Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
13 - Mechanisation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Theory
The term ‘mechanisation’ has a wide meaning. It embraces the use of items such as hoes, sickles, ox and buffalo ploughs, threshing and winnowing machines operated either by hand, foot or animal, pumps, electricity-generating plants and milking machines. All of these ‘machines’ have some common features:
They wear out They have to be replaced, after a time, if the farmer wants to continue to use the services which they provide.
They need maintaining and repairing The hand cultivator needs to keep his hoe sharp, the owner of a tractor needs to maintain it (using grease and oil, or by adjustment) and to repair broken or worn-out parts.
They use energy This can come from:
the food humans eat, which provides energy for human activities;
animal power;
wood, straw and wastes;
fossil fuels (petrol, oil, coal);
sunlight (solar power);
electricity.
They provide services These include preparing seedbeds, pumping, threshing and can be obtained in several ways (these include owning, hiring, contracting, leasing, share farming and exchange).
The key economic question facing the farmer is how to decide which form of machinery service can he obtain at lowest cost.
Details of machine costs
There are a number of types of costs involved in any machinery operation. For example, some of the costs of owning and operating a tractor are: fuel, labour, tyres, lubrication, repairs, depreciation, insurance and housing. Specific costs are discussed below.
Variable costs
Costs such as fuel, labour, tyres, lubrication, repairs, are ‘variable’ or ‘direct’ cost, i.e. they remain fairly constant per hour of operation and, consequently, vary mostly with the hours of operation. Small variations occur in:
fuel used per hour, which varies according to engine load, size and age of the engine;
labour costs per hour of tractor operation because the ratio of man hours worked to tractor-operated hours is different with each type of operation (on average this can be taken as 1.3 man hours per tractor hour operated);
repairs per hour, which generally increase as the hours accumulate (a proportion of repairs is related to the time that the machinery is used as well as to how often it is used).
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- Information
- The Economics of Tropical Farm Management , pp. 127 - 139Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985