A simple enterprise budget is the backbone of analysis for many farm situations and is the foundation for estimating expected income and expenses.
Some producers can make simple budgets by doing the numbers in their head.
A computerized budgeting process reduces the time necessary to develop useful budgets and improves the accuracy of income and cost estimates. MSU's agricultural economists developed a free, user friendly, computerized budgeting tool that can be downloaded from the Internet. The budget allows people to explore alternative plans on paper to help decide the best way to maximixe profits. MSU's agricultural economics department publishes hard-copy budgets for a variety of crops yearly and distributes these to county Extension agents, farmers, bankers, investors and others who have requested one in the past. Using this same software, producers can tailor a variety of budgets to their particular operation.