ENERGY COSTS IN DAIRY FARMS – ASSESSMENT IN THE YEARS 2005-2016

Abstract

The main aims of the article are: 1) defining the changes of energy costs in farms focused on milk production and further divided according to their economic size in Poland and other selected EU countries between 2005 and 2016; 2) analysis of electricity and fuel (diesel) costs in Polish dairy farms between 2005 and 2016; 3) characterisation and evaluation of the current Polish subsidy system for fuel used for agricultural production purposes. The subject of research was dairy farms from selected EU countries participating in the FADN system. The implementation of the third objective boiled down to a critical analysis of the amendment to the Act introduced in Poland: “On the refund of excise duty included in the price of diesel used for agricultural production”. The research shows that in farms focused on cattle breeding and milk production in seven analysed EU countries, the average share of “energy” costs in the structure of total costs fluctuated (in 2005, 2010, 2016) from 2.72% in the largest Danish farms in 2016 to 13.08% in the smallest Polish farms in 2005. Regardless of the country, an increase in the economic size of farms focused on milk production, resulted in energy cost savings in relation to 100 kg of milk produced. The analysis of legal solutions implemented in Poland shows that dairy farms are able to potentially obtain higher subsidies for diesel oil used for agricultural production. This is very debatable from an economic point of view. INTRODUC