﻿UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTI 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1144 



Washington, D. C. ▼ March 20, 1923 



COST OF MILK PRODUCTION ON FORTY-EIGHT WISCONSIN 



FARMS. 1 



By S. W. Mendum, Junior Economist, Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 Feed requirements and consumption. 3 



Labor applied to milk production 10 



Other costs — Incidentals, overhead 12 



Page, 



Production and prices 15 



Summary of costs 20 



Other considerations 21 



Note. — The writer wishes to express his appreciation of the patience and courtesy of 

 the cooperating farmers in making reports, and to .thank a number of other men and 

 women who have helped in the preparation of the bulletin. 



The purpose of this study was to observe the management of a 

 number of herds kept under ordinary farm conditions and to measure 

 the more important factors of cost, with a view to determining the 

 nature and degree of changes in management which may be expected 

 to result in a more favorable relation between income and expense 

 as prices of materials and of products change. Information was 

 gathered through regular reports submitted by the farmers, supple- 

 mented by personal observations. The determination of an average 

 cost figure was urgently solicited by farmers, with a view to influ- 

 encing prices paid by consumers and factories, but for reasons ap- 

 parent to all who are familiar with cost data, this figure is of only 

 minor significance. 



Milk production is only a part of the farm business on most Wis- 

 consin dairy farms. Besides milk production, there are the herd 

 itself, other classes of productive livestock, the corn, small grains, 

 and hay grown to feed the livestock, and a variety of special crops 

 grown for sale. Each of these other enterprises contributes more or 

 less to the farm income, and entails its share of the farm expense. 

 These shares are variable and not always well defined. Moreover, 

 there are wide differences in the amount and value of land, buildings, 

 equipment, and labor devoted to the several farm enterprises. 



1 The data for this bulletin were gathered by the writer under a cooperative arrange- 

 ment between the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, and the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Division of Markets also 

 assisted in the field work. 



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