Useful Data Sources
This page contains agricultural price, yield and cost data that are useful for budgeting analyses.
Machinery Costs
Farm Machinery Cost Estimates
- This University of Minnesota website has information about estimated machinery costs and custom work rates for several states.
Custom Machine Work Costs
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This Michigan State University Extension document contains information about custom machine and work cost estimates for agricultural machinery in Michigan.
Prices of Crops and Variable Inputs
Fertilizer Use and Prices
- This USDA Economic Research Service site provides information about fertilizer use and prices within the United States.
Feed Grains Database
- This USDA ERS site provides historical and current information about the production and prices of feed grains such as corn, grain sorghum, barley, and oats. An Excel spreadsheet containing recent information about feed grain yields and prices can be found near the top of the page.
Oil Crops Database
- This USDA ERS site contains information about the prices and yields of different oil crops such as soybeans, peanuts, cottonseed, sunflower seed, flaxseed, and linseed.
Wheat Yearbook Tables
- Information on wheat prices and yields is given on this USDA ERS website, along with excel spreadsheets of current and historic wheat price data.
Organic Prices
- This site contains historic data from USDA ERS about the prices of organic products such as milk, eggs, rice, carrots, salad mix, spinach, and strawberries.
Consumer and Producer Price Indexes
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offers two major price indexes for inflationary adjustment that enable converting monetary values from the past to current values. The consumer price index (CPI) and the producer price index (PPI) both offer subcategories related to food and agriculture. For the last 60+ years of CPI on one page, see the relevant appendix in the annual Economic Report of the President.