DHIA/Records

These past few months have been challenging to dairy farmers, but their response reflects some important characteristics of farmers everywhere. For the most part, farmers are eternal optimists. Better times are ahead. Core values of good stewardship of resources and concern for animal welfare are worth preserving, even in tough economic times. The averages in the table above reflect this spirit. The difference between the cost of feed and milk blend price is dramatically smaller than a year ago, and rolling herd average is down some. It is reasonable to see lower yields with higher concentrate prices and the removal of bST as a management option. But no dairy farmer had to reduce days to first breeding or improve days open or lower somatic cell counts or make major improvements in genetic merit of service sires because of these changes. I see this improvement as evidence of a desire to sharpen management practices and to survive this economic crunch. A speaker I heard somewhere in the winter producer meetings that I attended noted that most good ideas in dairy management result from economic difficulties rather than from prosperity. Prosperous times encourage the status quo, while difficult times encourage change, improvements, and different (and often better) ideas. All of us will be happy to see better milk prices, but the dairy industry in Virginia does need to adapt to permanently higher feed prices, either purchased or home grown. Healthy, fertile cows make better use of expensive feeds than the other kind. Both genetic improvement and better management will be required to develop and maintain healthy, fertile cows. Steps in that direction seem to be well under way in this state.

DHI Notes...