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Farm machinery hourly cost

Enter the machine's value, consumption, and work rate to find out what each hour of work and each hectare operated costs.

Pre-sizing and estimating tool: the results do not replace a design, calculation, or report signed by a qualified professional, nor verification against the applicable standards.

Preliminary estimateRevision 12/11/2026
Machine
Consumption and operation

Repairs are the total expected over useful life, as a % of the acquisition value. Consumption, prices and efficiency should reflect your operation.

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—Machine cost per hour
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Hourly cost breakdown

Where each hour's cost goes

Hourly cost breakdown in R$/h: ownership costs (depreciation, interest, insurance) and operating costs.

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Hourly cost by hours of use per year

Interest and insurance are spread out when the machine works more hours; the point marks your use.

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What if the data changes?

Drag the controls to simulate data different from what you entered (from 30% less to 30% more) and watch the result change instantly.

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Hourly cost by hours of use per year

Cost per hour and per hectare of the machine for different hours of use per year, with the purchase value, useful life and output entered.

Step by step with your numbers

The calculation done in steps, with the values you entered.

    The calculation memo gathers this page's inputs, results, equations, assumptions, and references, with fields for project, responsible person, and review. The full report also includes the charts and interpretations, in color. In the print window, choose Save as PDF.

    How to use the machine hourly cost

    Enter the machine's value, residual value, useful life in hours, and hours worked per year. Then add interest, insurance, repairs, fuel consumption and price, lubricants, operator cost, and the work rate in hectares per hour. The calculator returns the cost per hour, the cost per hectare, and the breakdown of each component.

    Worked example

    Tractor at R$ 350,000 with 20% residual value, 12,000 h life, 800 h/year, 8% annual interest, 1% insurance, repairs at 80% of the value over its life, fuel use of 14 L/h at R$ 6.00, lubricants at 10% of fuel cost, operator at R$ 20/h and output of 1.5 ha/h.

    Depreciation R$ 23.33/h; interest R$ 21.00/h; insurance R$ 4.38/h; repairs R$ 23.33/h; fuel R$ 84.00/h; lubricants R$ 8.40/h; operator R$ 20.00/h. Total of R$ 184.44/h and, at 1.5 ha/h, R$ 122.96 per hectare.

    How each portion is calculated

    InstallmentCalculation (R$/h)
    Depreciation(value − residual) ÷ useful life in hours
    Interest(value + residual) ÷ 2 × annual interest ÷ hours per year
    Insurance and sheltervalue × annual rate ÷ hours per year
    Repairs and maintenancevalue × % repairs over life ÷ useful life in hours
    Fuel and lubricantsfuel use (L/h) × price × (1 + % lubricants)
    Operatorhourly wage with charges

    Economic life and tax depreciation

    The depreciation in this calculation is economic: how much value the machine loses per hour of use. It is not tax depreciation, which follows rates set by the Brazilian Federal Revenue for tax purposes. Use the real useful life of your machine, which depends on the type of work and the maintenance.

    Common mistakes

    • Forgetting the operator's cost and payroll charges.
    • Using very high hours per year: fixed costs end up artificially low.
    • Comparing the cost per hour of machines with different outputs; always compare the cost per hectare.
    • Do not include interest on capital tied up in the machine.

    Take the cost per hectare of operations to the production cost per hectare. For applications, also see the sprayer setting.

    Method, assumptions, and references

    Equations used

    Depreciation (R$/h) = (Purchase value − Residual value) ÷ Useful life (h)
    Interest (R$/h) = (Acquisition + Residual) ÷ 2 × Interest rate ÷ Hours per year
    Insurance and shelter (R$/h) = acquisition × rate ÷ hours per year
    Repairs (R$/h) = acquisition × repairs (%) ÷ useful life (h)
    Fuel (R$/h) = Consumption (L/h) × Price (R$/L); Lubrication = Fuel × %
    Cost per hectare (R$/ha) = Hourly cost ÷ Output (ha/h)

    Assumptions and limits

    • Residual value and useful life on a straight-line basis; the fixed cost is spread over the hours worked.
    • Interest on average capital over the useful life.
    • Operational output of the set (machine and implement), not the theoretical catalog figure.
    • The economic useful life used here is not the tax rate: the 10% per year tax depreciation (IN RFB 1,700/2017) is a reference, but the hourly cost follows the useful life that your operation sustains.

    Standards and technical documents

    • ASABE EP496: Agricultural Machinery Management Data. St. Joseph: ASABE, current edition.
    • VDI 3258 Blatt 1: Kostenrechnung mit Maschinenstundensätzen (machine hourly rate costing method, also used in the IndusMetrics industrial calculator).

    Legislation and regulations in Brazil

    • RFB Normative Instruction No. 1,700/2017, Annex III: annual depreciation rate for machinery and equipment (10%), used as a tax and accounting reference
    • CPC 27 (Property, Plant and Equipment): useful life, residual value and depreciation method
    • NR-31: occupational safety and health in agriculture, including machine and tractor operation

    Frequently asked questions

    How to calculate the cost per hour of a tractor?

    Add depreciation, interest, insurance and shelter, repairs, fuel, lubricants and the operator. The total is the cost per working hour.

    How to go from cost per hour to cost per hectare?

    Divide the hourly cost by the operational yield in hectares per hour. Lower yields make each hectare more expensive.

    How to calculate the hourly cost of a tractor?

    Add depreciation, interest, insurance and shelter, repairs, fuel, lubricants and labor, all in R$ per hour. Ownership costs per hour depend on how many hours the machine works per year.

    Is it better to buy the machine or hire the service?

    Compare the cost per hectare calculated here with the price of the outsourced service. If the machine works few hours per year, fixed costs weigh heavily and hiring tends to be cheaper; if it works a lot, buying usually pays off.

    Which residual value should I use?

    It is how much the machine is worth at the end of its useful life. It depends on the type, the use and the used-equipment market: check quotes for similar machines in your region instead of using a generic percentage.

    How to estimate fuel consumption?

    Measure the refueling at the end of several hours of work in real operation and divide by the hours. The catalog value is usually for full load and can exceed the average consumption of light operations.

    What goes into repairs and maintenance?

    Parts, shop labor and servicing over the useful life, as a percentage of the purchase price. Routine lubricants and filters have their own field in this calculator.