NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering · USA · NCEES (ASABE is the content partner)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersNCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering is a licensing and registration exam run by NCEES (ASABE is the content partner), for candidates in USA. Computer-based, 85 questions, 9.5-hour appointment (8.5 hours of exam). Once a year (next: 28 Oct 2026). Closed book with the electronic NCEES handbook and supplied searchable ASABE standards; SI and US customary units.
Source: ncees.org.
Checked against the exam body's published information. Formats and fees change; confirm the current edition there before you book.
Machinery performance and cost analysis using supplied ASABE D497 and EP496: field efficiency and speed ranges, draft equations, repair factors, fuel use, capital recovery and timeliness.
Choosing, sizing, costing and replacing machines, and running a custom hiring centre that pays.
Our 16 NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering questions in this subject: 1 easy, 8 medium, 7 hard, across 8 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering and are not shown on any other exam's page.
A 20 ft field cultivator operates at 5 mph with 75 % field efficiency. What is its effective field capacity?
D. 9.1 ac/h
In US customary units, capacity (ac/h) = speed (mph) × width (ft) × efficiency / 8.25 = 5 × 20 × 0.75 / 8.25 = 9.1 ac/h. 12.1 ac/h omits efficiency; 7.5 wrongly uses the SI divisor 10. 10.0 ac/h uses the SI divisor 10 and also omits efficiency (5 × 20/10).
Under the ASABE machinery management standard, which time is NOT counted within field efficiency?
D. Travel to and from the field
Field efficiency counts losses that occur while working the field: turning, overlap, refilling, unloading, adjustments. Travel between farmstead and field, daily servicing and major repairs are handled separately when planning available hours.
A grower must harvest 400 acres in 15 days, working 10 h per day, with 70 % of days suitable. The combine travels at 3.5 mph with 70 % field efficiency. What minimum header width is needed?
D. 12.8 ft
Required capacity = 400 / (15 × 10 × 0.7) = 3.81 ac/h. Width = 8.25 × 3.81 / (3.5 × 0.7) = 12.8 ft; choose the next larger header. Ignoring field efficiency gives 9.0 ft; using the SI divisor 10 instead of 8.25 gives 15.5 ft; multiplying by efficiency instead of dividing gives 6.3 ft.
A machine costs $150,000 and will be worth $45,000 after 10 years. Using the capital recovery method at 6 % interest, what is the annual capital (depreciation plus interest) cost?
C. $16,966
CRF = 0.06 × 1.06¹⁰ / (1.06¹⁰ − 1) = 0.13587. Annual cost = (P − S) × CRF + S × i = 105,000 × 0.13587 + 45,000 × 0.06 = 16,966. Straight line plus average interest gives 16,350 (no compounding); P × CRF ignores the salvage; (P − S) × CRF forgets interest on the salvage value that stays invested. In figures, (P − S) × CRF = $14,266 and P × CRF = $20,380.
A farmer bought a planter with savings and says, "I paid cash, so there is no interest cost." In a machinery cost estimate, interest should:
A. Still be charged, as the return the cash could have earned elsewhere
Interest on owned capital is an opportunity cost. Leaving it out understates ownership cost and biases the owner-versus-hire decision toward owning.
Using illustrative repair factors RF1 = 0.007 and RF2 = 2.0 in the ASABE form C = P × RF1 × (h/1000)^RF2, what is the accumulated repair and maintenance cost of an $80,000 tractor at 6,000 h?
B. $20,160
C = 80,000 × 0.007 × 6² = 80,000 × 0.007 × 36 = 20,160. Ignoring the exponent gives 3,360; multiplying 6 by 2 instead of squaring gives 6,720. The coefficients are illustrative; use the D497 edition supplied in the exam. 201,600 is a factor-of-ten slip.
Machine A has annual fixed cost $8,000 and operating cost $25 per acre; machine B has fixed cost $14,000 and operating cost $15 per acre. Above what annual acreage is B cheaper?
C. 600 acres
Equal cost when 8,000 + 25x = 14,000 + 15x, so x = 6,000/10 = 600 acres. Above 600 acres B's lower operating cost outweighs its higher fixed cost. 933 acres is 14,000/15, 320 acres is 8,000/25, and 550 acres adds everything ((8,000 + 14,000)/(25 + 15)).
In a keep-or-replace decision for a five-year-old tractor, the price originally paid for it should be:
C. Ignored, because it is a sunk cost; the current market value is relevant
Past spending cannot be recovered and does not change with the decision. What matters is the value given up by keeping the tractor (its current market value) and its future costs, compared with the challenger's costs.
An implement needs 20 kW of drawbar power. For the tractor type and soil, the stated drawbar-to-PTO power ratio is 0.72. What PTO power is needed, before adding any reserve?
C. 27.8 kW
PTO power = drawbar power / ratio = 20 / 0.72 = 27.8 kW. Multiplying gives 14.4 kW, which would mean the tractor delivers more at the drawbar than at the PTO. 38.6 kW divides by the ratio twice (20/0.72²).
A large tractor is pulling a light implement at part load. Which practice usually reduces fuel use per hectare without changing ground speed?
C. Shift to a higher gear and reduce engine speed
Engines are more efficient at higher load and lower speed. "Gear up, throttle down" keeps the same ground speed with the engine more heavily loaded, cutting fuel per hectare, provided the engine is not lugged. Lower gear and higher rev/min do the opposite.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
Last updated · How Laisha writes and checks its pages · Report a mistake
US$10 a month · one price worldwide · cancel any time
| Free | Smarter | |
|---|---|---|
| Grow guides, pest pages, articles | Read all | Read all |
| Ask Laisha | 5 a day | Up to 1,000 a month |
| Exam practice | The sample on each page | Every question, timed papers |
| Crop calendar and pest alerts | — | For your own fields |
| Calculators and tools | — | All |
| Uploads and reports | — | 100 a month, real files |
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.