How Do Intensive Cropping Systems Impact Profitability for Pumpkin Producers?

Pumpkin cropping systems field trials in 2011 and 2012 demonstrated that use of plastic mulch and transplants can significantly increase yield in pumpkins. However, with these increasingly intensive agriculture systems come added input costs. We conducted an economic analysis to evaluate whether the marketable yield increases seen in the different production systems improve the overall profitability of growing pumpkins. Our economic analysis was conducted by developing a production budget using data for ‘Gladiator’ production from four planting dates in 2011 and 2012 in differing cropping systems. An assessment of the costs and profits was done for four production systems: direct seed into bare ground, direct seed into plastic mulch, transplant into bare ground, or transplant into plastic mulch. Our results show that direct seed into plastic mulch, transplant into bare ground, and transplant into plastic mulch would increase profits by 41%, 44%, and 34% per hectare, respectively when compared to the grower standard cropping system of direct seed into bare ground. Average yields were very similar for all three production systems that differ from the grower standard, but the estimated variable costs changed greatly across the systems. Direct seed into plastic mulch, transplant into bare ground, and transplant into plastic mulch were found to increase total cost of production by 20%, 16%, and 25% per hectare, respectively when compared to the grower standard cropping system of direct seed into bare ground. However, increases in yield more than made up for these increased costs. Additional analyses were done to consider how sensitive the projected revenue stream was to small changes in expected yields and prices. For reasonable changes in yield and price, the mulch and transplant systems always increased profitability: Direct seed into plastic mulch, transplant into bare ground, and transplant into plastic mulch were found to increase profits by 38 – 56%, 40 – 64%, and 33 – 41% per hectare, respectively when compared to the grower standard cropping system of direct seed into bare ground. The transplant into bare ground treatment generated the greatest increase in farm profits, but all three intensive cropping systems showed large profit increases relative to the grower standard of direct seeding into bare ground.