Dairy Farm Business

Dairying has its ups and downs. From the title, you may have thought of milk price going up or down or of feed prices going up or down. These are obvious real world examples, but in today’s dairy farm businesses, it may not be so simple as UPS or DOWNS. As we look at our dairy operations, implementing production or financial practices that can influence the different directions of these UPS and DOWNS could bring great satisfaction.

First, let’s look at aspects we might want to be going up:

Milk production per cow
Dry matter intake (DMI)
Pregnancy rate
Genetic merit (PTA Net Merit $) of service sires Income over feed cost
Milk production per employee
Relative feed value (RFV)
Return on assets
Net worth
Net returns
Cow lying time, stall usage, percentage of cows chewing their cud
Heat detection

Next, let’s look at things we might want to go down:

Somatic cell count (SCC)
Services per conception (S/C)
Days open (DO)
Calving interval (CI)
Age at first calving (AFC)
Death loss
Difficult calvings, stillbirths
Disease incidence rate, percentage of lame cows
Feed cost per hundredweight (cwt.) of milk ADF of forages
Herd turnover rate
Days to first service
Cost of production (COP)
Debt to assets

It would be nice if we could wave a magic wand and instantly make whatever aspect of production or financials of our dairy farm businesses go in the direction we wanted it to go. That is not possible but with goals and effort making such change is possible.

Sometimes the DOWNS and UPS can be related. For example,

↓ Somatic cell count can mean
↓ Death loss can result in
↓ ADF can result in
↓ Age at first calving can increase
↓ Herd turnover rate can improve

↑ Milk production
↑ Number of heifer replacements
↑ DMI
↑ Lifetime milk yield
↑ Longevity

Likewise, DOWNS and DOWNS can be related.

↓ Days open can reduce
↓ Services per conception can reduce
↓ Days to first service can lower
↓ Feed cost per cwt. of milk can lower
↓ Mastitis incidence can reduce

↓ Calving interval
↓ Semen cost
↓ Days open
↓ Cost of production
↓ Treatment cost

Similarly, UPS can go with UPS:

↑ Milk production
↑ Gross revenue
↑ Dry matter intake
↑ Milk yield

Finally, there can be UPS associated with DOWNS

↑ RFV
↑ Pregnancy rate
↓ Tons of hay required
↓ S/C and semen cost

There is no better time than now to begin to set goals for the directions in which you want things to move in your dairy farm business. And when you have achieved the goals you have set, you will likely find satisfaction and may even ask yourself “Now why didn’t I start working on this before?”

This article appeared In Kentucky Dairy Notes, University of Kentucky. Engormix.com thanks for this contribution.