Traktoranvändningens utveckling på ett antal bokföringsgårdar

Authors

• N. Westermarck Helsingfors universitets lantbruksekonomiska institution
• K. J. Weckman Helsingfors universitets lantbruksekonomiska institution

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.71540

Abstract

Object and Scope of the Investigation. During the years 1950, 1951 and 1952 an investigation was carried out at the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Helsinki, relating, among other things, to the use of tractors on 65 bookkeeping farms. The object of the present investigation is to ascertain to what extent changes have taken place since those years in the use of tractors and in the distribution of the time consumption among the various labour operations to which the tractors have been put. The investigation covered 240 farms and one year. i.e. the calendar year 1958. Results of the Investigation. The small number of farms (only 24) which participated both in the 1950—1952 investigation as well as in the present one, naturally constitutes a weak point when comparing the results of the two studies with each other. But on the other hand, the marked increase in the number of tractorized bookkeeping farms reflects the development which has actually taken place during the 1950’s. The results of the investigation are revealed in Tables 1–4 Conclusions The results of the study lead to the following conclusions: Whereas tractors on all the bookkeeping farms for which figures are available for the 1950—1952 period were employed for 453 hours per farm and 443 hours per tractor on the average, the respective figures in 1958 were 625 and 560. A significant increase in the use of tractors is accordingly confirmed. During the later time-period, tractors were employed for an appreciably greater variety of purposes than during the first-mentioned period. The manifold use of tractors is seen, above all, in their increased employment in drilling and manuring, in harvesting of crops and in transportation. While it is obvious that tractors are put to greater use on large farms than on small farms, the results seem to indicate that progressive tractorization leads to an increase in the difference between small and large farms, if the extent of tractorization is expressed as the time consumption per farm. The stage of tractorization represented in 1958 by the farms which had participated in both investigations was more advanced than that represented by the total number of farms participating in the 1958 investigation. The fact that the use of tractors on these farms increased much more than a comparison between the use of tractors on all farms during the years 1950 and 1958 would suggest, shows that there are, in general, favourable possibilities of a more effective utilization of tractors on farms in the initial stages of tractorization. An apparently contradictory picture is given by relating to the time consumed in the S-F IV size category ( > 50 hectares). It appears that when the number of tractors on a farm is increased, they are utilized less efficiently than when the farm kept fewer tractors.