Reducing Costs of Handling and Hauling Live Chickens from Farms to Processing Plants

Excerpt from the Preface: This report presents some preliminary results of the cost phase of a study of handling and hauling live poultry from farm to processing plants in New England during 1957-59. These results will aid managers of assembly firms or assembly departments in integrated firms to increase operating efficiency and reduce costs. The methodology used in this study will permit firms to compare their operations with model firms of similar size, and also to estimate the cost reductions they might achieve by expanding capacity, increasing the volume hauled per mile of truck travel, or making other changes in firm type and practices. The study is part of a broad program of research conducted cooperatively by the Economic Research Service and the New Hampshire and Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Stations to improve the marketing of poultry in New England