New York Farm Business Charts
Farm Business Charts showing the range of experience of New York farmers have been prepared for use in analyzing farm businesses. In preparing these charts all available information on farmers' experiences has been used. The most important sources of information have been: (a) New York cost account farms, (b) Farm management surveys, (c) Extension farm business management records, (d) New York Crop Reporting Service, (e) United States Census of Agriculture. In combining this information the goal has been to have the chart represent the following: - (a) Commercial farmers (b) Normal weather (c) Present technology (the technology of the date of printing) There are presented here the charts which were published in 1946 (white), 1958 (green), and 1970 (blue). A comparison of the charts for various years shows changes which have occurred on New York's commercial farms. For example, the median of the top ten percent in milk per man was 125,000 pounds in 1946, 225,000 pounds in 1958, and 475,000 pounds in 1970. The middle of the top ten percent in hens per man in 1946 was 1350. The middle of the lowest ten percent in hens per man in 1970 was 2000. On the back of the charts, work unit standards are shown. The work units per head or per acre represent the number of ten-hour units of time required to care for one animal or one acre, under average conditions. In 1946, a dairy cow represented 16 work units (160 hours). This was reduced to 7.5 units in 1970. During this twenty-four year period, the average amount of milk sold per cow increased from 6200 pounds to 10,000 pounds. Sixty-one percent more milk per cow with a fifty-three percent reduction in labor! The labor on an acre of corn for grain was reduced from 45 hours to 6 hours, while the average yield per acre increased from 40 bushels to 75 bushels.