The Cost of producing milk
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol1991no26p12-15Keywords:
costs, Dairy farming, dairy farms, economics, Milk, Milk production, milk production costs, production costs, profitabilityAbstract
This paper was presented at the Minnesota Dairy Conference for Veterinarians held at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota (Minnesota, USA, 5-6 June 1991). Costs associated with milk production are examined with reference to the dairy profit equation, profit = (price - cost) × vol., and financial performance parameters and simulated budget summaries for dairy farms in Wisconsin, USA. Profit performance was found to be highly variable from farm to farm relative to all production measures; highly profitable farms had larger herd sizes, higher production per cow, lower feed costs, received a higher milk price and had better control of practically all production cost categories; and the benefit of tighter control of economic efficiencies improved profitability by >$2.50/cwt independent of productivity.
