Iowa farmers generally arc thought to be among the most efficient in the nation. They have been in the vanguard in adopting the results of scientific research. New crop varieties and new machines have encountered relatively little resistance in Iowa as compared to other agricultural areas, However, efficiency in the use of agricultural resources also may be assessed by other criteria. One criterion for judging the performance of an economic system is the total amount of goods and services that arc produced with a given set of resources and technical knowledge.

Economic analysis gives the conditions which must hold true if the total product or return is to be at a maximum for a given quantity of resources, If the value of total agricultural production of Iowa is to be as great as possible from the resources in use, each farmer must arrange his resources so as to yield the greatest value of product. This condition implies that it would be impossible for the individual farmer to increase his earnings, given his preferences for leisure time, etc., by transferring a resource from its present use to another use within the farm business.