7 ways to achieve success on your dairy farm

Dairy farming has many challenges during these modern (and somewhat difficult) times but, despite these difficulties, it’s still possible to achieve a high level of success with the right approach to how the farm and the finances are managed.

Here are 7 ways to increase the chances of achieving success on your dairy farm...

Develop a strategy with annual goals

Many businesses shudder at the idea of creating documents such as business plans, a structured strategy or goals, but - whether you like it or not - it’s proven to increase the chances of success for a business.

Working with a professional and independent farm business consultancy such as Douglas Green can help to make the process much easier. It also helps as you can benefit from the expertise and experience that they offer you.

Developing a clear strategy means that you will have a clear direction on what you need to work on to achieve higher profits for your farm business.

Many of the remaining 7 ways to achieve success can also be included in your strategy and goals.

Increase milk yield from forage

Producing more milk from forage allows you to achieve greater efficiencies and increase revenues. Milk from forage is highly correlated to profit and is more significant than yield per se. 

Increase milk quality & meet buyer requirements

Make sure you're maximising the payments available for your buyer, by hitting their specifications perfectly.

Looking after the well-being of cattle and providing the right level of nutrients can reduce issues related to cows being unable to provide milk, and it ensures that both quality and quantity of milk are optimised.

Manage costs

Surviving or thriving can often come down to how well costs are managed within a farming business. In recent years, we have seen costs increasing in various areas and this can be enough to turn a healthy profitable business into one that’s making a loss.

Review your purchases regularly and look at ways to save on costs. Make sure you are using your spend to maximum effect, for instance by targeting feed spend effectively..

There is a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin: “Beware of little expenses. a small leak will sink a great ship”... it can do the same to a dairy farm as well.

If you need help reviewing your expenses, get in touch. As independent dairy farm consultants, we have plenty of experience helping dairy farms to manage their expenses.

Invest wisely

There are times when, despite the need to cut back, investment is needed. If equipment needs replacing and it can’t be delayed then, these costs have to be faced.

Make sure you plan your investment wisely, so you don't get caught out.

Investing wisely in new equipment can improve the efficiency of a dairy farm, making the investment a smarter decision, and remove the need for staff to do repetitive manual tasks.

Consider diversification

Over the years, our farm business consultants have seen many dairy farms diversify into other areas to increase revenues. There are various options that you can consider, whether it’s renting or letting out space for events, opening a local farm shop or growing crops that provide more revenue at different times of the year.

Refine processes

Many farm businesses have processes that are manual and repetitive - and these processes can be made much more efficient by creating a workflow that’s more efficient. Some processes can be automated while others can be done in less time with the use of the right technology.

Block calving leads to refined processes - increasing efficiency of time and giving a better work life balance.

Want to achieve more success for your dairy farm?