Repair and Maintenance Costs for Nine Agricultural Machine Types

Abstract

<abstract><title><italic>Abstract. </italic></title> On the basis of a farm survey conducted in Switzerland, annual repair and maintenance cost functions are estimated for nine agricultural machine types (wagon, harrow, rotary harrow, seed drill, single seeder, field sprayer, solid-manure spreader, hydraulic loader, and slurry tanker). In a second step, the annual costs are aggregated to indicate the accumulated repair and maintenance costs for the machine’s estimated service life, information that is crucial for machinery cost calculation. Assuming full utilization of the estimated service life, measured in work units such as hectares or barrels, the analysis reveals a strong influence of annual utilization. High annual utilization combined with short length of service measured in years has the effect of reducing the accumulated repair and maintenance costs. Despite limited comparison of the obtained results for repair and maintenance costs with the existing literature, there is some evidence of a reduction in these costs over time.