METHODICAL APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY BASED ON MARGINAL OPERATING COSTS
The paper analyzes the existing methods of evaluating agricultural machinery. The authors suggest a methodology for the determination of expediency of using farm machinery based on actual operational costs per unit of production when an evaluated machine performs separate operations. The limits of the effective machinery application are considered to be the marginal (permissible) operating cost per unit of product for the particular operation, the calculation of which is based on the determination of the share of labor-intensive operations in the overall cost of labor in agricultural production, sales prices per unit and a minimum level of agricultural production profitability. According to the proposed methodology, the authors have evaluated the performance of the Grimme BR-150 potato harvester used in OOO (LLC) “Maksim Gorky” on an area of 2000 hectares. Actual operating costs have amounted to 370.65 rubles/ton and have not exceeded the marginal (acceptable) costs equaling to 518,18 rubles per ton. The application of this combine on the farm has ensured the profitability for the expanded production at the level of 32%. So, the use of Grimme BR-150 is effective at a given yield of 38 tons/hectare, a productivity of 0.28 ha/h and a selling price of potato of 7800 rubles/ton. The study results confirm the expediency of using this methodical approach, which allows determining the absolute efficiency of the utilization of agricultural machines.