fJL yv Dairy Business Newton Bair The Penn State Agronomy Guide for 1985-1986 lists the cost of producing an acre of corn. If you haven’t studied it, get your copy now and further your education. Anyway, you can’t afford to farm without this bible of crop production. It contains all the information you need to grow crops efficiently. The production costs published in the Agronomy Guide are real, honest, and as complete and ac curate as anyone can assemble. Everything that can be measured in dollars is included. And some of the items like machine ownership costs and labor and land are the ones that you and I often overlook when we figure our costs, and they turn out to be the “biggies.” Now you should read the details yourself, but the figures on con ventional tillage really caught my eye. The average hours of labor to produce an acre of com turns out to be just 4.2 hours. Not too bad, but it was multiplied by $6.00 an hour and averaged out at a cost of A / ' I You bee fee*. Puri lor If you see your feed costs as an investment: measure the value of your feeding program by such things as return on investment, maximum pounds of pork produced per ton of feed fed, and days to mar ket; and, you want a high energy, fat-added ration... Talk to your Purina dealer about the High Octane line—available as complete rations or in a concentrate to be mixed with your own grain. Feeds that fit the way you operate. “jp ‘Registered trademark ol Ralston Purina Company High Octane is a registered trademark of Purina Mills Inc • Punna Mills Inc 1986 $25.14 an acre for labor. You can use your own labor value to calculate your cost. But machine costs are another matter. The average operating cost for all machinery to grow an acre of corn was $28.00 an acre. Add to that the FIXED cost of the machinery, (these are the actual cost of owning the stuff, whether it is working or not). Fixed costs were $44.51 an acre. Add the two and machine cost is $72.51 an acre. These are calculated by spreading the purchase price and interest on the investment over all the acres grown by each individual grower, so they are as real as life. The other big fixed cost is land The land cost is usually based on actual rental figures, but includes amortized ownership costs as well. The average fixed land cost was $52.50 per acre. You may be ren ting land at $BO.OO to $125.00 an acre, and that racks up an ad ditional fixed cost on your corn crop. Even if you grow 150 bushel of com per acre, a land cost of $125 Ever since they introduced High Octane® 2.6. ** * increases your cost per bushel by $0.84. Figure it out for yourself The costs of growing corn, which by the way were compiled from figures gathered from some of the top growers in the state, are summarized like this. Total operating costs $176.34, total fixed costs $92.61, for a total production cost of $268.96 an acre. The average yield was 120.8 bushels per acre, resulting in a total cost of $2.23 a bushel. Those figures all came from the 1983 Pennsylvania Five-acre Corn Club, and so they are three years old already The question one should ask is, have things changed for ‘ •v.l! " MERCER Mercer County recently held their annual DHIA awards banquet. The county finished the year with 104 herds and 4,983 cows on test averaging 14,838 M and 550 F. Receiving the award for high herd in milk and fat production was John Angermeier, Sharp sville. His herd averaged 21,150 M and 721 F. Angermeier was also honored for having the high Holstein herd for fat production. The Most Improved Herd award went to Mrs. Martin Gall, Cochranton with an increase of 3,509 pounds of milk. Mrs. Gall was also recognized for having the high Red and White herd for fat production with 677 pounds. Vantage Jerseys owned by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Koontz, Fredonia took home the award for high Jersey herd for fat production with 654 pounds. % YOU to produce corn this year? Do you really care what it costs’ If you already own the land and have a committed investment in machinery, you have little alternative but to use it to grow whatever crops you need for feed, or hope to sell for a profit. If you are trying to decide whether to rent land or buy machinery to grow cash corn, it’s time to sharpen the pencil. You may decide that the margin of profit between the actual cost of production and the projected price for cash corn is too narrow for comfort. The real tough decisions on cropping this year are on Mercer dairymen win DHIA awards Harold Hill, Sandy Lake, received the award for high Mixed herd for fat production with a record of 692 pounds. Harold Ealy, Sharpsville, was recognized for having the high Guernsey herd in fat production, with a record of 612 pounds. Brown Swiss breeder Ralph Oakes, Jackson Center received the High Fat Production award for this breed with a record of 584 pounds. Somatic Cell Count awards were also given to those herds with counts below 164,000. Receiving these awards were: Joe Quar terson, Hermitage; Randy Jones, LANCASTER - Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board staff members Alan Musselman and Karen Freeman will be in the Blue Ball and Churchtown areas for the day on Thursday, Feb. 20th to talk with landowners about the Agricultural Preserve proposed for East Earl and Caernarvon Townships and discuss other details of the far mland preservation program. Interested landowners are in vited to stop by the East Earl Township municipal building between 8:30 a.m. and noon or the $$ SAVE THOUSANDS $$ FINAL WINTER CLEARANCE SALE! TAKE IMMEDIATE OR SPRING DELIVERY! * SAVINGS FROM $l5OO to $5,000 ON SIZES FROM 20’ TO 70 f WIDE ACT NOW! LIMITED OFFER! Workshops-Grain Storage-Machine Storage-Livestock ATLANTIC BUILDING SYSTEMS INC. ATTENTION: Hundreds of satisfied customers upon request. CALL TOLL FREE NOW! 1-800-942-1234 V80M3M338 in New York State in Pennsylvania & Ohio Ag Preserve we can afford to crop marginal land. By this I mean land that has a 60 to 80 bushel yield potential. The lower the yield potential is, the higher the bushel cost will be. Hilly, eroded, shaley, or wet land can be called marginal, and cropping it in com in highly questionable. Production costs can be squeezed only so far, and the end result should always be measured in cost per bushel and compared with the market price, whether you intend to sell or feed the com. If you can’t see a profit, leave it in grass and harvest some cheap hay or pasture, and save a little soil for your grandchildren. Mercer; Donald Yasnowsky, New Wilmington; Vantage Jersey, Fredonia; Arthur Baxter, Stoneboro; Dale L. Kepner, Sandy Lake; and Arvid and Kathy Kobosky, Cochranton. The top three herds in the yearly herd average 600 - 700 pounds protein class were: Clarence Minner, New Wilmington; John Angermeier, Sharpsville; and Art Baxter, Stoneboro. Dewayne and William Coulter own the cow with the highest milk and fat production for the year. This cow produced a record of 222139 M and 7765 F. meeting set Caernarvon Township municipal building between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. The East Earl Township office is located along Route 322 across from the east end of Blue Ball. Phone number; (717 ) 354-5593. The Caernarvon Township office is located along Route 23 in Chur chtown, by the Friendship Village Restaurant. Phone number; (215) 445-4244. East Earl Township will also hold a town meeting on Wed nesday, March 19th at 7:30 p.m. at the Goodville Fire Hall to discuss the Agricultural Preserve proposal in the township.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers