Which crop pays? Profit and break-even yield, per acre
Each crop's revenue, costs, margin and the yield it needs to break even, per acre. It starts from Manitoba Agriculture's 2026 cost estimates: put in your own yields, prices and costs, and try what higher fertilizer, lower prices or a short crop do.
Fertilizer change applies to each crop's fertilizer cost in Manitoba's estimate. Land cost replaces Manitoba's $106.24 an acre for every crop. Edit any crop's yield, price or costs in the table.
| Crop | Yield, bu/acre | Price, $/bu | Operating costs, $/acre | Land, machinery and your labour, $/acre | Margin over operating | Margin over all costs | Break-even yield, all costs | On your acres |
|---|
How it's worked out
- Margin over operating costs: yield × price, less seed, fertilizer, crop protection, fuel, machinery operating, hired labour, insurance, drying, land taxes, storage and interest on operating.
- Margin over all costs: also less land, machinery (depreciation and investment) and the owner's labour and living, as Manitoba's guide counts them.
- Break-even yield: all costs per acre divided by the price. The smaller figure under it covers only the operating costs.
Other provinces' figures
Saskatchewan publishes a Crop Planning Guide by soil zone, Alberta its AgriProfit$ crop benchmarks, and Ontario Publication 60, Field Crop Budgets. Put their figures, or better your own, into the table.
Questions
How do I work out my break-even yield?
Divide your total cost per acre by the price you expect per bushel. With Manitoba Agriculture's 2026 canola figures, $670 an acre of total costs at $14.25 a bushel needs about 47 bushels an acre; covering only the operating costs ($450) needs about 32.
Which crop is most profitable?
It depends on your own yields, prices, rent and costs, and on rotation, disease, soil and equipment, which no calculator knows. On Manitoba Agriculture's 2026 estimates, only soybeans covered all costs, by about $2 an acre, while every crop covered its operating costs. Put in your own numbers to see your farm's order.
Where do the starting figures come from?
Manitoba Agriculture's Guidelines for Estimating Crop Production Costs 2026: operating costs, land and machinery costs, owner's labour, a target yield and a farmgate target price per crop. They're a guide for Manitoba, not an average of real farms; Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario publish their own.
Your own costs, all season
In GrainPosition each crop's plan has its acres, yields and a per-acre budget, so its break-even per tonne is worked out for you, and every sale and settlement is set against it as the season goes.
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Sources
Manitoba Agriculture, Guidelines for Estimating Crop Production Costs 2026 (January 2026): per-acre operating costs, fertilizer, land and machinery costs, owner's labour and living, target yields and farmgate target prices. Contains information from the Manitoba government, licensed under the OpenMB Information and Data Use Licence. Manitoba's guide is its own; this page isn't endorsed by the Government of Manitoba.
Were you paid right on your last grain settlement?
Send me a photo of the settlement, and the contract if you have it. Within a day I’ll email you back what each line is, what’s worth asking the buyer about, and any grade or payment deadline that’s still open. Free, no account.
Ruslan Glick, Winnipeg. Not a farmer, so I check against your contract and the grain rules, not opinions. Top Crop Manager wrote about GrainPosition.