Extension Responds: Farming through Difficult times
Cost of Production decision making tools
Contact: Tom Kriegl, (608) 263-2685, tskriegl@wisc.edu
The following is a list of tools that can be used to determine cost of production.
Spreadsheet for calculating the cost of producing milk per hundredweight equivalent.
Cost of Producing Milk per Hundredweight Equivalent Worksheet. Developed by Dr. Gary Frank, Emeritus Professor, Center for Dairy Profitability.
The cost of production (COP) is the costs associated with production divided by the number of units produced. This worksheet looks at three methods (per unit sold, residual claimant, equivalent production) commonly used to calculate the cost of production. Developed by Dr. Gary Frank, Emeritus Professor, Center for Dairy Profitability.
This worksheet allows one to construct enterprise and cash flow budgets for dairy. This spreadsheet is intended to help decision makers assess the profitability and financial feasibility of dairy operations under various price and cost conditions.
Dairy Proforma Calculator. This program lets you look at expansions, contractions, and/or changes in the way you do business. Enter the current year’s values for your farm, and then enter a change in cow numbers, investment in buildings, machinery, etc., production per cow, number of heifers kept, etc. Now check to see if your financial situation changes for the better, and how sensitive your new cash flow is to the changes in milk price, production per cow, corn price, protein price and/or hay price.
Milk Marketing “Hedging Opportunity” Home Page. Hedging Opportunity Chart. This chart is updated on a daily basis, (Monday-Friday) after 3:30 PM CST. Prices can change on a daily basis and producers should regularly check the markets to keep informed of any potential opportunities.
MILKSIM.WK1 is designed to provide dairy herd managers information about the returns and costs from feeding dairy cows various rations over time. This spreadsheet is a simulation model that lets a manager see how a dairy cow’s production might increase or decrease as a result of adding or removing feeds like corn to or from a feed ration.
MILK3X.XLS Economic Analysis of Switching from 2X to 3X Milking. This tool estimates the economic benefit (or loss) of a change in the milking frequency from 2 times a day (2X) to 3 times a day (3X) based on user-defined parameters.
REPHFRV2.XLS allows one to construct enterprise budgets for dairy cow replacements. This budget package is intended to help decision-makers assess the profitability and financial feasibility of dairy operations under various price and cost conditions.