MSU Extension Farm Management

The MSU Cash Flow Estimator is intended to help farm managers create a cash flow projection for their business.  There are three types of projections that can be created, depending on the type of production area, or enterprises, that make up a farm: crop only, livestock only, or crop and livestock combined.

The design of the tool allows for five different types of enterprises to be input into each of the projection options. Enter the per unit (i.e., acre, head, cwt) income and expenses for each enterprise to create a total farm income and expense projection.

The estimator tool is best used with the Crop Budget or Livestock Budget Estimator tools.  Both the simple and detailed versions of these tools will create a “per unit budget” that can be used.  Those tools can be found here:

• Crop Budget Estimator – Forages (Detailed)
• Crop Budget Estimator – Forages (Simple)
• Crop Budget Estimator – Grains (Detailed)
• Crop Budget Estimator – Grains (Simple)
• Crop Budget Estimator – All Crops (Simple)
• Livestock Budget Estimator – Beef (Simple)
• Livestock Budget Estimator – Dairy (Simple)
• Livestock Budget Estimator – Swine (Simple)
• Livestock Budget Estimator – Swine Contract Grower (Simple)

Alternatively, budget information from other decision tools or from hand-written calculations can also be entered.

*Note: The tool is a macro-based Excel file. The tool functions if you do not have macro or Visual Basic for Application (VBA) capability.  This is often the case if using the program online versus on a computer desktop.  "Reset" buttons will not work, but fields that would be changed by those macro features are unlocked and can be manually entered.