tion in net income exists within each of the 3 harvest dates. The greatest 

 variation in net income exists when using the June 1 starting date, and 

 the range in incomes covers a spand of $3,500. The average net income 

 for all 52 weather patterns by date of cut is shown in Table 8. The 

 averages ranged from $10,557 for June 30 to a high of $11,524 for June 

 15. The differences between these mean incomes are also present in 

 Table 8. Moving from June 1 to June 15, income increased $477. Com- 

 paring June 15 and June 30, net income decreased by $967. These differ- 

 ences are significantly different statistically and probably economically 

 over time. However, the distribution of incomes as shown in Table 7 is 

 so great that farmers may not be able to associate the differences with 

 date of cut. 



75 Cows and the Crushed, Baled, and Barn Dried Without Heat 

 Hay Harvest System 



Income variations associated with 52 weather patterns by date of 

 harvest are shown in Table 7. Compared with the above system, there is 

 far less income variation for each date of cut. The average differences 

 by date of cut ranged from $11,992 to $12,780 (Table 8) . The differences 

 among the net incomes of the 3 dates of cut were statistically different. 

 The June 1 and 15 dates of harvest result in incomes quite similar and 

 considerably higher than June 30. Farmers probably would recognize 

 this difference in their income. 



100 Cows and the Crushed, Field Cured, and Baled Hay Harvest 

 System 



An outstanding observation about the analysis of this harvesting 

 system is the variability of net farm income (Table 7). Just as with the 

 smaller herd size, farmers would experience large variations from year 

 to year in net income using this hay system. Average income (Table 8) 

 is about the same for the 2 early dates of cut and declines about $2,000 

 when cutting begins on June 30. The difference in income was statis- 

 tically different and would be expected to be economically important 

 to farmers. 



100 Cows and the Crushed, Baled, and Barn Dried Without Heat 

 Hay Harvesting System 



This hay-in-a-day system reduces the variability in net income 

 (Table 7). Again, the first 2 harvest dates are almost identical in 

 average net farm income (Table 8). As the date of cut is advanced to 

 June 30, income decreases by about $1,600. Farmers would recognize 

 this difference due to the limited variability in net income within each 

 date of cut. 



Numl)er of Cows Varying and the Crushed, Field Cured, and Baled 

 Hay Harvest System 



The range of variation in net incomes for this harvest system with 



40 



