Idaho

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1795100052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179691

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Idaho

Edition:: [Rev. ed.]

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: Gov. Pr. Off.

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: VII, 80 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Report on the farmers' costs of production of sugar beets in Idaho for the years of 1921. 1922, and 1923

Collection:: Economics Books

‘COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS Sugar beets are now almost universally purchased upon a sliding price scale based upon the market price of refined sugar. Thus all factors affecting the price of sugar are reflected in the farmer’s price of sugar beets and in turn in his profits from the crop. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION The survey method was used in this investigation, that being a generally accepted and appropriate method of obtaining the produc- tion costs of an agricultural product. Trained agriculturists and cost accountants familiar with agricultural costs and farm practice in producing sugar beets and supplied with cost schedules? visited the growers on their farms and there obtained the necessary data for determining costs. Detailed data for 1922.—At the time the investigation was ordered the greater part of the 1923 crop of sugar beets had not been har- vested. Since the commission desired data for the most recently harvested crop, detailed costs were obtained for the 1922 production. These data were carefully checked and wherever possible were verified by the agents of the commission. Wages were checked against the going rates for the locality. Contract labor rates per acre and the prices of beet seed per pound were the actual figures stated in the contracts made by growers with the laborers and the factories. All of the data obtained from the growers on the amounts and value of perquisites supplied to contract laborers and the extra wages paid to them were checked against the local community rates for such items, and some of them were confirmed by the laborers themselves. Prices of horse feeds were checked against quoted market prices and prices of local dealers; taxes paid, against the tax records in the county courthouse; irrigation costs against the books of the irriga- tion company and the assessment records in the county courthouse. Land values and annual land rentals and the values of implements and work horses were compared with the averages for the commu- nity as estimated by prominent and well-informed local men other than farmers—such as bankers, realtors, land appraisers for the Federal land banks, economists, farm-management experts and agron- omists of the State agricultural colleges, the local county agricul- tural agents, and the farm-implement dealers. Interest rates were checked against rates given by the local bankers; the prices received for sugar beets against the prices paid the individual farmer as taken from the books of the sugar-manufacturing companies; the acreage and yield of beets per acre against the records of the factory with which the farmer contracted. Every schedule was carefully scruti- nized by a competent agricultural cost accountant other than the one taking the record from the farmer, both for the general reasonable- ness of the record and for accuracy as to quantity and value of the specific cost items. Calculations of costs for 1921 and 1923.—The details of the 1921 and 1923 costs were not obtained directly from growers but were determined by applying to the quantities of labor, horse-hours, seed, and other material employed in the production of an acre of sugar beets in 1922, the respective 1921 and 1923 cost per unit of each quantity. This method has been used by the United States Depart- 4 See appendix for form of schedule used.

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