Agriculture Commons^™

B854: Cost Of Producing Milk In Maine: Results From The 2013 Cost-Of-Production Survey, Xuan Chen,, Gary Anderson, Dylan Bouchard, Julia Mcguire, George K. Criner, David Marcinkowski

Bulletins

The state of Maine has a unique tier-pricing program for dairy farms, established in 2004, which has been funded by milk-handling fees paid by processors. Given the nature of volatile production costs in dairy farming, it is important to update the baseline cost estimates for each tier every three years. This study aims to provide a precise baseline estimate of cost of production for each tier so that state legisla­tors can better manage the tier-pricing program. The authors provide a historic overview of past Maine dairy cost-of-production studies. They analyze the trend of the cost of producing milk in Maine …

B853: Cost Of Producing Milk In Maine: Results From The 2010 Dairy Cost Of Production Survey, Richard Kersbergen, Gary Anderson, George Criner, Anthony Davis

Bulletins

The present study reports on a survey conducted for the Maine Milk Commission to determine the cost of milk production for 2010. This assessment was undertaken sooner than the normal three-year update because of the difficult economic climate for dairy farms in Maine.

B851: A Comparative Analysis Of Organic Dairy Farms In Maine And Vermont: Farm Financial Information From 2004 To 2006, Timothy J. Dalton, Robert Parsons, Richard Kersbergen, Glenn Rogers

Bulletins

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide an insight into the relative financial performance of organic dairy farming through the examination of three years of detailed farm financial records. Farm financial records were collected in person by trained enumerators from organic dairy operations in Maine and Vermont for the 2004–2006 production years. These farm records are complemented by surveys on farm and farmer characteristics along with farmers’ motivational interests for organic dairy production and performance satisfaction. This report, therefore, provides a rich financial perspective on the evolution of organic dairy farming performance unlike single-season surveys.

B850: Representative Farm Budgets And Performance Indicators For Integrated Farming Practices In Maine, Aaron K. Hoshide, Timothy J. Dalton, Stewart N. Smith

Bulletins

This report compares the relative profitability and sustainability of Maine farms integrating crops and livestock with comparable non-integrated or conventional farms. Potato and dairy systems coupled for only two years had greater profitability compared to conventional systems. Profitability increased in the short term in two ways. First, potato farms grew more of their primary cash crop. Second, dairy farms expanded cow numbers, increasing profitability assuming increasing returns to scale. Coupled systems integrated for more than ten years (long term) had more favorable profitability and sustainability measures than short-term couplers since greater manure-nutrient credits were taken for potatoes and silage corn. …

B843: The Ecology, Economics, And Management Of Potato Cropping Systems: A Report Of The First Four Years Of The Maine Potato Ecosystem Project, A. Randall Alford, Francis A. Drummond, Eric R. Gallandt, Eleanor Groden, David A. Lambert, Matt Liebman, Michele C. Marra, Jeffrey C. Mcburnie, Gregory A. Porter, Bacilio Salas

Bulletins

The bulletin reports on the first four years of the Maine Potato Ecosystem Project, a long-term, multidisciplinary study of alternative crop management strategies. The study site is a 15-acre tract on the northern boundary of the University of Maine's Aroostook Farm in Presque Isle, Maine, divided into 96 main plots that are grouped into four blocks. Each block is an area where soil survey data show similar soil characteristics. Thus, given the same production inputs, the crop output is expected to be the same on each plot within a block. Within each block there are 24 plots to which the …

B832: The Profitability Of Supplemental Irrigation For Maine Potatoes, Michele C. Marra, Timothy A. Woods

Bulletins

The question has arisen among Maine potato growers and other industry personnel whether irrigation technologies can be transferred successfully into humid growing areas such as in Maine and whether they can benefit the Maine potato industry. This report presents the findings of a stud y that attempts to answer the question of whether adoption of two of these newer technologies might be profitable for an individual grower in Maine.

B823: Transporting Fresh Blueberries From Maine To The Boston Market: A Look At The Economic Alternatives, Antonia L. Hoelper, Michele C. Marra

Bulletins

A study was initiated at the University of Maine to investigate various transportation alternatives available to marketers of fresh blueberries and similar fresh-market enterprises to determine economies of size in shipping. Several methods of economic analysis, including partial budgeting and break-even analysis, were used to assess the feasibility of several transportation alternatives. The alternatives analyzed were (1) contract shipping services, while using various percentages of truck capacity, (2) purchase of a truck and large trailer (20,000 Ibs capacity), and (3) purchase of a truck and smaller trailer (10,000 Ibs capacity).

