A STUDY OF FARM ORGANIZATION IN CENTRAL KANSAS 
19 
REASONS FOR VARIATIONS IN LABOR REQUIREMENTS FOR HARVESTING OPERATIONS 
On the farms where tractor power was used for binding wheat, 
one man operated the binder and another the tractor. This resulted 
in the use of more man labor per acre than on any of the farms bind- 
ing entirely with horses. The three farms with the lowest man 
labor requirements for binding used 6-horse teams and 10-foot push 
binders a part or all of the time. On farm 10, a 2-horse team was 
used for binding much of the time and this farm had the highest 
requirements of any of the farms using horse power for binding. 
The use of one 3-horse team on farm 8 is also partly responsible 
for the high man labor requirement for binding on that farm. 
The use of a large crew on a relatively small area of wheat was 
partly responsible for the fact that farm 15 had the highest require- 
LABOR IN BINDING WHEAT 
FARMS USING HORSES ONLY 
FARM 
NO. 
YIELD 
BUS. PER 
ACRE 
HOURS 
13 
18.0 
.50 
5 
16.6 
.60 
7 
13 8 
.64 
18 
13 7 
.74 
15 
21.2 
.74 
14 
19.0 
76 
1 
19.0 
77 
4 
18 3 
.8 1 
e 
2 1.9 
1.07 
10 
18.6 
1.07 
FARM 
NO. 
YIELD 
BUS. PER 
ACRE 
HOURS 
6 
1 9.4 
1.08 
17 
27.2 
I.I 2 
3 
14.9 
I.I 6 
2 
2 1.4 
1.40 
1 1 
23.7 
1.4 1 
12 
1 6.2 
1.54 
MAN HOURS PER ACRE 
12 3 
HORSE HOURS PER ACRE 
12 3 4 
1 WEIGHTED 
_ 1 AVERAGE 
FARMS USING HORSES AND TRACTORS 
HORSE AND TRACTOR HOURS PER ACRE 
HORSE TRACTOR n | 2 3 4 5 
MAN HOURS 
PER ACRE 
- HOURS 
HOURS 
WBBBB 
54 
■■■■ 
56 
L£1MAB 
2.32 
.4 1 
mm iimii 
2.06 
42 
2.1 9 
.43 
.77 
V77A 
////A 
' 
ESS Horse. 
V7Z\ Tractor 
>//s>//A 
Fig. 12.— Binding wheat with a tractor takes more man labor than binding with horses, as one man is 
ordinarily used on the binder and another on the tractor 
ment for hauling bundles. On farms 5, 6, and 18, extra pitchers were 
provided in the field, which partly account for the relatively low re- 
quirement of horse work for bundle hauling. 
Yields of both straw and grain are important factors affecting the 
labor requirements for harvesting wheat. On farms 7 and 18 the 
wheat yields were lowest and these farms were third and fourth, re- 
spectively, in the amount of man labor required for binding. The 
five farms with the highest labor requirements for shocking had 
yields of 18 bushels or more per acre. On farms 7 and IS, with the 
lowest yields, the shocking is fairly high because of some reshocking. 
The farm with the highest yield of wheat had next to the highest 
stacking requirements. Farm 3, with the lowest stacking require- 
ments, had the second lowest yield. 
