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Mar 11, 2021
Feed costs are the largest single expense item for dairy farms. Old news. After years of skimpy margins, feed costs have been reviewed, adjusted, and reviewed again. Rising grain prices launch the cycle all over again.
Forages are the foundation of the dairy cow’s diet and are the most likely feed to be home-raised. As a corn-belt state, corn silage is included in most rations for Ohio’s dairy cows.
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Mar 11, 2021
The first half of 2019 was miserable, but as cow numbers finally trended down, milk prices gained strength with Class III increasing steadily from $13.96 in January to $19.37 in December. The industry looked forward to 2020 and a long-awaited opportunity to rebuild cash reserves.
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Mar 28, 2019
Curious as to what's involved in a Farm Business Analysis? If so, check out our podcast HERE
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Mar 12, 2019
LOUISVILLE, Ohio—In this rural town, a short drive from Canton, Ohio, Mark Thomas had been running a 400-cow dairy farm for years.
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Feb 27, 2018
Author(s):
Dianne Shoemaker, Haley Shoemaker
Which number is closest to your total direct and overhead cost of production per bushel of corn: $3.08, $4.17, or $6.21? Do you know? Forty-two farms completed their 2016 farm business and crop enterprise analysis in 2017. The four lowest cost producers averaged $3.08 per bushel, the median COP was $4.17, and the four highest cost producers averaged $6.21 per bushel.
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Oct 19, 2017
A penny per hundredweight trumps a dollar per cow in 2016
For the country’s dairy farmers, there doesn’t appear to be anything “sweet” to anticipate in ‘16. On the contrary, slimming down production costs is essential. With a 4-year average total cost of production of $19.66 – which is already adjusted for bull calf and cull cow income –there is a yawning chasm between production costs and milk income per cwt.
Where to start slimming? First, let’s determine “what is”. What are the big players in the list of costs?
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Oct 19, 2017
How is your time best spent? Trying to cut expenses by a dollar per cow or a penny per hundredweight? For every hundred cows you milk, you will save $100 for every dollar you cut in production costs per cow. If each of those cows are putting 24,000 lbs. of milk in the tank each year, finding one cent per cwt in savings will save $240 per year. A penny per cwt. trumps a dollar per cow in 2016.
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Oct 19, 2017
During this year of financial challenges, it is easy to feel alone. Fact is, you shouldn’t. Dairy farmers and dairy support businesses you don’t even know are feeling challenged right along with you.
With the June Class III likely to settle around +/- $13.20 per hundredweight, the good news is that will be around 50 cents higher than May’s $12.76 Class III.
Currently, milk prices trading in the futures market for the rest of the year are looking more positive, although still below many farms’ full cost of production.
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Oct 19, 2017
Watching the national news Sunday evening — not something I get to do very often — a story came on about flooding in Iowa.
The clip showed a number of homes that were already flooded to the eaves. Heartbreaking.
Meanwhile, crews of citizens were busy filling sandbags and building dikes to protect areas that were projected to flood later this week as the river continued to rise.
While the story focused on the people in towns and cities along the rapidly rising Cedar River, as a dairy farmer you have to wonder what is happening in more rural areas.
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Oct 19, 2017
2016 will not go down as a stellar year for many farms in Ohio. It has been an equal opportunity year — not particularly good for dairy farms, crop, beef, swine, or poultry farms.
There have been multiple ways for it to be unstellar: wet weather, dry weather, low prices and noxious weeds.
