As farmers face economic instability every year, the need for accurate and up-to-date information about their production, yield and management costs remains of the highest importance. To help farmers face these challenges, the LSU AgCenter provides spreadsheets, newsletters and information on changes and trends in the economics of agriculture.

One of these spreadsheets gives a farm management planning tool on Microsoft Excel where they can put in their own projected prices, yields and costs for a year, and the spreadsheet will show them their expected revenue and other cost estimates. These spreadsheets are updated throughout the year as they are dealing with volatile information.

This data also can be used in a farm financial benchmark analysis that comes out every fall. For Michael Deliberto, an AgCenter economist, these tools are important because they offer farmers a chance to calculate this information for themselves. Deliberto developed the tool in response to rising energy costs and supply chain disruptions so producers can better evaluate costs and returns of soybean and feed grain crops.

“It lets producers look at break-even returns, return on investment levels, where it allows them to compare the upcoming crop year to what they did last year or two years,” Deliberto said.

In the newsletters sent out from the AgCenter, Deliberto tries to keep producers up to date with changes in the economy or politics that could impact their prices or costs. One of these is a monthly crop market report that covers information on corn, cotton, soybeans and rice. In this newsletter, he goes over the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture supply and use estimates, price projections, futures prices and some other market dynamics so that farmers know how the market is doing.

Deliberto also puts out a quarterly newsletter that is more focused on agriculture policy. He follows changes in legislation or rules and tells farmers how it will most likely impact them.

“I’m trying to provide growers with a little bit of what’s going on from a policy standpoint that they could find interesting and helpful. We also advertise here different workshops or meetings that may be coming up and things like that,” Deliberto said. “It’s a good way to stay connected to the markets.”

AgCenter economists also put out spreadsheets to help producers make decisions on whether they should participate in government programs like the agricultural risk coverage program and the price loss coverage program.

The AgCenter also works with lawmakers and other stakeholders to make educated decisions around agriculture and how changes to laws and regulations could impact producers and consumers. Deliberto works with institutions like the Farm Bureau and the Louisiana Cotton and Grain Association to give them helpful and insightful information about Louisiana agriculture.

“A big reason why we’re able to deliver those policy pieces as quickly as we do is because we have the funding to update those costs every year,” Deliberto said. “We’re very in tune with what the markets are doing, and we do the policy newsletter every quarter. When there’s a need to get that information out in a timely manner, we can do that.”