Equipment Payments

How much does a combine cost?

Work out what a combine actually costs to put in your shed, not what the sticker says. Put in the dealer's price for the machine, the headers you need for the crops you grow, a header trailer to move them between fields, the haul to your place and your sales tax, and see the out-the-door total and what share of it the combine itself was. Two sticker prices are not comparable until you know what each one leaves in the second column.

§ 01 Your numbers

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The combine, as the dealer quotes it (dollars)

The headline figure on the quote, for the machine on its own, with no head attached. The default is ours and editable, and your dealer's figure is the one that matters.

This number moves with things worth pinning down before you compare two of them. Class size is the obvious one, and it runs from a small class 5 up to a class 9 or 10, which are different machines wearing the same word. Then two questions decide the rest of the quote. On a used machine, the hours: engine hours and separator hours are tracked separately, and separator hours are the ones that price a combine, because they count the harvesting rather than the idling and the road time. On any machine, the configuration: the header drive, the yield and moisture monitor, the guidance and auto-steer, the chopper and chaff spreader, and the tire or track choice are each a real line, and each is sometimes in the sticker and sometimes in the second column. Get all of it in writing before the price means anything.

Headers you are buying with it

How many heads you are buying at the same time. Two is our default and a placeholder: a corn head and a grain platform is a common pair for a farm that runs both.

This is the line the page exists to surface. A combine is a threshing and separating machine, and the header is the part that cuts the crop and feeds it in, so a combine without a head is a machine that drives but does not harvest. Heads are crop-specific: a corn head for corn, a grain platform or a draper for wheat, beans and small grains, and a pickup head for windrowed crops. A farm that grows more than one crop buys more than one head, and each is quoted on its own. Count the crops first, then decide which heads you own and which a neighbour or a custom cutter already runs, because a head that fits your rotation twice a year is a candidate for renting rather than owning.

Average price per header (dollars)

What one head costs on average, across the ones you are buying. The default is ours and editable.

An average is doing real work here, because the spread is wide: a used grain platform and a new wide draper are not the same order of thing. If your kit is lopsided, price the big one first and let the average sit above what the small ones cost, or run the calculator twice. Two questions move this line more than the brand does. Is the head matched to the combine's feederhouse, drive and hydraulics, because a head the machine cannot run is a stored object on a header cart. And is the working width right for your rows and your ground speed, because a head wider than the machine can thresh at speed just makes the combine the bottleneck it was bought to remove.

Header trailer or cart (dollars)

A trailer or cart to move the head between fields and to store it off the ground. Put zero if you already own one that fits, and check the width rather than assume.

A header is wider than a road lane and is not meant to travel on the combine down the road, so it rides on its own trailer or cart from field to field. This is a real line that rarely sits in the machine's sticker, and it is easy to forget until harvest morning, when the head is in one field and the crop is in another. If you are buying more than one head you may need more than one cart, or a cart rated for the widest of them. It is a small line beside the combine and a line the harvest genuinely stops without.

Haul and delivery to your farm (dollars)

Getting the machine to your place on a lowboy or a suitable trailer, and the dealer's setup and pre-delivery check. A combine is an oversize, heavy load, so this is a hired haul more often than not. Zero if you are collecting it yourself and own equipment rated for it, which is worth confirming rather than assuming. It is a real line, and it belongs in the total because it is spent for the same reason as the rest.

Sales tax at your rate (%)

Your own rate, because we do not know where you are buying. Leave it at zero to see the pre-tax bundle.

On a purchase this size the tax is not a rounding line, which is why it has a box rather than a shrug. Two things are worth asking a dealer and an accountant rather than this page. Many states treat machinery used in agricultural production differently from the same class of machine bought for other work, and the exemption usually turns on the use and the paperwork rather than on the combine. And how the purchase is written down for the farm's books, and whether a trade-in offsets part of it, is a separate question again. This page does the arithmetic on whatever rate you put in it, and leaves both of those to the people who can answer them.

Estimated cost

$207,500

The combine, as quoted$150,000
Headers (count × price each)$50,000
Header trailer or cart$6,000
Haul and delivery to your farm$1,500
Sales tax at your rate$0
Total$207,500

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$80,000 to $250,000 is the ordinary shape of this purchase away from the newest iron: a late-model used combine with lower separator hours, a head or two and current guidance. Compare this total against your other quotes rather than the headline prices, and use the sticker-share figure above, since that is the comparison that holds the second column still.

