This report estimates the typical economic costs and returns for growing major crops, including alfalfa, barley, corn silage, cotton, sorghum grain, sorghum silage, durum wheat, and winter wheat in Pinal County, Arizona. The Arizona Agricultural Enterprise Budgets are estimated based on a representative farm and its related cropping operations in a determined location; numbers are reported on a per-unit basis.
Arizona production budgets can serve as draft templates that can be updated and adapted by using operation-specific numbers and assist with a structured way to store financial information used in day-to-day decision-making processes. When production budgets are updated using operation-specific information, this tool enables forecasting revenue and expense estimates related to situation-specific farming activities. From an input efficiency perspective, management decisions can be made with better information when a detailed tool is available that stores the accounting of production costs. From an output improvement perspective, detailed forecasts on itemized revenues and expenses can help identify areas of improvement that can boost the productivity of resources.
Beginning farmers and experienced farmers can benefit from Arizona’s agricultural production budgets; publicly available information on various crops allows farmers and other stakeholders to explore not only their expertise but also new potential ventures, based on representative revenue and expense data that can be expected from crops different than those they currently grow, using typical costs and returns estimated for their local geographic area of interest.
inspired and built from the latest data collection efforts by Trent Teegerstrom in 2011, and the latest published Arizona agricultural enterprise reports (Evancho, Ollerton, Teegerstrom, & Seavert, 2023) (Teegerstrom, 1996; 1999), using the Breakeven for New Crop Options (BENCO) model templates. The BENCO model was introduced as a tool to assess the adoption of new crops in farming operations with the usage of crop production budgets, enabling customization of the analysis to different cropping patterns (Ramos-Coronado, Miller, & Bruhn, 2023).
To better reflect relevant and current input prices and farming practices, in-person interviews were conducted with the assistance of farmers, farm managers, and/or farming operation decision-makers from the region of interest. The interview materials were the old crop budgets available, and we reviewed each line item within those budgets to discuss the operation's relevance, quantities, unit prices, outdated information, new practices and inputs, as well as the communication structure of the budget itself. These tools are based on a typical operation for the area and crops under study; things such as land rental values, perceived interest rates, crop insurance premiums, and marketing agreements will likely be determined by long-term understandings and differ significantly between individual operations.
Cropping pattern
Budgets are based on a farm with 1,500 tillable acres; this does not reflect any specific operation but serves as a representative example for the area. The breakdown of crops grown for this representative enterprise is: 450 acres of alfalfa hay in production, 150 acres of alfalfa hay being established, 75 acres of barley, 150 acres of corn silage, 375 acres of cotton, 75 acres of sorghum grain, 75 acres of sorghum silage, 75 acres of durum wheat, and 75 acres of winter wheat. All crops are grown using flood irrigation.
Labor
The general labor cost is $16.50 per hour. Irrigation labor cost is $16 per hour. Labor costs include expenses related to social security, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and other overhead costs. Tractor labor hours are calculated based on machinery hours plus ten percent.
Machinery and equipment
Machinery and equipment are assumed to be adequate for a 1,500-tillable-acre farm. The fuel price is considered to be $4 per gallon. A comprehensive analysis of farm machinery costs, along with operation-specific expenses, is provided, including estimates for labor, fuel, repairs, and maintenance associated with tillage and crop production operations and the usage of the corresponding equipment.
Irrigation
Irrigated water costs, including pumping, are assumed to be $70 per acre-foot (ac ft). A flood irrigation system is used, with an assumed efficiency rate of 50%, based on local irrigation efficiency measures (Elshikha, 2025). Annual repairs and maintenance costs are estimated at $3 per acre. Water requirements per crop are based on data collected from local growers, farm managers, and farm operation decision-makers in the area. Irrigation labor is estimated to be 1 hour per ac ft of water needed for each crop.
Sensitivity analysis
Each crop production budget presents a sensitivity analysis to approximate profitability scenarios for different returns in terms of yield and price, as well as different scenarios of variable costs. Each sensitivity analysis portrays estimated returns with variances in prices and yields to the magnitude of negative and positive 5%, 10%, and 15% changes with respect to increases and decreases of variable costs to the magnitude of 10%, and 20%.
Budgets
Each budget contains the following sections:
- Overview information on representative production unit: Information about the field, including location, irrigation system, previous crop rotation, tillage, and soil details.
- Returns: The return section of the budgets displays the income from operations, reflecting the expected yields and prices for the crop and area under study. Note: cottonseed revenues are not reflected in these budgets, as it is common practice in this area for seed revenues to cover the ginning costs (also shown as zero).
- Variable cash costs: These costs are categorized into land preparation and maintenance, crop production, harvest, and other charges. Note: Costs for silage crops’ harvest are listed as zero, because it is common industry practice in this area for the contracted buyer of the crop to cover harvesting and hauling costs.
- Fixed cash costs: Expenses such as crop insurance, property taxes, and annual cash rent. For this report, we included a $170 land rent per crop per acre as a fixed expense for each production. Insurable crops have a representative crop insurance cost per acre based on data collected.
- Fixed non-cash costs: Expenses representing an estimated dollar value of ownership costs for the required power units, machinery, equipment, and their related depreciation and interest expenses.
It is recommended to use this tool as a reference when building and developing other analyses with case-specific numbers for optimal durability. Updated crop budgets in this document include:
- Pinal Alfalfa Establishment Budget 2025
- Pinal Alfalfa Hay in Production Budget 2025
- Pinal Barley Budget 2025
- Pinal Corn Silage Budget 2025
- Pinal Cotton Upland Budget 2025
- Pinal Sorghum – Grain Budget 2025
- Pinal Sorghum – Silage Budget 2025
- Pinal Wheat – Durum Budget 2025
- Pinal Wheat – Winter Budget 2025
References
Elshikha, D. E. (2025). Smart Irrigation Solutions for Today’s Farms. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. az2109
Evancho, B., Ollerton, P., Teegerstrom, T., & Seavert, C. (2023). Enterprise Budgets, Southern Arizona: Alfalfa Hay, Cotton Flood, Durum Wheat, Fallow, Silage Corn, and Spring Barley. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.
Ramos-Coronado, L., Miller, M., & Bruhn, J. (2023). BENCO: Break-Even for New Crop Options Model. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. NIFA Grant # 2017-68005- 26867.
Teegerstrom, T. (1999). Arizona Field Crop Budgets, La Paz County, 1999-2000. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.
Teegerstrom, T. (1996). Arizona Field Crop Budgets, La Paz County, 1996-1997. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.