Dairy Herd Resilience

The dairy industry has been hit hard due to COVID-19. AHDB Dairy estimates the financial impact to British dairy farmers has been in the region of £9.4 million on the back of milk being dumped, severe price cuts, deferred payments and introduction of A/B pricing systems. Looking at where to cut costs is never easy but are there areas of performance in the business that could be improved on, leading to more profit? A key part of knowing where to act is through benchmarking your herd’s physical and financial performance and knowing your cost of production.

Key messages:

• Know your full cost of production and what milk price you need to break even.
• Maximise your milk price by meeting specifications on milk composition and hygiene quality required by your milk buyer.
• Benchmark your herd’s technical and financial performance against other similar herds to identify where efficiencies and savings can be made.  You cannot manage what you do not measure!
• Plan for milk price fluctuations and interest rate rises.