Q17 - Ostrich farming requires far less areage than

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Inference

Stimulus Breakdown:
We're presented with a comparison between ostrich farming and cattle ranching.

Ostrich farming:
Startup requires one acre
Startup requires two pairs of yearling ostriches
Ostriches reproduce faster

Cattle ranching:
Startup requires two acres per cow
Startup requires one bull and a large herd of cows

Overall:
Ostrich farming has greater start-up costs
Ostrich farming can net 5x what cattle farming does

Answer Anticipation:
We know what each kind of farming requires on start-up, and we know start-up costs for ostrich farming are greater. Comparing those requirements, we can see that ostrich farming requires fewer animals, but cattle ranching requires more land. Since the land costs for cattle ranching are necessarily more expensive (since the land is similar, but there's more of it), the other costs for ostrich farming (the animals) must be larger than the other costs for cattle ranching to make up for the cheaper land cost.

Correct answer:
(A)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Boom. Right off the bat we get the comparison we were looking for. Since ostrich start-up costs are higher, but it requires less land, the animal costs have to be greater.

(B) Relative vs. Absolute. Cattle ranching may be 5x less lucrative than ostrich farming, but it might still make enough money to be worthwhile.

(C) Out of scope. While the cost of feeding the animals certainly factors into the long-term income generation, it's only one of many costs, and so we can't say that the feed costs is what makes one more or less lucrative than the other. Especially since, in this case, we don't know if ostrich feed or cattle feed costs more.

(D) Degree/Bad generalization. Ostrich farms can bring in 5x what cattle farms do, but we don't know that's the average.

(E) Out of scope/Relative vs. Absolute. While start-up costs are higher for ostrich farming, we don't know that they're high enough to cause a loss on the part of the farmers. Additionally, while start-up costs are higher, we can't conclude that they're high.

Takeaway/Pattern:
This question follows a similar pattern to many other comparative Inference questions. A lot of relative information is thrown at us, but there's a gap in that information. The piece of information in that gap can be inferred. Here, the gap was in the specific costs of the animals for starting each type of farm.

#officialexplanation

[Emmeline Ndongue]

damn, I missed out on that "average" and picked D, I also missed out on the info of "similar land". Here just to provide an easy explanation for A
Cattle ranching: a larger herd of cows, one bull, (assume cost $A) and at least two acres per cow.
Ostrich farming: two pairs of yearling ostriches (assume cost $B) and one acre of "similar land".
so here the per acre price of land (assume X) are supposed to be the same and Cattle ranching should need more acres of land. (assume cattle needs 100 acres)
We're told that startup costs of Ostrich farming are greater, and thus we have:
(B$ + 100acres*X$) - (A$ + 1acre*X$)>0
-> (B - A) + (99acres*X$)>0 ,
-> ∵ 99acres*X$>0 ∴ (B-A)$>0 (exactly what (A)suggests)

[YudeS218]

I can see why BCDE are all wrong, but not sure why A is right.
The start-up cost may include something more than land and animals. For example, maybe we need to purchase much more expensive equipment in order to maintain the survival of ostriches, or workers for foster ostriches are much more costly to hire.
So two pairs of yearling ostriches are less expensive than a herd of cows and a bull while still, the start-up costs for ostriches farming are greater.
Therefore A may also be wrong.

Feedback is appreciated!

[Emmeline Ndongue]

I can see why BCDE are all wrong, but not sure why A is right.
The start-up cost may include something more than land and animals. For example, maybe we need to purchase much more expensive equipment in order to maintain the survival of ostriches, or workers for foster ostriches are much more costly to hire.
So two pairs of yearling ostriches are less expensive than a herd of cows and a bull while still, the start-up costs for ostriches farming are greater.
Therefore A may also be wrong.

Feedback is appreciated!

this is "the most strongly supported" question, so you suppose to use the info from the stimulus instead of think of some other possibilities not mentioned or can't be true without certain amount of assumptions". The way you deal with this kind of question is similar to the way you do with "must be true" questions.