Assessment of the harvesting costs of different combine harvester fleets

Abstract

This study discusses practical collection methods of cereal harvesting costs in different agricultural holdings in order to effectively manage combine harvester fleets, make economically reasoned decisions on the exploitation of combine harvesters, reduce harvesting costs and consequently the cost price of cereals. For this purpose, the author used work results of combine harvesters monitored by three randomly selected agricultural holdings, collected practical information on harvesting, analysed this information and provided assessments on the effectiveness of their combine harvester fleet. Evidently, not all combine harvester fleets and combines operate with the same efficiency, as their harvesting costs are different.

Keywords

• combine harvester performance
• fixed and variable cost
• cereal harvesting unit cost
• fuel consumption