Contents 



INTRODUCTION 3 



Objectives 3 



Source of Data 4 



CUSTOM SERVICES 4 



Types of Custom Operators 4 



Custom Services Available 5 



Custom Services Hired 5 



Custom Work Performed 7 



Rates of Performance 8 



Price Charged per Acre or per Hour 8 



Methods Used in Establishing Charges 8 



METHOD OF DETERMINING AN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF MA- 

 CHINERY AND EQUIPMENT 11 



Machinery and Labor Costs 11 



Machinery Ownership Patterns 14 



Problems of Comparison of Costs for Owned and Custom-hired Machines 14 



Problems in Computing Costs of Providing Custom Equipment for Hire 16 



INTEGRATED MACHINERY AND OTHER RESOURCES ON TYPICAL DAIRY 



FARMS 17 



Farm A — A Small Dairy Farm 17 



Farm B — -A Medium-sized Dairy Farm 27 



Farm C — A Large Dairy Farm 32 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 38 



Preface and Acknowledgement 



This bulletin is the fourth in a series concerned with production 

 efficiency on New England dairy farms. In the first bulletin a prelimi- 

 nary appraisal was made of the significant opportunities for reducing 

 costs in dairying. In the second and third bulletins the economies of 

 scale of operations and of the barn-finishing method of harvesting 

 hay, respectively, were analyzed in greater detail. This bulletin deals 

 with the efficient use of machinery and equipment on dairy farms. 

 It emphasizes the economic principles and procedures involved in 

 choosing between alternative methods of doing field work. 



The authors are indebted to many farmers and equipment oper- 

 ators in New England who helped to supply the basic information 

 used in the study. 



They wish particularly to acknowledge the assistance and critical 

 appraisal received from Paul Putnam, Acting Head, Department of 

 Agricultural Economics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn., 

 William F. Henry, Chairman, Department of Agricultural Economics, 

 University of New Hampshire, Durham, N. H.; and C. W. Crickman 

 and M. S. Parsons, Production Economics Research Branch, Agri- 

 cultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



