Management

Milk production and reproduction are two key management areas that are relied upon to maintain and advance profitability on the dairy. Because of their integral role in the dairy’s success, it’s no surprise that recent research conducted in Denmark identified these areas as ones that, when improved, resulted in the greatest increase in gross margins for the dairy operation.

The study, published in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Dairy Science, concluded that improving the herd-level lactation curve increased gross margins 2.6 times more than an improvement in reproduction. In turn, enhanced reproduction improved gross margins an additional 5.9 times more than management related to heifers, body condition scores, mortality and somatic cell counts. These top-ranked management areas improved profits the most when even small management changes were implemented.

Editor’s note: The following is the second of two articles by the authors discussing precision farming techniques and their application on dairies today.

As dairy operations continue to grow and become more progressive, veterinarians have become a valuable member of the assessment team.

Too low milk prices once again are rolling into local dairy farms.

The trend of consolidating small dairy farms into larger operations means that more dairy producers are spending more time dealing with workers and less time managing cows.

Managers have the opportunity to influence the motivation of employees through design of their jobs.