ture of chore time carry 29 cows or only raise replacements. If for these 

 alternatives, it is assumed that the freshening pattern is regular or, in 

 the case of the replacement-raising alternative, that the same number of 

 calves are started each month, how and by how much would the seasonal 

 labor pattern differ? 



As seen in Table 17, the milking herd with all home-raised replace- 

 ments uses 43.0 percent of the total annual chore time in summer. With 

 the same total annual workload, but with all replacements purchased, the 

 percent of annual chore time used in summer is increased only slightly 

 to 43.8 percent. It requires a shift with much more emphasis on young 

 stock before any noticeable changes occur in the seasonal workload. 

 Starting 66 calves each year would cut the summer chore work require- 

 ments down to 37.5 percent of the annual chore work requirements. This 

 reduction would be of some help in allowing the crop work to be lengthened. 

 However, with the same total annual workload, shifting from raising all 

 replacements to raising none and buying all of them would affect chore time 

 requirements on a seasonal basis very little. 



Table 17. Percentage of Annual Chore Time Requirements Used With Various 

 Combinations of Dairy Livestock, Assuming a Fixed Amount of Annual Chore Time. 



Livestock Combination 



Percentage of Annual Chore Time 



Winter Summer 



Percent Percent 



25 cows 48.2 37.5 



10 calves 4.3 4.3 



9 yearlings 2.7 0.8 



5 two-year-olds 1.9 0.4 



Total 57.1 43.0 



29 cows 56.2 43.8 



Total 56.2 43.8 



66 calves 28.8 28.8 



59 yearlings 18.0 5.2 



40 two-year-olds 15.7 3.5 



Total 62.5 37.5 



Prices Paid and Received 



Two levels and relationships of prices paid and received were selected 

 for use in the budgetary analysis. They represent two different price patterns 

 which dairymen have experienced in the recent past. They are also ex- 

 treme enough to illustrate the production adjustments that could profitably 

 be made by farms in different locations with respect to market and with 

 respect to price level and relationship. -^ 3 



33 Milk prices are based on the price paid farmers for 3.7 percent milk in the 

 201-210 mile zone of the Boston milkshed, as published monthly by the Market Ad- 

 ministrator, Federal Milk Order No. 4. 



Dairy replacement prices are from the monthly milk production report issued by 

 the New England Crop Reporting Service, AMS, U.S.D.A. 



Prices for beef cattle and the index of prices were obtained from Crops and 

 Markets, BAE and AMS, and Agricultural Prices, AMS, U.S.D.A. 



36 



