Cropping and Nutritional Strategies to Improve Cash Flow
Upcoming Events
There are currently no events scheduled for this course.
Course Details
- Gail Moyer, owner, El-bert Farm
The extreme volatility of milk and feed prices has left many producers unsure of alternatives available to manage these extremes. Look at the big picture to manage escalating feed costs.
Many times the current feeding program is evaluated and changes are made to lower feed costs to the lactating cows. The problem that arises is with escalating feed costs. Even changes to reduce feed costs per cow by as much as one dollar are not enough to improve the margin between milk income and feed costs. Consultants get frustrated making ration changes only to hear that producers still cannot pay their bills. The solution involves examining the big picture: feed inventory, feed quality, cropping strategies (double cropping, adjusting acreage) and different ration approaches to optimize the use of home-raised feeds.
The program will take a real farm and examine how adjustments to cropping strategies and the resulting ration program were able to turn the farm operation around.
Participants will record key information from the various cropping strategies to see how each change impacted the cash flow plan. Summary data from farms that have completed a cash flow plan and income over feed cost analysis will be presented to show the areas impacting dairy farm profitability.
Contact
Virginia Ishler, Penn State nutrient
management specialist, at 814-863-3912 or vishler@psu.edu
