CHAPTER SEVEN

SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT

OF FARM MACHINERY
 Introduction to Agricultural
Operation Management
 The generic task of the operations management function
is the part of the total management task within the
production system which has responsibility for “getting
the job done”.

 It is the objective of the operations function to provide

the planning and control of the jobs and operations
needed to produce the goods or services at hand.

 The importance of the farming operations is continuously

increasing, as a challenge to improve quality, provide
greater variety in the product or service, and meet
customers’ demands.
 Contd…
 Any production process involves a combination of
humans, objects, and procedures operating within a
given environment and being directed towards some
predefined goals.

 The most important part of the production process is

the conversion process, or transformation process,
aimed at transforming resources and production
factors into output in the form of products and/or
services.
The general production process
 Agricultural Production Systems

 Agricultural production involves transformation that

is realized by biological processes (e.g., crop biomass
growth) taking place in the course of a growing
season.

 The processes are regarded as an autonomous

system which is basically independent of decisions
made by the farmer.
 Contd…
 In contrast, interventions realized by labor and
machinery during the plant growing process are
dependent on decisions made by the farmer and termed
an operation.

 Operation is defined as a technical coherent combination

of treatments by which at a certain time a characteristic
change of condition of an object (a field, a building, an
equipment, a crop) is observed, realised or prevented.

 This definition extends operations beyond those for crop

production to those supporting enterprise functions, like
maintenance, repairs, etc.
 Contd…
 An operation is generally the link between resources
(e.g., labor and machinery), materials processed, and
material produced (e.g., harvested crops, repaired
machine, etc.).

 The agricultural plant production cycle consists of an

autonomous biological production process and a
number of operations initiated by human
interventions.
The operations system’s elements in farming
production.
General model for managing
operations
 Managing Agricultural
Operations

 The decision-maker observes the status of the

crop, field, weather, resources, etc., and given
this information a decision is taken on
whether to implement an operation or not.

 As time passes the planned operations are

adjusted, because new information becomes
available and operations get executed.
Planning and control of operational
activities in the field.
 Contd…
 On the basis of a tactical plan, an operational
plan is formulated for the following cropping
period.

 Over time this plan is adjusted after

observations of the crop and forecasts of, for
instance, the weather, as well as the results of
already executed operations.
 Agricultural machinery
operations
Agricultural machines comprise a number of
components working together for a machine
to perform the operation for which it is
designed.

For agricultural machines a number of basic

processes exist, involving reversible, non-
reversible, and unidirectional (neither
reversible nor non-reversible) processes.
 Typical transformation processes within the agricultural
plant production system

a Types of transformation as defined in an industrial context.

b Types of transformation (or treatment) as defined in an agricultural context.
Contd…
 Machinery Management in
Agricultural Operations

 Considering a specific agricultural plant

production cycle, a number of cultural practices
have to be realized by executing a series of
operations on a soil or crop.

 Examples of these operations are soil treatment,

seedbed preparation, seeding, fertilizing, plant
care, harvesting, and irrigation.

 By executing operations, the objectives of the

cultural practices are met.
 Effectiveness and Efficiency of
Agricultural Machinery
 Analysis of the efficiency of farm machinery
involves a number of entities, such as job,
operation, task, work element, etc., which have to be
examined to assess the operational efficiency of
labor and machinery on the farm.

 The “work element” functions as the basis for

building models capable of estimating the labor
requirement at different aggregated levels.
 Definition of Work Components

 Sequence of work element is “a technical coherent

combination of treatments by which at a certain time a
characteristic change of condition of an object (e.g., a field,
an equipment, a crop) is observed, realized or prevented.”
 Contd…
 The variation in the value of the work elements
is caused by a number of factors:

The theoretical capacity

The size and shape of the field
The operation patterns
The mobility of the machine
The skill and experience of the combine
operator
Crop conditions, like laid grain, weeds, etc.
 Fieldwork Patterns

Headland turn types for agricultural

vehicles
 Area Capacity
 The expected labor requirement and related
machine capacity depend on many factors, such
as traveling speed, working width, net capacity,
yield, turning time, tending of machine, control,
crop and soil stops, etc.

