10


the program to automatically use the price from the specified price vector.

 Operating Inputs. The next section of part 6 of the input form (rows

11-37) is typically used in the specification of the operating inputs

required in the enterprise. These operating inputs include seed, fertil-

izer, chemicals, crop insurance and any of the other many factors used in

agriculture. Custom hired operations are also included in this section,

although all owned machinery operating costs are computed by the program

based on the operations specified in the final section of part 6 (rows

38-48).

 The coding of operating inputs is basically the same as that for pro-

duction. For the corn grain example, this may be illustrated by the

entries necessary to account for the seed requirement of the enterprise.

Specifically, assume that the corn is planted in April at a rate of 12

pounds of seed per acre, and at a cost of $.75 per pound. The entries

necessary for this information are as follows:

 Line No. Col. 4 Col. 13 Col. 15 Col. 16
 Apr. Price Unit Item
 (11) Seed 12. .75 12. 404.

The interpretation of these entries is the same as previously discussed

for the products. It should be noted, however, that the seed codes are

equal to the product codes plus 300. The remaining operating inputs are

encoded in the same manner as this seed example.

 Machinery Usage. Rows 38-48 are used to enter the machinery require-

ments for the enterprise, from which machinery operating and ownership

costs are calculated within the program. Only owned machinery should be

included as custom hire operations are included among operating inputs