Crop Machinery Benchmarks.

This paper examined crop machinery investment and cost benchmarks for a sample of Kansas farms. Crop machinery benchmarks varied widely among the farms. On average, crop machinery investment and cost were $227 and $82, respectively. Crop machinery investment and cost were significantly correlated with the interest and depreciation expense ratios, the asset turnover ratio, percent acres owned, and net machinery purchases. Crop machinery cost was also significantly correlated with crop intensity (harvested acres/crop acres). As with most machinery issues, a balance between controlling crop machinery investment and cost, and timeliness needs to be reached. This paper points out the importance of controlling investment and cost rather than investment and the cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]