Farm & Ranch Management

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Cooperative Extension faculty develop farm budgets and a variety of tools and templates to assist with budgeting and decision-making for farming and ranching enterprises. This information is useful not only to producers for short- and long-term planning and decision-making for their agricultural enterprises, but is of interest to researchers, policy makers, financial institutions, and others that would like more specific information about farm and ranch management.

Tools & Resources

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics faculty have developed a number of tools, resources, and templates that can be customized to individual operations to assist Arizona farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers.

  • Financial Templates Generate budget information customized to an individual operation on an operating or cash cost basis only (fixed costs are not included).
  • Small Farms Cost Estimator Calculate profitability and break-even values for different crops and plan crop mix for a small operation. An introduction to the tool can be found here
  • Field Crop Templates* Field crop budgets that can be easily modified to reflect local input costs.
  • Ranch Restocking Decision Aid Spreadsheet* Allows for differences in biological productivity of purchased versus raised replacements and allows a rancher to compare the long-term financial consequences associated with alternative restocking paths, including unforeseen drought.
  • Crop Solver* Optimizes a crop mix of up to 20 different crops subject to annual land, monthly labor, water, and capital, plus alternative risk constraints. Developed as part of educational programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency.
  • Oil Seed Cost Estimation and Comparison Spreadsheet* Evaluate production and break-even points for four different oilseed crops.
  • Livestock Records Workbooks* Helps producers with limited access to computers and internet better record and manage their livestock. Supported by grants from the Western Extension Committee.
  • Nursery Cost Estimator and Nursery Insurance Tools Tool available for purchase that helps nursery producers address space allocation decisions to different "crop mixes," manage inventory, set pricing points, quantify differences in production cost for primary container sizes, and analyze nursery crop insurance. Developed as part of educational programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency.

*Available upon request.

As members of the Western Extension Committee, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Cooperative Extension faculty also collaborate with Extension specialists through the West and nation to develop tools and resources for farmers, ranchers, other agricultural managers, and Extension educators. 

  • AgPlan Helps rural businesses develop a business plan. AgPlan is free of charge for anyone to use individually or in educational programs.
  • AgTransitions Helps farmers & ranchers develop a plan to transition their business to the next generation.
  • Diverse Agriculture Money Management Curriculum Eight-module curriculum developed to help students of the class understand their financial standing and create a plan that will help them succeed in improving their financial future.
  • Diverse Agriculture Business Management Curriculum Seven-module curriculum designed to help prospective entrepreneurs develop their ideas, find markets for them, generate financial statements and budgets, and navigate the tax issues that arise from being self-employed.
  • Rural Tax Education Tools and resources for farmers, ranchers, other agricultural managers, and Extension educators about agriculture-related income and self-employment tax topics.

Useful Links

Faculty & Staff

Publications