An economic comparison of conventional and alternative cropping systems for a representative northeast Kansas farm
Diebel, P.L. | Williams, J.R. | Llewelyn, R.V.
Alternative agriculture studies are important to producers developing production plans to meet the increasing demands of agricultural and environmental policies. However, the profitability of these systems is sensitive to several factors, including the type and length of rotations, yields, crop prices, and government commodity program provisions. An analysis of net returns and costs for a conventional farming system and three alternative farming systems for a typical northeast Kansas farm is performed with and without the basic government commodity provisions. Initially, constant crop yields are assumed across all production systems. Price, break-even, and equivalent net-return yield sensitivity analyses are used to determine how sensitive the initial results are to forage price changes and yield reductions in corn, soybean, wheat, and grain sorghum. A unique analysis is used in order to address the possibility of reduced yields under the alternative systems compared to the conventional system. The reduction in yield for the crops in the alternative systems is estimated based on reduced nitrogen uptake simulated by the Groundwater Loading Effects of Agricultural Management System (GLEAMS) model. The highest net return is from an alternative cropping system of wheat/clover-sorghum-soybean when the ideal of each respective crop is equivalent across systems. This occurs both with and without government commodity program participation. When the analysis is re-examined using yields based upon estimated nitrogen uptake and alternative forage prices, all alternative and transitional systems are less profitable than the conventional system. This analysis shows that under the combination of lower yields from reduced nitrogen uptake and likely reduced forage prices, the alternative systems are less profitable than the conventional farming system.
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