By Glennis McClure
The 2026 Nebraska crop budgets include 84 enterprise budgets, with the addition of a new cover crop budget. As producers and farm managers plan for the upcoming production year, these budgets provide a current, research-based view of projected costs, input assumptions, and expected production economics. As with all forward-looking budget estimates, results depend on assumptions that may change as market conditions evolve.
The 2026 budgets reflect both current market conditions and long-term structural cost trends that producers have faced since 2020. Key changes include increased nutrient costs across most crops; slightly higher pesticide application levels due to greater weed and disease pressure, along with some related product price increases; slightly lower anticipated diesel and gasoline prices; and updated machinery, power unit, implement, and irrigation equipment costs that contribute to higher overall cost-of-production estimates. Because input prices continue to fluctuate significantly due to supply chain conditions and regional market differences, the statewide budgets serve as a baseline rather than a prediction for any single operation.
Farm and ranch financial resilience begins with clarity about what it really costs to produce a crop or livestock enterprise. Updated annually, Nebraska’s crop budgets serve as a planning and decision-support resource for producers, farm managers, lenders, and ag professionals. These enterprise budgets help users evaluate market opportunities using current cost-of-production estimates, compare profitability across crop systems, assess input alternatives and machinery investment decisions, evaluate risk exposure, and determine appropriate risk management strategies. These evaluations also support lender discussions, capital investment planning, and long-term strategic assessments of enterprise mix and land use.