Archive of Articles

Using Income Over Feed Costs to Monitor Cash Flow

Income Over Feed Costs (IOFC) is a useful measure to establish the input-output relationship on the dairy farm.

Troubleshooting Heat Detection Problems on Your Dairy

When should you watch for heats? It is ideal to watch for heats during the early morning or late evening hours.

Marginal Value of Improved Pregnancy Rate

The average PR in the northeastern US has been estimated to be 15 percent. There is a significant cost associated with poor reproductive performance.

Rate of Stillbirths and the Effect on Dam Survival and Reproductive Performance

These data document the severe impact stillbirths have on dairy profitability. Not only is there a loss of the calf but the effects on dam survival and reproductive performance are significant.

Locking in a Profit

The most important step in locking in a profit for any farming operation is to determine the cost of production, in terms of cost per unit of production.

New Dairy Insurance Plan Coming to Pennsylvania

USDA has approved a new dairy insurance program that is expected to be available in PA and 31 other states in the summer of 2008. This will be an additional risk management tool for dairy producers to consider.

Making Informed Decisions in Choosing Farm Management Software

There are numerous products available that do everything from basic record keeping to high end profit/loss projections. Every business has slightly different needs so making selection of the appropriate software exceedingly critical.

Calf Housing as Medicine?

The environment surrounding a dairy calf significantly affects her growth, health and well-being.

Learning from a Low Price Year

Regardless of your farm size, management style or organization, your primary goal as a dairy financial manager should always be to increase profit per cow.

When Not to Sell Your Development Rights

Purchase of Development Rights programs can be a useful tool for communities and private landowners to achieve a common goal of preserving open space. However, PDR programs are not a "silver bullet" to solve all financial and management issues with a farm business.

More Forage Resources Available Online

Information at www.forages.psu.edu.

Color a Biosecurity Program

The management steps to prevent the spread of infectious disease agents within and/or leaving a dairy herd have been understood for several decades. However, without biosecurity protocols in place, many dairies are open to the risk of a disease outbreak that can have a dramatic affect on animal health, productivity, and profitability.

Understanding Your Herd's Culling

With low milk prices, and increasing costs of replacement animals, dairy herd culls have become more critical to the success of any dairy operation.

Milking Procedures

Milking cows on the dairy farm is serious business.

Getting to Know Your Dairy Team-old

The Capital Region Dairy Team includes PSU Extension educators with dairy responsibilities in counties in the south central Pennsylvania area. These educators work together to plan educational programs and activities. Using their different educational experiences, they work with dairy producers to help improve production and profitability. Each month we will recognize a member of the Capital Region Dairy Team. Our goal is to have you, our clientele, get to know us so we can serve you better.

Finding Money by Improving Milk Quality - Initial Summary of Non-Electric Farm Investigations with Preliminary Incubation Counts

Considerations When Choosing a Farm Recordkeeping System

Good farm records are a key component of a good farm management system. As the calendar changes from 2008 to 2009, it is an excellent time to evaluate the record-keeping system being used on the farm.

Income Over Feed Costs: Finding the Profit on a Dairy Farm

As the largest variable cost involved in milk production, feed cost is the most important variable in managing profit on a dairy.

Characteristics of Profitable Dairy Farms

While individual farms within the group were challenged on both capital and operational efficiency, when summarized, these data point out the importance of higher revenue, lower direct and overhead costs; thus a higher profit margin as keys to profitability.

Bunker Silo Density and Management for Improvement in South Central PA

Many bunk managers have been incorporating sidewall plastic to protect areas along walls. This practice has proven very beneficial to reducing silage losses along walls. Whether you store your silage in an ag bag, an upright silo or a bunker or a pile reducing forage losses is critical to lower feed costs.