Problem: Valley Meat Company produces one of the best sausage products in Pennsylvania. The company's controller compiled the following information by analyzing the accounting records:
1. Meat costs the company $2.80 per pound of sausage produced.
2. Compensation of production employees is $2.00 per pound of sausage produced.
3. Supervisory salaries total $19,000 per month.
4. The company incurs utility costs of $8,000 per month plus $0.50 per pound of sausage produced.
5. Insurance and property taxes average $7,000 per month.
Required:
A. Classify each cost as variable, fixed, or semivariable.
B. Write a cost formula to express the cost behavior of the firm's production costs. (Use the form Y = a + bX, where X denotes the quantity of sausage produced.)