Estimating tractor power needs

April 2021, Primefact DOC21/78404, First edition. Adapted from NSW Farmers factsheet
https://www.aginnovators.org.au/initiatives/energy/information-papers/estimating-tractor-power-needs

Liz Hutton & John O’Connor, Climate Branch, NSW DPI - Agriculture
This factsheet provides guidance and • Calculate your parameters
calculation tools to enable you to manually.
determine the appropriate power and size
The following guidelines present methods
of tractor that your field operations will
by which you can determine the power
require. This is of critical importance, as a
requirements of your farm’s specific field
machine that’s not well matched for the
operations. Nonetheless, it is imperative
tasks it will perform is likely to operate
that you obtain additional advice from
inefficiently. This can lead to fuel waste or
experts and local industry leaders so you
early breakdown.
can adapt the method to your specific
Introduction needs and situation.

Tractors throughout Australia tend to be “Rule of Thumb”

over-powered for the tasks they perform.
Typically, the required engine power per
This is likely because the most common
meter width of tillage implement will be
approach farmers acquiring tractors have
around 20-35 kW, depending on the soil
taken to date has been to opt for those
properties, cutting depth and speed of
with the highest ‘horsepower per dollar’
operations. In a light sandy soil, less power
they can afford. This may be a false
is required than for a heavier soil type.
economy, since smaller tractors may be as
Faster speeds and deeper depth of
capable of handling the major tasks
operations will need more power so will
farmers require, and save considerable
be at the higher end of this rule of thumb
amounts of fuel, so getting a good
estimate.
estimate of power needs is valuable.
There are several methods to make this Manually calculate
estimate: requirements
• Use typical Rules of Thumb For those who love maths or developing
• Use an Excel calculator to input things from first principles, the following
your specific situations parameters, information guides you through the
process:
 Estimating tractor power needs

Step 1: Identify your ‘priority critical

Bubble or flute tools 8 114 100 89
Field cultivator
Primary tillage tools 8 88 75 58
field operation’ Secondary tillage tools 8 61 53 40
Row crop cultivator
List all the tasks you’ll need the new S-tine rows 8 226 191 147
C-shank rows 8 419 356 271
machine to perform, such as: No-till rows 8 730 620 475
Rod weeder metre 7 362 310 236
fertiliser/chemical application, tillage, Disk-bedder rows 8 366 315 285
Minor tillage tools
loader work, PTO-driven operations, etc. Rotary hoe metre 11 305 305 305
Coil tine harrow metre 8 115 115 115
Consider that an occasional high- Spike tooth harrow metre 8 299 299 299

horsepower task may not justify dragging Spring tooth harrow

Roller packer
metre
metre
8
8
1,046
345
1,046
345
1,046
345
extra tonnage around on a daily basis. It Roller harrow
Land plane
metre
metre
8
8
1,551
4,585
1,551
4,585
1,551
4,585
may be more cost-effective and fuel Seeding implements
Row crop planter, prepared seedbed
efficient to subcontract out such tasks. Mounted – seeding only rows 8 242 242 242
Drawn – seeding only rows 8 438 438 438
Drawn – seed, fertiliser, rows 8 767 767 767
Review the list of tasks that the machine herbicides
Row crop planter, no-till
will perform and identify the most Seed, fertiliser, herbicides –
1 fluted coulter/row rows 8 898 898 898
critical operation that will require an Row crop planter, zone-till
implement with the highest draft force. Seed, fertiliser, herbicides –
3 fluted coulter/row rows 8 1,809 1,809 1,809

(Draft is a measure of the pull force Grain drill w/press wheels

< 6.5 feet drill width rows 8 198 198 198
imposed by the implement on the 6.5 to 10 feet drill width rows 8 147 147 147
> 10 feet drill width rows 8 54 54 54
machine as it travels through the soil.) Use Grain drill, no-till
1 fluted coulter/row rows 8 378 378 378
Table 1 to help estimate the draft force Hoe drill
Primary tillage metre 8 3,620 3,620 3,620
from various implements. Secondary tillage metre 8 1,724 1,724 1,724
Pneumatic drill metre 10 2,155 2,155 2,155
Table 1: Draft and power requirements for tillage and
seeing implements 1

