During the last week, we have been busy getting the in calf heifers housed and dosed. At housing we weigh them, clip their backs and tails and dose them for liver fluke.

Any heifers under the target weight of 460kg were separated into smaller groups in order to prevent any bullying at the feed. We will probably also feed them a kilogram of oats right up to calving.

We are in the very fortunate position of still being able to keep most of our dry cows out and grazing and we are moving them every 24-36 hour. It takes roughly a half an hour to set up the reels, but with the amount of money it's saving me, it's the best paid half hour I do all week. If the weather stays reasonable, we should be able to hold these cows out until the week before Christmas.

Reducing costs

Getting as many days as possible at grass is one of the areas I have been focussing on in order to reduce costs in anticipation of a reduced milk price next year. I have also been looking closely at other areas of my business trying to find things to shave a bit in order to cut costs but there are very few things I can afford to take out.

Cutting costs on items such as vaccinations or fertiliser would be a false economy and probably end up costing more in the long run. The focus for me has turned to trying to squeeze a couple of cent more out of what I'm doing already while hoping a more mature herd will be able to deliver close on 450kg of milk solids next year.

Profit monitor

With most of the stock housed and settled, I have a chance to catch up on some long overdue office work and, more importantly, start gathering all the relevant information in order to complete my profit monitor.

The profit monitor is just one of the tools I use to analyse my business, but with milk price forecasted to be somewhere between 25-30 cent a litre next year, a properly completed profit monitor will provide me with information I cannot afford to be without. I emphasise properly completed because if you put rubbish in you will get rubbish out.

Not only will a profit monitor give me an accurate cost of producing a litre of milk (excluding my own salary), it will also allow me benchmark my farm’s physical and financial performance against some of the best dairy farmers in the country.