Available in html5 as of August 2016! This means it can be used on any platform. This version automatically sets the default value for labor hours and it is very user friendly.

CropCents is a supplemental app to the DairyCentsPRO mobile app. Most livestock producers do not know the actual costs to raise their home raised feeds. An accurate accounting of home raised feeds is a better approach versus using the market prices to calculate income over feed costs.

CropCents can be used for crop, dairy, and beef producers. This app requires entry of all crops grown on farm. This is important as labor hours need to be distributed correctly among all cropping activities. The direct inputs required are the total costs for seed, chemicals, fertilizer and custom hire for each crop. The total yield for each crop is required.

Operating expenses including fuel and oil, repairs, hired labor, machinery and building leases, land rent, real estate taxes, farm insurance, utilities, risk management, dues and professional fees, miscellaneous expenses, owner draw and loan payments are required.

Once all this information is entered, the output will give the yield in tons/acre and the cost/ton. These numbers can be compared to the current market prices or they can be entered into the DairyCentsPRO mobile app to calculate a herd's income over feed cost using actual feed prices.

Available in the App Store.

Using the CropCents mobile app

Select "Enter New".

Select the year you want to enter by hitting the upside down triangle.

Select the year you want and click "done".

Select "Next - Enter Crop Information"

Select "Add crop"

Select the crop you want to enter by hitting the upside down triangle.

Scroll to the particular crop type you want, i.e. forages. Select "Next".

Scroll to the particular crop you want, i.e. corn silage. Select “Done".

Enter the input costs, either amount harvested or yield. Select the unit, i.e. ton. Enter the acres harvested, both owned and rented.

Crops will start to populate this page as they are entered. They can be edited and deleted from this page. Select “Add Crop" to keep entering home raised crops.

For any forage that typically has multiple cuttings, all cuttings need entered. In this example, an alfalfa/grass mixture was harvested as silage and hay. After the input costs have been entered select “Enter Cuttings".

All information on cuttings will populate this page for mixed mainly legume (MML) forage. Click “Add" to begin entering information on the different cuttings.

In this particular example, there were 3 cuttings of haylage and 2 cuttings of hay. To accurately calculate labor hours, haylage information needs to be entered in 3 times and hay information 2 times.

In this example, total tonnage harvested of haylage was 441 tons, so 3 entries of 147 tons needs entered. For hay, total tonnage was 150 tons, so 2 entries of 75 tons needs entered.

Select “Add" to keep entering the appropriate number of cuttings.

When all cuttings have been entered for the alf/gra forage, the summary screen should look like this. Select “Done"

The next crop entered is Triticale. Small grains are a one cutting crop so there will be no entries on cuttings. Select “Add"

In this example Red Clover, which is a legume forage was harvested as haylage. Even though only 1 cutting was taken, the harvest information will need to be entered by selecting “Enter Cuttings".

In this example, 98 tons was harvested as haylage as 1 cutting. Select “Add".

Select “Done" to go back to entering more crops.

Sorghum-sudan silage can have multiple cuttings. After the direct costs are entered, select “Enter Cuttings"

In this example, 1 cutting was made of sorghum- sudan silage. This example would be similar to the entry for Red Clover silage.

This farm grows Canola, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat grain, and Wheat straw. Since these feeds are harvested with 1 cutting, all information can be entered on the one screen.

This part of the program is where the user identifies the type of operation. This is a dairy operation so the user enters in the number of cows. Other selections include beef or crop. Default values are provided for labor hours/cow from referenced sources. These can be changed if desired.

Based on several references, default values for labor hours/acre are listed for the various crops. If the user feels they do not reflect their operation, they can be changed.

On this screen is where all the general farm expenses get entered. They should be the total expenses for the year in each category.

This is the output screen showing the average yield and cost. Note that for forages that had cuttings, there will be a listing for haylage and hay. In this example, red clover and sorghum-sudan were harvested as haylage only and why there is a zero value for hay.