LANCASTER DHIA
each cow. It is called mainten-
Getting Ahead With DHIA tional demand for feed for growth
and for developing a fetus. All of
this overhead feed cost must be
covered by milk sales. The more
pounds of milk a cow produces,
the more pounds of milk this cost
can be spread over, and the lower
the cost per cwL produced. This
benefit starts to diminish if too
many high priced feed ingredients
are fed to support real high levels
of production.
Feed costs are determined and
reported in many ways. Earlier, I
suggested that feed cost per cwt.
of milk is probably the most use
ful. Some other ways of determin
ing and reporting feed costs arc:
- Cost of purchased feeds plus
the market value of home-grown
feeds. Market values can vary
considerably from farm to farm,
but Lancaster County technicians
discuss these values each month
and try to keep them as uniform as
possible.
- Cost of purchased feeds plus
the actual or estimated cost of pro
ducing, harvesting and storing
home-grown feeds. In addition to
these costs, feed-related costs also
GLENN SHIRK
Extension Dairy Agent
Lancaster County
About This Column
My intent is to contribute to this
column twice each month for the
purpose of showing how DHIA
records can be used to help people
make more-informed, profitable
herd management decisions.
Some of the best ideas for using
DHIA data come from dairy pro
ducers and from their consultants.
I would like to use this column to
help share your experiences, too.
So, feel free to drop me a line or
give me a call to let me know how
you use your records in order that
others might benefit from your ex
periences. Write to: Glenn A.
Shirk, Cooperative Extension,
1383 Arcadia Road, Room 1, Lan
caster, PA 17601-3149 or, if you
can track me down by phone, call
717-394-6851.
Feed Costs Per Cwt. Milk
Good business managers know
TOBACCO GROWERS
YOU ARE INVITED
TO ATTEND AN IMPORTANT MEETING
When:
Where:
> Meet with fellow Growers
> Discuss important issues
> Meet tobacco company reps
> Talk with area legislators
> Learn more about our Industry
Why:
(and enjoy a free lunch!)
Invited Speakers & Guests «<
»>
Organized and presented for your benefit by:
The Pennsylvania Tobacco Growers Association
. -_ ——
Reports:
Jay Mylin, manager
Phone; (717) 665-5960
their costs of production. As busi
ness managers, dairy producers
need to know their costs of pro
duction, too. A good place to start
is with feed costs per cwt. of milk.
But, what figures should you use,
and what should you compare
them with?
The DHIA Herd Summary Re
port shows average feed costs per
cwt. of milk for;
- Milking cows on test day.
- Rolling herd average for all
cows.
- All cows on test day. This in
cludes dry cows, but NOT heifers.
Since dry cows are a necessary
part of the herd, the all-cow figure
is probably more useful than the
lower figure for milking cows on
ly. But remember, the all-cow fig
ure does NOT include the cost of
feeding heifers.
The average all-cow figure for
Friday - April 2nd, 1993
9:00 AM till 2:00 PM
The Tobacco Auction Barn
Paradise, Pennsylvania
U.S. Congressman Bob Walker
State Senator Noah Wenger
All Local State Representatives
Tobacco Company Officials
Department of Agriculture Officials
plus others
the 1091 Lancaster herds on test
with Raleigh in February was
53.18. The Figure for all Raleigh
herds across the country was
$3.40 per cwt. milk.
If you are comparing feed costs
per cwt. of milk to current milk
prices, you’ll want to look at test
day figures. The rolling herd aver
age feed cost is helpful when com
pared to the average milk price for
the year.
As you compare these Agues, it
is important to think about what
affects feed costs per cwt. of milk.
Some influencing factors are;
- Lbs. of feed fed. Also, was it
reported accurately?
- Price of purchased feeds and
values assigned to home-grown
feeds. These Agues can vary con
siderably from farm to farm.
- Lbs. of milk produced. There
is an overhead cost of feeding
include a share of the mortgage,
taxes, insurance, labor, plus de
preciation and repair of machinery
and feed storage facilities. If you
know these figures for your farm
they can be divided by the tons of
feed produced to determine your
actual costs of production.
- Cost per ton of feed, or feed
cost per cow per day. These fig
ures can be very misleading as il
lustrated by the following extreme
example. Old, weathered musty
hay is cheap feed, but it won’t pro
duce much milk or profit. Starved
cows cost less to feed, but they
don’t produce much milk nor
make much profit either.
As you can see, feed costs can
vary a lot for a given farm, de
pending upon what costs you use
and how you calculate them. The
important thing for you is to report
accurate data that is meaningful to
you and help your DHIA techni
cian report it accurately on the
bam sheets. And, be cautious as
you compare your costs to those of
other producers; you know how
your costs were computed, but
you don’t know how their’s were
computed.
Another helpful figure is in
come over feed cost While this
figure may not be absolutely ac
curate because of all the variables
discussed earlier, it is still a good
figure to use for comparing one
cow with another. It also provides
a clue as to how much profit a cow
Comerford Appointed
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) John W. Comerford, Penn
State assistant professor of Dairy
and Animal Science, has been
appointed to the Northeastern
Integrated Resource Management
(IRM) Committee. The IRM
Committee was formed to com
bine production and financial
records into a meaningful descrip
tion of the business of cattle pro
duction and how resources can be
used most effectively and
profitably.
Comerford hopes the IRM
program will help beef producers
in the Northeast become more
competitive on a national basis.
608 Evergreen Rd. RD 2 Box 271
Lebanon, PA 17042 East Earl, PA 17519
(717) 270-6600 (717) 354-0584
' Lancaster farming, Saturday, March 27, 1993-A35
is making for her stall. Even
though a cow is making a small re
turn per day, is she occupying a
stall that could be filled by a more
profitable cow? On your monthly
report this lists all cows, look at a
higher producing cow and com
pare the difference in income ovei
feed costs per day.
If no replacements are available
to fill her stall, a small return per
day is better than no return at all,
and for the little time it takes to
milk and feed her, she could still
be returning you S 6-10 per hour.
So it may be profitable to milk her
even at low levels of production.
This may also give her the time
she needs to gain enough addition
al flesh so she sells for a decent
cull cow price. A pound or two of
gain per day could be worth an
other $0.40-0.80 for that stall ocr
day.
Now, as you file your tax re
turns and your farm figures are
handy, take time to calculate your
total, itemized costs per cwt. of
milk produced. Simply divide
each category of cost by the xwls.
of milk shipped. This will account
for the cost of raising or buying re •
placements. To be most accurate,
you should deduct costs associat
ed with non-feed crops and non
dairy animals.
Penn State Cooperative Exten
sion is an affirmative action, equal
opportunity educational institu
tion.
Comcrford has been instrumen
tal in planning a Northeastern
IRM Workshop to be held in
Somerset on April 5-6. Sponsored
by USDA and the National Cattle
man’s Association, the workshop
involves Pennsylvania and other
states in the Northeast. It is
designed to help cattlemen, exten
sion personnel, veterinarians, and
olhers involved in the industry
devise an IRM program that will
work for our region.
Attendance at the workshop is
limited. For more information,
contact John Comerford
(814-863-3661).