Table 5. Volume of Work Performed by 12 Specialized Custom Operators, 1949 



Total Work Average Work 



Performed per Operator 



Crop Work* All Work Crop Work All Work 



Number of difierent kinds of jobs 

 Total acres of work 

 Total job hours of work 

 Total man hours of work 

 Total receipts from work 



* Includes no land-clearing or land-improvement work. 



fAcres of work was not reported for 3,049 job hours and $18,549 of receipts. This 

 work included silo filling, a third o! ine bulldozer work, sawing, trucking, etc. 



ing, the kinds of jobs specialized operators like to have to fill in slack time 

 between cropping periods. 



Custom services provided by the nonspecialized operators included use 

 of the more common types of farm machinery and the hay baler. Plowing, 

 harrowing, mowing, and baling hay made up the bulk of the work. 



Rates of Performance 



Rates of performance differ widely among jobs of the same type that 

 are performed under differing field conditions and with diff.rpnt combina- 

 tions of equipment. The greatest variation in job-performance rates because 

 of equipment combinations was for manure spreading and field-forage har- 

 vesting. The number of spreaders used to haul manure from the loader on 

 custom jobs varied from 2 to 5, and the number of trucks used in hauling 

 field-chopper roughage varied from 2 to 4. The greatest variation in job-per- 

 formance rates because of field conditions was for plowing. 



Performance rates of specialized custom operators and farmer custom 

 operators did not differ significantly on those jobs which both performed 

 frequently or on a large scale, such as harrowing, fertilizing, raking, and 

 mowing (Table 6). The widest differences reported was on job hours of 

 time per acre for manure spreading. This was because farmers rarely used 

 more than one spreader at one time on this job. 



Price Charged per Acre or per Hour 



Prices for custom work are usually quoted on an hourly basis. Jobs 

 customarily quoted otherwise are weed spraying (per acre), baling (per 

 bale), and sawing wood (per cord). The rates usually quoted include the 

 services of the operator, the equipment, and all operating materials such as 

 gasoline, twine, and spray (Table 7). Extra charges are made for additional 

 labor and for supplementary pieces of equipment such as an additional truck 

 in field-forage harvesting or an extra spreader for spreading manure. 



Methods Used in Establishing Charges 



A few operators were questioned as to their methods of setting rates. 

 Most of them indicated that they tried to establish their prices in line with 

 the usual or competitive price that prevailed in their community. A few said 



8 



