With high rates of inflation and record milk prices in the UK, we might be forgiven for thinking that it’s going to be a bumper year for dairy farmers in 2022, but we would be wrong.
According to analysis by AHDB*, and from our experience as a dairy farm consultant working with dairy farmers across the UK, the increases in costs for a dairy farm have effectively wiped out the benefits of the higher milk prices.
As inflation remains high and prices continue to soar, there’s also a risk that higher costs could lead to lower profits, even with record milk prices - but that doesn’t have to be the case for your dairy business.
At Douglas Green Consulting, we are an established dairy farm consultancy that works with dairy farmers to improve their results.
Here are some tips that you can follow to ensure that you benefit from the higher milk prices in a positive way:
Do a farming cost review
As prices go up, so do costs - and now is a good time to review expenditure in your dairy farm business to see if there are any ways to cut down on what you spend. This is never an easy job, but even if you can delay or slightly reduce purchases, that will help.
Sometimes, the opposite is the case, and it might be worth investing in new equipment and machinery to help reduce long-term costs as well as to improve productivity. Working with a dairy farm consultant, you will be able to do a full return on investment analysis first to ensure you make the right decision.
Cattle feed and labour are also two of the largest daily costs for a dairy farm and any savings in these areas will help increase profits for your dairy business. A good place to start is by seeing if there are any processes within your business that can be simplified or automated to reduce costs and save time.
In terms of cattle feed, certain food supplements can also help keep feed costs under control.
Improve dairy cattle productivity
Similar to controlling and reducing costs, if you can improve productivity in your existing processes then that can help, especially over the long term.
This can include the milking process as well as how you track your finances and sales - and at Douglas Green, we can help you with that. We would work with you to review your processes and advise on possible ways to make improvements.
Improve Dairy yields
Another way to improve results is by improving the yield from your dairy farming business. The more milk you can sell, the higher your revenue.
It also helps considerably with profits since costs don’t go up at the same rate, thanks to economies of scale that can be achieved.
There are various ways that you can do this such as by scaling up your production and by improving the yield per cow.
If you would like to know about how to help your pocket and to benefit more from the current record milk prices, get in touch. At Douglas Green, we have many years of experience helping UK dairy farmers as an established dairy farm consultancy.
