Family Farms in 1975
To Be Larger, Specialized
Family farms will be big- on data obtained in a lar
ger and more highly sped- ger USDA study to assess
j. az cd m 1975—and they the job of agriculture and
tt )U continue to dominate agricultural research m me
(|Ur Nation's agriculture. etmg future needs.
This conclusion comes £r* Findings indicate that far
(),n a recent analysis, by mers will continue to step
ARS agricultural economist up adoption of labor-saving
jj h Stewart, of prospect- and out-put - increasing
, ve changes in farming dur- techniques They will pur
,ng the next 15 years. The chase additional equipment
analysis was based in part needed for more complete
It’s Not The SIZE-It’s The
PERFORMANCE That Counts!
From HORNCO FEEDS... improvements to serve business poultrymen!
D. E. Horn & Co., Inc. is proud to announce the appointment of Mr. John
Munro as Poultry Service Manager. Mr. Munro will be available to all Homco cus
tomers for advice and guidance on vaccination programs, antibiotic potentiation.
ventilation, and other complex and unsolved problems of the pouhry industry.
With management becoming of utmost importance to poultry raising the
addition of Mr. Munro to the Hornco well rounded service staff will be a most use
ful and profitable service to the business poultrymen of this area.
Mr. Munro is a graduate of Cornell University where he majored in poultry
husbandry. He acquired a vast experience with poultry during the past five years
while he worked for one of the most successful broiler operations in the Delmarva
area where he had complete responsibility of 800,000 broilers.
FEEDS
D. E. HORN & CO., Inc. york, ps. Phone 2-7867
mechanization of crop pro
duction and livestock feed
ing operations. They will al
so hire more services, such
as spraying, dusting and
fertilizing, and obtain more
professional management as
sistance, including help in
buying and selling livestock.
Greater use of these pro
duction materials and servi
ces will help farm operators
to increase the size of their
enterprises without losing
their control of management
Changes in size of farm
enterprises between now and
1975, the agricultural econo-
Hw SAVINGS - FROM THE
NEW! SIIAKO.V BUILDING SYSTCIP
LESS ita *l°° t« so,«i>ei.ivi:iii:i>
SSSSSSSSSf JSSSSSr sssssssssss
WRITE TODAY , ... ..
• The Sharon Ituilomg
I System provider you With
• economical standard si/ed build-
Caleb M. Wenger I ~ 11 ““ "" d
I Typical Example
R. D. -1 I
QUARRYVILLE, PA. |
Drumore Center | I —' 40’ X 84’
KI 8-2116 I $3298.00
| DELIVERED
roMiMETfe PRODUCTS,
Introducing...
John Munro
“Poultry Service Manager”
Call us today for advice on your
problems. Let us prove when
you buy Hornco Feeds ~
“Service Makes The Difference”
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday. April 29, 1961
mist believes, will vary con
siderably, depending on type
of operation and geographic
location.
Dairy farms will continue
to increase in size and de
crease in number Many
small herds will gradually
be absorbed by dairymen
able to invest the extra
capital necessary to meet
stricter sanitation require
ments and to obtain advan
tages of larger scale operr
tion Even sn, Stewart be
heves, dairying in 1P75 will
still be largely a family-oper
ated business,
Exceptions will be those
having unusual location and
specialization advantages as
the drylot danes in southern
California. A few dairy farms
may be integrated with a
feed business, whose pri
mary interest is maintaining
feed sales volume.
Average number of cows
on family-operated dairy fa
rms may increase 25 to 30
per cent by 1975. This is a
bout the same percentage In
crease that occurred during
the past 15 years. Farms
with stanchion barns will
probably average 30 to 35
cows, and farms equipped
with loose housing may aver
age as high as 40 to 50
cows.
Dairymen in the Northeast
will probably intensify for
age production at the expen
se of gram production and
'uy more concentrates In
the Midwest, they will likely
mcieasc production of for
ages and grains
Other livestock farmers
"dso will take advantage of
labor-saving techniques and
specialization to reduce unit
production costs. Stewart
says, however, that reduct
ions in unit costs usually
tend to level out within the
■size range of family farms
tJSDA studies, for examp
le, have shown that unit
costs on a large-scale live
stock farm are only 5 per
cent lower than such costs
on a compaiable 1 man farm
In an Illinois Agricultural
Experiment Station survey in
northern Illinois, optimum
use of land, labor, and capi
tal was found on farms of
260 to 339 acres
Hog Production May Expand
In the Corn Belt, limited
foiage supplies will encou
rage some livestock farmers
to expand hog production
rather than beef production
Labor reoulfemenls, as well
as capital and managerial
limitations, will prevent ex
oansion to the 1,000 or more
hogs that one man can raise
But 500 to 600 hogs per
farm (compared to an aver
age of 170 today) may be
commonplace by 1P75. Hog
oroducers will increase feed
gram supplies by shortening
crop rotations and using
more fertilizer. But they will
need to buy additional con
centrates.
Corn Belt farmers not in
position to expand hog pro
duction may put greater
emphasis on beef cattle in
an effort to increase effici
ency and meet market de
mands for uniform quality
of products. Other farmers
in the area may discontinue
all livestock enterprises
Many of these operators will
take off-farm jobs and shift
to cash-crop production as a
oart time operation
Cattle ranches, Stewart
believes, will change less in
the next 15 years than Corn
Belt livestock farms, becau
se ranchers are already
highly specialized and have
tew production alternatives
But these primary producers
of feeder cattle will need to
increase volume of business
and develop unifoim product
quality to meet specifications
of order buyers and contract
feeders
Large-scale livestock feed
ing will become increasingly
important in the West and
Southwest, where expanding
markets coincide with abun
dant supplies oi livestock
leed grains, and supplemen
tal forage But the size ol
these enterprises will be
checked somewhat by mana
gerial limitations and asso
ciated risks and unccrtan
ties Farm-sized feeding op
erations will continue to pre
dominate m the Midwest be
cause of the availability ol
fai m-grown feeds and other
wise unmarketable operator
and family labor
Vertical integration will
almost surely dominate the
broiler and egg industries
Production in 1975 will be
laigoly under contract—with
producers providing labor,
housing, and equipment, and
11