DairyCo

Farming conference report: One size doesn’t always fit all

Published 7 June 11

Farming issues: Solutions and Opportunities DairyCo and Dairy UK Conference

Finding the right opportunity to develop your business is the key to making a profit from milk, and this won't necessarily mean increasing the size of your enterprise or chasing the highest milk yields, according to Dr Peter Thorne of DairyCo Milkbench+.  

Speaking at the DairyCo and Dairy UK Solutions and Opportunities conference today Dr Thorne said: "The results from Milkbench+, the DairyCo business benchmarking programme, show that increasing size is just one option.  We have smaller farms in our data that are extremely efficient and are making money, suggesting that business planning and the right management practices are the most influential factors when it comes to making money from milk."

Citing an example of a farm with just under 100 cows as "one of the most profitable we've seen", Dr Thorne emphasised that the data from Milkbench+ showed the importance of looking at efficiency in the broadest possible terms.

"Farmers are constantly hearing the term 'efficiency'," he said, "but we need to be clear as an industry just what this means.  Opportunities for improving efficiency are demonstrated clearly when farms use benchmarking tools to compare data sets across a variety of farms and farming systems. It could be about efficient use of labour, or getting the appropriate management skills in place. Think of it as friendly competition." 

The most important factor is to run a system which suits you.  "For example, all levels of grazing, from 0 to 50 weeks, can produce milk efficiently and profitably," said Dr Thorne. "Although the most inefficient farms are found among those who might appear to be sitting on the fence in the middle, there are still many efficient producers who do just this.

"With Milkbench+ we are not looking purely at profit and loss, we are taking into account all inputs, including labour costs, including estimated costs and property costs.  This allows us to see where the opportunities for increasing efficiency in the business are." 

As the development and analysis of Milkbench+ continues the team hope the next stage will be using the data to look at what differentiates the best producers and demonstrate where there are and aren't opportunities for improvement. "Year on year, we should be able to build our understanding," says Dr Thorne.    

Ends

Editor's notes:

Milkbench⁺ is an internet based benchmarking system that allows British dairy farmers to compare how their dairy enterprise is doing against other, similar dairy farms. 

For the dairy levy payer the service provides an easy to understand summary of their costs and income.  These drill right down to the net margin level and can be presented on a per hectare, per cow or per litre basis.

Milkbench+ can be used to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce costs for a better profit from dairying.

The system is completely independent and impartial and is the most detailed service available.

www.milkbenchplus.org.uk

For further information:

N:        Helen Fina
T:         02476 478696
E:         helen.fina@dairyco.org.uk
W:        www.dairyco.org.uk

DairyCo's aim is to promote world class knowledge to British dairy farmers so they can profit from a sustainable future.

To achieve this DairyCo aims to:

• ·         Ensure farmers have access to world class information needed to improve competitiveness, GHG reduction and productivity
• ·         Ensure farmers have access to direct and indirect support to help them improve their profitability through better business management
• ·         Ensure that dairy farming is reducing its impact on the environment
• ·         Ensure farmers understand the benefits of breeding and use the related tools

DairyCo is funded entirely by milk producers, via a statutory levy on all milk sold off-farm, at the rate of 0.06p per litre.  This provides an annual income of around £6.5m.

DairyCo is a division of the statutory levy board, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).