A fluctuating milk price and still influencing your profit margin?

In conversation with Mark van Raalte, Manager Farm Management Support and Feeding Expert at Lely, we highlight the opportunities available to you as a dairy farmer. We ask him about the influence of feeding on the profitability of a dairy farm, because feed as the largest cost item provides opportunities to increase the profit margin. How to get to your optimal feeding strategy is different for every dairy farm. We therefore list a top five opportunities. 

Choose a feeding strategy that suits your goals

An efficient feeding strategy answers the question of how to get the right nutrients to the right animal. There are always elements you can adjust. Whether you feed according to the Flat Feeding strategy where all dairy cows receive the same ration or whether you have chosen Standard Feeding where the needs of the individual animal are matched by means of concentrate, for example in the milking robot. Such a feeding strategy and vision are essential. With a strategy, you work more concretely towards your intended farm result. The strategy also determines the financial impact. It is the vision of your dairy farm that determines which strategy best suits your farm, in combination with its geographical location and choice of feeding system.

Look at your feed balance

Mark says: "If you subtract feed costs from milk yields, you soon arrive at the feed balance. The number many dairy farmers should look at when drawing up their balance sheet, especially if the vision is for economic returns. If you want to influence that, the key question is whether you want to do so in the short or long term." In the short term, your current stock plays the main role, he explains. You have that feed lying around now and you must deal with that. But if you want to do better next year, take the time to look at the quality of home-produced roughage. Mark: "The better the quality of roughage, the less you need to buy in concentrate. Managing your dairy cows themselves is another element you can influence. Ask yourself whether you get as much milk out of your cows as possible and whether, for example, you can get them pregnant faster to milk more litres per cow on average." 

Feed quality for higher milk production

Mark explains how the feeding strategy relates to milk production and by extension on the milk price. "If the dairy pays out in litres, a strategy to milk as many litres as possible will probably be more attractive. Depending on the location of your dairy and how the milk is paid out, the focus will be on as many litres as possible or the level of fat and protein. But what you can focus on are feed costs and feed quality, which in turn affect the milk the cows produce." In addition, higher costs do not immediately mean that your feed balance goes down, as milk production can grow proportionally. It is important to always look at the balance.

The role of your company's location

With a feeding strategy that suits the goals of dairy farming, but also the environment, you can run your farm as efficiently as possible. Mark: "The type of  soil is important here, because it determines what you can grow yourself, provided you own land, of course. Then there is the question of whether you can graze. If we look at dairy farms in New Zealand, the cows are outside all year round and grazing fresh grass, while the climate in Spain or the Middle East does not allow that." Mark adds that the ability to buy feed at a reasonable rate also varies by region. The location of your dairy farm has a big impact on your feed strategy, especially also when you consider the geographical location. From flat land in the Netherlands, to a dairy farm on a sloping slope in Switzerland with a mountain climate.

Automatic feeding systems for cost control

Technical innovations can contribute to better feeding strategy and cost control. Think of an automatic feeding system like Vector to get the right ration to different animal groups. But making sure cows have access to fresh feed can also contribute to cow health and therefore milk production. "Depending on which feeding system you use on your dairy farm determines whether, for example, you have a lot of residual feed and the intake of feed is optimal for your cows. This is where the Lely specialists are happy to think along with you," says Mark. 

Optimise your long-term or short-term feeding strategy to get the most out of your farm, whatever your goals are as a dairy farmer.