 The labor requirement involved in field work can

be calculated on the basis of various models
describing the influencing factors determining the
labor requirement and capacity.
 Material Capacity

 The principal working time can also be

calculated on the basis of the net capacity (t h-
1) of the machine and yield (t ha-1), provided

that the traveling speed and working width are

not unreasonably large.

Field Efficiency

 The field efficiency factor depicts the

overall rate of work to a theoretical spot
rate of work.
 Estimating the Field Capacity of
Farm Machines

 The field capacity of a farm machine is the rate at

which it performs its primary function, i.e., the
number of hectare that can be tilled per hour, the
number of kilograms of hay that can be baled per
hour, amount of harvest kilogram per hour or
hectare.

 Measurements or estimates of machine capacities

are used to schedule field operations, power
units, labor, and to estimate machine operating
costs.
 Contd…
 The most common measure of field capacity for
agricultural machines is expressed in hectare
covered per hour of operation.

 The effective field capacity (EFC) of a machine in

the field can be easily calculated by dividing the
hectares completed by the hours of actual field
time.

 Theoretical field capacity (TFC) depends only on

the full operating width of the machine and the
average travel speed in the field.
 Contd…
 TFC represents the maximum possible field
capacity that can be obtained at the given field
speed when the full operating width of the
machine is being used.

 Actual effective field capacity is less than TFC

due to turns and other delays.

 The ratio of actual or effective field capacity (EFC)

to TFC is called the machine’s field efficiency
(FE).
 Contd…
 Field efficiency is expressed as the
percentage of a machine’s TFC actually
achieved under real conditions.

 It accounts for failure to utilize the full

operating width of the machine (overlapping)
and many other time delays.
 Contd…
 These may include turning, filling with seed,
fertilizer, or pesticide, emptying grain, traveling to
a supply grain cart, cleaning a plugged machine,
checking a machine’s performance and making
adjustments, waiting for trucks, and operator rest
stops.

 Delay activities that occur outside the field, such

as daily service, travel to and from the field, and
major repairs are not included in field efficiency
measurement.
 Contd…
 The working capacity of harvesting machines
is measured by the quantity of material
harvested per hour.

 This capacity is called the machine’s material

capacity (MC), expressed as quintals per hour
or kilogram per hour.

 It is the product of the machine’s EFC and the

average yield of crop per hectare.
 Cost of Using Agricultural
Machinery
1. Direct Cost

i. Ownership Cost

 Depreciation: Depreciation is the reduction of the

value of an asset due to time, usage, and/or
obsolescence (technological outdating).

 There are many methods to calculate

depreciation.
 Contd…
ii. Operating or variable cost

 The operating or variable cost refers to the

operation of the machine and occurs only
when the machine is used.

 The variable cost is usually calculated on an

hourly basis, but may refer to processed area
(e.g. ha), bales, or any other appropriate unit.
 iii.Repair and Maintenance Cost

 Repair and maintenance are related to machine

reliability: that it will carry out a cycle duty
without any total or partial failure.

 Repair and maintenance functions can be

categorized as follows:

Routine replacement of worn parts

Repair of accidental damage
Repair of damage due to operator neglect
Routine overhauls.
 iv. Fuels and Lubricants
 FUELS: Comparing a single machine with multiple
machines, fuel consumption should be taken into
consideration.

 The consumption of an additional liter of fuel per hour

costs a lot over a long period of time.

 The greater the power of a machine, the more fuel it

needs per hour. However, the machine completes more
work in the same time.

 LUBRICANTS: The most appropriate method to calculate

the lubricant cost is calendar recording.
 v. Labor Cost
 For the annual labor cost, the cost of circulating
capital has to be taken into account (this also
applies for the cost of fuel, lubricants, repair, and
maintenance).

 Labor cost is also an important consideration in

comparing ownership to custom hiring.