Implement Unit Speed Draft force for soil

type
Step 2: Estimate the time you’ll have
km/h
(N/unit/cm depth)
Clay Loamy Sandy available to complete this priority
task
Major tillage tools
Subsoiler/manure injector
Narrow point tools 8 517 361 233
12-inch winged point tools 8 669 468 301 Determine the time period available to
Moldboard plough metre 7 1,281 896 580
Chisel plough complete your priority critical field
2-inch straight point tools 8 201 172 131
3-inch shovel/14-inch sweep tools 9 243 207 159 operation. As an illustration, your
4-inch twisted shovel tools 9 280 238 182
Sweep plough requirements may be for tillage work to be
Primary tillage metre 8 781 666 511
Secondary tillage metre 8 517 437 333 completed over the span of a week,
Disk harrow, tandem
Primary tillage metre 9 672 592 529
working Monday through Friday, eight
Secondary tillage
Disk harrow, offset
metre 9 408 356 316
hours a day. This equates to having 40
Primary tillage metre 8 770 672 598 hours available for the job.
Secondary tillage metre 8 471 414 368
Disk gang, single
Primary tillage metre 9 224 195 172
Secondary tillage metre 9 155 132 121
Coulters
Smooth or ripple tools 8 95 84 74

1
Tables 1&2 adapted from Williams, P. E. S. a.
E. J., 2007. What Size Farm Tractor Do I Need?

2 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, December 2021

 Estimating tractor power needs

Step 3: Find the work rate (hectares If you already know the size of the
per hour) implement that will be used with your
machine, you may wish to determine the
Once you have determined the time
work rate your equipment will allow for.
available, you can calculate the required
You may do this using the following
hectares-per-hour (ha/h) rate using your
equation:
farm’s dimensions. Continuing from our
𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 (ℎ𝑎𝑎/ℎ)
previous example, assume that the size of 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ(𝑚𝑚) × 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ)
=
the field for tillage is 120 hectares. This 11.8

means that the task must operate at the If the resulting work rate is too low for
following rate: your requirements, consider obtaining a
120 ℎ𝑎𝑎 wider implement.
= 3 ℎ𝑎𝑎/ℎ
40 ℎ
Step 5: Determine soil resistance
Step 4: Determine the width of the
implement required When conducting your priority field
operation, identify the type of soil your
The next step is to use the work rate of
field will have (i.e. clay, loamy or sandy).
your operation (i.e. how many hectares
Use this information and Table 1 to find
you need to cover per hour) and the
the resistance that will be offered by the
expected working speed of the job to
soil per unit of width and depth (i.e. its
determine the width of the implement
draft force). Then calculate your total soil
required. This is given by the following
resistance by multiplying this measure by
equation:
your expected working depth and the full
length of the implement.
11.8 × 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 (ℎ𝑎𝑎/ℎ)
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ =
𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ)
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ × 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑ℎ
The ‘work factor’ 11.8 is a dimensionless × 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ
number that represents the number of
Expanding from our previous example,
hours required to cover an entire hectare
let’s assume that the soil type is sandy,
when using a metre-wide implement, at 1
that our offset disc harrow is for primary
km/hr, assuming losses of 18 percent from
tillage and that the working depth is 10
overlapping, turning and other field
centimetres. Table 1 tells us that this
inefficiencies. Following from the previous
implement for this soil type will present a
example, let’s establish that we’ll be using
draft force of 598 Newtons per metre of
an offset disc harrow to conduct primary
implement width, per centimetre of depth.
tillage at 8 km/h. The required width of
Hence, for our total width of 4.425 metres
the offset disc plough can therefore be
and the 10-centimetre working depth, we
determined as follows:
have:
11.8 𝑥𝑥 3 ℎ𝑎𝑎/ℎ
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ = 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 4.425𝑚𝑚 × 10𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 × 598𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁−1 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐−1
8 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ

= 4.425 𝑚𝑚 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 26,461.5𝑁𝑁

Alternatively…

3 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, December 2021

 Estimating tractor power needs

Step 6: Determine power required at Table 2: PTO power multiplication factors for
different soil conditions
the drawbar
Our next step is to equate this pulling Soil condition Multiply drawbar kW by

force into the power required at the Firm, untilled soil 1.5
drawbar from the machine. Drawbar
power is the power required to pull or Previously tilled soil 1.8

move the implement at a given speed.

