Farm Business Management Data and Practices in South Dakota: 1956 Annual Report

This project, Farm Business Management Data and Practices , was set up to begin in 1955, with farmers and ranchers in the seven types-of-farming areas in South Dakota keeping records on receipts, expenses, inventories, and other items and having their books analyzed by the Agricultural Experiment Station Economics Department at the end of the year. Only a few participated the first year, but in 1956 a total of 57 cooperators turned in record books for analysis. The purpose of this project if to obtain data on costs, returns, and organization on farms and ranches of various types in the different types-of-farming areas of the state, for use by the Experiment Station, the Extension Service, and the College croper, in farm planning, budgeting, and teaching. At the same time, it provides information to the cooperators as to the efficiency of their operations and how they cooperate with the other participants. The analysis of a farm or ranch business helps to locate weak spots and opportunities for improving efficiency and income. The data from the records and analysis can also be used by other farmers and ranchers for purposes of comparison with their own. Unlike many farm record routes, this project involves no fees to be paid by the cooperator. All costs of record books, visits, and analysis are borne by the Station. Cooperators are visited two or three times a year by the project leader or his representative. Records kept include farm inventories, cash receipts and expenses, feed consumed by the various classes of livestock, family living secured from the farm, livestock births, deaths, and transfers, and crops produced. This project represents the first attempt to obtain farm record information from all of the areas of the state. From 19h3 to 1952, projects were carried on in the North Central and Southeastern areas, but no work vas done in the rest of the state. Feed records were also included for the first time, in an attempt to obtain information as to returns from and profitability of the different livestock enterprises