Marketing Eggs in Eastern South Dakota : A Study of Pricing Policies and Practices of Country Egg Dealers

Egg sales provide producers with a fairly steady income throughout the year. This helps the producer over periods of low income and high expense resulting from thr seasonal nature if income from major cash crops. More than one-half of the eggs produced in South Dakota are shipped to out-of-state markets. In 1955 cash income derived from egg sales by producers was $28,116,000 or 6.1 per cent of South Dakota\u27s net farm income. Poultry and poultry products ranked fourth in importance of income derived from livestock and livestock products during the period from 1952 to 1955 in South Dakota. According to the 1950 Census of Agriculture chickens were reported on 83.1 per cent of the 66,450 South Dakota farms. The state\u27s poultry industry is concentrated in the eastern one-third of the state. Three-fourths of the state\u27s total chicken population are produced and marketed from farms in the eastern one-third of the state