﻿2 BULLETIN 1U4, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF A( WUCULTURE. 



It would be desirable if these various enterprises could be made 

 to stand on their own merits, and to some extent they do. but the 

 decision with respect to the management of any one of them does 

 not depend solely on the fact of a figured profit or loss in any season 

 or period of years, hut rather on how it fits in the general farm Opera- 

 tions. An enterprise will be continued as long as it pays better than 

 any other which could be substituted for it, and as long as it con- 

 tributes to the net income of the farm, either directly or indirectly. 



As indicated above, the typical dairy farm has several activities 

 more or less closely related to each other, a fact which lends to 

 obscure the relations between the income and expenses for each and 

 affects tlic decisions which will be made from time to time as costs 

 and prices change. 



The chief element in the cost of producing milk is feed, with labor 

 next, the two together constituting two-thirds or more of the total 

 cost. The remainder consists of a number of smaller incidental 

 charges. In order to simplify the discussion as much as possible 

 these are taken up separately. With the same purpose in view, milk 

 production is considered primarily as an independent enterprise, then 

 in its relations to the whole farm business. That the figures may be 

 most generally usable, they are given as quantities to which anyone 

 may apply prices or cost rates for any given time or locality. On 

 the average, these basic factors of cost do not change so much or so 

 frequently as do prices, although they show a wide range, suggesting 

 the possibility of important changes in financial results to be brought 

 about by changes in management. 



The figures presented were obtained through the cooperation of 48 

 farmers during the calendar year 1920. These farms were divided 

 into five groups, according to similarity in the more important factors 

 of location, markets, feeds, herd management, and the like. Group 

 A is made up of 12 farms in the eastern part of Sheboygan County ; 

 group B includes 8 farms in the eastern part of Columbia County; 

 group C includes 11 farms west and south of Milwaukee in the Mil- 

 waukee milk district ; group D is made up of 8 farms also in the 

 Milwaukee milk district, but lying in a compact group to the north, 

 most of them in Ozaukee County; group E includes, besides 7 farms 

 in the southeast corner of Marathon County, 2 other farms of similar 

 characteristics, but in other counties. (See Table 1.) The farms 

 range in size from 17 acres to 240 acres, the size of herds from 3 cows 

 and 1 heifer to 28.7 cows and accompanying stock cattle; in produc- 

 tion from 13,000 pounds average per cow, including dry time and 

 discards, down to 2,830 pounds per cow for the year. Some of the 

 herds were purebred, but most of them were grade herds, with or 

 without some pure-bred animals. 



