STYLES AND OPTIONS OF
DAIRY FARMING,
PART 1: LARGE-SCALE
DAIRYING—IS IT FOR YOU?
Timothy J. Fritz
Penn State Farm Management
Extension Agent
Chester And Lancaster
Counties
The more I work with both
successful and struggling dair
ies, the more I realize there are
many ways to make a dairy
work. It is difficult to really
know if a dairy is successful by
just looking at surface issues
such as production statistics and
the size of the dairy. Successful
farms, whether they are small or
large, do have some things in
common.
Successful dairies:
• Meet the goals of the man
agement.
• Have a good working envi
ronment for all involved.
• Are financially sound in re
spect to the goals of the owner.
• Look forward in their plan
ning.
If you are at a crossroads or
just at a Y in the road, you may
want to pull off the road for a
little and think about which di-
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rection you believe is right for
your particular set of circum
stances before heading in that
direction. One family may enjoy
going to the ocean for a vacation
while another may prefer the
mountains. The nice part about
vacations, however, is that if you
went down the road of an unde
sired vacation, the only thing
lost is just your time and cost of
the trip. However, a major busi
ness decision may be difficult to
turn around.
Some basic financial and
management ideas to keep in
mind no matter what style of
dairying you choose are:
• Keep capital and overhead
costs low.
• Focus on the things that you
are good at and make you prof
its.
• Stop doing the things you
are weak at and are not making
money on.
I recently attended a two-day
workshop entitled “’Dairy
Works.” The Dairy Works
workshop is designed primarily
for large farms that employ sev
eral to many employees. If you
are considering expanding your
herd, this workshop or a similar
type is a “must” to give you a
preview of what style of man-
.tig Sys.
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agement it takes to run a large
dairy. This workshop teaches
you how to get extraordinary re
sults from ordinary people.
If you are not a “people
person,” expanding into a large
dairy may be a big mistake.
However, if you enjoy working
with people and the challenge of
making a dairy work, expansion
may bring you lots of enjoyment
and success.
Building a large dairy gives
you more responsibility and at
the same time more flexibility
and freedom because you now
manage the people who do the
tasks. If your staff is organized
and working in harmony, days
off and vacation can be planned
for you, your family, and your
employees.
There are many additional
questions that should be ad
dressed before jumping onto the
expansion road. The following
are a few things that you should
be asking yourself, spouse, and
successors:
• Is your plan profitable at
low milk prices?
• Have you a complete finan
cial analysis of various expan
sion proposals?
• How long will it take to pay
off the capital costs of expan
sion?
• Do you have a organiza
tional plan for the business?
• Do you have a labor man
agement plan?
• Do you have an adequate
land base to support the herd
number?
• Will you have an adequate
land base in years to come?
• If you do not have an ade
quate land base, can you work
around the problem through
marketing or processing of the
manure?
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• Can you work with your
neighbors to build a more effi
cient jointly-owned dairy as op
posed to you doing it alone?
• Is your current dairy loca
tion the right location or should
the business be relocated?
• Will a large dairy be ac
cepted into the local commu
nity?
• What can you do to help the
community buy into your plan?
• Do you have a business
transfer plan to the next genera
tion or someone else?
• Is it time to step back from
the management of the business
and start transferring manage
ment decisions to the next gen
eration?
• If you do not expand, what
are your options?
• If the plan fails, what are
your options?
Building a large scale dairy is
Farmers Investigate On-Site
Dairy Processing Operations
MARYLAND A dozen
farmers from Harford, Cecil and
Baltimore counties .recently
toured four dairy processing op
erations in Pennsylvania. Ac
companied by representatives
from the Central Maryland
Farm Credit, Harford County
Agriculture Land Preservation
Program, Agriculture Economic
Development, the Agriculture
Advisory Board and other
county government officials, the
group visited on-site dairy pro
cessing facilities at four farms in
New Danville, Quarryville and
Red Lion.
None of the approximately 42
Harford County-based dairy
farms have on-site processing
operations, according to County
Agriculture Coordinator C.
John Sullivan, 111, who orga
nized the tour.
“The farmers are interested in
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Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 29, 2000-A33
not an easy task, and takes years
of thorough planning. Are you
up to the task of making it
work?
If you feel you are up to a
great challenge, then go for it,
but make sure you know what
you are getting into before you
proceed. Also, make sure you
make as many mistakes as pos
sible on paper or computer
before they are put into fresh
concrete and labor.
If you are not a “people
person” and think large-scale
expansion is not in your best in
terest, then keep your eye open
for part 2 of this series, “Alter
natives to Large-Scale Dairy
ing.”
For more insight and guid
ance, contact your dairy and
farm management extension
agent. We can help you build a
successful dairy.
increasing the value of their
products by adding on-site pro
cessing operations. Adding the
on-site processing will also allow
farmers to get closer to the con
sumer by eliminating the middle
man,” Sullivan said. “The tour
this week was extremely suc
cessful. Some of the tour partici
pants are very interested, and
we learned a lot.
Farm Credit Executive Loan
Officer Terry Knutsen said she
was impressed by the tour.
“I thought it was excellent be
cause it gave us a good overview
of what’s involved with on-site
dairy processing. We saw two
operations utilizing used equip
ment and two with new equip
ment,” Knutsen said. “The
farmers that hosted us were very
willing to share with us. I came
away really interested in explor
ing the possibility of on-site
dairy processing for our farmers
here.”
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