Soft or sandy soil 2.1
This is obtained by using the following
equation: 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
= 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 × 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 (𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁) × 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘⁄ℎ)
=
3,600 For our running example, we will assume
The number 3,600 is a required conversion that conditions are for untilled soil. This
factor that must be used if the working means that our final PTO power
speed is provided in km/hour. requirement is given by:
Alternatively, the equation can be 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 = 58.803 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 × 1.5
= 88.205𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 (118.28 ℎ𝑝𝑝)
simplified if the working speed is known in
metres per second, as so: Step 8: Adjust for further
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 considerations
= 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟(𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁)𝑥𝑥 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑘𝑘𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑚𝑚/ sec)
Before finalising your goal power, consider
the following:
Following, once more, from our previous
example, we determine that the drawbar • The outcome produced by the
power required is: previous steps is representative of the
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 =
26,461.5𝑁𝑁×8𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ
=58.803 kW
minimum power requirements for the
set conditions that were inputted into
3,600

Note that the drawbar power is typically the calculations. Different soil
only 60-70% of engine power, as shown conditions, inefficiencies and various
below. The rest is used for overcoming the other set-up variables (hydraulics,
losses of tyre rolling resistance etc. driving methods, etc.) will play a role,
Step 7: Determine the PTO power and can substantially influence the real
required power that will be available and that
will be required for a given task.
The final step is to determine the power
• To operate correctly, certain
that your machine should have at the
implements may require minimum
power-take-off point (PTO) so that it can
PTO power and engine speeds.
achieve the required power at the
Consult your implement’s
drawbar. This is calculated using a rule-of-
specifications to identify such cases.
thumb multiplying factor, which takes into
• Continuously using a machine that is
account the type of soil condition you will
underpowered for the tasks it
experience. These multiplying factors are
shown in Table 2 below.

4 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, December 2021

 Estimating tractor power needs

undertakes will damage it and Queensland. It is adapted from the NSW

decrease its lifespan. Farmers factsheet developed under Farm
• When taking advice or considering Energy Innovation program that can be
power requirements, it’s important to found at:
remember that most engines are at
https://www.aginnovators.org.au/initiative
their most fuel-efficient when working
s/energy/information-papers/estimating-
at 80 percent of their rated ‘max’
tractor-power-needs
power output. Operation at or around
80 percent of full power will provide Please see this factsheet for more detailed
both optimal fuel efficiency and the information about this topic.
promotion of a long, productive
service life. Likewise, running an
engine at light loads (30–50% of rated
capacity) may not be the most fuel-
efficient method for completing the
task. Consider using a lower-powered
tractor where possible.

Given this, we suggest that you increase

the goal power calculated in the
previous steps by 10 to 15 percent.

PTO versus engine power

Be careful with power metrics as they may
be expressed differently for different
machines! For 2WD and MFWD tractors,
rated power is usually stated at the power
take-off (PTO). For 4WD tractors, however,
rated power is typically quoted at the
engine (engine power). PTO power is
approximately equal to 85 percent of
engine power, due to various gear
transmission friction.

Acknowledgements
This work has been produced by the NSW
Primary Industries Climate Change
Research Strategy funded by the NSW
Climate Change Fund and reviewed by
Prof Craig Baille and A/Prof Guangnan
Chen from the Centre for Agricultural
Engineering at the University of Southern
Reference number DOC21/78404
© State of New South Wales through Regional NSW 2021.
The information contained in this publication is based on
knowledge and understanding at the time of writing
(December 2021). However, because of advances in
knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that
the information upon which they rely is up to date and to
check the currency of the information with the appropriate
officer of the Department of Regional NSW or the user’s
independent adviser.

5 | NSW Department of Primary Industries, December 2021