Machinery Cost Estimates for 2025

By Dale Lattz, Gary Schnitkey, Nick Paulson, and Carl Zulauf

Machinery cost estimates for 2025 have been released and are available in the Management section on the farmdoc website. Machinery costs are updated every two years, with the last update occurring in 2023. As is usual, estimated machinery costs have increased, with most increases in the 1% to 14% range. The increases from 2023 to 2025 are less than the increases estimated between 2021 and 2023, when many costs increased by as much as 30%.

Machinery Cost Estimates for 2025

Estimated machinery costs are often used in setting custom rates where one individual performs a field operation for another individual. We provide machinery cost estimates which may be helpful in setting custom rates. An additional amount to provide an economic return to the operator should be added to our cost estimates, as we do not include this return.

Machinery cost estimates are available in the Management section of farmdoc in five publications:

1. Machinery Cost Estimates: Field Operations — shows per acre costs of performing field operations such as chisel plowing, field cultivating, planting, and spraying.
2. Machinery Cost Estimates: Tractor Costs — shows per hour costs of operating various horsepower tractors.
3. Machinery Cost Estimates: Harvest Operations — shows per acre costs of harvesting corn and soybeans, as well as use of grain cart.
4. Machinery Cost Estimates: Forage Operations — shows per acre costs of performing forage operations.
5. Machinery Cost Estimates: Summary — Contains summary tables from the above operations.

Factors Impacting Estimated Machinery Costs

Costs are estimated using an economic engineering approach that relies on formulas developed by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE).

Factors impacting costs are illustrated for a 310 PTO horsepower (HP) tractor in Table 1, which shows per hour estimates appearing in Illinois Cost estimates from 2017 through 2025. Cost estimates increased

• 10% from 2017 to 2019, from $163.30 per hour to $181.10 per hour.
• 4% from 2019 to 2021, from $181.10 to $189.20.
• 32% from 2021 to 2023, from $189.20 to $249.10.
• 3% from 2023 to 2025, from $249.10 to $255.80.

Compared to the 32% increase from 2021 to 2023, the 3% increase from 2023 to 2025 is relatively modest. It is also the smallest two-year increase since 2016.

Per hour costs are divided into overhead, fuel, and labor categories. Overhead includes depreciation, interest, insurance and housing, and repairs. Formulas are used to estimate each cost, and the purchase price is entered into those formulas. The purchase price is assumed to equal 85% of the list price of the tractor. Between 2023 and 2025, the list price of a 310 HP tractor increased by 7.5%, from $579,945 in 2023 to $623,657 in 2025, resulting in an overhead cost increase from $173.70 per hour to $186.80 per hour. More details on the approaches used to estimate overhead costs are given in the Machinery Cost Estimates: Tractor Costs publication.

Fuel use on a 310 HP tractor is estimated at 13.6 gallons per hour. The diesel fuel price decline from $3.50 per gallon in 2023 to $3.00 per gallon in 2025. This price decline caused fuel costs to decrease from $52.50 per hour in 2023 to $44.80 per hour in 2025 (see Table 1).

Labor costs per hour increased from $21 per hour in 2023 to $22.00 per hour in 2025 (see Table 1). Labor time is assumed to be 1.1 times the tractor hour, resulting in a 10% higher cost per tractor hour.

Table 2 shows estimated costs from 2019 to 2025 for several different tractor sizes, combining corn and soybeans, a chisel plow, and a conventional planter. For these items, estimated costs increased by 1% to 15% from 2023 to 2025.

Summary

Estimated costs for most machinery operations are higher in 2025 than in 2023. The majority of the cost increases are associated with higher list prices for machinery.

The next scheduled release of machinery costs will occur in late summer of 2027.

Machinery Cost Estimates for 2025 was originally published by Farmdoc.