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PA Dairy Tool

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About the Program

Penn State dairy extension educators have created this innovative program to help the Commonwealth's dairy producers examine their entire farm system and identify the bottlenecks in their operations that hinder profitability.

Instructors in the Dairy Bottlenecks Program are dairy educators within Penn State Cooperative Extension as well as faculty and staff from the Penn State departments of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Dairy and Animal Science, and Veterinary and Biomedical Science.

Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool

The Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool examines the whole farm operation to accomplish the following:

  • 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. By using benchmark information, the tool can pinpoint risk areas that are negatively impacting profitability. It can give advisers and producers a whole-farm view, rather than just a pieces-and-parts view, of the dairy operation for better identification of key weaknesses.

"The tool was able to specifically identify a problem that we thought was there, but could not necessarily identify ourselves. The information was useful for working with our advisory team ... because of the volume of information, the tool provided a much more comprehensive picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the operation than could be caught in a monthly advisory team meeting. [The PA Dairy Tool] is a good starting point to help a beginning or new partner suggest management changes that may conflict with the management style of the established partner."

- Tim Forry, Partner, Oregon Dairy Farm LLC, Lititz, Pennsylvania 

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.

Learn how to use the Drill-Down function of the Penn State Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool at one of the workshops scheduled across the state in Fall 2007-Spring 2008.

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. The emphasis is on looking at the whole farm system to improve profitability. Watch this website for announcements of future workshops aimed at producers. Check here for more testimonials from producers and consultants who have used the Penn State PA Dairy Tool.

How to Use the Tool with Your Profit/Target Team

Free training is available for consultants who want to learn how to use the online version of the PA Dairy Tool with their Profit/Target teams. Click here for more information.

The Center for Dairy Excellence "strongly recommends" that farms enrolled in its Profit/Target 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.

Penn State Dairy Alliance is organizing a three-phase program to help Profit/Target Teams use the PA Dairy Tool to:

  1. pinpoint the major bottleneck(s) to profitability on their dairy;
  2. drill-down to the factors most limiting within the bottleneck(s);
  3. develop a plan of action to correct the limiting factors and thereby improve profitability. The final step in the process is to measure the impact of the changes on your dairy.
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Identifying the Bottlenecks to
Higher Dairy Profitability is part
of Penn State Extension and
Outreach.

This flyer outlines the benefits of using this three-step process, as well as the proposed timeframe for each phase in it. Feedback from producers who have already used the PA Dairy Tool on their dairies is also included in the flyer. A total of $3,500 in funding and other resource support for dairy farms that want to use the team approach to resolve bottlenecks and improve profitability are available through the Profit/Target Team Programs administered through the Center for Dairy Excellence. Profit/Target Teams that use the PA Dairy Tool and its accompanying Drill-Down Tools will be reimbursed a maximum of $1,000 by the Center for Dairy Excellence. For more information, visit the Center for Dairy Excellence website.

Who runs the PA Dairy Tool on my dairy?

Phase 1:

A trained consultant or Penn State Extension educator runs the PA Dairy Tool on the dairy to determine its most limiting bottleneck(s). Several consultants have already been trained in the use of the PA Dairy Tool. One of the consultants on your Profit/Target Team may already be trained in how to use it. If not, a free training session will be offered to consultants this summer. This date will be announced soon.

Phase 2:

Specific Penn State Extension educators will run the Drill-Down Tools required to identify the most limiting components of the bottlenecks identified on the dairy. These same educators will create an action plan for the team to implement to address these areas.

Phase 3:

The consultant/Extension educator who ran the PA Dairy Tool on the dairy in Phase 1 will re-run the tool to measure the impact of the implemented action plan.

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

Complete and return the Producer Registration Form, prior to May 1. 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.

What data is required to use the Tool?

The PA Dairy Tool is a web-based system that requires the collection and input of various financial and production data. A Profit/Target Team farm must be able to provide the financial data required in the Prep Cash Input Form (below) in order for a consultant to run the PA Dairy Tool on the dairy. For details on how to complete the form, review the "Collecting Financial Data for the Tool" pdf file, also below.

The following three pdf files can be printed out and used to collect the data required to input into the Prep Cash Input Form:

Questions about entering financial data may be directed to Extension educators located in these counties:

For more information about the Profit/Target Team Program, visit the Center for Dairy Excellence Web site.
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