Back to Ideabooks

Factors that determine the type of farm machinery to buy

Greatlittlegarden Greatlittlegarden
Edit
Add photo

There are so many unpredictable farming conditions in the farm that can frustrate a farmer if he or she is not very careful to see the future. There may be changes in weather which you cannot control. Also, there may be changes in technology that makes your farm machinery become obsolete just after one year of usage.

A farmer may also find him or herself buying farm machinery that only works for one year and then gets damaged before it is even used in the second year. Also, a farmer may make a mistake of buying farm machinery for a certain farm practice that will not be applicable for long enough so that one gets the value for his or her money.

Therefore, before buying certain farm machinery as a farmer, you need to think and rethink again if what you are going to buy is going to adapt and change to various changing conditions of farming.  You need to know that for you to become successful in farming, you need to reduce the long run cost and also reduce risks in farming.

Below are some of the factors that you need to look at before buying certain farm machinery.

The performance of the machine

A good machine should be relied upon under a variety of conditions in the field. The tillage machine that you buy should be able to till the land while preserving the moisture in the soil.  If you consider buying a farming machine like

a planter, you need to buy one that has consistency in planting seeds. Therefore, when buying farm machinery, look at the performance of the machine.

Don’t just buy any because it does that function. Buy something that is useful in terms of its performance.

Cost

When buying farm machinery, you need to also look at the type of work that the machine is going to do for you. If for example you want a machine that helps remove weeds in your farm, go for one that is enough for that job. What is actually meant here is that, you need not to buy a machine that is too big for the job as that will cost you a lot of money for something that could have been completed by a cheaper machine. So, when selecting a machine to buy, you need to look if the cost of buying that machine is too big for your need.

Operation cost

Operation costs of a machine include the cost of repair, fuel, lubricants e.tc. The cost of operating a big machine is higher than the cost of operating a small machine. Therefore, when selecting the type of farm machinery to buy, you need to look at the cost of operation of that machine.

Labor cost

Big machines require a lot of labor to operate and sometimes even need skilled man power to operate. Therefore, when choosing the type of farm machinery to buy, consider the cost of labor of that machine.