Table 24. — Annual Acreages Associated with Cropping Operations, Farm C 



Operation 



Plowing 



Harrowing 



Spreading manure 



Spreading fertilizer and lime 



Seeding grass 



Harvesting hay and grass silage 



Pasture maintenance 



grass-silage crops. Nevertheless, much of the foundational equipment is com- 

 mon to the three farms. The major changes in equipment on farm C center 

 on a shift from machinery for cultivating and harvesting corn to a field 

 forage harvester with its associated equipment. A second tractor would be 

 added also. 



The combination of all owned equipment for farm C is shown in Table 

 25. This represents the optimum combination of mechanically powered ma- 

 chinery that would meet the functional requirements of the farm cropping 

 program and the labor supply. Direct operating costs of this combination of 

 machinery with no charge for labor would amount to $506 a year and total 

 costs of machinery to $1,773 a year. 



Alternative 2 — Joint Ownership 



Joint ownership is not particularly well adapted to farms of this size. 

 Even though annual ownership costs would be reduced roughly by half, the 

 competition for the use of equipment probably would be too intense if two 

 farms the size of farm C were to share all of it. Some machines of the type 

 not used in timely crop production might be shared by two farms with no 

 change in the quantity or quality of the roughage program. Such arrange- 

 ments between farmers for one or more machines would contribute to de- 

 creasing costs of production. 



Alternative 3 — Substitution of Custom-hired for Self-owned Machinery 



Substitution of custom-hired for self-owned machinery for performing 

 all of the field operations would require an annual cash payment of $3,241. 

 With no value for farm labor, the annual cost would be $1,468 more than 

 Alternative 1, and if labor were valued at $1.00 an hour, it would cost $627 

 more than Alternative 1. Howevej, on farm C there is an opportunity to re- 

 lease four months of hired seasonal labor. Custom-hiring all cropping work 

 and not hiring this seasonal labor would cost $53 less than doing all the 

 work with self-owned equipment. ^^ In both cases the substitution of custom 

 services would eliminate the need for an investment of $9,325 in farm ma- 

 chinery at new machinery prices in 1949. 



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

 cost of producing 100 pounds of milk would be reduced by $0.02. However, net farm 

 income would be reduced by $627. 



34 



