A price tag and a harvest target
How much is enough to cover the crop plan?
Suppose you have a budget for one crop and expect a harvest, but the buyer has not confirmed a price. Or perhaps the price is known and you need to judge whether the field can produce enough. Both questions start with the same budget. They ask you to hold a different thing steady.
The minimum price assumes the entered harvest and saleable share. The minimum gross harvest assumes the entered selling price and lets per-unit selling costs rise as more crop is sold. The result means modeled sales equal modeled costs. It does not include a target profit or expenses left out of the plan.
How to use the calculator
Put costs on the right basis
Choose the harvest and selling unit and a currency code. Enter costs already committed to this crop and period as Base costs. Enter extra cost for each saleable unit separately; use 0 only when all relevant costs are already in the base amount. Keep kg, lb, items or bunches consistent throughout.
Describe the crop you can sell
Enter the expected gross harvest before rejects, then the share likely to be saleable. If you know 1,000 kg may be picked but only 800 kg passes grading, enter 1,000 kg and 80%. Add the expected average buyer price per saleable unit. A measured grading history or written offer is better than a hopeful guess.
Choose the question and check the margin
Select Selling price or Gross harvest, then calculate. The large result is the selected cost-covering minimum; the other threshold stays below for comparison. The ledger checks saleable quantity and total cost. Open the optional cost range if you want to see how the minimum moves when both cost amounts are lower or higher.
Why one total-cost number is not enough for a yield target
Imagine spending USD 900 on costs already committed to a crop: seed, rent and basic field work. The amount remains USD 900 whether the field gives 750 or 1,000 kg over the range you are comparing. Then suppose packing and selling each accepted kilogram costs another USD 0.50. Those charges rise with the amount actually sold.
Dividing the planned total cost by an expected price would wrongly hold the packing cost fixed as yield changes. This page rebuilds that cost at every possible saleable quantity. It treats the per-unit amount as applying to crop actually sold, not to rejected crop. If your harvest labor or handling cost rises with gross crop regardless of grading, that needs a more detailed cost model. Do not force it into the per-saleable-unit field.
Follow one plan from field to sale
Continue with USD 900 base costs and USD 0.50 per saleable kg. The field is expected to produce 1,000 kg gross; 80% should sell at USD 2.00/kg. That means 800 kg reaches the buyer. The variable part of the cost is 800 × USD 0.50 = USD 400.
The entered plan leaves USD 300 after those modeled costs. The question is how far price or harvest could fall before that USD 300 disappears. The following two calculations answer that in different units.
Hold the harvest steady: find the minimum price
At the expected 800 saleable kg, the budget must recover USD 1,300. Divide the total by those kilograms to find the cost-covering average price. The calculator uses full precision and rounds the displayed minimum upward to four price decimals.
Saleable quantity = gross harvest × saleable share ÷ 100
Minimum price = (base cost + unit cost × saleable quantity) ÷ saleable quantity
For this plan: USD 1,300 ÷ 800 kg = USD 1.625/kg
The expected USD 2.00/kg is USD 0.375/kg above that minimum, or 18.75% of the entered price. A buyer's offer below USD 1.625/kg would not cover the modeled costs at this 800 kg saleable quantity. If the buyer pays only in cents, round the displayed threshold up to the next usable cent rather than down.
What if grading is less favorable?
Keep the 1,000 kg gross harvest, but sell only 70% rather than 80%. The saleable amount falls from 800 to 700 kg. Base cost stays USD 900 and per-unit cost falls to USD 350, so the minimum price rises to USD 1.7858/kg. At the USD 2.00/kg price, the minimum gross harvest rises to 857.15 kg. Change the saleable-share input to check your own grading case.
Hold the price steady: find the minimum harvest
At USD 2.00/kg, each saleable kilogram brings in USD 2.00 but also adds USD 0.50 in modeled selling cost. The remaining USD 1.50 contributes to the USD 900 base amount. Divide USD 900 by USD 1.50 to get 600 kg that must sell. Because only 80% of gross harvest is expected to sell, divide 600 by 0.80: the field needs 750 kg gross harvest to break even.
Contribution per saleable unit = selling price − cost per saleable unit
Minimum saleable yield = base cost ÷ contribution per saleable unit
Minimum gross harvest = minimum saleable yield ÷ (saleable share ÷ 100)
The planned 1,000 kg gross harvest is 250 kg above the 750 kg threshold, a 25% cushion measured against the planned harvest. This cushion is a difference between two estimates, not a promise that the field can lose exactly 250 kg without other consequences.
When more crop cannot make up the gap
Suppose the expected price drops to USD 0.40/kg but the extra cost stays USD 0.50 per saleable kg. Each additional kilogram then adds USD 0.40 of sales and USD 0.50 of cost. The USD 900 base amount is never recovered by producing more. The calculator says No finite harvest instead of printing a negative or infinite target.
If price exactly matches the per-unit cost, extra sales contribute nothing toward a positive base cost. If base cost is zero too, every quantity has zero modeled surplus, so there is no unique break-even harvest. These edge cases matter when a buyer quote falls close to packing or selling charges.
See what a 10% cost change does
The optional range changes both USD 900 base costs and USD 0.50 per-unit costs by the same percentage. It keeps the 1,000 kg gross harvest, 80% saleable share and USD 2.00/kg price fixed. It is a quick stress check, not a statement about how likely either cost case is.
| Cost case | Minimum price | Minimum gross harvest |
|---|---|---|
| 10% lower costs | USD 1.4625/kg | 653.23 kg |
| Entered costs | USD 1.625/kg | 750.00 kg |
| 10% higher costs | USD 1.7875/kg | 853.45 kg |
The harvest minimum does not move in a straight 10% line because the per-saleable-unit cost also changes the contribution left from each sale. If the higher cost reaches or exceeds the sale price, that case has no finite break-even harvest.
Before using the result to quote or plant
Four checks for your budget
- Match the costs, gross harvest, saleable share and price to the same crop and period.
- Use a saleable share grounded in grading records or a cautious estimate; the 100% default is not a promise.
- Classify unit-linked costs by what causes them. A cost per gross harvested kg is outside this page's model.
- Check buyer units, grade terms, deductions and payment increments before treating the minimum as an offer price.
The Crop Revenue Calculator can combine several harvests and grade prices into a weighted average selling price. Use that average here only if it refers to the same saleable units. The Farm Profit Calculator gives a broader profit view once the full period's costs are known.