The cost, investment, and price data used were those prepared for 

 use by the Northeast Dairy Adjustment Study Group.- "^ Tables 3 and 

 4 summarize the cost, price, and investment requirements for each 

 system. 



Milk Production 



Because the development of the milk production surface for an 

 individual cow or herd of cows is a complex operation, the variables used 

 are described in some detail. 



The general form of the milk production function was defined as: 

 MP = f(F, G, L, A, M, Xi . . .X ) (1) 



n 

 where MP refers to milk production in a specific period; F refers to 

 forage (quality and quantity considered) ; G refers to grain; L refers to 

 the stage of lactation; A refers to the ability of the cow to produce milk; 

 M refers to the dairy herd management; and Xj . . .X refers to other 



n 

 unspecified factors. 



To assure that the major objectives of this study would be accom- 

 plished, i.e., to evaluate the organization of forage harvesting systems 

 and grain feeding alternatives, the only variables that were allowed to 

 vary were forage (F) and grain (G) . Therefore, equation (1) becomes: 

 MP = f(F, G/L, A, M, Xi . . .X ) (2) 



n 

 The / notation indicates that forage (F) and grain (G) are allowed 

 to vary while lactation (L) , ability (A), management (M) and other 



factors fXi ... X ) are held constant. 



n 

 Equation 2 states that milk production is a function of feed in- 

 puts and that everything else is held constant at some level. Therefore. 



Table 4. Cost or price per unit of resources used and products produced 



Resource or product Dollars 



Annual fixed cost per cow 100.00 



Investment per cow 350.00 



Price per ton of hay to sell 26.10 



Building investment per cow 585.00 



Price of labor per hour 1.13 



Price of grain per ton 79.80 



Price of milk per cwt. 5.46 



Price of hay salvaged to sell per ton 20.00 



Price of hay to buy per ton 35.30 



Building fixed cost per thousand 159.83 



20 Agricultural Planning Data for the Northeastern United States, op. cit. 



24 



