On April 16-17, around 20 dairy producers from southern Wisconsin and Illinois visited five dairies to see new Lely robotic milking units in action. The tour, sponsored by Argall Dairy Systems of Belleville, Wisconsin, and Lely, stopped at dairies that had installed from one to four robots since September of 2008.

In these financially challenging times, producers are doing everything they can to squeeze every ounce of excess expense out of their operation, maximize every production efficiency, capture every marketing opportunity possible, and, overall, be more on top of the game.

In tough times we’re always looking to make our current tools stretch farther to get the most from our initial investment. It doesn’t matter whether it’s equipment, employees or nutrition – getting more from each area of the business improves efficiency.

At some point in every dairy cow’s life, she becomes unprofitable. Due to a decline in milk production, difficulty re-breeding, lameness or a health problem, dairy cows are forced to retire.

The most valuable asset on a farmer’s balance sheet is his or her real estate. No one likes to have real estate debt, but sometimes farm operators have to do what they need to do in order to properly structure their debt to survive and thrive in tough financial times.

In tough economic climates, relying on cows that can return the greatest profits is critical. Healthy and productive cows are pivotal to optimize cash flow and future returns.

A year ago at this time, crude oil was well on its way to a record of $147 per barrel, and farm commodities were going along for the ride. Fuel, fertilizer, seed and dairy feed commodities were reaching record price levels, and everyone was asking if it was time to forward purchase the inputs needed for the foreseeable future.

“I can’t find good help!” This is an exclamation I hear all too often from dairy farmers and other managers. I recognize that hiring is often both difficult and frustrating. Before talking directly about hiring, let’s introduce a contrast I thought of recently.

In these trying economic times with low milk prices and high feed prices, dairy farmers all over the country are having to re-evaluate their feeding programs. To get through this year they must decide if they should cut back on feedstuffs and which feedstuffs they should cut back on.

One of my friends Tim called in April of last year. “Marc,” he said, “One of my dairy clients, might be interested in working with us over the summer on a reproduction project – would you like to help?”