130 
In order to develop a method to assess productivity or 
income of agricultural enterprises two levels of knowledge 
(reference level) are required: a general overview of the 
larger national and international agricultural systems, and 
specific details on the economics of the individual farm. 
Constraints on the length of this report have resulted in 
only a brief discussion of the latter. 
For those unfamiliar with the study area it should be 
noted that family owned farms are dominant, although large cor 
porate farms are becoming more numerous. The typical farm is 
between fifty and one hundred contiguous hectares, with some 
matt 
cost 
othe 
retu 
The 
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fore 
much larger and others with dispersed holdings. Average minimum 
field size on most farms would be two to five hectares; large 
fields may be fifty hectares. 
grap! 
sum 
farm 
The common crops are corn (ensilage and grain), hay, 
pasture, wheat, oats, and barley. Although other field crops 
are important in the province (e.g. beans), these are not 
common in the areas selected in this study for ground truth. 
Poultry, sheep, horse, fruit, vegetable, fur, sod and tobacco 
farms were excluded. All other cash crop, beef, swine, dairy 
and mixed enterprises were included. In the study areas 
selected from Ontario (Fig. 1) these represented over ninety- 
five per cent of the agricultural land area, and over eighty- 
five per cent of the primary agricultural value produced. 
If a small part of Ontario was selected for intensive 
study of farm income the Common practice today would be to 
mail questionnaires, request access to the farmer's accounting 
ledgers, or to use a few sample farmers who have agreed to close 
scrutiny of their operations. Even to the farmers assured 
privacy and confidentiality none of these.methods would obtain 
a large sample in a short period of time, although the best 
possible data source (the farmer's ledgers) would be used. 
When farm accounting guidelines are analyzed (see Ontario 
Farm Record Book, OMAF) they specify virtually all input costs, 
grair 
grair 
hay 
fluic 
indus 
convs 
weanl 
feeds 
cow c 
feeds 
yearl 
feeds 
from grease to fence repairs) and all outputs (value and quan 
tity of milk sold, etc.), as well as a record of all capital 
inventory. Rather than use the detail as suggested by account- 
1,. A1 
pr 
ing methods more general data may be obtained for farm types 
to produce an economic model of the farm to be used with specific 
farms. For example the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food 
2. La 
re 
used a small sample to establish what the average production 
costs were in various years for agricultural products across 
the province, including the study area used here. (Farm Business 
3. Fc 
in 
Management in Ontario, OMAF) These costs may be adjusted, 
using certain formula, for any year up to the present. Prices 
SO 
paid for outputs may be obtained from governmental publications 
(OMAF, Statistics Canada, etc.) and reports in the daily press 
(Globe and Mail). 
De 
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