The price increases in the latest version of Manitoba Agriculture’s farm machinery cost of production guide are startling.
“I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now and, generally speaking, we would see two to five per cent increases per year, so that would be a four to 10 per cent increase over the two-year span. We’ve really eclipsed this,” said provincial farm management specialist Darren Bond.
Why it matters: Manitoba Agriculture’s farm machinery guide can help farmers plan for purchases or reconcile equipment operating costs.
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Bond listed some standout price increases during a November webinar hosted by Manitoba Agriculture. Medium front-wheel assist tractors (160-224 horsepower) increased by 35 per cent. Large four-wheel-drive tractors (over 550 hp) increased by 28 per cent. The price of Class 9 combines rose 27 per cent, flex auger headers (35 feet) rose 23 per cent, and large air drills with independent openers (66-86 feet) rose 62 per cent over the two years since the last report.
Bond said it’s still a little surprising to see numbers like that.
“I don’t know how many more times I can talk about supply chain issues or COVID[-19] when we talk about some of these changes to values, but there were disruptions with production, and that not only put pressure on new equipment, it also put upward pressure on used equipment,” he said.
Report access
The latest version of the cost of production report is available online. Bond said the printed version will come out in January and will be available at all major trade shows and exhibitions, as well as at Manitoba Agriculture service centres.
The prices are determined by looking at cost of ownership, equipment values, depreciation, financing costs and hours of use.
“It’s quite a large undertaking. We have over 200 pieces of equipment listed. We come up with values for each piece of equipment from all the major manufacturers. So there’s a lot of searching that we do to come up with these values,” he said.
“We take this very seriously. We want people to have confidence in this guide.”
Bond noted equipment prices vary based on the options selected, so the department approaches options with moderation when doing the report.
“We tried to price these as a middle-of-the-road standard configuration. They’re not optionless, but they’re based on the most commonly used options.”
2024-25 changes
There are a few changes to this year’s edition of the guide.
The tracked tractor section is split into two-track and four-track categories, and the combine header configuration was modified to include rigid drapers, flex augers, flex and flex drapers. Writers added clarification on air drill categories. There’s a new addition of round baler net wrap configurations, and tractor horsepower requirements for some of the drawn implements (such as air drills and vertical till implements) have been updated.
“We found that farmers were using more horsepower on some of these drawn implements than what the agricultural engineers were suggesting. So, we wanted to reflect what was going on in the countryside,” Bond said.
The guide also has a companion calculator available for Microsoft Excel, although a similar tool is available through the Manitoba Agriculture website.
“You can use it on your phone, your tablet or whatever the case may be,” said Bond. “It’s really quick and easy. You can see all the numbers that we preloaded and you can change these numbers to suit your situation.”
The guide-calculator could also be used if a farmer wants to determine a fair rate to charge for work done on a neighbour’s farm.
“It’s not intended to be used for companies that rent equipment,” said Bond. “This is not a market survey. This is a cost-basis calculation. This is just saying that this type of equipment under these types of assumptions will come out to this much per hour, this much per acre, this much per bale – nothing more, nothing less.”
