In the Furrow
Farm Budgeting
By Will Duffie County Extension Coordinator

For more information contact the UGA - Burke County Extension Office at 706-554- 2119.

Building a farm budget is a time consuming and tedious process. The winter months bring on the anticipation of planning a new crop. Prior to making management decisions on how to grow the future crops, farmers have to develop a budget to follow for the new crop year.

Budgeting is one of the most important tasks a farmer will perform during a single year. Allocating funds and following a plan is very difficult to do with the ever changing input costs. Regardless of the rising cost of fuel, fertilizer, or other inputs; a crop must be made in order to pay back the loan.

In order to assist growers in developing a farm plan, many Land Grant Colleges formulate budgets for each crop produced in their state. UGA Extension Economists have released the 2008 budgets. They can be found on the following web sites. The Microsoft Excel versions are located at: http:// www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/ agecon/budgets/ budgetsexcel.htm and the printed versions at: http:// www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/ agecon/printedbudgets.htm. If you do not have access to the internet, come by our office and we will be glad to print you a copy.