GrainStrategy

Spring Branch Acres

Lyle Carver · Jewell County, KS · Katie Rennick · client since 2015

437k bu at 63% priced
$1.8M under management
Call before pricingCosts are estimatesLast spoke in 16 days4 other findings(785) 555-6437
2 of 2 break-evens did not come from this family's books. The plans built on them are sound and the numbers under them are what somebody remembered, so the confidence in every margin on the other tabs is capped by that. Worth saying out loud to Lyle Carver rather than leaving implied.
From their books
0%
The rest were stated on a call or estimated from county averages.
Oldest
4 mo
The desk treats anything past 6 months as not trusted.
Desk cushion
$0.10
A break-even is an estimate, so pricing exactly at one is pricing at the midpoint of an error bar.
On Farmer Metrics
No
Costs have to be collected by phone every season.

Cost of production, by crop

CropBreak-evenSourceAs ofExpectedCost of the cropCash bid over costTrusted
Milo
new crop · 2,383 acres at 98 bu
$4.20Stated on a callMay 9, 2026
3 months old
234k bu$980,843
$412/acre
-$0.37
bid $3.83
With a caveat
Corn
new crop · 1,442 acres at 141 bu
$3.94County estimateApr 9, 2026
4 months old
203k bu$801,089
$556/acre
+$0.45
bid $4.39
With a caveat

The desk treats a break-even older than 6 months as not trusted, because six months spans a planting-to-harvest change in fertilizer, fuel and cash rent. A February break-even used to justify an August sale is a different farm's numbers.

Cost per acre is the cost of the crop divided by planted acres, so it moves with yield as well as with cost. A good year lowers the cost per bushel without a single input getting cheaper, which is the part clients find hardest to believe and the reason the plan is written in dollars per bushel.