Is it more profitable to burn than to sell?
This year's harvest will soon come to an end throughout Poland, but unfortunately, once again, many farmers selling their harvests are dissatisfied with low prices. Producers, who have been carefully cultivating their crops for many months, investing in means of production and facing the consequences of frosts and hail, have gone to purchase stores and are commenting bitterly on current prices.
– I grow triticale and rye. I had to take the rye straight to the purchase center, where I was offered a price of PLN 500 per tonne of grain. Where are the costs of fertilization, protection and seed material? I will earn little for selling rye and I will go to buy fuel for the winter, paying PLN 1,200 per tonne of pellets. I think it would be better if I burned the rye in the oven, said a farmer from the province. Greater Poland.
Of course, the value of cereal grains and traditionally used fuels, as well as the possibilities and profitability of their use, is difficult to compare "one to one" – if only because the use of grain as fuel may require modernization of the furnace, e.g. the purchase of an appropriate burner.
But let's analyze it purely theoretically. Depending on the quality of the grain, the energy value of cereals usually ranges between 16 and 19 MJ/kg, and oats are considered the best energy raw material among cereals. The energy value of wood pellets or sunflower husk is in the range of 17-19 MJ/kg, and eco-pea coal – on average 24-26 MJ/kg.
Let's move on to prices. Currently, a ton of oats costs net approximately PLN 580-600, feed rye PLN 500-520/t, and barley PLN 600-620/t. Currently, in the off-season, you can purchase a stock of wood pellets for approximately PLN 1,100-1,300 gross per pallet (975 kg). What is more profitable? The answer may vary from farm to farm.
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Less, worse and cheaper. The 2024 harvest is extremely difficult
Tradition matters a lot
In many cases, dry calculation may support the use of cereal grains as fuel. At the same time, however, traditions and internal values, and often also religious beliefs, come to the fore. Many farmers cannot imagine burning grain in the oven, arguing that it is unworthy and disrespectful to agricultural produce and food. The poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid wrote about Poles and Poland as a country "where they raise crumbs of bread from the ground out of respect for the gifts of heaven." However, let's leave these dilemmas to the individual judgment of each host. Considerations about the use of grain as fuel are only one of the shades of the discussion about the profitability of agricultural production in Poland, about prices that are increasingly lagging behind production costs, and about the sometimes bizarre realities of farm operation.
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"Mockery at farmers" in shopping centers during harvest? No information, closed points, queues 
