After two years of low payouts, and a third low forecast for 2015/16, we took the advice of industry leaders to cut costs everywhere we could, including supplementary foods. That decision cost us dearly as production fell 19% and our empty rate rose 17%. It wasn’t working, so this season we had to make a change.
Under the guidance of The Dairy Nutrition Specialists we’ve set out to prove the benefits of proper dairy nutrition. They say they can make it work, even at a $4.00 payout. They’ve done it for others and I’m confident we can turn things around as well.
THE GOAL
The object of this exercise is simple…
…to make it work at a payout of $4.00 kgMS.
N.B. this includes modelling for farm costs and debt servicing.
We’ll be monitoring and publishing the results throughout the season, comparing them against last season so we can track our performance as we go along.
The industry says the breakeven is $5.40 kgMS – if through proper nutrition we can make it work at $4.00, profitability at higher payouts increases significantly.