Minutes 

 800 



700 

 600 

 500 

 400 

 300 

 200 

 100 



1 





I 



i 



1 23456789 

 Farm Number 



Fig. 2. Man minutes spent on daily 

 cow chores on nine farms in 

 1942. (Data from each farm 

 are adjusted to a 40-cow ba- 

 sis; 35 cows milking.) Care 

 of milk and milking equip- 

 ment is not included. 



enterprise in this state. It is hoped 

 that the pointing of the analysis to- 

 ward large dairy enterprises will be 

 helpful to the small operators in ad- 

 justing to a larger volume of output. 

 They will probably need a larger herd 

 of cows for even a modest income in 

 the years ahead. After all, the spe- 

 cialized dairyman will have to be ef- 

 ficient in the production of his one 

 specialized product. How the study 

 can be applied to small farms is dis- 

 cussed in Chapter VIII. 



How Study Was Carried Out 



The first step in this study was the 

 observation of present chore practices 

 on successful, well-managed dairy 

 farms. The farms were selected on 

 the basis of expectation of an op- 

 portunity of witnessing efficient 

 chore work. The procedure was not 

 to describe the industry through a 

 random sample, but rather to search 

 for the most efficient practices where- 

 ever they could be found. Wherever 

 data are stated regarding present 



practices, they should be associated 

 with conditions on a few hand-picked 

 farms. 



The information collected included 

 stop watch records of each worker's 

 performance for one entire day and 

 descriptions of efficient methods of 

 doing each task. The most efficient 

 practices were noted, and individual 

 dairymen were encouraged to find 

 ways and means of improving even 

 their best practices. The leaders of 

 this project helped devise new meth- 

 ods for doing essential tasks. 



Practices and chore schedules were 

 studied. The various tasks were 

 fitted together synthetically, and then 

 checked as far as possible on a lim- 

 ited number of farms. The first year, 

 nine farms were studied in detail. In 

 the following years, all chore activi- 

 ties were observed on five lai"ge ef- 

 ficiently-operated farms and one or 

 more chores were studied on a large 

 group. (See Figs. 2 and 3.) For 

 instance, milking was observed on ap- 

 proximately 50 farms and records 

 from an additional 100 farms were 

 made available from the University 

 of New Hampshire Extension Serv- 



Minutes 

 600 



500 

 400 

 300 

 200 

 100 



^ 



^ 



vn 



MISC. 

 CLEANING 



FEEOINS 



MILKING 



12 3 4 5 



Form Number 



Fig. 3. Man minutes spent on daily 

 cow chores on five farms in 

 1948, computed on the same 

 basis as in Fig. 2. 



