The week after Christmas Day and before the New Year is always a good opportunity to take stock of the year just gone and make plans for the coming year. For dairy farmers, there are four key performance indicators; cows, grass, money and people.
Cow performance can be measured both in terms of milk solids produced, and fertility. When looking at production, the constraint for most dairy farmers is land area around the parlour so production per hectare is a better indicator of performance than just production per cow. The target should be to produce at least 1,200kg of milk solids per hectare.
Milk supply
Look back at performance for 2016 and ask yourself where improvements can be made. Graph your milk supply for the year. In most cases, milk output is lost in spring because cows are slow to calve. This is why fertility is so important.
While empty rate is often used as a barometer, the six week in calf rate is a better indicator as this shows how many cows will calve in the first six weeks. It is different to the calving rate as it doesn’t include heifers.
Some farmers have high six week calving rates but have a high proportion of heifers entering the herd. This is OK if you are expanding, but if you’re not expanding a high replacement rate is fierce costly, both in terms of rearing costs and also lost milk, with heifers only milking 80% of what a mature cow produces.
Grass
When it comes to grass, you should analyse the cumulative growth, including silage for every paddock on the farm. Grass measuring software does this for you, but it can also be done on an excel sheet by adding up the weekly growth rates for each paddock. Why are some paddocks not performing? Is it drainage, soil fertility or a grass species issue? A key indicator is the average number of grazings per paddock. The target is to average 10 grazings across the farm.
Finance
On financial performance, again this should be looked at on a hectare or a kilo of milk solids basis. Work out your cash surplus; it’s all income minus all costs including drawings and divide this by hectares and milk solids produced. This is a good bit different to the Profit Monitor, which just looks at profit and is used for comparison purposes. The cash surplus figure is usually a good bit lower than the Profit Monitor figure but is a more accurate picture of the farm’s performance.
Don’t just presume a higher milk price will improve it. Find out where your money is going or why more money isn’t coming in. There is lots that can be done to improve financial performance on farms. When comparing Profit Monitors, make sure you are comparing yourself against the best.
Staff
Some people view people skills as being a “soft topic”. But it is the farmers who are good with people that will progress the most over the coming years. Being good with cows and grass is fine, but you will never manage a large herd on your own.
How do you measure people skills? You could look for the practical things, like rosters, set time off, giving responsibility, asking for feedback and providing good working conditions. Most farmers have areas where they need to improve on. Use the next few weeks before calving starts to implement these changes.
Read more
Glanbia fixed milk price scheme explained
Ten tips for better breeding results
The week after Christmas Day and before the New Year is always a good opportunity to take stock of the year just gone and make plans for the coming year. For dairy farmers, there are four key performance indicators; cows, grass, money and people.
Cow performance can be measured both in terms of milk solids produced, and fertility. When looking at production, the constraint for most dairy farmers is land area around the parlour so production per hectare is a better indicator of performance than just production per cow. The target should be to produce at least 1,200kg of milk solids per hectare.
Milk supply
Look back at performance for 2016 and ask yourself where improvements can be made. Graph your milk supply for the year. In most cases, milk output is lost in spring because cows are slow to calve. This is why fertility is so important.
While empty rate is often used as a barometer, the six week in calf rate is a better indicator as this shows how many cows will calve in the first six weeks. It is different to the calving rate as it doesn’t include heifers.
Some farmers have high six week calving rates but have a high proportion of heifers entering the herd. This is OK if you are expanding, but if you’re not expanding a high replacement rate is fierce costly, both in terms of rearing costs and also lost milk, with heifers only milking 80% of what a mature cow produces.
Grass
When it comes to grass, you should analyse the cumulative growth, including silage for every paddock on the farm. Grass measuring software does this for you, but it can also be done on an excel sheet by adding up the weekly growth rates for each paddock. Why are some paddocks not performing? Is it drainage, soil fertility or a grass species issue? A key indicator is the average number of grazings per paddock. The target is to average 10 grazings across the farm.
Finance
On financial performance, again this should be looked at on a hectare or a kilo of milk solids basis. Work out your cash surplus; it’s all income minus all costs including drawings and divide this by hectares and milk solids produced. This is a good bit different to the Profit Monitor, which just looks at profit and is used for comparison purposes. The cash surplus figure is usually a good bit lower than the Profit Monitor figure but is a more accurate picture of the farm’s performance.
Don’t just presume a higher milk price will improve it. Find out where your money is going or why more money isn’t coming in. There is lots that can be done to improve financial performance on farms. When comparing Profit Monitors, make sure you are comparing yourself against the best.
Staff
Some people view people skills as being a “soft topic”. But it is the farmers who are good with people that will progress the most over the coming years. Being good with cows and grass is fine, but you will never manage a large herd on your own.
How do you measure people skills? You could look for the practical things, like rosters, set time off, giving responsibility, asking for feedback and providing good working conditions. Most farmers have areas where they need to improve on. Use the next few weeks before calving starts to implement these changes.
Read more
Glanbia fixed milk price scheme explained
Ten tips for better breeding results
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