Excerpt from Illinois Farm Economics: October, 1943

For 22 years, a group of farmers in Champaign and Piatt counties in east - central Illinois has kept records of the cost of producing farm crops. In 1942 the farmers included in this cost study had farms which were about 85 acres larger than those owned by the average farmer in the area, secured somewhat higher crop yields and had better managed {arms than did the average farmers in the two counties, and had lower costs than did many Of their neighbors.

Weather conditions in east-central Illinois were favorable for all im portant field crops with the exception of winter wheat. Early frosts in late September caused some damage to the late - planted soybeans, and because of a wet fall the harvesting of corn and soybeans was delayed some of it until the spring of 1943.

Man labor wage. In 1942, average monthly cash wages of farm laborers on the cost farms in Champaign and Piatt counties was and additional non-cash food, feed for milk cow and chickens, house, land for garden and other perquisites given farm labor amounted to a month at farm prices. This made the total monthly cost approximately per farm laborer. When the total hours that each hired man worked on these farms in 1942 was divided into his total cost while on the farm it showed the average hourly wage to be cents. This was 32 percent above the wage level in 1940 (fig.

Corn. In 1942 in Champaign and Piatt counties, Operating ex penses1 an acre Of corn were after credit was given for stalk pasture. When land charges were added, the net cost of producing an acre of corn was In 1942 on farms included in the study, the yield per acre was bushels, and the average cost per bushel cents (table These figures may be compared with those for the five-year period 1932-1936 when yield per acre was 42 bushels and the average cost per bushel was cents.

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