Step 01
Set up a reproducible comparison
Use 100 corn acres and zero soybean acres. In Refine, use 200 bu/acre and the example fuel-price overrides. Turn hauling and irrigation off. Use the conventional preset with one chisel-plow pass at 1.00 gal/acre and one field-cultivator pass at 0.50 gal/acre. Retain the other operations in the table. Set drying to 100% of production, 20% initial moisture and 15% target moisture.
Step 02
Change tillage first
The reduced preset replaces those two tillage passes with one vertical-tillage pass at 0.50 gal/acre. That removes 1.00 gallon of farm diesel per acre. At the example $3.50 price, the fuel-only difference is $3.50 per acre, or $350 across 100 acres. Fertilizer product costs, labor, machinery ownership and yield effects are outside this comparison.
Step 03
Change moisture separately
At 20% harvest moisture, drying removes 5 moisture points: 200 × 5 × 0.018 = 18 gallons of propane per acre. At 22%, it removes 7 points: 200 × 7 × 0.018 = 25.2 gallons. The extra 7.2 gallons cost $12.96 per acre at $1.80/gal. The app’s simplified drying model does not calculate shrink, electricity or dryer ownership costs.
Step 04
Read the result
Reduced tillage with wetter grain is $9.46 per acre higher than conventional tillage with the drier grain in this constructed comparison. That does not establish a preferred tillage system or harvest date. It shows which assumptions move fuel cost. Totals use unrounded operation rates, so multiplying a displayed two-decimal per-acre value can differ by a few cents.
Take it to your own plan
Compare one change at a time, then combine the cases. Replace the example prices and fuel rates with your own supported inputs.
Sources and further reading
The sources explain methods and context. They do not supply the hypothetical prices, forecasts or crop percentages used here.