Cover Crops Planning Tool for Florida Citrus (2026)

Yellow boxes are editable

Start with your grove numbers

Enter three numbers first: your current production cost, expected yield, and expected fruit quality.
Grove size is optional; add it if you want the results in whole-grove dollars too.
The harvest charges are prefilled from UF/IFAS benchmarks; adjust them if you know your own.
The yellow boxes are the ones you edit, and the defaults are only starting points.

Production cost (Year 1)

$/acre before harvest charges, including cultural costs, interest, management, taxes, and your current row-middle mowing

Expected yield

boxes per acre, applied uniformly across all 10 years. Set this to your grove's actual yield; recent Florida averages have fallen well below historical levels under HLB

Expected fruit quality

lb solids per box (Valencia FDOC 2023/24 average: 5.11)

Grove size (optional)

acres. If you enter this, the results page also shows the whole-grove dollar impact. Leave at 0 to skip

Pick & Haul

$/box. Singerman 2023/24 Valencia: 4.53

FDOC assessment

$/box. FDOC 2023/24: 0.12

Expected juice price (optional)

$/lb solids, from your contract or the FDOC processor reports. If you enter this, the results page also shows your margin above or below break-even. Leave at 0 to skip

Sources and reference links

Resources

Chakravarty, S. & Wade, T. (2023). Cost Analysis of Using Cover Crops in Citrus Production. HortTechnology, 33(3), 278–285. doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH05126-22
Wade, T., Chakravarty, S. & Strauss, S. Costs of Using Cover Crops in Citrus Production, 2022–23. UF/IFAS EDIS FE1168. edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FE1168
Dawson, E., Kadyampakeni, D., Kanissery, R., Wade, T. & Strauss, S. L. Cover Crops for Florida Citrus: Practical Considerations and Their Impact on Soil Microbes. UF/IFAS EDIS SL534/SS749. edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/SS749
Singerman, A. Cost of Production for Processed Oranges in Southwest Florida in 2023/24. UF/IFAS CREC, Lake Alfred, FL.
Florida Department of Citrus, Processor Reports. floridacitrus.org
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. Source for the diesel fuel price. eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel
UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center. Custom Rate Charges for Florida Citrus Grove Caretaking, 2024/25. Source for the General Labor default. citrusresearch.ifas.ufl.edu

Row-middle savings and cost-share

Input how often you mow or spray row middles now.
Enter how many of those passes cover crops may replace.
If a program pays you cost-share for planting cover crops, enter that in the last two boxes.

Current mows per year

number of times you mow row middles in a year without cover crops

Cost per mow

$/acre per mow

Cover crop mowing or termination passes

cover crops replace your normal row-middle mowing, but the cover crop itself usually needs mowing or termination a few times. The saving is the mows you no longer do. If this exceeds your normal mows, the extra mowing counts as an added cost

Current row-middle herbicide applications

number of row-middle herbicide applications

Cost per herbicide application

$/acre per application

Herbicide applications skipped

Raise this if cover crops let you skip row-middle sprays

Cost-share payment (optional)

$/acre per year from a program such as NRCS EQIP or a state BMP program. Ask your local NRCS or extension office what your practice qualifies for. Leave at 0 if none

Years you'll receive it

cost-share contracts usually run 3–5 years. The payment is applied flat (not inflated) for this many years, then stops in the 10-year outlook

Cover crop planting cost

The default uses one summer planting and one winter planting.
Change the seasonal seed targets or edit any yellow seed row.
The cost total updates automatically at the bottom of this step.

Default seed setup

The default uses separate summer and winter mixes, each starting at 60 lb/ac. The yellow boxes below let you change the total target, seed prices, individual rates or apps/year.

SummerIron Clay cowpea + sorghum-sudangrass + buckwheat

WinterHairy vetch + black oats + daikon radish

Rate basisSeasonal target allocated by relative reference rates

These are starting points, not fixed recommendations. For Florida citrus cover crop guidance, see UF/IFAS SS749. Default seed prices are the average of four online supplier listings retrieved on June 25, 2026, figured per pound from 50-lb bag pricing.

Summer total seed target

lb/acre for the summer planting. Changing this reallocates the summer seed rows using their relative reference rates

Winter total seed target

lb/acre for the winter planting. Changing this reallocates the winter seed rows using their relative reference rates

Plantings per year

planting passes per year. Changing this sets the Apps/year cells for fuel, labor and drill rental

The default is 60 lb/ac for each planting. You can change the seasonal total here, or overwrite any individual seed rate in the table below.

EditableCalculated

Each total is unit price times use rate per acre times applications per year. Summer and winter seed rows start at one application each.

Line item	Unit price	Use rate / acre	Total $/ac/yr
Fuel	$/gal	gal	—
Labor	$/hr	hr	—
Drill rental	$/ac	—	—
Other	$/ac	—	—

Estimated annual cover crop cost

— per acre in Year 1

This is the sum of the budget lines above, a recurring annual cost added on top of your current grove budget. It updates whenever you change an input.

Your seed order

Your break-even comparison

The two cards show the Year 1 break-even price without and with cover crops.
The line below them shows how much the cover crop changes the break-even.

Break-even without cover crops

—

per box, Year 1

Break-even with cover crops

—

per box, Year 1

—

Annual cover crop cost

—

per acre, Year 1

Savings & cost-share

—

per acre, Year 1

Net added cost

—

per acre, Year 1

With cover crops, the per-box break-even goes from — in Year 1 to — in Year 10.

This is the dollar-cost view only

The comparison prices cover crop costs and row-middle savings. It does not price soil health, water infiltration, erosion and dust reduction, beneficial insects, or longer-run tree effects.

Assumptions behind these numbers

These results assume a production cost of — per acre, a yield of — boxes per acre, and quality of — lb solids per box. Harvest charges are — per box for Pick & Haul and — per box for the FDOC assessment. Costs rise at — per year, while the cover crop cost rises at — less than that. Edit any value on the other steps to update these.

Quick adjust

Change a value here to see the break-even numbers update.

Production cost $/ac

Yield boxes/ac

Quality lb sol/box

Pick & Haul $/box

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10-year outlook

This shows the break-even projected across 10 years.
The forecast assumptions below are optional; open them to change how costs grow over time.

Forecast assumptions (inflation and cost reduction)

These shape how costs grow across the 10 years (they do not change the Year 1 break-even).

Annual inflation rate (%)

percent per year

Annual cover crop cost reduction (%)

percent per year, productivity gain net of inflation

10-year output

Swipe horizontally to see all 10 years

Cost per acre over time

The two lines sit close together because the row-middle saving is small compared with total production cost. The chart below shows the savings on their own scale.

Cover crop savings per acre over time

Mowing, herbicide, and total savings.

Feedback and Follow-up