Economy of primary tillage practices in cereal cultivation

The purpose of the study was to find out the yield levels reached by means of different primary tillage methods, economic result according to farm size classes as well as the optimal combination of a preliminary tillage method and crop according to the soil type. The comparative tests on basic tillage methods carried out at the MTT Agrifood Research Finland were used as the yield data for the study. The estimates for the yield levels of different preliminary tillage methods are quite close to each other; in most cases the differences were within the range of standard error. The impacts of the differences in the yield levels on the production costs were examined on the basis of the cereal farms included in the bookkeeping data in 2001. In the smallest farm group of 38 ha the net loss in the cultivation of feed cereals (barley and oats) were the lowest when using the reduced tillage (cultivator or knife harrow). In the case of spring wheat the cultivator would seem to result in slightly smaller net loss than ploughing. In the class of 75 ha the cultivator and sowing without primary tillage usually brought the best result in the case of feed barley and oats. For spring wheat the cultivator gave the best result when the soil type was clay loam, while in the case of sandy clay the net result of ploughing was higher. On farms with 125 ha sowing without primary tillage resulted in the highest net profit in the case of feed cereals. In the cultivation of spring wheat ploughing brought the best result in the case of sandy clay, while for clay loam the best result was achieved by means of the cultivator. When choosing the expected value of maximal return under a certain risk level, it was observed that a risk-oriented farmer chooses the cultivation of spring wheat when the alternatives are spring wheat, oats and feed barley. The optimal basic tillage method depends on the farm size, available machinery, soil type and farmer's attitude to risk. When making the choice the farmer should consider the soil types on the farm, taking account of crop rotation. This means that the choice of the basic tillage method is always a compromise.