Unit Costs and Income From Selected Products in 2017 – Research Results in the Agrokoszty System

Abstract

In 2013, the research covered: winter wheat, winter rye, spring barley, winter rape and live pigs. Results of activities were analysed at farms running small-, medium- and large-scale production. Although the production volume, recognised as small, medium and large, is of relative nature, the research results provide a premise for the selection of production scale able to ensure a fairly high production efficiency. Analysis in groups of farms, selected according to production scale, showed that production profitability (ratio of production value to direct costs and overheads in total) at large scale was always higher than at small scale. The advantage of large scale was: for winter wheat – 6.4 pp, winter rye – 3.6 pp, spring barley – 6.9 pp, winter rape – 11.3 pp, and live pigs – 16.7 pp. The positive effect of scale impact on economic results is evident. Above all, labour-intensity of production dropped along with an increase in scale, which had a positive impact on the level of income per 1 hour of own labour and, consequently, its degree of coverage. In case of crop production activity, farmer’s labour inputs were covered in all scale ranges, but at significantly higher level at large and medium scale than at small scale. In 2013, production of live pigs in most of the farms from the research sample was unprofitable, which means that revenues failed to fully cover the production costs. However, in each group there were farms where live pigs were profitable, the highest share of such farms was noted at large scale of pigs for fattening – 47%, against 17% at medium scale and 9% at small scale of production.