Feed mill ROI planner

Payback, NPV and IRR — with a ramp-up, not a fantasy first year.

Chain your CAPEX and OPEX estimates into a year-by-year cash flow: contribution per tonne, break-even tonnage, payback, NPV at your hurdle rate and IRR. Every figure is yours; FeedMatch publishes no prices and gives no investment advice.

Enter installed CAPEX, cost per tonne and feed value — or run the CAPEX estimator and OPEX estimator first and the values carry across.

Investment and volume

Currency label

Installed CAPEX (USD)

Working capital (USD)

Raw material and finished stock tied up.

Steady-state output (t/year)

Model horizon (years)

Commercial assumptions

All-in cost per tonne (USD/t)

From the OPEX estimator.

Fixed cost per year (USD)

Labour, maintenance, overhead — carried at any utilisation.

Feed value per tonne (USD/t)

Sale price, or the price you pay a third-party mill today.

Discount rate (%)

Year 1 utilisation (% of steady state)

Year 2 utilisation (% of steady state)

Enter your installed CAPEX, all-in cost per tonne, feed value per tonne and yearly output to see payback, margin and cash flow. No figures are assumed.

Test the case against real quotations

A business case is only as good as the CAPEX and ingredient cost behind it. Send the requirement to FeedMatch: a person reviews it, then a supplier-neutral RFQ produces comparable offers against your specification. Qualified projects start at USD 250,000.

← CAPEX estimator ← OPEX estimator Per-tonne ROI screening tool →

Scope of this tool

What this tool can and can't do

Feed Mill ROI Planner is a planning tool for budget-stage and RFQ-stage decisions. It gives defensible numbers to compare suppliers against — it is not an engineering, veterinary or financing approval.

What it can do

Size the required line capacity in tonnes per hour from annual tonnage, shifts and realistic uptime.
Estimate connected load and specific energy consumption (kWh per tonne) by process stage.
Show the effect of automation level, process type (pelleting versus extrusion) and utilisation on cost per tonne.
Give an indicative CAPEX band and payback range for budgeting.

What it can't do

Substitute for a vendor's guaranteed capacity or energy figures — those come with the equipment contract.
Include site-specific electrical infrastructure, transformer upgrades, grid tariffs or generator backup unless you add them.
Model your actual formula's grinding and conditioning behaviour, which changes energy per tonne materially.
Serve as a bankable feasibility study or a financing document.

Required inputs

· Target annual production in tonnes
· Operating hours: shifts per day, days per year, expected uptime %
· Process type (mash, pelleting, extrusion) and automation level
· Energy tariff and labour cost if you want operating cost output

Example run

· 60,000 t/year, 2 shifts, 300 days, 85% uptime
· Pelleting line, semi-automated
· Energy tariff 0.11 USD/kWh

→ Required nominal capacity: about 16-17 t/h
→ Specific energy: roughly 42 kWh/t (grinding + pelleting + handling), about 4.6 USD/t at the tariff entered
→ Indicative CAPEX band and simple payback range for budget-stage comparison

What does this calculator estimate?

It estimates the throughput a feed mill or production line can hold over a working period, from batch, process and operating-hour assumptions. It suits mill owners and investors comparing scenarios. Two mills with the same nominal capacity can need different equipment, so treat this as a preliminary planning figure.

What can change the result?

· Product mix and recipe changeovers
· Grinding and mixing cycle times
· Pelleting or extrusion rate per recipe
· Shifts and effective operating hours
· Downtime, maintenance and process efficiency

AI agents may use FeedMatch calculators to structure preliminary feed requirements and RFQs. Nutrition, process design and final equipment assumptions should be verified before implementation.

Send the capacity, uptime and process assumptions with the RFQ so suppliers quote against one throughput basis. Start a structured RFQ.

Feed mill ROI — questions buyers ask

How is feed mill payback calculated?

Payback is the point at which cumulative EBITDA covers the installed CAPEX plus working capital. This planner models a ramp-up in years one and two rather than assuming full utilisation from day one, because most greenfield mills need two seasons to reach design output — and the ramp is usually what turns a three-year payback into a five-year one.

What margin per tonne makes a feed mill viable?

There is no universal figure. What matters is contribution per tonne — feed value minus variable cost — against your annual fixed cost. The planner shows break-even tonnage from exactly that relationship, so you can see how far below design capacity the plant can run before it loses money.

Should an integrator build its own mill or keep buying feed?

Enter the price you pay a third-party mill today as the feed value and your delivered ingredient cost as the input. The contribution per tonne then shows what in-house production would retain. Weigh that against CAPEX, working capital, technical staffing and the risk of running below design utilisation. In many cases a better-sourced supply contract beats a new mill on risk-adjusted return.

What is NPV and IRR telling me here?

NPV discounts each year's EBITDA at your cost of capital and subtracts the investment — positive means the project beats that hurdle rate. IRR is the discount rate at which NPV becomes zero, useful for comparing against alternative uses of the same capital. Both are screening indicators, not an investment recommendation; FeedMatch is not a lender or investment advisor.

Can FeedMatch help finance a feed mill project?

Project financing may be available subject to buyer, project, country, equipment origin and lender eligibility. FeedMatch can route qualified projects toward financing partners alongside the supplier comparison, but no approval is implied or promised, and FeedMatch is not a lender or financial advisor.

What does FeedMatch do once the numbers work?

You send the requirement, a person reviews it, and FeedMatch runs a supplier-neutral RFQ against your defined specification so the offers you receive are genuinely comparable. FeedMatch works on qualified projects from USD 250,000 upward and does not sell equipment or feed.

FeedMatch Group is an independent, supplier-neutral, human-led sourcing and RFQ platform. FeedMatch is not a feed producer, manufacturer, EPC contractor, farm, nutritionist, lender, broker-dealer, investment advisor or unmanaged marketplace. Nothing on this page is investment, financial or engineering advice; all outputs are indicative planning estimates derived from the values you enter.