 Actual hours of labor usually exceed field

machine time by 10%-20%, because of travel time
and the time required to lubricate and service
machines.
 Contd…
 Because different sized machines require different
amounts of labor to accomplish such tasks as
planting or harvesting, it is important to consider
labor costs in machinery analysis.

 Also, different wage rates can apply for operations

requiring different levels of operator skill.
 Indirect Cost
i. Timeliness

 It has been shown that crop yield is affected by the

timing of field operations.

 The reduction in yield due to untimely field operations

is affected by many factors, such as the soil, the
climate conditions, the field topography, the plant, and
variety of the plant.
 Contd…
 For a field operation there is usually an optimal
time with respect to the value of the crop: the time
when the yield is maximum.

 This can be determined for each crop and area

only after experiments and observations.

 If an operation is performed earlier or later, the

value of the crop may decrease due to changes in
quantity and/or quality.
 Contd…
 The economic consequences of performing a field
operation at a non optimal time are called timeliness
costs.

 If an operation starts after the optimal time, timeliness

costs are incurred for the whole area before the
operation starts and thereafter for a decreasing area
depending on the capacity of the operation.

 Since these costs are partly dependent on the

operation’s planning and scheduling and the machine
capacity, they are also called indirect machine costs.
 Contd…
 If timeliness costs are not taken into
consideration there is a risk of underestimating
all the costs and machinery capacity
requirements.

 Timeliness costs are important to consider for

efficient crop management and machinery
selection, particularly for crop establishment,
spraying and harvesting.
 Contd…
 Significant timeliness costs occur in regions with
short sowing and harvesting periods, and they are
affected by the weather such costs are specific for
regions and subject to annual variations.

 Except for very small holdings or large machinery

sizes, in practice it is impossible to carry out all the
work in the optimum period.

 As the operation moves away from the optimum

period, the reduction in production increases.
 ii. Workability
 Workability is defined as the ability of an operation to
be carried out at a specific time to give a positive
result.

 Different field operations’ goals vary widely, the

standards for positive results vary as well. E.g. , tillage
depends on the adequacy of the seedbed to promote
growth.

 The operations should be carried out while the soil is

within certain moisture levels, 81, 82 whereas the
workability of a crop for harvest is more closely related
to its development stage.

 Soil workability is directly dependent on soil moisture

content.
 iii. Trafficability
 Trafficability is defined as the ability of soil to support
a vehicle while causing negligible, or reversible,
damage.

 Damage to the soil may originate from compaction (an

increase in bulk density) or deformation (changes to
the structure).

 Both forms of damage limit the water-holding

capability of the soil, limit the flow of nutrients within
the soil, and cause problems in root development, all
of which adversely affect the final crop yield.
 iv. Reliability
 The cost of damage is an important issue for many
agricultural machines, particularly for specialized
machines like the combine harvester.

 Few things cause more frustration than a functional

failure in a high-performance seasonal machine,
especially when the farmer faces difficult weather
conditions and is behind schedule.

 Repair costs can be significant, and subsequent crop

losses may mount up due, for example, to the delayed
harvest.
 Contd…
 The prediction of agricultural machinery
performance is an important aspect of machinery
management.

 A key parameter is the probability of equipment

breakdown, and the manager must evaluate this
to optimize machinery operations and identify the
most reliable machines.

 The operational performance of farm machinery

must be quantified to be able to select and plan
the use of equipment under different conditions.
 Choosing a Machinery System
Tractor Selection

Tractor selection is one of the most difficult

decisions for a farmer, and will affect all the
equipment of the farm for a long time and the
cost of the products.
 The most significant factors in tractor
selection are:

Farm holding and crop type

Soil composition and morphology
Size and number of farmland parcels

Farm weather conditions

Timeliness of operations
Projected changes of the crops
Ability to find labor and its cost
Purchase price of the tractor and
implements
Current popularity of different tractors in
the area

Existence of proper organized

maintenance services from the tractor’s
agents.
Operator safety and comfort.
 Equipment Selection

 The successful selection of a tractor is

complemented by choosing suitable
equipment to keep the cost of use of
agricultural machinery as low as possible.

