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Feed mill planning tool

Feed Mill TCO Calculator — Compare Three Suppliers

Compare three feed mill proposals on total cost of ownership: CAPEX, energy, maintenance, spare parts, labour and downtime over 5 and 10 years, with TCO per tonne.

How do I compare feed mill suppliers properly?

Compare total cost of ownership, not the quoted price. Fix identical battery limits, then add installed CAPEX to the discounted cost of energy, maintenance, spare parts, labour and downtime over five and ten years. Over a ten-year horizon operating cost frequently exceeds the original equipment cost, so the cheapest proposal is regularly the most expensive plant. Express the result as TCO per tonne to make proposals of different capacities genuinely comparable.

Reviewed August 2026. Planning estimate — not a quotation.

Run the numbers

Shared basis

Margin lost when a tonne is not produced — not the sales price.

Proposal A
Proposal B
Proposal C

Result

Lowest 10-year TCO
Proposal A

USD 15,619,834 · USD 27.89/t

Lowest 5-year TCO
Proposal A

USD 12,534,042

Lowest CAPEX
Proposal A

USD 8,000,000

CAPEX winner vs TCO winner
Same proposal
Operating share of 10-year TCO
48.8%

For the winning proposal.

Side-by-side total cost of ownership

Proposal10-year TCOTCO per tonne
Proposal A — CAPEX USD 8,000,000, opex USD 1,135,580/yrUSD 15,619,834USD 27.89/t
Proposal B — CAPEX USD 9,600,000, opex USD 903,460/yrUSD 15,662,290USD 27.97/t
Proposal C — CAPEX USD 8,800,000, opex USD 1,086,850/yrUSD 16,092,852USD 28.74/t

Your inputs travel with the request so you never retype them. Nothing is sent until you review and submit the RFQ yourself.

What this tool calculates

  • Puts three proposals side by side on the same cost structure.
  • Calculates 5-year and 10-year TCO, TCO per tonne, and the split between capital and operating cost.
  • Prices downtime explicitly, using your own contribution per tonne.
  • Applies a discount rate so future operating cost is not overstated against today's CAPEX.
  • Names the lowest-TCO proposal and shows the gap to the cheapest-CAPEX proposal.

What it cannot do

  • It cannot verify supplier claims. Guaranteed figures with stated test conditions must come from the proposals themselves.
  • It does not evaluate technical suitability, references, service coverage or contract terms.
  • It excludes working capital, duties and currency risk unless you fold them into CAPEX.
  • It does not model mid-life major overhauls as separate events.

Who this is for

  • Buyers holding two or three feed mill proposals with different prices and different promises
  • Boards and lenders that need the ten-year cost, not the invoice
  • Consultants normalising bids into a defensible recommendation
  • Plants replacing a single major machine where the wear-part bill differs sharply between offers

Input definitions

Annual production (t/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 56000 t/yr.
Throughput (t/h)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 15 t/h.
Electricity tariff (USD/kWh)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 0.11 USD/kWh.
Contribution per tonne (USD/t)
Margin lost when a tonne is not produced — not the sales price.
Discount rate (%)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 8 %.
A — installed CAPEX (USD)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 8000000 USD.
A — specific energy (kWh/t)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 38 kWh/t.
A — annual maintenance (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 240000 USD/yr.
A — annual spare parts (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 120000 USD/yr.
A — annual labour (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 420000 USD/yr.
A — unplanned downtime (h/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 180 h/yr.
B — installed CAPEX (USD)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 9600000 USD.
B — specific energy (kWh/t)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 31 kWh/t.
B — annual maintenance (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 190000 USD/yr.
B — annual spare parts (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 95000 USD/yr.
B — annual labour (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 360000 USD/yr.
B — unplanned downtime (h/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 100 h/yr.
C — installed CAPEX (USD)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 8800000 USD.
C — specific energy (kWh/t)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 35 kWh/t.
C — annual maintenance (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 230000 USD/yr.
C — annual spare parts (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 140000 USD/yr.
C — annual labour (USD/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 400000 USD/yr.
C — unplanned downtime (h/yr)
Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 150 h/yr.

