Buy vs Hire & Own It or Rent It?
Weighs the tractor
Compare owning a tractor or implement against custom hiring — see the cheaper option, owning vs hiring cost per year, own cost per acre, the break-even acreage and your savings.
Enter the machine & workload
Next: you cross break-even at ~116 acres/yr — own if you work more than that (or do custom-hire to others to fill the gap), otherwise hire.
Include repairs, fuel, operator and shed in operating cost; custom-hiring out spare capacity changes the maths.
Buy vs hire — key facts
- Owning
- high fixed cost (depreciation + interest)
- Pays off
- above the break-even acreage
- Below break-even
- custom hiring is cheaper
- Break-even acres
- fixed ÷ (hire − operating/acre)
- Own cost/acre
- fixed ÷ acres + operating/acre
- Custom-hire out
- spare capacity changes the maths
- Currencies
- 8 supported
- Privacy
- Runs in your browser; nothing uploaded
A tractor is only cheap if you use it enough
Owning farm machinery means a big fixed cost — depreciation and interest — that you carry every year whether the machine works one acre or a thousand. That cost is spread over the area you cover, so light use makes ownership ruinously expensive per acre, while heavy use makes it cheap. Custom hiring flips it: you pay only for the acres you do, with no fixed burden, which is why hiring wins below a break-even acreage and owning wins above it.
This tool finds that crossover. It reports the cheaper option, owning and hiring cost per year, own cost per acre, the break-even acreage and your savings, in 8 currencies. Add the income from custom-hiring out spare capacity and the maths shifts in favour of owning. Pair it with the Custom Hiring Rate, Machinery Cost and Field Capacity tools to plan your equipment strategy.
See the cheaper option
Own or hire, decided for your acreage.
Find the break-even
The acres where owning starts to pay.
Cost it per acre
Fixed plus operating cost spread over work.
Count custom income
Hiring out spare capacity shifts the call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I buy or custom-hire farm machinery?+
It depends on how much you use it. Owning carries a high fixed cost — depreciation and interest — that you pay whether the machine runs or not. That cost only pays off above a break-even acreage; below it, custom hiring is cheaper. The tool finds your break-even and shows the cheaper option for your area.
What is the break-even acreage?+
It's the area at which owning and hiring cost the same. Below it, hiring wins; above it, owning wins. Break-even acres = fixed cost ÷ (hire rate − operating cost per acre). The bigger your fixed cost, the more area you need to justify owning the machine.
What is the fixed cost of owning?+
Fixed costs occur regardless of use: mainly depreciation (the machine loses value each year) and interest on the capital tied up in it, plus insurance and shelter. They're spread over however many acres you cover, so light use makes the per-acre fixed cost very high.
What is the operating cost per acre?+
Operating (variable) costs rise with use: fuel, oil, repairs, and labour for each acre worked. Unlike fixed costs, you only pay them when the machine runs, so they're compared directly against the custom-hire rate to see how much margin is left to cover ownership.
How does custom hiring out spare capacity change things?+
If you own the machine but don't use all its capacity, hiring it out to neighbours earns income that offsets your fixed cost and lowers your effective cost per acre — sometimes turning a 'hire' decision into a 'buy'. The break-even falls as your custom-hire income rises.
What does 'cost per acre' tell me?+
Own cost per acre = (fixed cost ÷ acres) + operating cost per acre. It's the total ownership cost spread over the work you actually do, and it's the figure to compare against the custom-hire rate. The tool reports it so you can see ownership economics at your real usage.
Why does utilisation matter so much?+
Because fixed costs are spread over acres, a machine used on few acres carries a crushing per-acre cost, while one used heavily becomes cheap per acre. Utilisation is usually the single biggest driver of whether owning beats hiring, more than the purchase price itself.
Does this work in my currency?+
Yes — the tool supports 8 currencies. Enter the purchase price, hire rate and operating costs in your own currency and it reports the comparison, cost per acre, break-even acreage and savings in that currency for your local conditions.
What about timeliness and availability?+
Numbers don't capture everything. Owning means the machine is there when the weather window opens, while hiring depends on availability at peak times. Weigh the calculated saving against the value of doing field operations on time — sometimes timeliness justifies owning even below break-even.
Is this an exact financial decision?+
It's a sound planning estimate. Real costs depend on resale value, financing terms, repair history and how much custom work you take on. Use it to see the break-even and the likely cheaper option, then refine with your actual figures and the Machinery Cost tool.