Effect of Herd Size on Dairy Chore Labor

Abstract

RECENT YEARS have witnessed the introduction of a flood of new techniques in farming. Technological developments include mechanization and the increased use of mechanical power in both crop and livestock production. They also include revolutionary changes in breeding, feeding, disease control, and other contributions of the biological sciences. A striking effect of these new techniques has been to increase the productivity of human labor and thereby the size of unit a farmer can handle. With this has come increased size of farm units and greater specialization within the farm business. Farmers are concentrating on fewer enterprises in order to distribute the cost of expensive equipment involved in these new techniques over more units of business. This concentration on fewer crops or fewer classes of livestock enables farmers to keep up more effectively with the new techniques that are en.tering the picture.