Pulses and other crops for human consumption: Remember to factor in additional costs

Growing crops - especially pulses - for human consumption is gaining ground. You can largely draw on experience from growing the same or similar species for feed, but there can be a number of differences that affect the economics of production and special requirements for gluten-free production.

By Anna Borum, Lars Egelund Olsen, Michael Højholdt

Disclaimer: This article has been machine translated from Danish to English, so please note that there may be errors in the translation.

This is an introduction to a Danish tool that helps you estimate the tasks that may be associated with the production of crops for human consumption and can also support the valuation of additional costs.

The tool also includes the option to perform a sensitivity analysis on yield and area, as well as an investment calculator if you want to invest in e.g. sorting equipment.

You'll also find a guide (in Danish) to gluten-free production with a focus on opportunities, requirements and economics:

Guide: Gluten-free crop production (pdf, 7 p.)

Tool: Calculate additional costs of growing for human consumption (Excel file)

How to use the tool

The tool allows you to specify the tasks involved in growing crops for human consumption from establishment to storage and drying, which differ from growing the same species for feed.

The tool was developed by the Innovation Centre for Organic Farming with support from the Danish Organic Agriculture Fund and EU Next Generation. The tool was developed in collaboration with SEGES Innovation.

Area and yield

In the tool's "Calculate costs" tab, you enter the number of hectares cultivated with the crop so that fixed costs can be distributed over the relevant number of hectares. In addition, you can specify any restrictions that the specific species places on the crop choice (e.g. grain-free forecrop when growing gluten-free oats).

On the yield page, you indicate whether a crop clearance is expected and what price, if any, can be achieved for the cleared quantity.

Unit costs

You can specify a possible price premium for the seed compared to buying seed for feed, and it is possible to specify a quantity of the crop used to "flush" plants at the start of harvest and the price loss expected to be realised on the quantity.

Machine and labour costs

Growing crops for human consumption can involve a number of cleaning and handling tasks that should be factored in when assessing the potential of the crop.

These tasks may include extra cleaning of the seed drill, weeding in the field, extra cleaning of the combine harvester, extra cleaning of wagons, extra cleaning of storage/silo and extra cleaning of transport equipment (augers, augers etc.)

There may also be a need for extra pest control, swathing of the crop and extra care in handling.

In addition, there may be other needs that can be specified in the tool under "Other additional costs consumption".

These elements can all be entered under the heading "Machine and labour costs" in the tool.

Calculating sensitivity between yield and area

To make it easy to make a sensitivity assessment, the calculated additional cost in DKK per hkg is used in a breakdown of the total calculated additional costs for consumption production at different yield levels and number of hectares with the crop.

Example from the tool's sensitivity calculator.

Investment calculator for equipment purchases

The investment calculator is customised to make it easy to assess financial investments in equipment such as sorting machines for cleaning grain for human consumption. There are fields for entering expected capacity, loss of value, lifetime, maintenance, energy consumption and similar costs.

Responsibilities when using the tool

Innovation Centre for Organic Farming accepts no liability for losses, including operating losses, loss of profit or any other form of direct or indirect loss when using this tool or associated information and applications.