314 | Benchmarking for Dairy Profitability: Fine-Tuning Your Farm’s Financial Edge
On the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen talks with Curtis Gerrits and Jim Moriarty of Compeer Financial about why benchmarking is essential for dairy farms, especially as year-end financials become available, milk prices soften, and recent beef-on-dairy income may have masked underlying costs. They explain benchmarking as first comparing a farm to itself over time, then comparing to a larger peer dataset of similar farms to identify strengths and small opportunities across income and expenses that can add up.
Key areas discussed include feed cost and productivity (including homegrown forages like corn silage and increased use of alfalfa), feed efficiency factors such as refusals and mixing time, and the importance of working with nutritionists and local crop partners. They highlight core benchmarks such as capital cost per hundredweight and labor cost per hundredweight, how capital and labor relate when making investments, and improvements in net herd replacement costs driven by lower herd turnover, fewer heifers raised, and more beef calf sales.
They conclude with takeaways to embrace financial management and benchmarking, keep moving forward during down cycles, and note that top-performing dairies succeed through attention to detail, execution, regular decision-making, and involving family, key employees, and advisors by sharing financial results.
This episode is sponsored by Compeer Financial.
Compeer Financial is a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative serving and supporting agriculture and rural America. Their dairy team brings world-class expertise and tailored solutions to support dairy producers’ financial goals and lending needs.
Visit https://www.compeer.com/specialists/dairy
00:00 Why Benchmarking Matters Right Now (Year-End Numbers + Softer Milk Prices)
04:05 Benchmarking Basics: Compare to Yourself, Then to Peer Groups
07:22 Big Levers: Feed Costs, Efficiency, and Milk Components
08:59 Homegrown Forages & Feed Management: What to Optimize
11:38 Core Benchmarks to Watch: Capital Cost, Labor, and Replacement Rates
16:18 Turning Data Into Action: Consistency, Clean Categories, and Advisory Teams
20:45 Key Takeaways for Dairy Strong: Embrace the Process & Keep Moving Forward
22:56 What Top-Performing Dairies Do Differently (Attention to Detail + Team Buy-In)
27:31 Wrap-Up & Resources
