A FARM ECONOMIC MODULE FOR TACTICAL DECISIONS ON SUGAR-BEET AREA

For decisions at operational level in sugar beet growing (for example on plant density, nitrogen fertilizer rate and harvest date), returns above allocated variable costs can be used as a criterion for comparin g the economics of different options. For (tactical) decisions on suga r beet area, the sugar beet grower has to take into account the opport unity costs of labour and equipment. Our calculations are based on the assumption that these can be reflected by the respective allocated fi xed costs. In this paper, a method of allocating fixed costs to crops in the cropping plan is described and included in PIEteR, a bio-econom ic model for sugar beet growing. Seed and ware potato and sugar beet h ad the highest returns above allocated variable costs, but when alloca ted fixed costs were also taken into account, sugar beet appeared to b e more profitable than seed potato. When sugar quota were included in our calculations, the returns above allocated variable and fixed costs decreased with sugar yields beyond quota level, because prices of C-b eets are lower than those of quota-beets. Growing C-sugar beet was not attractive: wheat growing was more profitable. However, the estimated area required to grow the exact amount of quota-sugar was uncertain w ith a standard deviation of +/- 10%.