 For equipment selection there are many

methods, similar to those used for tractors.
 Contd…
 The simplest methods are based on the available
power of the tractor or the time required to carry
out the work.

 The most complex and advanced methods are

based on the operation cost (tractor cost plus
equipment cost), which should be minimal; these
are cost-minimization methods.
 Contd…
 For the simple methods, cost is considered to be
only the direct cost; in the more advanced
methods both direct and indirect costs are taken
into account.

 The second category of methods aims at cost

optimization.
Calculation of Implement Size Based
on Available Tractor Power

 This method of choice of equipment size is based

on the tractor power.

 The size of the equipment should be such that the

resistance while operating causes the tractor to
load about 75 to 90% of its power, so there is
capacity to handle overloads.

 Based on the given tractor pulling power, it is

easy to determine the working width (size) of the
implement.
 Calculation of Implement Size Based on
Available Time for Field Operations

 This method calculates the implement size based

on the available time for performing the tasks and
the actual performance of the machinery in the
field.

 However, special care should be taken not to

carry out two or more operations simultaneously
that need power from the same tractor.
 Calculation of Implements Size
Based on Minimum Cost Method

 The calculation of implement size with reference

to minimum cost is based on the corresponding
method for the tractor’s power calculation.

 In other words, the cost of the tractor and the

implement is reduced at its minimum levels.
 Machinery Replacement

 Farm machines can operate for a long time,

usually until the end of their economic life.

 At the end of this period they should be replaced,

because their operation cost gets higher and
higher, and can become more than the purchase
price of a new machine of the same size.

 Farm machinery replacement decisions are very

important in farm operation management.
 Contd…
 A wrong decision to replace due to a temporary
machine malfunction to purchase the latest model
for reasons of modernization may result in a
serious consequential drain of operating capital.

 On the other hand, delayed replacements are

counterproductive.
 Contd…
 The commonest reasons for equipment replacement are as
follows.

 Inadequacy, which results from a change in operating

conditions and the consequent incapacity of an existing
machine to meet the new requirements.

 Deterioration, excessive operating cost, increased

maintenance costs, high reject rates, high frequency of
stoppages, and increased safety issues.

 Obsolescence arising from technological advancement,

which makes existing machines less efficient in
performance and removes spare parts for previous
models from the market, making it more and more
difficult to find such of these.
 Selection of Second-Hand
Machinery
 Farm machines lose most of their value in the first
years of use.

 This phenomenon is especially noticed when it

comes to tractors and other self-propelled
machinery.

 The purchase of second-hand machines,

especially tractors, at an advantageous price after
they have been used to only a small extent could
be a satisfactory proposition in many cases.
 Contd…
 The choice of a second-hand machine has the
advantage of low initial capital requirement for the
purchase and lower fixed operating costs, due to
lower depreciation and interest on invested capital.

 However, variable costs are expected to be higher due

to increased repair and maintenance costs.

 For these reasons it is preferable to select second

hand machines when their annual use is limited and
there is plenty of time to carry out the work, so that
the potential cost of improper execution is very
limited.
Machinery Management System
Selection

 The term “machinery management systems”

refers to types of machine usage according to
their ownership status.

 An agricultural machine or vehicle may be self-

owned, under contract, shared by more than one
farmer, etc.
 Contd…
 The most common machinery management
systems are:

I. The use of proprietary machinery,

II. The use of professional machinery,
III.Cooperative use of machinery
IV. Renting (leasing) and
V. The use of state-owned machinery.
 Contd…
 The selection of the system depends on a number
of factors, including:

The size of the holding

The ownership status of the holding (self-
owned, shared, a cooperative, a corporation,
or even a state-owned holding),
The type of crops,
The weather conditions of the area, and
The holding’s finances.
 Contd…
 In small holdings farmers usually use self-
owned machines and equipment for basic
field operations.

 While for operations requiring expensive or

specialized machines, high-power tractors, or
machines scheduled to operate for a very
short period of time they use the solution of
contracting.
END…