Table 11. Percent of Output of Eggs and Poultry Accounted for by 

 Different Flock Sizes, New Hampshire, 1929-1950 



Source: Census of Agriculture. 1910 and 1950. 



1 Chicken eggs sold. Overstates the importance of larger sizes only slightly. 



Contributing to increased specialization (and unit size) have been the 

 adoption of mass housing and other practices productive of efficiencies in 

 the use of capital and labor. Viewed in terms of a constant price level, total 

 investment per farm has increased, but over a long period it is not clear 

 that this is true of average investment per bird. On the other hand, labor 

 input per bird has significantly decreased. Coupling these changes with im- 

 proved output per unit of input of other elements entering into production 

 has resulted in relative decreases in per unit costs. This has enabled the in- 

 dustry to improve its position in the market relative to other livestock prod- 

 ucts through larger production and lower prices. 



A study of poultry accounts from 1931 to 1945 on New Hampshire 

 flocks of under 3,000 laying hens indicated an upward movement in labor 

 incomes over the period.* This was particularly noticeable during the war 

 years. The study concludes that while there was an increase in labor in- 

 comes for poultrym.en, purchasing power of that income did not increase 

 proportionately. Thus, to maintain a parity of purchasing power with other 

 groups, poultrymen would have had to increase unit size. The tightening of 

 both actual and relative per unit income has been more apparent in the 

 poultry-meat category since the early postwar period than on eggs, where 

 a modified cyclical effect has occurred. Nevertheless, in both areas, 1954 

 saw the most severe conditions since World War II. 



The stage is thus set for further concentration of commercial output in 

 larger units, only temporary setbacks in the upward trend in aggregate out- 

 put, increased specialization, and adoption of more efficient practices (within 

 the limits of financing). It is against this background that the reader is 

 asked to view the discussion of the grain-feeding operation and how its 

 efficiency can be improved. 



Present plant size and degree of specialization are directly related, 

 exclusive of some variations in the financial position of particular individ- 

 uals in like size class, to the ability of the business to defray improvement 

 costs designed to make the unit more efficient. Based upon an analysis of 



* Ahell, M. F., Economic Analysis of Fourteen Years of Poult.rv Records, N. H. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta. Circ. 75, June 1947, p. 3. 



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