When thinking about switching to a different farming system, one of the first questions many farmers want answered is: "How will this work financially?" The Chippewa 10% Project developed the Cropping Systems Calculator to help answer this question by allowing farmers to plug in various planting and grazing scenarios and weigh the financial pros and cons of each option.

Cropping Comparisons

This easy-to-use Excel-based tool (see example below) allows you to compare two crop rotations, each up to six years in length, and provides average yearly returns as well as a year-by-year breakdown. The Calculator takes into account the crop-specific costs for many popular crops, but also the overhead costs of the entire farm operation.

Grazing Scenarios

The Calculator also allows farmers to compare various grazing systems on a per-acre basis. Based on the Grass-fed Beef Calculator from the Pasture Project (an initiative of the Wallace Center at Winrock International), farmers can compare types of cattle (cow/calf, stocker, feeder-to-finish, custom) as well as management style (continuous, basic rotational, managed intensive, mob grazing). The opportunity to compare row crops to a grazing system is one of the unique features of the Calculator.

The calculator does not provide a definitive income level for the following season, but it does produce a solid estimate of the possible range of returns a farmer can expect.

Try it for Yourself

The Cropping Systems Calculator is available here. Watch this page for updates. For more information or questions, contact LSP's Rebecca Wasserman-Olin at 612-722-6377 or via e-mail.

Do you represent an agency or group interested in adapting the Cropping Systems Calculator to your specific watershed or region? Contact Rebecca Wasserman-Olin directly via e-mail to discuss the possibility of working together to create a customized version of the Calculator.

Mac Users

The Calculator currently does not work on Mac operating systems. We are developing a Mac version and it will be available in the future. Watch this page for updates.

Other Decision Making Tools

Click here to check out other tools for helping you make decisions about what continuous living cover system is the best fit for you.