Feed mill business case

Feed mill ROI and CAPEX calculator — contribution, break-even and payback.

Screen a feed plant before you spend engineering money: contribution per tonne, break-even tonnage, an EBITDA proxy and payback across three scenarios — built entirely from figures you enter, then handed to a supplier-neutral RFQ.

Currency label

Enter every figure below in the same currency — nothing is converted.

Annual finished feed (t)

Process

Sold externally (%)

Rest is consumed by your own farms.

Feed value (USD/t)

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

Ingredient cost (USD/t)

Delivered raw-material cost per tonne of finished feed.

Energy (kWh/t)

Pelleting ~10–20; extrusion ~60–100 incl. drying.

Electricity (USD/kWh)

Other conversion (USD/t)

Labour, packaging, consumables, die and roller wear.

Annual fixed cost (USD)

Installed project cost (USD)

Leave 0 if unknown — you still get the project class.

Maintenance (% of CAPEX/yr)

Working capital (USD)

Indicative project class

Large industrial mill project

FeedMatch does not publish equipment prices. Final pricing requires a technical specification and current supplier quotations.

· Installed capacity (t/h) and number of parallel lines
· Process route — mash, pelleting, crumbling or extrusion with drying
· Raw-material storage volume, intake rate and silo count
· Automation depth: manual dosing vs PLC/SCADA with traceability
· Utilities — boiler, electrical supply, generator backup, compressed air
· Civil works, foundations, tower structure and building height
· Freight, duties and country of equipment origin
· Installation, commissioning, training and spare-part package

Conversion cost

Energy per tonne: 0.00 USD/t
Total conversion: 0.00 USD/t
Contribution per tonne: Enter feed value and ingredient cost
Break-even volume: —

Scenarios

Scenario	Tonnes	Contribution	EBITDA proxy	Payback
Conservative	102,000	—	—	—
Expected	120,000	—	—	—
Optimistic	126,000	—	—	—

Indicative planning figures only. No return, margin or yield is guaranteed.

Size the plant first

Project financing may be available subject to buyer, project, country, equipment origin and lender eligibility. No approval is implied.

Assumptions

· Every commercial figure is entered by you. FeedMatch does not publish feed prices, ingredient costs or equipment prices — those come from your market and from current supplier quotations.
· Contribution per tonne = feed value − delivered ingredient cost − energy cost − other conversion cost. Ingredient cost is normally 70–85% of the total, so it dominates the result.
· Energy cost per tonne = kWh/t × your electricity price. The kWh/t default carries over from the mill calculator and is editable.
· The EBITDA proxy deducts annual fixed cost and maintenance (a % of CAPEX) from contribution. It excludes depreciation, interest, tax and currency effects.
· Payback = (CAPEX + working capital) ÷ EBITDA proxy, undiscounted. It is a screening figure, not a financial model.
· Scenarios flex margin and achieved volume only. Ramp-up, downtime, recipe changeover losses and price volatility are not modelled.
· Indicative planning output. No yield, margin or return is guaranteed; final figures require a technical design, current supplier quotations and your own financial review.

Short answer · reviewed August 2026

How do you calculate the payback of a feed mill?

Payback is installed project cost plus working capital divided by annual EBITDA proxy. The EBITDA proxy is contribution per tonne — feed value minus delivered ingredient cost, energy cost and other conversion cost — multiplied by achieved tonnage, less annual fixed cost and maintenance. Ingredients are typically 70–85% of the cost of a tonne of finished feed, so the ingredient price you actually achieve moves payback far more than equipment price does. Screen the case on contribution per tonne first; only then does CAPEX precision matter.

What moves a feed mill business case

What moves a feed mill business case — values reviewed August 2026 by FeedMatch Group
Metric	Value	Unit	Basis
Ingredient cost share	70–85	% of cost/t	Dominant driver of contribution
Pelleting energy	10–20	kWh/t	Recipe and die dependent
Extrusion energy	60–100	kWh/t	Includes drying
Maintenance	2–5	% of CAPEX/yr	Wear parts, dies, rollers, service
Design utilisation	60–80	%	Hours actually run vs 24/365

Sources · Master feed mill calculator · Feed mill cost per tonne of capacity · Feed mill capacity sizing

Ranges are indicative buyer-side benchmarks compiled by FeedMatch Group from supplier offers and the sources above; verify against a current quotation before budgeting.

Planning or sizing a feed mill

Cost, equipment scope and capacity in three references — then the ingredient volumes the mill will need every month.

Feed mill ROI questions

How do you calculate the payback of a feed mill?

Payback is the installed project cost plus working capital divided by the annual EBITDA proxy, where the EBITDA proxy is contribution (feed value minus ingredient, energy and other conversion cost, multiplied by tonnes) minus annual fixed cost and maintenance. Because ingredients are typically 70–85% of the cost of a tonne of feed, the ingredient price you actually achieve moves payback far more than the equipment price does.

What is a realistic conversion cost per tonne of feed?

Conversion cost — energy, labour, consumables, packaging and die wear — is the part of the cost you control once the mill is built. Energy alone is roughly 10–20 kWh per tonne for pelleting and 60–100 kWh per tonne for extrusion including drying, so the electricity price in your country changes the number materially. This calculator asks you to enter both rather than assuming a benchmark.

Should a poultry integrator build its own feed mill?

The case is usually built on the margin currently paid to a third-party mill, not on selling feed externally. Enter the price you pay today as the feed value and your delivered ingredient cost, and the contribution per tonne shows what in-house production would retain. Then weigh that against the CAPEX, working capital, technical staffing and the risk of running below design utilisation.

What drives the CAPEX of a feed mill project?

Installed capacity and line count, process route (mash, pelleting, crumbling or extrusion with drying), storage volume and intake rate, automation depth, utilities such as boiler and generator backup, civil works and tower height, freight and duties by equipment origin, and installation, commissioning and spares. FeedMatch returns an indicative project class from these drivers; final pricing requires a technical specification and current supplier quotations.

Does FeedMatch publish feed mill prices?

No. FeedMatch is a supplier-neutral sourcing platform, not a manufacturer, and does not publish equipment prices or feed and ingredient prices. This calculator uses only figures you enter, and the RFQ is what produces comparable current quotations for the specification you defined.

Is project financing available for a feed mill?

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 at this stage.