CB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 7,1981
Can a small farming operation
BERNVILLE Does it pay the
small to medium-sized farmer to
purchase a corn picker, or is it
better to have someone come in
and custom combine the corn?
Most farmers who put the pencil
to this question will conclude it
does indeed pay to own their
pickers, even when the cost ot
owning one, cash flow, is con
sidered. One Berks Countv farmer
who attests to this cost analysis is
Rodney Garrett of Bernville.
Garrett farms 60 acres of shale
farmground which lies next to a
small stream called Plum Creek
He grows 13 acres of sweet corn, 22
acres of wheat and 25 acres of field
com on his land.
This year, says Garett, rather
than hiring a custom machine to
harvest his corn, he will be using
his own one-row New Idea corn
picker. "I sat down and figured the
cost of having my corn custom
combmed versus buying my own
com picker, and 1 was surprised,”
he explains.
What convinced Garrett that his
small operation could afford a new
piece of equipment? Scratch
papers covered with lines and
columns of figures analyzing costs
and savings not only for one
year, but for several.
Garrett determined that if he
went back to luring a custom
machine to do the harvesting, it
would cost him $20.50 an acre. At
that price, it would cost him $512.50
to have the 25 acres of field corn
picked.
Then, in order to dry the corn
down to the point where spoilage
would not be a factor, Garrett
figured it would cost 25 cents a
bushel. Anticipating a yield of 3,000
bushels, drying costs would be an
additional $750.
Garrett also estimated his losses
for selling the com directly out of
the field as opposed to storing it on
the farm at 15 cents a bushel, or
$450.
Altogether, the cost for custom
picking tus corn came to $1,712.50,
based on his calculations.
And, figuring the custom
machinery may not arrive at the
optimum time to harvest tus corn,
Garrett says he had to figure
additional expenses for field
losses.
How much loss is difficult to
determine, according to Garrett.
For his calcualtions, he referred to
field studies from various
universities that demonstrated
how late harvesting losses amount
to 4-17 bushels per acre. “1 chose
the low side of field losses so as not
to kid myself on the economics of
justifying my corn picker pur
chase,” Garrett points out.
Using the 4 bushel loss factor,
Garrett determined he would be
losing an additional $325 for the
hazards of late harvest, bringing
the total to $2,037.50 tor the 25
acres.
Garrett admits that no har
vesting unit can harvest 100 per
cent of the corn in the field.
However, he points out that the 4
bushel loss he used in his cost
dilui) i>l«i cuilic ii uili Ji*
curred during field shelling along
with some downed corn due to late
harvest
When considering the alter
native to custom hiring the
purchase ot a corn picker
Garrett found that a new machine
cost about $5,000. Along with the
picker, Garrett figured he’d need
to buy a used wagon, a 25-foot
elevator, and a shelter tor a cost ot
$l,OOO. Storage space for 5,000
bushels of corn already was
available in the form ot corn cribs,
so no financial outlay was
necessary tor that aspect.
Anticipating that he could get the
entire $O,OOO he needed tor the
picker and other equipment from
Production Credit Association at
an average interest rate ot lb
percent over 5 years, Garrett
pushed hi*? non*’ ll determine the
PHILADELPHIA - Dr. William
J. Donawick, a veterinary surgeon
who developed a system for storing
the heart of an animal in another
species during transplantation,
has been named to the newly
created Mark Whittier and Lila
Griswold AHam Professorship at
the University of Pennsylvania
School of Veterinary Medicine.
The chair, which was created
with a gift from Mrs. J. Maxwell
Moran of Paoli, honors another
distinguished veterinary surgeon
and the Veterinary School’s for
mer dean, Dr. Mark W. Allam,
emeritus professor of surgery, and
Mrs. Allam.
Dr. Donawick, who first came to
the University of Pennsyvlania is
an instructor of veterinary
medicine in 1964, trained at the
University’s School of Veterinary
Medicine and its School of
Medicine in surgery and tran
splantation biology. By 1970 he was
developing techniques for storing
an animal heart in another species,
experiments which have im
plications for human as well as
animal transplantion.
He discovered that the hearts of
goats could survive in calves if the
animals’ natural tendency to
reject foreign tissues was sup
pressed with drugs. By 1975 he had
successfully transplanted goat
hearts into calves for storage up to
two weeks before returning them
to other goats. Techniques that Dr.
You’ll want to hear David K. Sauder, President,
Trade Tech Management, Inc. and Lancaster Farming
Columnist as the guest speaker at the Pennsylvania
Farmer's Assn. Annual Meeting for their Marketing
Conference.
Here’s a quote;
"If time lasts, we are now at the end of a 510 year cycle for Western Civilization.
We have some very critical choices which must be made. It's either radical change or
revolution and poverty. It will be one or the other. And it will come within the next
20 years." You as a farmer will have something to say about that."
Hear the remainder of this speech next Monday at
PFA Annual Meeting, Suites E-G, Hershey Lodge and
Convention Center, Hershey, PA. Time is 3:00 to 4:00
p.m.
