Feed Costs

A lot of volatility has been occurring in the commodity markets during the last couple of months. The question is whether we can do something to put up a fight in this situation.

Feed prices have escalated over the last year. This is enough of a problem, but what if you aren’t getting the quality – or even the feed ingredients – that you are paying for? Here are some simple guidelines to ensure you are receiving the ingredients that you paid for.

Feed costs tend to the be the largest expense on a dairy operation and managing those costs contributes to a dairy's ability to be profitable.

Dairy farmers could significantly reduce their expenses by selecting cows with the highest feed efficiency, which are the cows that produce the same or more milk while consuming less feed.

Shrink – it’s a silent thief that could be robbing thousands of dollars annually from your farming operation.

To reduce feed costs, farmers need to pay attention to both the cost and the feed value of commodities.

Low milk prices can have a real impact on dairy farmers. When this occurs, cash becomes short and farmers have to make some tough decisions. They start to look for ways to reduce expenses while also maintaining milk production.

Typically, the biggest expense for a dairy farm is feed costs – both purchased and farm-produced.

Skyrocketing costs of Vitamin A and E—up six times for A and three times for E, and in some areas even multiples of that—mean dairy farmers will likely have to prioritize which cows receive full supplementation.

Class III futures are averaging $14.69 through 2018. So this new year doesn’t look anything like 2009, or does it?

Emotional decisions that impact cash flow can hurt more today than when prices are higher. During low milk prices, decisions are driven with emotion, but today it needs to be different. Decisions must be measured and well thought out.

Because feed costs are typically 50% to 60% of total operating expenses, we need to generate the most milk margin per cow while maintaining health and reproduction. Decisions on how to feed cows should be made with those objectives in mind.