B799: Field Appraisal Of Resource Management Systems "Farms" Crop Yield And Quality Relationships With Soil Erosion, Paul R. Hepler, Lauren H. Long, John A. Ferwerda

Bulletins

This document presents objectives and preliminary results of the Field Appraisal of Resource Management Systems (FARMS) study. This study assumes that estimates of soil erosion using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) represent long-term rather than short- term effects. The FARMS study randomly sampled 2400 plots over a three year period, 1980-82, for: crop management, soils, conservation practices and management, crop yields, soil chemistry, and sociological data.

This report presents analyses from the 800 plots sampled in 1980. Statistics of rill and sheet soil erosion, as estimated by the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), are presented. Data are presented for …

B662: Costs And Returns On Maine Broiler Farms, Kenneth E. Wing, Frank D. Reed

Bulletins

This bulletin, in addition to presenting some statistical data on the growth and development of the broiler industry in Maine, includes the results of a survey made in 1967 of a representative sample of Maine contract broiler growers. A sample of 180 out of the approximately 900 broiler farms in Maine was surveyed during the summer of 1967 to obtain operating results for 1966. From this sample, 103 farms supplied information that was analyzed in this study. The average Maine broiler farm in 1966 had 20,913 square feet of floor space, which was unoccupied for an average of 65 days …

B655: Maine Egg Marketing: A Structural Study, Chung-Jeh Yeh

Bulletins

This study, from 1967, was designed to provide basic information concerning the movement of table eggs through the major marketing firms located in Maine. The primary purpose of the report was to aid in better understanding the structure of the present egg marketing systems in Maine in order that: (1) efficient alternatives to the present egg marketing systems could be developed, and (2) Maine's competitive position in out-of-state markets could be improved.

B639: Alternative Systems For Feeding Maine Dairy Cows, Homer Metzger, Dean F. Tuthill

Bulletins

This study was undertaken as part of a northeast regional effort to ascertain the methods used in feeding forages and concentrates to daily animals and to determine the relative amount of labor used under various systems. Special emphasis was given to methods of handling silages on Maine farms. Information obtained from one-day-a-month timings of feeding chores by 39 dairymen over a period of 13 months permitted comparisons of labor used for various systems of feeding dairy animals.

B637: Reducing The Frequency Of Home Delivery Of Milk, Homer Metzger, James H. Clarke

Bulletins

Home delivery of milk is faced with rising costs and price competition from stores. To remain in business the retail route operator must sell more product per customer or provide a minimum amount of service for customers. This report is concerned with the feasibility of providing a minimum amount of service through reducing the frequency of delivery on home delivery routes. Information on experience with and attitudes toward reduced delivery was obtained by personal and mail interviews from distributors in the northeast and from households in Kentucky, Maine and West Virginia during the period 1960 to 1963.This study is a …

B619: An Economic Study Of Sheep Production In Maine, Dean F. Tuthill

Bulletins

This study of sheep production in Maine was done in the summer of 1962 on the prior year's beep operation. Records of 60 producers were included in the study, approximately a 30 percent sample of producers with 20 or more mature ewes per flock. The bulletin describes the characteristics of sheep producers and their operations, the management and marketing practices, investments, and expenses.

B606: An Economic Study Of The Beef Cattle Industry In Maine, Dean F. Tuthill, John A. Graffam

Bulletins

This study was designed to determine the nature and location of the beef cattle industry of Maine, to investigate its economic aspects and to ascertain the conditions under which a beef enterprise would most likely succeed. This information should be useful to both present and prospective beef enterprise operators.

B593: Handling And Processing Broilers In Maine: Part Ii—Quality Losses In Live Broilers, And Methods Of Handling To Reduce Bruising And To Improve Efficiency, Lloyd J. Jewett, Richard Saunders

Bulletins

The time spent in getting broilers from the farm to the processing plant is a brief interval, yet it is during this period that most bruising occurs. Bruising lowers the quality of birds. This study from 1960 looks at the cause and amount of quality losses in broilers when they are moved from the farm to the plant; devises methods of reducing quality losses and improving labor efficiency, and evaluates the economic significance of these methods.

