven FAQ
What is breakeven price for corn?
Total cost ÷ yield. $600/acre ÷ 200 bu = $3.00/bu in the example above.
How do you calculate crop breakeven?
Sum all costs per acre, divide by expected yield.
What is a good soybean breakeven price?
Depends on your costs. $450/acre ÷ 60 bu ≈ $7.50/bu.
When should I recalculate my breakeven?
Pre-plant, pre-harvest, and whenever land cost or input prices change materially.