| OCR Text |
Show Dairy Production S ncrease Outlined Use produ. n records extensively and cull cows at higher production levels if you want to continue making a profit Extension dairy specialists at Utah State University say those steps are necesary under the squeeze situation dairymen are facing. Milk prices are lagging behind increasing costs. Lower prices received for milk compared to advancing ad-vancing costs of its production necessitates higher production per cow just to break even, the specialists noted. They advise eliminating unprofitable cows that produce below the breakeven point, where cost of keeping them falls below the income they produce. Unless the unprofitable cows are removed from the herd, they will eat into the income from those that are profitable. By the same token, . feeding more precisely v according to production i will reduce the number of C cows being overfed on I rations that are more A expensive than are j Justified by their lower a production potential. Feeding different rations . almost necessitates C dividing the herd into different production (1 groups unless automated j feeding devices are used, the specialists say. J They are advising some ( dairymen to use the i computer to formulate rations that will maximize their income over feed costs. It will consider the myriad of ' factors such as milk ( price, cost and nutrient i content of each available ( feed ingredient and the ) average production of the cows to be fed. It will tell the optimum combination , of roughages and con- centrates and the amount of each ration ingredient ( to use. Under the lower margin situation, the specialists advise diarymen to be more critical of cows with mastitis, poor conception and other problems. Realize that those animals contribute to added costs of treatment, medication, discarded milk and repeat breeding fees. Increase the average efficiency of the herd by selling the cows with such problems if their production is not well into the profit levels, the specialists advise. The extension specialists also are suggesting that dairymen change their feeding management. Feed the high producing cows more and alter their ration to provide more energy and protein and the needed fiber to obtain the desired composition of milk. This will increase feed costs for those cows but the additional milk produced should more than offset the extra cost of the feed. The specialists j recognize that dairymen who are committed to a ( heavy interest and loan repayment schedule have t less flexibility to operate i at smaller margins. Those dairymen must maintain a high enough . cash flow to meet these ' obligations. Should they respond by increasing ( their herd size to main- tain an adequate cash ( flow, they must make ( sure that every cow in the herd is profitable. The ' extension specialists ' point out that the un- profitable cows will only compound the problems of these dairymen. , To effectivley im-, plement the management practices recommended they require use of production records, the specialists emphasize. The Dairy Herd Improvement Im-provement Associaton (DMA) records provide the foundation for practically all phases of dairy management. The specialists acknowledge that even after adjusting dariy management practices some hard financial decisions must be met under situations of smaller margins. For dairymen facing the greatest squeeze, the specialist advise making a series of income projections for the immediate im-mediate years ahead. That exercise will help identify weak financial spots in the operation and will alert dairymen to the hard decisions that won't go away. |
