AgroPages-Beck’s launches Return on Investment “ROI” calculator tool

Beck’s announced the release of the Return on Investment “ROI” Calculator tool in FARMserver®, their precision farming software. This newly launched ROI tool will allow users to view average profit or loss per acre on their operation based on Purdue University’s Crop Cost and Return Guide.

“In times of low commodity prices, it’s crucial that farmers understand the financial performance of their operations” said Scott Beck, president of Beck’s. Since the inception of FARMserver, we have worked hard to deliver a tool that is not only farmer friendly and easy-to-use, but that will help farmers be more profitable. We think this ROI Calculator will go a long way in achieving exactly that.”

FARMserver subscribers can now view return on investment numbers as a percent of their overall operation costs or as a cost per bushel analysis. While market prices for both corn and soybeans are automatically updated every 15 minutes to match the Chicago Board of Trade Prices, users can also update any of the calculator values with their own input costs or market prices.

Though not required to use the tool, users who choose to upload their yield data can also evaluate their harvest data in terms of ROI. The “profitability map” in the Field Focus view of FARMserver utilizes each user’s most recent data imported into the ROI Calculator and overlays it with their actual yield data, creating a map that highlights areas of profitability and loss. If harvest data needs to be post-calibrated, there is an option for that as well.

Not only does the ROI Calculator display average yields and values for the entire operation, users can dive deeper into their data and edit input costs and average yield at the field level. When uploading yield data into FARMserver, those yield averages replace the user-entered averages, making the tool that much more accurate.

“We will continue to seek out new and innovative ways to help farmers succeed,” said Craig Rogers, precision farming lead at Beck’s. “By consistently providing new tools and updates in FARMserver, we are confident that we can help growers farm more efficiently and more profitability than ever before.”