June, 1940] Farm Management in Colebrook 11 



farms varied from 87.6 to 285 hours a year. It is difficult to account 

 for all the differences in time. The handiness of the stable, the 

 handling efficiency of the milking machines, the detailed job plan- 

 ning by the operator and the quickness of the men on individual 

 practices were important factors. One or more operators were not 

 especially interested in cows and probably fell somewhat short of 

 standard practices. Several men put a large amount of extra time 

 on their cows, partly because they were interested. 



The importance of efficient chore work is largely in the freeing 

 of time for other productive work or needed leisure. Thirteen oper- 

 ators who put more than 150 hours per cov\' on dairy chore work 

 were not very efficient. They had, on the whole, smaller herds, and 

 hand milking and cleaning of the stable required more time. Then, 

 too, on these farms with smaller herds, chore work during the win- 

 ter is part of the operator's life. There is no great incentive to 

 quicken the pace. Given their resources in hay and cows they would 

 not be materially ahead if they could do the chores in less time. 

 However, more efficient chores would enable them to keep more 

 cows and in the summer shorter chore time would enable the oper- 

 ator to put more time on hay harvest, potatoes, or other productive 

 work. Thus chore efficiency is important, but only if the time saved 

 can be used to good advantage. 



In this respect it is well to note that in the five herds with over 30 

 cows the average labor requirement was 110 hours per cow and that 

 with all five herds it was under 125 hours per cow. 



An average of 10.3 hours daily was required in taking care of the 

 31.7 cows in this group. On the basis of a two-man dairy farm 

 something over 5.1 hours would be required of each man. 



On one farm of this group with an average of 32.2 cows, the lay- 

 out of the barn and the procedure in chore work was fairly efficient. 

 An average of 10.9 hours was required per day in chore work with 

 cows and heifers. For seven months of barn feeding the chore work 

 began at 5.30 a. m. and ended at 7.15 p. m. and for the other five 

 months began at 5.00 a. m. and ended at 7.45 p. m. As can be noted 

 in the diagrams, this left free time for other activities in summer 

 from 7.30 to 12.C0 and 1.00 to 5.30 and in winter 8.30 to 12.00 for one 

 man and 1.00 to 4.00 for both men. 



This arrangement in the summer enables the operator to put in 

 a nine-hour day in the field when weather and other conditions are 

 favorable (Fig. 7). In the winter the free time is short but does 

 enable the operator to put up ice and get his wood supply. For 

 about three months in the winter the operator could arrange' for one 

 man to work in the woods ;'from 8.30 to 4.30. The use of a team or 

 a truck to advantage might require an additional man when work- 

 ing aggressively on pulpwood or lumbering. 



Thus from the viewpoint of an aggressive farm organization the 

 systematizing of chore work to reduce the time to the minimum 

 and still do effective work is the foundation of successful dairying. 

 If the chores drag out. the use of men and teams is not effective. 



An average of 3.24 hours was required per 100 pounds of milk pro- 

 duced. Four operators used more than four hours per 100 pounds 



