Where is the optimism in the dairy industry? What should the producer hang his or her hat on when the milk price less feed cost goes from over $11 per hundredweight (cwt) to a projected level under $7 per cwt? The future can be projected but the actual situation is not known until the future has arrived. What is known, however, is the financial data that paints a picture of the trends in an individual operation and in a cohort group of similar dairy producers. Looking to the past with financial benchmarking can provide insight into the future, even when the industry is experiencing the stress that exists in 2012.

Minnesota dairy farms made a significant comeback in 2010 after a very challenging 2009. With 557 dairies participating in Farm Business Management (FBM) programs, Minnesota dairy operators are in a unique position to benchmark their operations against a large subset of the state’s dairy operations. Participating farms complete a detailed annual financial analysis of their farm and each farm enterprise. Individual farm results are combined in the FINBIN database hosted by the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota (www.finbin.umn.edu) and made available to the public in summary form. FBM reports are also available at www.fbm.mnscu.edu.