Online Ag Tools and Resources
With the countless decisions to be made on the farm each year, it can be helpful to have something to reference or plug numbers into. For that reason, we have listed below some tools and resources that may be helpful to you.
General
You can always find the latest from K-State in the topic of agriculture at the K-State Extension website. For a daily dose of ag news, check out the Agriculture Today podcast.
Economics
AgManager: The options are endless on the AgManager website! Information comes from the Department of Agricultural Economics at K-State. For crops, check out the Interactive Crop Basis Tool or Fertilizer Tool. For livestock, see the Hay Inventory Calculator or Beef Replacement Spreadsheet. You can also find information on custom rates, farm budgets, land value/rental rates, ag policy, WASDE charts, crop insurance maps, county cropland composition, and so much more!
FAST Tools: FAST (Farm Analysis Solution Tools) are a suite of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets designed to assist those in agriculture make better decisions via user-friendly computer programs. FAST aids users in performing financial analysis, assessing investment decisions, and evaluating the impacts of various management decisions. For example, try out the Crop Insurance Decision Tool.
Crops
Agronomy eUpdate: A weekly update of all things agronomy in Kansas. View online or subscribe to get the newsletter sent directly to your email!
CorN: The data used on this tool was gathered from several works developed by KSU personnel among different years and counties across Kansas. Using this tool, a farmer can know, based on their region, the economical and agronomic optimum rate for his/her corn. The agronomic optimum rate is obtained from the trials and the response of a quadratic plateau formula. The economical optimum rate is obtained from the agronomic optimum rate, combined with the price ratio inserted by the user.
Kansas Corn: See the latest affecting the Kansas corn industry. Check out the Corn Disease Resource Center to track the spread of diseases in Kansas.
Livestock
Beef Cattle Institute: The Beef Cattle Institute at Kansas State University provides innovative solutions for success in the beef industry. Whether you’re a veterinarian or beef producer, we provide resources straight to you and your practice or operation from industry leaders. Check out the weekly Cattle Chat Podcast and a variety of calculators covering aspects of cow-calf, reproduction, stocker/backgrounder, feedlot, and marketing.
UNL Livestock Decision Tools: See a variety of tools that could help improve profitability of your cow herd. For example, some of the tools include predictors for cost of raising a calf, comparison of bull values, and a corn stalk grazing calculator.
SDSU Extension Grazing Calculator: Calculate stocking rate on your pasture.
OSU Calculators: Oklahoma State University has produced a variety of spreadsheets, such as a bull investment cost calculator, monthly cattle inventory, and mineral intake calculator, among many others.
Soil/Pasture
Web Soil Survey: Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world.
Rangeland Analysis Platform: The Rangeland Analysis Platform combines satellite imagery with thousands of on-the-ground vegetation measurements collected by BLM, NPS, and NRCS. The power of cloud computing and machine learning technology allows the platform to easily map vegetation across the United States.
Sustainability
Dryland Agriculture: Find resources to improve the resilience of dryland cropping systems through production practices and soil management. See the cover crop grazing tool called Carrying Capacity Calculator on the Resources page.
Western Cover Crops Council: This council seeks to promote the adoption of cover cropping in Western U.S. agricultural systems. See the species selector to determine which cover crops could thrive in your area.
Contact Information
Ag and Natural Resources