Economic analysis on utilization of agricultural by-products

Among the arable crops produced in Hungary wheat (26-27%) and corn (23-24%) have the greatest share. On this large cropping area - beside main product - a remarkable quantity of by-product (straw and stem) can be harvested. T he biomass represented by the by-products contain accumulated solar energy. Utilization of the by-products did not cause any problems before the 80s o r 70s. Wheat straw was mainly used up in manure handling. Because of its hi gher nutritional value corn stem was a potential feedstuff of ruminants. Co mmonly, crop production was accompanied by animal production on the farm le vel. By-products have been recycled into soil through the animal production . Later on the production structure and profile of large scale farms have bee n changed. High performance animals could no longer be fed by low-energy by -products. On the other side labour input for manure handling and littering has increased. In order to maintain the labour efficiency, littering and m anuring has been replaced by wash down removal. After transition and along with the reshaping of property pattern new production units were opened up, in certain cases without any animal keeping activity. In such units by-pro ducts are simply taken as waste or garbage. In the scope of and due to the above mentioned tendency the environment pol luting impact of by-products showed a significant increase. Present study i ntends to point out the producers' economic advantages of utilizing by-prod ucts.