Situation of power machines and operating cost changes in Hungarian agriculture based on farm data.

Operating cost control is essential to making the right decision for farmers, managers, etc. in the agriculture. Machinery operating costs form a signifi cant proportion of the expenses involved in agricultural production and, thus, the appropriate or inappropriate use of machinery can signifi cantly infl uence the effi ciency of farming. The primary goal of this study is to examine operating costs and analyse the causes of changes in the Hungarian machinery market during the past few years. Expenses can be reduced in every farm and, thus, my aim is to summarise cost reduction possibilities. My research shows that the EU co-fi nanced support for machinery and equipment investment has a great impact on the replacement and average annual usage of power machines because, after the end of EU subsidies, the number of agricultural machines sold has decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]