WC Wisconsin | Some food for thought. This is an ongoing study by Zoetis and Ag-Star Financial now in its 11th year. That is a huge pile of data.
Among herds of at least 500 lactating cows, size of the lactating herd and total quantity of milk shipped had no impact on profitability (expressed as net farm income per hundredweight (cwt) of energy-corrected milk).
I think it is significant that this study is NOT done by NMPF or a Coop/Processor.
I've been suspicious of the "economies of scale" arguement for a long time. Success at Dairy is though good animal husbandry. Not the same as a widget manufacturer who simply buys more widget machines and plugs them in.
I don't want this to be the face of the future of Dairy in WI.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/21/wisconsins-massive-milk-operations-local-residents-collide/100423944/
|