The purpose of this exercise is to learn how to calculate ownership costs and operating costs for a harvesting machine and compare them to the cost of custom hiring the same operation. You can hire your crops harvested by a custom operator or you san buy your own combine. To make this decision you must first calculate the ownership and operating costs of the combine. Assume the combine will be used on 500 corn acres and 500 soybean acres. Use the following information: New list price of combine Purchase cost of combine (10% discount from list price) Salvage value (29% of list price after 8 years) Ownership life of combine in years Interest rate (70% borrowed @ 7%, 30% own funds @ 4%) Calculate the weighted cost of capital, first. $161,000 $145,000 $46,690 Diesel fuel price per gallon Labor cost per hour Custom combining rate per acre Combine hours required per acre for harvesting, average of com and soybeans $ 3.20 $12.00 $35.00 30 hrs/acre Ownership Costs (per year) Estimate the average ownership costs associated with the combine over the eight years you will own it. The costs of owning a combine include depreciation, interest, insurance and housing. Use the formulas explained in class or on pages 426 430 of your textbook. Show your work. Round to the nearest dollar, a. Depreciation (start with the purchase price, not the list price) b. Interest on average value of combine (salculate the average of the purchase cost and salvage value first) average combine value = % cost of capital* $ c. Insurance and housing (use 1% of average value of the combine) $_ d. Total ownership costs acre e. Total ownership costs per acre on 1,000 acres Operating costs (per acre). Round values to the near $.01. a. Repairs: (assume repair costs to be 0.5% of the list price, for each 100 hours of use) Average repair cost per acre = .005 x list price x 30 hrs acre for harvesting / 100 acre b. Fuel costs: 1.25 gallons used per acre x fuel cost per gallons acre Lubrication costs: Lubrication costs are usually calculated as 15% of the fuel costs per acre. d. Labor costs: Labor requirements for the size 1 combine are hours per acre, including travel, hauling and storing (average of corn and soybeans). /acre 925 hours /acre @ $12.00 e. Total operating costs per acre Total of ownership and operating costs per acre acre acre Custom Hire Costs If crops are custom harvested, you have to pay the custom operator $35 / acre. $35.00 In addition, you have to supply 35 hours (average for corn and soybeans) of labor for hauling and storing, at $12 per hour. acre Total cost of custom hiring. S per acre S acre Which is cheaper, owning or custom hiring? Calculate the breakeven number of crop acres you would need to justify owning a combine that is, the number of acres for which costs of owning would be just equal to those for custom hire. Use acres (A) as your unknown value and solve for acres. Page 440 has an example. Show your work. ownership costs, S/year + (total operating costs, S/acre, x A) = (total custom hire cost, S/acre, x A) x Acres) =( x Acres) Acres