B592: Handling And Processing Broilers In Maine: Part 1—Costs And Efficiencies In Assembling Live Broilers For Processing, Lloyd J. Jewett

Bulletins

Processor-truckers are faced with the problem of how to move live broilers from the farm to the plant at lower cost and with less bruising. This study from 1960 was designed (1) to determine the costs and man-hour requirements for assembling live broilers, (2) to determine the importance of factors affecting assembly costs and labor requirements, and (3) to find ways of improving present conditions. An attempt was made to measure the effect of various types of broiler houses, load-out facilities, flock size and distance from farm to plant. Also an attempt was made to determine the effect of assembly …

B582: Competition Among Areas In Supplying Broilers To The New York Market, Elwood R. Littlefield, Charles H. Merchant

Bulletins

Many factors are responsible for the rapid expansion of the broiler industry in the United States from 356 million, birds in 1948 to 1,452 million in 1957. This report describes the factors such as larger units of production, greatly improved feeds, better disease control, and increased consumer demand for broilers.

B571: Contract Broiler Growing In Maine, Richard F. Saunders

Bulletins

The Maine broiler industry had its beginning in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the greatest development occurring after World War II. Live poultry buyers, who later became processors, were the originators of the industry and have played the leading role in its development. Processing and broiler production along with hatching egg production and hatchery operations are vertically integrated to a relatively high degree in Maine. Broiler production in Maine has continued to increase at a more rapid rate than broiler production in the entire United States. By 1957 broiler production in Maine had reached 50 million birds which …

B537: Supermarket Sales Of Poultry Meat, Richard Saunders

Bulletins

Shoppers' purchases of poultry meat were observed and recorded daily in four supermarkets located in Portland, Maine, over a two-month period, May and June, 1952. One month was spent in each of the two stores. To learn something of the seasonal pattern of consumers' purchases of poultry meat, observations were made again during November in the same supermarkets. The study revealed, among other things, that chicken was the biggest item in the poultry products line, that supermarkets sold more broilers and fryers than any other type of poultry meat, and that they were losing poultry sales by not having a …

B536: Consumer Poultry Meat Studies In The Northeast, Richard Saunders

Bulletins

In 1953, the subcommittee of the Northeast Regional Poultry Marketing Committee, considering the project "Consumer Preferences for, Consumer Purchases of, and the Market Demand for Poultry Products," decided to bring together in summary form the work completed and under way by research workers in the Northeast. The project was designed to address revolutionary changes in the poultry industry that had made it in increasingly important that the production and distribution of poultry meat and eggs be oriented to consumer preferences and market demand for these products.

B531: Sources Of Maine Poultry Meat And Market Outlets, W. E. Pullen, W. E. Savage

Bulletins

No episode in the history of Maine's agriculture was as spectacular as the rapid growth of the poultry meat industry. The leading role in this expansion was played by broilers. Within the 15-year span from 1938 to 1952, the number of broilers produced increased more than 50-fold, from less than 400,000 birds in 1938 to more than 23 million in 1952. Gross farm income from broilers increased even more rapidly, from about $200,000 in 1938 to nearly $24,000,000 by 1952. This expansion in commercial broiler production made the poultry industry jump from its usual third-place position as a source of …

B521: Containers For Shipping Apples, Homer C. Woodward

Bulletins

Studies since 1946 affirm that the major causes of apple bruising in Maine are the methods used in packing the containers, layer materials, and handling. During the past two years, the emphasis of the studies has been testing of different containers and packing materials to determine which give the apples the best protection. Those who pack apples have become increasingly conscious of the higher costs involved. Therefore, the cost of the various containers and packaging materials also was studied. Thus, the overall objective of the study was to determine what type(s) of container or containers and materials give the best …

B509: Commercial Washing Of Maine Potatoes, Alvah L. Perry

Bulletins

Shippers and receivers displayed considerable interest in a previous study which showed that shoppers would choose washed potatoes in preference to unwashed potatoes even though the washed potatoes were being sold at a premium price. The previous study was carried out with washing, grading, packaging, transporting, displaying, and pricing of the potatoes under the direct supervision of research personnel. The industry expressed a desire to test the acceptance of washed potatoes under commercial conditions where market forces would control demand and establish price. This study was conducted with that purpose in mind.

B493: Consumer Acceptance Of Washed Maine Potatoes, Alvah L. Perry, Charles H. Merchant

Bulletins

The broad objective of this study was to determine the feasibility as well as the problems associated with washing Maine potatoes. This is particularly important at this time in view of the general preference of housewives for clean potatoes as determined by a national survey by the United States Department of Agriculture and the increasing supplies of washed potatoes from competing areas in markets Maine normally serves. Specific objectives of this study were to determine (1) the keeping qualities of washed potatoes, (2) the costs associated with washing Maine potatoes including equipment, fuel, water, and shrinkage, and (3) the acceptance …