Repair and maintenance costs of hill-farm tractors and transporters for upland mechanisation

Abstract

The annual repair and maintenance costs of two types of motorised agricultural machines for upland agriculture, hill-farm tractors (twoaxle mowers) and transporters, are estimated on the basis of crosssectional data. An aggregation leads to the accumulated repair and maintenance costs for the entire service life of the machines, expressed as a repair and maintenance factor (RMF). Given the strong influence of annual utilisation, a high annual utilisation combined with a short length of service leads to lower accumulated costs. While the RMFs of hill-farm tractors and transporters are similar, they are higher than those of standard 4-wheel drive tractors analysed in a similar study. This effect is especially relevant for low annual utilisation, as is the case for both machine types under current operating conditions in Switzerland. Accordingly, the assumption that the RMFs of hillfarm tractors and transporters are equivalent to those of standard 4- wheel drive tractors is not to be recommended.