A nation-wide survey on representative farms was done to evaluate the actual economic situation for growing sugar beet. Roundup Ready® and Liberty Link® scenarios were created with various specific trial-based assumptions according to the performance of the varieties as well as the costs of seed and herbicides. When growing conventional varieties, weed control is an important factor in cost even for farms with low total weed control costs. On average, scenarios with genetically modified herbicide tolerant sugar beet led to an increase in gross margin. On five out of ten farms, each scenario with herbicide tolerant varieties resulted in a higher gross margin compared to conventional systems, but on the other five farms, a specific constellation of scenarios resulted in lower income. Particularly for farms with high total weed control costs, the profitability of growing genetically modified herbicide tolerant sugar beet varieties is high, and vice versa. Generally, the excellence of Roundup Ready® scenarios is greater than Liberty Link® scenarios. Cost of seed and variety performance have a considerable effect on the profitability of the new systems, which are characterized by the low cost of herbicides.
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