For a little of their time and some information about their farm’s setup, producers at the Crop Production Show last week in Saskatoon had a chance to win a 1:32 scale miniature Caterpillar combine.
“Producers are a little tired of filling out surveys, so I needed something to draw them in,” said Leigh Anderson with a smile.
The survey is designed to supply information for Anderson’s thesis titled Least Cost Expansion for Grain Farmers, which he must do to complete his fourth year in the agricultural economics program at the University of Saskatchewan.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
Agriculture has been geared toward expansion, but Anderson’s research suggests bigger isn’t always better.
“It’s about optimizing the number of acres you can get out of a machine so you can bring costs down… knowing when to add that second piece of machinery.”
Different combinations of farm size and equipment yield a variety of sweet spots, resulting in cost-effectiveness.
“If a farm wants to expand, there’s going to be times when they’re inefficient, when they’re caught between these areas,” said Anderson.
“If they’re caught between the optimal sizes, they might replace a (larger machine) with an older, smaller machine to make it more efficient.”
The research is specific to Saskatchewan and the province’s three distinct soil zones of black, dark brown and brown.
“Optimal farm size will vary between soil zones because different equipment can be used, depending on the zone,” said Anderson.
He will compare the data collected to ideal situations to see if Saskatchewan’s producers have the right ratio of acres to equipment.
In an e-mail, Anderson further explained that connections might exist between other factors and individual circumstances. A relationship may exist between a farm’s size and whether it has a grain dryer, the age of a producer and how long they are willing to run their equipment (24 hours a day, for example), or soil zones and the horsepower of the machinery.
Anderson had already done much of the legwork, but was having difficulty convincing producers to take time for his survey.
“They’re always getting called in the evening, so they’re getting sick of it,” he said.
The Crop Production Show provided the opportunity to get his survey to the farming public, but he knew he would need something to draw people in to do the 20 minute questionnaire.
“I had to offer them something to get the information,” he said, referring to the miniature.
“It attracts the little kids, and then they get their dad to fill it out.”
Anderson has also made his survey available on-line at survey.usask.ca/survey.php?sid=7844.
The thesis is due at the end of March.
