December, 1931] Dairy Farming in Grafton County 



61 



Skill in the management of the herd is involved in the problem of 

 seasonal production. Suitable equipment in the barns and elsewhere 

 for handling milk in deference to its high susceptibility to contamina- 

 tion by ever-present bacteria may provide some means to the end of 

 getting a better product. Beyond this, with a given supply, the farmer 

 is largely at the mercy of the market demand. 



Prices 



That there is considerable variation in prices received for milk in 

 this region is evidenced by figures in Table 51. There were 66 farmers 

 that sold their product at an average price of less than $2.56 per hun- 

 dredweight, and there were the same number that sold for more than 

 $3.46. Among these farms are represented various methods of selling, 

 including a very few operators who retailed all their milk and several 

 who sold enough products locally, appreciably to affect average prices. 

 That prices are important no one would question. The change in labor 

 incomes from $95 to $868 through the groups in this table is a reflec- 

 tion of their significance. Associated with better prices there was some 

 increase in fat test, an increase in production per cow and better size 

 and efficiency as measured by man Avork units. 



Table 51 — Relation of price received for milk per Jmndredweight to 



labor income. 



Price and Production 



The results of sorting by a combination of prices and production 

 are shown in Table 52. While low price and poor production resulted 

 in an average labor income of — $260 for 39 farms and high price 

 and good production in $1,162 for 65 farms, one important consid- 

 eration is the fact that by increasing production per cow, the farmer 

 can offset some of the disadvantages of poor prices. In spite of poor 

 prices for milk, good production per cow brought an average labor 

 income of $580 to 34 farmers. With about average prices for milk, 

 the middle group of 46 farms through a production no better than 

 6,426 pounds of milk per cow, got an average labor income of $708, or 

 considerably better than hired men's wages. 



