PA Dairy Tool

Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool

The Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool examines the whole farm operation in order to:

• Help identify priorities for change
• Begin a process to eliminate the most costly bottlenecks in a dairy operation
• Demonstrate ways to increase profitability

The tool can "show you the money," including where the areas of greatest loss and opportunity are for improving a dairy's bottom line. Using benchmark information, the tool pinpoints risk areas that are negatively impacting profitability.

How Advisers Can Use the Tool

All agribusiness representatives who advise dairy producers — including nutritionists, lenders, business management consultants, veterinarians — can use the Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool, in conjunction with their clients, to improve profitability.

How Producers Can Use the Tool

Producers can use the results of the new Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool to help identify the factors that are preventing them from achieving a better bottom line. Check for more testimonials from producers and consultants who have used the Penn State PA Dairy Tool.

Additional Drill-Down Tools

The Reproduction and Nutrition Drill-down Tools are available at the PA Dairy Tool website. Downloadable Excel or printable versions of the other drill-down tools are available.

How to Use the PA Dairy Tool with Your Resource Team

The Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence "strongly recommends" that farms enrolled in its Dairy Resource Team program have the PA Dairy Tool run twice on their farms — once to establish a baseline and again at the conclusion of the program to document changes that have been made.

How does my Dairy Resource Team get started using the PA Dairy Tool?

Complete and return the Producer Registration Form. It indicates you would like to implement the three-phase process, and it tells us whether or not you have identified a consultant to run the tool.

• If you already have a consultant on your team who is trained in use of the online PA Dairy Tool, the consultant may run the online version of the tool immediately.
• If you have a consultant on your team who will undergo training on the tool this summer, we will contact your consultant about proposed training dates.
• If you do not have a consultant identified to help you, we will identify a Penn State dairy Extension educator to work with you.

We will follow up with you upon receipt of the Producer Registration Form to answer any questions you may have regarding the tool, reimbursement for its use, etc.