A discount in milk costs, together with manufacturing prices remaining excessive, has meant that dairy farmers want to have a look at each cow inside their herd.

milk worth final 12 months meant that just about each cow within the herd was probably worthwhile, however this isn’t a 12 months the place the margin on milk goes to be excessive.

Due to this, it is vital that any non-profitable or downside cows are faraway from the herd.

In lots of co-ops, milk worth has fallen 16c/L for the reason that begin of the 12 months. Based mostly on a 5,500L cow, this can be a discount in revenue of €880/cow.

In case you are milking 100 cows that may be a discount in revenue of €88,000, if this lower in costs is sustained for the 12 months.

Dairy

Farmers want to find out what degree of manufacturing is required inside their herd for a cow to be worthwhile.

This can probably have an enormous variation relying on the farm and system operated.

As soon as that degree has been decided, the subsequent step is to have a look at all of the cows which can be beneath this determine and decide on whether or not or not they need to stay within the herd.

Milk-recording knowledge ought to have an important function to play on this choice course of.

As base milk-price creeps nearer to the price of manufacturing it is vital that cows do not stay within the herd until they’re truly being profitable.

Culling

Forward of the breeding season on dairy farms there shall be some cows throughout the herd that shall be marked to not be bred and often, they are going to be culled on the finish of the 12 months.

However because of the excessive price of manufacturing and low milk costs making margins tight, it might make extra sense for these cows to be culled earlier than deliberate.

These cows are usually being culled for a purpose and this purpose usually pertains to manufacturing points.

Many of those cows are prone to have a low margin or some may truly be costing greater than they’re producing.

It’s time to look contained in the farmgate at methods of lowering prices and growing margins on milk offered.

The best approach to obtain that is to take away the cows from the system that aren’t assembly the degrees of manufacturing required.