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October 15, 2018
KFMA Newsletters
Travis Heiman – Northeast KFMA Ag Economist
Crop machinery cost is defined as the crop share of repairs, fuel, machine hire, machinery and motor vehicle
depreciation, farm share of auto expense, and an interest charge on machinery investment less custom work income.
Although it isn’t as simple as comparing seed or fertilizer cost to your neighbors, it is a useful metric to measure as it will
indicate whether or not you are efficient with the equipment you currently have.
Although crop machinery cost will rise and fall based on the manager’s ability to manage expenses, there are some
expenses the manager has very little influence over. For example, in 2017 the average KFMA farm across the state of
Kansas spent $11.24 per harvested acre on gas‐fuel‐oil, while in 2013 the average farm spent $18.28. That is a decline of
nearly 40 percent due to an external force over which farmers had little control other than making substantial changes
to the production practices on the operation.
Although farmers don’t have the ability to control all expenses, they can exert some control on the amount of
investment their operations have in machinery. Crop Machinery Investment can be defined as the investment each
farm has in machinery and equipment allocated to the crop portion of their business.
Below is a table displaying 2017 crop machinery investment and crop machinery cost per harvested acre for KFMA farms
across the state of Kansas. Operations with a value of farm production (VFP), measured by total accrual gross farm
income less accrual feed purchases, between $1,000,001 and $1,250,000, had the highest crop machinery investment
per harvested acre, as well as, the highest machinery cost per harvested acre. Farms with a VFP equal to or less than
$100,000 had the lowest crop machinery investment and cost per harvested acre.
VFP Range ($) …