Lowest in Illinois, highest in Texas. 0 of 15 states covered full cost at their latest state price.
Corn by state →Lowest in Illinois, highest in Kansas. 0 of 15 states covered full cost at their latest state price.
Soybeans by state →Lowest in Michigan, highest in Oklahoma. 0 of 15 states covered full cost at their latest state price.
Wheat by state →Full-cost break-even by state and crop
$ per bushel · — = not a top-15 state for that crop
| State | Corn | Soybeans | Wheat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | — | $12.56 | — |
| Colorado | $5.88 | — | — |
| Idaho | — | — | $7.09 |
| Illinois | $4.72 | $11.65 | $7.79 |
| Indiana | $4.88 | $11.97 | — |
| Iowa | $4.90 | $12.37 | — |
| Kansas | $5.61 | $16.36 | $9.66 |
| Kentucky | $5.14 | $12.87 | $7.07 |
| Michigan | $5.17 | $12.70 | $6.83 |
| Minnesota | $5.04 | $14.12 | $8.38 |
| Mississippi | — | $12.58 | — |
| Missouri | $5.30 | $13.19 | $7.85 |
| Montana | — | — | $10.86 |
| Nebraska | $4.74 | $12.28 | — |
| North Dakota | $5.38 | $14.76 | $8.28 |
| Ohio | $4.91 | $12.19 | $7.00 |
| Oklahoma | — | — | $10.92 |
| Oregon | — | — | $8.51 |
| South Dakota | $5.27 | $13.02 | $9.53 |
| Texas | $5.89 | — | $10.81 |
| Washington | — | — | $10.14 |
| Wisconsin | $5.08 | $11.86 | — |
The floor is the whole fight
A break-even price is the one number that tells a grower whether next year's crop pays the bills or adds to the debt. Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, machinery and rent set that floor, and most of those inputs come from a shrinking number of suppliers. The price side is set by markets no single farm moves.
These pages put USDA's own numbers in one place so a grower, a landowner setting rent, or a lender can see the same math. Then the calculator lets you replace every state average with your own records.
Where these numbers come from
- Costs per acre come from the USDA ERS Commodity Costs and Returns accounts for 2025, the latest year with actual (not forecast) figures. ERS reports by Farm Resource Region, not by state. Each state uses the region that holds at least half of its planted acres for that crop, measured from NASS county acreage and the ERS county-to-region file. If no region with an ERS budget clears half, we use the U.S. average and say so.
- Overhead is ERS's allocated overhead minus its land charge: machinery and equipment capital recovery, unpaid family labor, hired labor, taxes and insurance, and general farm overhead. The cash-cost floor keeps only operating costs and rent and drops all of overhead: roughly what it takes to pay this year's bills, not to replace the machinery.
- Land is the NASS state average cash rent for cropland from the Cash Rents Survey, in place of ERS's regional land charge. Owned ground carries an opportunity cost too, so we charge rent either way.
- Yield is the five-year average of NASS final state yields from Quick Stats. NASS reports yield per harvested acre and ERS reports costs per planted acre, so where acres get abandoned (dryland wheat especially) the real floor sits higher than shown. Current-year NASS forecasts are shown for context and are not used in the averages.
- Price is the NASS marketing-year average price received in the state. It is what farmers were paid on average, not a forecast and not your local basis.
- A state average is not your farm. Use your own yields, inputs and rent in the calculator. This is a planning estimate, not financial, lending or marketing advice.
Data last refreshed October 9, 2026.