For more information about the convention or for
additional printed quites from this speech, write to
Trade Tech Management, Inc., 1020 Stony Battery
Road, Lancaster, PA 17601. Or Phone: (717) 898-
0139.
financing cost would be $1,832.4b
per year, paid to PCA after each
season’s* corn was sold.
Since he’d be operating the corn
picker hunselt, the cost of tuel
would now be his expense rather than
the custom operator’s, Garrett notes.
To determine what his fuel
expense would be, Garrett checked
in with several of his neighbors and
found that they claimed they could
pick #-10 acres of corn per day
when conditions were right.
"1 figured it would take me 30
tractor hours to pick my corn
and that figure was on the sate
side,” recalls Garrett. He deter
mined his 50 HP tractor would use
about 75 gallons of fuel. Based on a
price of $1.38 a gallon, fuel costs
worked out to be $lO2.
Figuring the cost of financing
and operating the corn picker.
Penn vet is first
Dona wick pioneemed may one day
be used to store human hearts in
other primate species until a
human patient is identified and
prepared to receive it.
Dr. Donawick has served as both
chief of staff and chief of large
animal surgery at New Bolton
Center, the Veterinary School’s
large animal facility at Kennett
square where he was a member of
the team that produced the first
“test-tube” calf bom in June, 1981.
Currently, Dr. Donawick is doing
research on “colic” which is one of
the most common, feared and
deadly diseases in horses. Colic is
usually caused by a blockage m the
intestine which may be surgically
removed providing the horse is in
condition to have the surgery
performed. Dr. Donawick and his
colleagues are studying the effects
of blockage of the intestine on the
movements of water, sodium and
potassium across an intestine that
has been temporarily obstructed.
Their hope is to develop a method
for regulating the water balance
between the body and the intestine,
which in turn would give the horse
a better chance for survival.
Dr. Donawick received his B.S.
from Cornell University and his
D.V.M. from "New York State-
Veterinary College at Cornell
University in 1963. He is currently
president-elect of the American
College of Veterinary Surgeons (a
specialty college founded by Dr.
TRADE TECH MANAGEMENT, INC.
afford a corn picker?
Garrett calculated the cost of
m.iiiiig Ills ow i cquipuit-itl to be
$1,035.46 toi the lu st year.
Looking at what might happen to
the cost of custom picking during
the length of his 5 year loan, the
Berks County farmer said he could
foresee at least a 5 percent jump in
price each year. At the end of 5
years, his investment m someone
else’s tune and equipment would
come to $11,258.51.
For both the custom and owner
calculations, the net costs were
determined after tax savings,
including the investment credit for
the puchase of the harvesting
equipment, Garrett stresses.
His analysis showed that he
would come out ahead of the game
financially over 5 years if he opted
for his own picker. Allowing for a
$5O increase in the cost of tuel each
year, plus a total ot *2OO m repairs
* Allam ’ professor
HEAR THE REMAINDER
OF THIS SPEECH
NEXT MONDAY AT PFA
by David K. Sauder
Allam) and a member of the
American Veterinary Medical
Association and the Transplant
Society. He lives with his wife,
Bonnie, and their two children in
West Chester, Pa.
The chair to which Dr. Donawick
has been named honors Dr. Mark
W. Allam, who was dean of the
Veterinary School from 1952 to 1973
and is widely credited with
developing the school into one of
the finest m the nation.
“This chair permits me to ex
press my long admiration tor the
work ot Dr. Allam,” said Mrs. J.
Maxwell Moran. “It is through his
efforts that the Veterinary School
has grown to us current
prominence and New Bolton
Center has become a reality. ’'
Under Dr. Allam’s leadership,
the University of Pennsylvania
became the first veterinary
echo''! move away from
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to the equipment over the period,
the cost of owning his corn picker
totalled $10,477.30.
This gave Garrett slightly less
than $l,OOO margin between
custonung or owning a corn picker.
But his mind was made up when he
figured the resale value of the corn
picker at the end ot 5 years would
be $3,000 for a net difference ot
$3,781.21 m favor of owning the
harvesting equipment.
What rights ot ownership will be
granted to Garrett with the pur
chase of a new corn picker ? .
For one, he will have more
control of when his corn will be
harvested. And, he can sell the
corn either on the cub or shelled.
Above all, he can sell the corn
when he chooses. Garrett says he
calls it his market flexibility
program.’
the old agricultural and vocational
mode of education to become a
branch of the medical sciences. He
made the school into a center for
comparative medicine and
fostered the development of
specialties in veterinary medicine
parallelling human medicine.
A distinguished veterinary
surgeon. Dr. AUam was the first
veterinarian to do graduate work
in surgery in the School of
Medicine. Also he pioneered in
treating animal tumors with
radiation and developed several
diagnostic devices and surgical
techniques. His many honors in
clude the title Veterinarian of the
Year by both the Pennsylvania
Veterinary Medical Association
and the American Animal Hospital
Association.
Dr. AUam and his wife live in
Media.
CONTACT US
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