Table 4. Average Value of Inventory of Land, Buildings, Livestock and 



Machinery of the Basic Farm. 



Item 



Average Value 



Land: 



150 acres (75 acres cropland) 



Buildings: 



Barn (25 cow capacity) , milkhouse, and silo 



Livestock: 



25 cows at $350/head 



12 replacements averaging $150/head 



Machinery : 



1 tractor, 3-plow 



Tillage and planting equipment 



Mower and rake 



Hay baler and blower 



Manure spreader and loader 



Miscellaneous 



Total machinery 



$23,000 

 8,000 



8,750 

 1,800 



1,650 



1,100 



413 



1,650 



454 



756 



$ 6,023 



Table 5. Cropping Program of the Basic Farm. 



Item 



Acres 



Yield per Acre 



Total Production 



* Hay equivalent consumed by livestock on pasture. 



The farm is a one-man operation with the operator providing an aver- 

 age of 260 hours of labor per month. His present operations take all of 

 his labor time except for about 340 hours. Most of this available labor 

 time occurs during the fall and winter months. Hired labor is available at 

 $1.25 per hour, if needed. The operator hires all grain and silage harvest- 

 ing, but has adequate machinery for all other farm operations (Table 4). 

 Sufficient barn and feed storage space is available for a 25 cow dairy herd 

 plus replacements. Any expansion of the herd will require building an addi- 

 tion to the barn. 



A rotation of one year of corn for grain, one year of oats for silao-e, 

 and three years of alfalfa-orchard grass is followed presently on the crop- 

 land. Present production provides enough forage for 25 dairy cows produc- 

 ing 10,000 pounds of milk per cow, and 12 replacements. 



The annual costs and returns for the present plan on this farm are shown 

 in Table 6. Basic data used for computing costs and returns are shown in 



