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Factors that Affect the Size of Machinery Needed
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Machinery recommendations must be based on the characteristics of each individual farm. The following factors influence machinery selection and are discussed in order of importance.
Number of Crop Hectares
As more crop hectares are farmed, larger-scale machinery is needed to ensure that planting and harvesting are completed in a timely fashion. An alternative is to acquire a second unit of some machines, if an additional tractor and operator are available.
Tillage Practices
The number of field days needed before planting is completed depends partly on the number of separate operations completed on each acre. Reducing the number of tillage practices performed or performing more than one practice in the same trip effectively decreases the amount of machinery capacity needed to complete field operations on time. Of course, machinery cost savings from reduced tillage must be compared to possible increased chemical costs and effects on yields.
Crop Mix
Diversification of crops tends to spread out the periods when timely completion of field operations is critical. For example, yield reductions due to late planting begin later for soybeans than for corn. Harvesting can also be completed over a longer time period. Thus, growing more than one or two crops reduces the machinery capacity needed for a given number of crop hectares. However, it may also require purchasing additional types of machinery, especially for harvesting.
Weather
Weather patterns determine the number of days suitable for fieldwork in a given time period each year. Although actual weather conditions cannot be predicted far enough in advance to be used as an aid to machinery selection, past weather records can be used as a guide. As a rule of thumb, weather is suitable for field work about 60 percent of the time in the spring and about 75 percent of the time in the fall. This does not take into account time off for holidays, Sundays or other occasions. Machinery selection should be based on long-run weather patterns even though it results in excess machinery capacity in some years and insufficient capacity in other years.