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.
Enter every figure below in the same currency — nothing is converted.
Rest is consumed by your own farms.
Sale price, or the price you pay a third-party mill today.
Delivered raw-material cost per tonne of finished feed.
Pelleting ~10–20; extrusion ~60–100 incl. drying.
Labour, packaging, consumables, die and roller wear.
Leave 0 if unknown — you still get the project class.
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.
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
| 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 cost per tonne of capacityInstalled capex bands for 2–20 t/h and USD 16–45/t conversion cost.
- Feed mill equipment list by capacityEvery machine in the line and the ten things a quote must state.
- What size feed mill do I need?Animal numbers to tonnes per hour, with worked examples.
- Feed mill growth plannerAlready producing? Map the capacity step, bottlenecks, storage and utilities.
- Feed mill expansion & modernisationUpgrade vs second line, automation retrofit, utilities and CAPEX drivers.
- Master feed mill calculatorCapacity, equipment package, silos and power — carried straight into an RFQ.
- Feed market opportunity scorecardWhich markets justify a plant project, and the vertical to lead with.
- Farm feeding infrastructureFeeding a growing farm: storage, distribution, automation and monitoring at scale.
- Farm feeding infrastructure plannerPonds, houses or barns growing? Turn target scale into tonnes per day and a scope.
- Ingredient supply for the millHand the tonnage straight to a supplier-neutral RFQ.