With increasing prices for energy, fertiliser and feed concentrates, it is becoming increasingly important for farmers to produce high quality feed while minimising costs. For a Swedish farm, costs for machinery make up about 25% of the production costs. The economic consequences of performing a field operation at non-optimal time are called timeliness costs. They are caused by reductions in crop value and can be reduced by increasing machine capacity. To improve the basis for optimal selection of field machinery in agriculture, methods were developed and applied for calculation of timeliness costs in terms of crop quality and quantity losses at non-optimum operation times. Timeliness costs for grain that accounted for crop quantity and quality losses at delayed sowing and harvesting were higher per kg for organic grain than for conventional. The main differences in timeliness costs resulted from two counteracting factors – lower yields and higher product prices in organic production. Higher timeliness costs resulted in a larger combine harvester with higher capacity being economically optimal for the organic system. A method was developed for valuing forage for milk production with respect to crop yield increases and feed value decreases due to delayed time of harvesting. The results showed significantly higher timeliness cost factors in € per ha and day for the first cut compared with regrowth. Timeliness cost factors also varied greatly between years. Harvesting costs in terms of timeliness were calculated for different machinery systems and capacities. Harvesting costs decreased with increasing forage area up to a certain threshold area, beyond which decreasing machine costs were outweighed by increasing timeliness costs due to longer duration of harvest. Using machine contractors or machine cooperatives decreased harvesting costs, particularly for small forage areas, due to increased annual use of the machines. However, to avoid high timeliness costs delays in harvesting must be avoided. Forage was also valued in terms of biogas production by accounting for changes in yield and methane production with varying cutting date. Timeliness costs were small as long as harvesting was not delayed. Matching capacity to requirements is important in avoiding costly overcapacity and minimising costs
