livestock systems of farm A are so organized that the labor force is utilized 

 to its seasonal capacity. This means that no adjustments in custom work 

 for other farmers are feasible unless the labor for operating owned equip- 

 ment off the farm can be freed by hiring some work done on the farm in 

 the same season. 



Several good adjustments that would combine some self-ownership, hir- 

 ing some custom work, and providing some custom work are possible within 

 the framework of farm A. Through the hiring of certain custom services, 

 the labor freed could be utilized in providing services to other farmers with 

 different machines. Under actual conditions, the particular combination of 

 machines would depend on the supply of custom services in the neighborhood 

 as well as on the demand for particular services. It would also be influenced 

 by the desires of the farm operator and by his individual capabilities. Con- 

 sequently, only a few of the better alternative adjustments are analyzed here. 



If the labor freed could earn a minimum of Sl.OO an hour, hiring the 

 plowing and harrowing, the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of corn, 

 and seeding grass, would result in a saving of S180 (Alternative 4) over 

 operating all self-owned equipment (Table 17).^ Hiring these six operations 

 would save a total of 135 man-hours. If the farmer could utilize this freed 

 time doing custom work for other farmers, he could earn some additional 

 income. An examination of the seasonal distribution of the freed labor indi- 

 cates that all of the 135 hours, except 28 hours of seasonal hired labor freed 

 by the custom silo-filling operation, could be utilized in doing the custom 

 jobs of spreading fertilizer and manure, and mowing hay. The 28 hours of 

 seasonal hired labor could not be used for doing custom work off the farm, 

 as the farm tractor is used on the farm in combination with the hired custom 

 silo-filling outfit. But it is assumed that this seasonal hired labor freed by 

 the hiring of custom services is not released. 



Arbitrarily dividing the 107 hours equally among these jobs, the net 

 returns from the three custom-performed jobs, deducting operating and labor 

 costs, would amount to $225.^ The original saving of S180 in costs of owner- 

 ship and operation through custom hiring compared with owning all farm 

 machines is reduced to S129 because of the increased expense involved in 

 doing off-farm custom work. But this complete adjustment, which involves 

 both hiring and doing custom work, increases net farm income by .$354 over 

 that obtained by owning all farm machines and doing no custom work (Table 

 17). 10 



As an alternative, only the planting and harvesting of corn and the seed- 

 ing of grass might be custom hired and the time thus freed used to increase 

 the work on the other three jobs which were included as custom hired above. 

 In this way, the work load on the three jobs not hired — plowing, harrowing, 

 and corn cultivating — could be increased by doing enough custom work on 



8 The situation which assumes that farm labor is not a cost cannot be tested in 

 this alternative. 



9 Dividing the time equally does not assure the highest income as the net returns 

 above operating costs for the various custom jobs are not necessarily the same. For 

 example, manure spreading returns a net of $3.53 per hour and plowing only $2.99 

 per hour, including a wage of $1.00 an hour. Labor costs are deducted as we have 

 assumed a value of $1.00 an hour for farm labor. 



10 If hired labor freed by the hiring of custom services could be released, total 

 farm costs would be reduced $157 while net farm income would be increased 1354, 

 compared with owning all farm machines and not doing any custom work. The cost of 

 producing 100 pounds of milk would be reduced by $0.13. 



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