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Dairy producer profitability deteriorated sharply over the past few months as milk prices plummeted while feed costs increased. Where the market was projecting a positive margin for nearby Q2 at the beginning of the year, the open market margin for that period is now negative.
Moreover, the projected profitability has moved from a very high historical value above the 90th percentile of the past 10 years to below the 10th percentile between mid-January and early March – a nearly $4-per-hundredweight (cwt) drop.
During the first half of my career, I worked as a dairy nutritionist primarily in Ohio and the eastern Corn Belt, and believe that experience has greatly improved my ability to consult in the business and financial side of dairy operations. I now occasionally have the opportunity to work with my former nutrition clients and am reminded of a conversation that took place many years ago.
I walked into the office of one of my prospective nutrition clients for an appointment and found him very agitated. The conversation went something like this:
DAIRYMAN: Greg, it may not be a good day for us to talk.
Nearly 1,400 people from 26 states and five countries gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, March 13-14 for the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Business Conference.
Attendees could choose from 14 different specialty sessions during the two-day educational event, while the keynote speakers focused on three core areas – China, credit and consumer choice.
In analyzing the cost to irrigate a crop or provide water to your barn, there are various factors that influence both short-term and long-term expense. All of the costs associated with pumping can be reduced by properly designing, constructing and testing the well.
The most basic factor influencing short-term production cost is pumping head: The greater the pumping head, the higher the cost will be to pump the well. Pumping head can be divided into two categories: actual head (determined by the pumping water level in the well and the distance and elevation change to the field where the water will be applied) and artificial head.
Dairy farmers have had no shortage of feeding challenges throughout the past couple of years. High input costs, overall feed quality and feed availability issues have hampered profitability and productivity at times.
Experts predict more of the same for 2012, with even more uncertainty regarding protein, energy and fiber prices. Continuing drought in the Southwest also complicates the feed quality picture, while it increases competition among dairy and beef producers for available feed.
Cow cooling, a topic not taken lightly by producers across the Southwest, was the topic of the noon dairy seminar on February 16 at World Ag Expo.
John F. Smith, dairy extension specialist and professor at the University of Arizona, presented this topic, updating producers on current cow cooling research.
An old song reverberates the line “when you’re hot, you’re hot,” and this idea applies to livestock. Our group has shown that the temperature in the calf nursery impacts the average daily gain.
One of our current research goals is to better understand how and why the environment is influencing growth. We have the ability to automatically measure the temperature of calves every 10 minutes for multiple days, then analyze the information gained.
On Dec. 1, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor closed a public comment period on its proposed updates to child labor regulations aimed at safety concerns in agriculture-related jobs.
Since then, the Keep Families Farming website has been established to support the legislative effort on Capitol Hill, where this issue will almost certainly be voted on this summer. In the pages that follow are comments received and posted on their website.
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