ators when he retires. He has much 

 to gain from adoption of better chore 

 methods. 



The Time Saved 



In general, large operators have 

 an opportunity of raising their in- 

 come immediately by adoption of ef- 

 ficient chore practices because they 

 can usually operate with less hired 

 help. The farmer increasing his op- 

 erations and the size of his herd can 

 benefit from more efficient chores be- 

 cause he can expand without hiring 

 additional labor. The small operator 

 who expects to continue with a small 

 herd will not usually benefit financial- 

 ly, but he might have more leisure. 



The labor of the operator and that 

 of the year-round hired men tend to 

 have the characteristics of fixed costs. 

 Their cost continues whether or not 

 their labor is used efficiently. If 

 these fixed costs, which are usually 

 large on a dairy farm, can be spread 

 over a larger herd and consequently 

 greater output, the combination of 

 fixed and variable costs will be less 

 per unit of product. On the other 

 hand, the adoption of more efficient 

 chore practices, without other change 

 such as more cows or fewer men, may 



reduce the hours of labor on a given 

 farm. But the total cost and total 

 gross sales and income may continue 

 unchanged. The net income can be 

 increased only by lowering the total 

 cost or raising the gross sales. 



Thus the adoption of efficient chore 

 practices can increase the operator's 

 money income only if it will reduce 

 the cash expense for labor and other 

 items or increase the output. If the 

 expansion requires considerable out- 

 lay of capital for enlarging buildings 

 or purchasing more land, these costs 

 must not be ignored. In some cases 

 they may be sufficiently great to make 

 expansion uneconomic and unprofit- 

 able, even if both field work and chore 

 work are done efficiently when mea- 

 sured by output per worker. 



Due to the improved practices in 

 both field and barn, the trend is defi- 

 nitely toward larger herds and great- 

 er output. Thus the individual dairy- 

 man faces a challenge of reorganiz- 

 ing his farm so that he can produce 

 the roughage and handle more cows 

 on an efficient family type basis. Ef- 

 ficiency in chore work is an essential 

 part of the "know how" needed in 

 organizing and carrying on a modern 

 dairy farm. 



Appendix I 



Most of the chore items are self 

 explanatory and need no description 

 here. However, certain tasks and 

 time required need explanation. 



Milking 



This includes all time associated 

 with milking, beginning with the 

 preparation of the first cow to the 

 emptying of milk from the last cow. 

 Included are preparation of cows, op- 

 erating machines, machine stripping, 

 hand stripping, pouring milk from 

 milker pails, hand milking, carrying 

 milk to milk house, pouring into 

 strainer and waiting. If a worker 



during the milking period did some 

 other chore, his time was charged to 

 that task, but if he vsTaited for the 

 machine, this was considered part 

 of the milking job. 



Care of Equipment- 



This included assembling milking 

 machines and milk pails and carry- 

 ing them to the area in the barn 

 where milking starts, the preparation 

 of shipping cans for milk, the as- 

 sembly of strainers and placement 

 on shipping cans, the rinsing of 

 equipment, the dismantling and wash- 

 ing of milking machines, strainers 



70 



