A TEN-YEAR HORTICULTURAL AND ECONOMIC COMPARISON OF THREE TRAINING SYSTEMS IN THE HOOD RIVER VALLEY: ECONOMICS

A ten-year comparison of the Tatura and Lincoln Canopy trellises and a conventional system with d’Anjou and Bartlett pears demonstrated that the Tatura Trellis system returned US$ 19,095 more per hectare than the three-wire and free standing system and US$ 20,640 per hectare more than the Lincoln Canopy system with the d’Anjou pear variety.
Moreover, the Tatura Trellis system returned US$ 5,683 per hectare more than the Lincoln Canopy and US$ 15,064 per hectare more than three-wire and freestanding system with Bartlett pears.
Only the Tatura Trellis system with d’Anjou pears returned sufficient cash flows to pay all previous cash establishment costs.
This system also achieved a 14 percent internal rate of return (IRR) with d’Anjou pears and a 5% IRR on Bartlett.
The three-wire and free standing system returned about a 6% IRR and 2% IRR with the Lincoln Canopy with d’Anjou pears.
Alternatively, the Lincoln Canopy system achieved only a 4% IRR and the three-wire and free standing systems a negative IRR with Bartlett pears.
Total labor costs were greater for the free standing and three-wire systems than the Tatura and Lincoln Canopy Trellises for both pear varieties.
Interest charges were 35% of the total costs in establishing either of the four systems for both pear varieties and labor costs 25% of the total costs.
Interestingly, the trellis and tree costs were less than 6% of the total cost for both pear varieties.

VII International Symposium on Pear Growing

C.F. Seavert, E.A. Mielke

Enterprise Budgets, Opportunity Costs, Internal Rate of Return

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.475.27