Wyoming Kernza Economic Model
Dr. Tom Foulke, the economist on our project, has been putting in a lot of work to put together a draft Kernza and Wheat/Fallow budget for our region. The idea is to compare Kernza to wheat/fallow agriculture and see what it would take (hypothetically) to make Kernza a viable economic alternative.
Click to download Tom’s Economic Model
Follow the link below to download Tom’s economic model as an excel spreadsheet. The first sheet (Kernza) gives an estimate of the annual profit expected from growing Kernza under various agronomic practices. You can edit any of the cells that pertain to your particular practices in the “parameter box” (rows 30-75, columns L and N). For example, if you plan to apply 0.03 tons of urea at $220/ton, you would change cells L40 and N40 to reflect that. You can read off the results of the analysis in each year of a theoretical four-year stand of kernza (establishment, grain harvest, hay harvest, grain harvest, then hay harvest) to get an estimate of the main costs and revenues from every part of your operation. You can also do the same for wheat, on the second sheet. If you don’t want to change any of the model parameters, that’s fine! The paramters included by default are meant to reflect the costs for a conventional system.
If you’re curious about how Tom came up with some of his numbers, you can check the references on the third sheet of the excel model, or check out the following references University of Nebraska and University of Wyoming extension:
Annual Wyoming Agricultural Land Rent Analysis
Annual Wyoming Agricultural Land Rent Analysis by County
Kernza in Wyoming - Evaluating Perennial Grains to Revitalize Wyoming Wheat Agriculture
The Kernza Wyoming Project is supported by Western SARE and run by the University of Wyoming