There are two main ways to grow profitability on a dairy farm: cut costs or grow milk production. If expenses are already tightly managed, are there opportunities for you to get more milk out of your cows?"Finding the next 10 pounds of milk" was addressed at the 2014 Dairy Summit last week, sponsored by University of Illinois Extension and the Illinois Milk Producers' Association. While more milk was the general theme, Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois professor, explained that not every farm should be at 40,000 pounds per cow. "Figure out where your farm purrs along best," he said.
Illinois dairy producer Doug Block of Hunter Haven Farms has been farming for decades and has found ways to get that extra 10 pounds in his herd of 760 milking cows. First of all, he recommended eliminating procedural drift. "We are only as good as we are on our worst day," he said. "We strive to make sure we are doing what we think we are doing every day."
Next, he encouraged farms to improve feed quality. For Doug and his brother Tom, that means an emphasis on forage quality and quantity.
Finally, he said to monitor days in milk. This is a number they use to keep an eye on overall herd productivity.
Block also shared a few "what not to do's" with the group. A mistake they learned from was not having enough feed storage. "Have plenty of feed on hand, and give silages enough time to ferment," he shared.
He also recommended that farms place an emphasis on hoof health and cow comfort, and he stressed the importance of not falling behind on the breeding program.
On Hunter Haven Farms, to achieve their goals they try to look towards the future. "First, we figure out what we'd like to see on our farm," he said. "Then we ask, ‘How do we get there?'"
