Božidar Petrač

Economic effect of liming in maize, sunflower and winter barley production

Conducted four year experiment confirmed liming effect on yield and production profitability. Since liming investment is quite expensive measure (liming costs participate up to 44% in total cost structure) it is important to know which crop will return invested money more quickly. Conducted liming experiment approved that less profitable crops would result in financial deficit (like maize because of low subsidies and redemption price), while more profitable crops (sunflower and barley) would achieve more respective financial impact of liming. Different approaches to costs analyses showed that liming impact on profit should be analyzed by distribution of liming costs on all seasons in period with liming impact on yield, rather than taking into account liming costs only in production costs of first crop after liming. Regression model for comparing profits and costs during all four seasons determined that the optimal liming dosage on experimental site would be 19 t ha−1.