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More milk good for farmers, not industry

An ag economist says what’s best for individual farmers isn’t exactly what’s best for the dairy industry today. 

Kevin Dhuyvetter with Elanco Animal Health tells Brownfield if dairy farmers aren’t making incremental milk growth, they’re falling behind.

“What that means is if I’m not doing some of those things to keep getting better and better and better, or if I’m not keeping up—I’m improving but not as fast as everyone else, I’m actually falling further behind.” 

He says research shows the most profitable dairy farms consistently produce slightly more milk and are mostly larger.

“A couple more pounds of milk is a lot of milk.  Why?  Because it’s incremental milk, most all of the cost of getting there are already incurred.  In that sense, the next two pounds of milk are almost free.”

He says when everyone tries to get a little more milk, it’s not good for the overall industry, but until there’s a massive change, that’s the model that’s keeping dairy farms in business.

AUDIO: Brownfield interview with Kevin Dhuyvetter