A Computer Program for Agricultural Machinery Management in Multi -Farm Systems

Abstract

A computer Model for Agricultural Machinery Management in multi-farm system (APAMM) is a user-friendly interactive program written in a Visual Basic (VB) programming environment for machinery management. It allows the user to interact with it by entering the required inputs and it will carry out the interactive calculations. The APAMM can predict the effective field capacity for different implements (ha/hr), determines the drawbar power needed for each implement (kw), calculates the PTO power for each implement (kw). The program predicts the number of tractors and implements required for each agricultural operation calculates the total operation cost per ha, and per hour and finally estimates total costs of owning and operating machinery for various crop rotations, giving the user an option to hire or purchase the machine. The program enables the user to print out the output which is displayed on the screen. APAMM was successfully verified statistically in comparison to Rahad scheme existing machinery program for two, three and four course rotations. The comparisons indicated that there were no significant differences. Validity and sensitivity tests of the model indicated that the APAMM could be applied to any real-life case successfully and with confidence for any multi- crop farm