Methodology

For each proposal: annual operating cost = energy (kWh/t × tariff × annual tonnes) + maintenance + spare parts + labour + downtime cost (downtime hours × t/h × contribution per tonne). Future annual costs are discounted at your rate over 5 and 10 years and added to installed CAPEX. TCO per tonne = TCO ÷ cumulative tonnes over the same horizon.

Assumptions

  • All three proposals deliver the same product to the same specification at the stated throughput.
  • Annual operating cost is constant in real terms; the discount rate carries the time value.
  • Downtime is unplanned and fully lost, valued at your contribution per tonne rather than sales price.
  • No residual value at the end of the horizon.
  • Battery limits, civil works and installation are already normalised into the CAPEX you enter.

How FeedMatch builds and reviews its calculators

Worked example — three 15 t/h proposals

Inputs

  • A: CAPEX USD 8.0m, 38 kWh/t, maintenance USD 240k, spares USD 120k, labour USD 420k, downtime 180 h/yr
  • B: CAPEX USD 9.6m, 31 kWh/t, maintenance USD 190k, spares USD 95k, labour USD 360k, downtime 100 h/yr
  • C: CAPEX USD 8.8m, 35 kWh/t, maintenance USD 230k, spares USD 140k, labour USD 400k, downtime 150 h/yr
  • 56,000 t/year, tariff USD 0.11/kWh, contribution USD 45/t, discount 8 percent

Outputs

  • Proposal A has the lowest CAPEX but the highest 10-year TCO
  • Proposal B wins on 10-year TCO despite costing USD 1.6m more up front
  • The gap is driven mainly by 7 kWh/t and 80 hours of downtime a year

How to read it. The decision reverses between the 5-year and 10-year view in many real cases. Run both horizons and state which one your board is actually financing against.

Limitations

  • Garbage in, garbage out: if one supplier's kWh per tonne is a marketing figure and another's is a guarantee, the comparison is meaningless. Insist on the same basis.
  • Ten-year projections are planning tools. Energy prices, labour cost and product mix will all move.
  • TCO does not capture strategic factors such as local service presence, spare-part lead time or supplier solvency — decide those alongside the number, not inside it.

All figures are indicative planning estimates for budgeting and supplier discussion. They are not quotations, guarantees or professional engineering, nutritional, legal or financial advice. Have results reviewed by the responsible professionals before you commit capital.

Frequently asked questions

What should be included in feed mill total cost of ownership?
Installed CAPEX including civil works, electrical connection, installation and commissioning; then annual energy, maintenance labour and materials, wear and spare parts, operating labour, and the economic cost of unplanned downtime. Add duties, freight and financing cost if they differ between bidders. Exclude raw materials, since they are the same whoever supplies the plant.
How long a horizon should I use for feed mill TCO?
Run both five and ten years. Five years matches most financing terms and boards' patience; ten years is closer to the real economic life of the mechanical equipment and is where energy and wear differences dominate. If the ranking changes between the two, say so explicitly in the recommendation rather than quietly choosing the horizon that supports your preferred bidder.
Is the cheapest feed mill quotation ever the right choice?
Yes — when the proposals are genuinely equivalent on guaranteed throughput, specific energy, wear-part cost and service coverage, and the price difference reflects overhead rather than content. The point of a TCO comparison is not to justify the expensive bid; it is to make the difference visible so the decision is deliberate.
How do I value downtime in a feed mill comparison?
Use contribution per tonne — sales price minus variable cost — not sales price, because unproduced tonnes also avoid raw-material cost. If you can buy in compound feed to cover a shortfall, the correct figure is instead the extra cost of that purchase. Whichever you use, apply the same figure to all three proposals and state the assumption on the comparison sheet.

Related tools

Equipment and market context

Turn the result into comparable quotations

FeedMatch Group is a supplier-neutral B2B procurement platform. Describe the requirement once and we qualify relevant manufacturers and suppliers, normalise offers to the same battery limits and guarantees, and return a like-for-like comparison. FeedMatch does not manufacture feed or feed-mill machinery.

RFQ checklist
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