Agricultural pricesWallace, Henry A. (Henry Agard)
Science
Agricultural prices
Wallace, Henry A. (Henry Agard)
Agriculture -- Statistics; Farm produce; Prices
Applying the ratio method, we will take as our base the ten-year period
from 1897 to 1906. During this period Iowa land averaged about $50 an
acre; harvest labor, without board, $2 a day; corn, 29.4 cents a bushel;
hay, $5.47 a ton; oats, 23 cents a bushel; Dun’s metals, about $14, and
Dun’s miscellaneous, about $15. The average acre of Iowa corn during
this ten-year period was worth on a December 1st farm basis $10.
Now, in 1919, Iowa land was worth about $192 an acre, or 384 per cent of
the basic ten-year period; man labor, without board, at harvest time was
around $5.20 a day, or approximately 260 per cent of this ten-year basic
period. In like manner, corn was 410 per cent; oats, 280 per cent; hay,
330 per cent; Dun’s metals, 230 per cent, and Dun’s miscellaneous, 230
per cent. If land is allowed a weighting of 35 per cent; man labor, 20
per cent; corn, 15 per cent; hay, 10 per cent; oats, 5 per cent; Dun’s
metals, 10 per cent, and Dun’s miscellaneous, 5 per cent, we arrive at
329 per cent as the cost of producing an acre of corn in 1919, as
compared with 100 per cent for the basic ten-year period. In the basic
ten-year period, an acre of corn actually sold for $10. In 1919, in
order to come as near breaking even as in the basic ten-year period, an
acre of corn should sell for $32.90. The ratio method gives almost
identically the same results as the farm management method. Both
indicate that it cost the average Iowa farmer in 1919 about 80 cents to
produce a bushel of corn on a basis of December 1st farm values.[4]
The ratio method may be applied to other crops by using a somewhat
different weighting of the production factors. In the case of oats in
Iowa, for instance, land may be given a weighting of about 35 per cent;
man labor, 15 per cent; corn, 10 per cent; hay, 10 per cent; oats, 15
per cent; Dun’s metals, 10 per cent, and Dun’s miscellaneous, 5 per
cent. This would indicate that oats in Iowa in 1919 cost about 324 per
cent as much as in the basic ten years. In the basic ten-year period,
the average acre of oats in Iowa sold for $8. We may therefore conclude
that the cost of producing oats in 1919 was 324 per cent of $8, or
$25.92. With an average yield of thirty-three bushels per acre, the cost
per bushel was about 78 cents on a December 1st farm basis.
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