Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and the original cost. The original cost is more
or less restricted by various taxes and other fiscal
charges, depending on the country concerned.
use of round balers, which they also use to bale
hay and straw. The costs of acquiring these
machines are very different. The classical bal-
ers are inexpensive and receive many more
hours of use. This makes the cost of using
them considerably lower.
Finally, the manner in which transportation
is organized, as already mentioned, is completely
different. These differences in the way the straw
is processed clearly make comparisons difficult,
but it is not unreasonable to attribute a farm-to-
factory transport cost of around
Machinery charges
Given that, plus or minus a few euros, the costs
of harvesting (mowing) are more or less the
same, it is in the baling and handling of the
hemp - as well as during its transport - that
differences in costs are seen between Holland,
on the one hand, and France and Germany,
on the other.
In Holland, harvesting is undertaken by
the manufacturer.
In France, a number of farmers have
banded together to form a cooperative (CUMA:
Coopérative d'utilisation de matériel agri-
cole
). This cooperative has a very flexible and
geometrically varied structure that allows it to
purchase, use and maintain all the machinery
that its members believe to be worth sharing.
This way of organizing users is extremely pop-
ular in France (numbering 13,100, with a total
membership of 233,000) and allows the cost
of using farm equipment to be kept very low.
Another phenomenon must also be taken
into consideration when explaining these dif-
ferences in prices and that is the average sur-
face area devoted to hemp production.
The technical choice of baling equipment
also explains some of these differences.
The Dutch manufacturer makes use of an
automated machine, which produces paralleli-
pipedic (six-faced) bales, that is only used in
hemp production. The French simply make
€
15/t.
Labour costs
Where labour costs are concerned, the choices
made by the farmer (hired help or working
themselves) can impact significantly on costs.
Similarly, an increasing number of farmers
practise a technique called
sans labour
, or
'without labour', in which an intensive/deep
preparation of the ground is replaced by a
superficial preparation with the selective use of
herbicides. This latter technique results in signifi-
cant economies in terms of time and labour.
In Australia, labour costs are not distin-
guished from the total costs.
8.6 Modelling Table
To round up this presentation on the economics
of hemp production, a table has been prepared
(Table 8.27) that allows us to model hemp pro-
duction in order to compare it with other crops
that could be grown on the same land.
Table 8.27.
Modelling.
Hemp
Product harvested
Straw
Seed
Seed and straw
Yield per hectare
Seed
Straw
Amount of work required per hectare excluding
work undertaken by contractors/companies:
- labour, preparation of the soil, sowing
- fertilizer spreading, etc.
Specified costs:
Fertilizer
Seed
Continued
