New thinking urged on costs

Quad bikes may not be a farmer's cheapest form of motorised transport.

AbacusBio consultant Jack Cocks said based on a fuel cost of less than $2 a litre, it cost 76c a km to run a 400cc-600cc quad bike compared with an imported 10-year-old Suzuki ute at 40c-50c a km and a double-cab four-wheel-drive utility at 83c a km.

Mr Cocks said with fuel prices at $2.19 a litre, costs would be subsequently higher.

Typically, sheep and beef farmers budgeted $3 a stock unit on plant and machinery, and given rising costs and the lack of profitability in the industry, he said farmers needed to ensure they did not have "irons disease".

"We can't carry on doing what we have always done and expect a different result.

We have to think about what we are doing and if it is generating a return from our dollar invested."

He suggested farmers calculate what it cost to run a tractor, whether it was more efficient to run two smaller tractors than a bigger, newer one and whether it was cheaper to get a contractor to do the cultivation.

Mr Cocks said his research showed that for many cases it was more efficient to employ a contractor to sow pasture and winter feed crops than to buy and maintain their own direct drill.

He calculated that a second-hand direct drill costing $25,000, together with depreciation, debt servicing, repairs and maintenance of $5 a ha, $70 an hour to run a 125hp tractor, $20 an hour for labour and drilling 80ha a year, would cost $117 a ha to run.