When snow piles up over machinery that is left outside, winter eats away at your investment by deteriorating hoses, pump seals and plastic parts. Next spring, rain will rust bare metal parts. Storing machinery inside can significantly reduce that kind of damage and depreciation, according to Vern Hofman, an agricultural engineer with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.

"Next to land, machinery ownership is the second largest cost of a farming operation," he says. "It makes good sense to protect that investment."

Hofman cites a Missouri study of implement dealers in the northern plains that found the trade-in value of housed equipment after five years is much greater than the value of unhoused equipment. The average increase in value for housed machinery is 13.5 percent.

"Inside storage also will save money by reducing repairs and time in the shop," Hofman says. The survey revealed that housed machinery had only 7.6 percent downtime, while unhoused equipment was down 14.3 percent of the time that it should have been working. During a critical season such as spraying, a machine that is not working because of weather-related deterioration can not only be costing yield, but perhaps causing you to miss spray windows altogether.


Source:
"Storage for Machinery Is Well Worth the Cost, Ag Engineer Says", NDSU Agriculture Communication, November 30, 2000