Using a regression analysis based on accountancy data, this paper analyses whether direct payments influence machinery investments on Swiss roughage farms. We control for influencing factors such as farm size, age of farm manager and proportion of arable land. We find that general direct payments do not influence machinery assets per hectare of agricultural area, which is in line with the literature. However, direct payments related to adverse production conditions are associated with higher machinery assets per hectare, which is in line with ex-pectations: under adverse production conditions, direct payments are granted to compensate for higher costs of production – including machinery costs. We conclude that the policies in place do not incentivise farm managers to overinvest.