On most dairies, feed costs will represent the largest single expense. With escalating prices, feed is eating up what otherwise could be pretty good milk prices. Now more than ever, controlling shrinkage is imperative. What is shrinkage? It is simply defined as the amount of feed delivered or raised on the farm that is not consumed by the cattle for which it was intended. If you don’t measure the shrinkage, you can’t manage it. And the larger the dairy, the more important this factor is.

In recent years, feed costs have represented more than 60 percent of the cost of producing milk, and feed prices have been high relative to the sale price of milk. Now that milk prices are finally on the rise so are inputs, especially corn, which is not good news for dairy farmers.