FinancingEquipment financing options↗Turn the out-the-door total into a monthly payment before you agree to it.RecordsAsset tracking↗Separator hours, service intervals and what the machine came with, in one place.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

THE STICKER PRICES A BARE COMBINE, AND THE CHECK PAYS FOR A BUNDLE.

This is the whole page. A combine is quoted as a machine with no head on it, and the thing that brings in a harvest is a machine plus a header for each crop plus a cart to move the head plus a haul to your gate. Each of those is quoted in its own column, each feels small beside the combine, and together they are the gap between the sticker and the check. That is why the page shows the share of the check the sticker covered: it is the figure that holds two dealers still next to each other, and the sticker on its own is the figure that does not.

A header is not an accessory, and it is crop-specific.

The header is the part that harvests, and it is the line that most often sits outside the sticker, so two quotes a few thousand apart are frequently the same combine with the head on different sides of the line. It is also tied to the crop: a corn head threshes corn, a grain platform or draper handles wheat and beans, and a pickup head lifts windrows, so a farm that runs a rotation buys more than one. Ask which heads, if any, are inside each quote, and price the rest as their own line, because harvest does not start without at least one.

A header the combine cannot run is a stored object.

Heads are matched to the feederhouse, the drive, the hydraulic flow and the machine's class, and a mismatch does not announce itself in the price. A head sized wider than the combine can thresh at speed turns the machine into the bottleneck it was bought to remove, and a head off the wrong drive standard needs adapting nobody quoted. Match the heads to the combine before you compare kits on price, and count which heads earn their shed space against which you would rather rent or hire a custom cutter for.

Class size is the number people compare and the configuration and the hours are the numbers that decide the quote. A class 5 and a class 9 are different machines sharing one word, and inside any of them the header drive, the yield and moisture monitor, the guidance, the chopper and the tire-or-track choice are each a real line. On a used machine, separator hours price it more than engine hours do, because they count the harvesting rather than the road time. Two quotes are not comparable until both configurations and both hour meters are written down beside them.

What you write the check for is not what the machine costs you. A combine bought is a combine fuelled, serviced, insured, stored under cover and losing value while it sits, and it runs hard for a few intense weeks a year rather than steadily, which shapes both its wear and its economics. This page prices none of that, because it is answering the question people actually type: what does one cost to buy. If you want the other half, the operating cost calculator adds fuel, maintenance, the operator and the value it loses per working hour, and the loan calculator turns a purchase price into a monthly payment. This page stops at the shed door on purpose.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a combine cost?

It depends on the machine, and then on things that are quoted separately and are part of the same purchase: the header for each crop you grow, a cart to move that head between fields, and getting the machine to your farm. A dealer sets the price privately, against a class size, a configuration, the separator hours on a used machine and whatever the manufacturer is running that season, so this page leaves the figure to your dealer rather than inventing one to stand in for it. Put the dealer's numbers into the form above, add your sales tax rate, and the calculator gives you the out-the-door total and what share of it the sticker actually covered. That share is the number worth carrying to the next dealer.

Is a combine tractor the same as a combine harvester?

People say combine tractor, but a combine harvester is its own self-propelled machine rather than an implement a tractor pulls, and that is why it is priced the way this page treats it. A combine drives itself, carries its own engine and cab, and threshes and separates the grain from the crop as it goes. What it does not come with is the header that cuts and feeds the crop in, and the head is where a large part of the check goes, because it is crop-specific and quoted on its own. So whichever name you type, the arithmetic is the same: price the machine, then price the heads and the cart and the haul beside it, and compare the totals rather than the stickers.

Does a combine price include the header?

Frequently not, and it is the single question worth asking first, because it is where two quotes that looked a few thousand apart turn out to be the same machine. A header is a substantial line on its own, and there is usually more than one, because heads are crop-specific: a corn head for corn, a grain platform or draper for wheat and beans, a pickup head for windrows. Ask on every quote which heads, if any, are in the number, ask what condition and width they are, and ask whether they match the combine's feederhouse and drive. Then put the answers in the boxes above and compare the totals rather than the stickers, and remember the head wants a cart to travel on.

Is a used combine cheaper than a new one?

The purchase is, and the purchase is the part of the question this page can answer. Put the used price in the box above with the heads, cart and haul the machine comes with or needs, and compare the out-the-door totals rather than the two stickers, since a used combine that already wears a corn head and a grain platform is a different bundle from a bare new one. What changes outside this calculator is the part worth thinking hardest about: the separator hours on the meter, the service and repair history, whether the machine has been stored inside, what parts and dealer support look like for that model, and what the manufacturer's financing offer is worth, because a low rate that season can close a gap that looked settled. Price both bundles here, then decide on those.

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