The 13th year of the Dairy Farm Monitor Project in NSW was one in which strong milk prices managed to hold gross farm incomes relatively stable. Increases in operating costs reduced average Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) relative to the previous year, with the most noticeable impact coming from purchased feed costs.

On average, profits for the 36 NSW Dairy Farm Monitor Project (DFMP) participants remained strong at $2.12/kgMS and above the long-term average of $1.36/kgMS, for the fourth consecutive year. This translates to an average return on total assets of 4.5%.  This month I discuss the ups and downs of NSW DFMP relative to the previous year with my colleague Zita Ritchie, including some commentary on the GHG emissions profile of the group of farms.

NSW DFMP Annual Reports, Regional Infographics and Interactive Report

NSW DPIRD “NSW Dairy Industry Overview”

Previous podcasts related to economics of intensive dairies:

• Episode 27 “Intensive Dairies – Drivers of Adoption and Profitability”
• Episode 39 “Intensive Dairying – Profitability and Risk Insights”

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit 

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

Very hot – that is the forecast for the summer ahead. Heat has immediate impacts on the performance of our dairy herd and pastures, but it also impacts other industries we rely on such as the broadacre cropping industry. Extensive work has been undertaken by the NSW Department of Primary Industries Climate Vulnerability Assessment program and also our own Dairy Unit through the Storm and Flood Industry Recovery Program to understand what the on farm climatic impact will be in NSW dairying regions by 2050. 

Our guests this month, James Lawson – Project Officer with the Climate Vulnerability Assessment team and Blake Cheer from the Dairy Unit explain the outlook for the coming 25 years, what we are likely to see and how we can start to manage these conditions on farm and share some useful resources to help inform your decision making now and into the future.

Climate Vulnerability Assessment website

THI Forecasting Tool (Northern Australia Climate Program)

NSW State Seasonal Update

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

Feed costs are the highest operational costs in a dairy business, so it is vital that we manage these well in order to enhance our farm’s profitability. We are currently well into a somewhat m­ild spring here, in most regions of New South Wales, so thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit some earlier podcast episodes on key aspects of profitable pasture management and silage making.

The extracts come from a couple of very popular episodes and even though they are a couple of years old, the messages and key principles discussed are as relevant as ever.

The first episode was Episode 3 – Lowering total feed costs with good spring pasture management with NSW agronomists Josh Hack and Peter Beale. Aspects such as the importance and economics of nitrogen use and the principles of good grazing management to help capture true pasture surpluses are discussed. Please note that urea prices discussed in this episode were from a couple of years ago when urea prices were abnormally high.

The second episode comes from Episode 24 – The economics of silage making with agronomist Neil Griffiths. It follows on logically from the previous episode. Neil highlights the importance of timing when making silage in relation to producing high quality and profitable silage. This includes capturing silage with high energy content and minimising wastage.

Links to the original episodes have been included in the show notes for this episode which include links to some very useful resources.

Podcast links:

Podcast Episode 3 - Lowering total feed costs with good spring pasture management

Podcast Episode 24 - The economics of silage making

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

Late in 2023, a group of dairy farmers from across NSW were interviewed about their experiences, decisions made, support networks and lessons learnt following a number of recent natural disaster events, including the 2021-2022 floods. Tori Alexander (DPIRD) and Nikki Reichelt (University of Melbourne) share some of the findings from these interviews and the key challenges and successes observed.  

For further information on the interview findings and products take a look at the Storm and Flood Industry Recovery Program (SFIRP) webpage, or the DPIRD Dairy webpage as resources become available.

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPIRD Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPIRD Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPIRD Dairy Facebook page

DPIRD Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPIRD Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

NSW dairy farmer Brad Winzer shares his journey, moving their well-established family farm from Northern Victoria to the Mid Coast of New South Wales – the reasons why, the differences between farms and the challenges they faced. He outlines the key support people he uses in the business, how he manages and monitors the performance of the business, and the things he focusses on to drive a profitable farm performance.

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here 

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

This month’s episode focuses on a project looking at intensive dairy systems in Inland NSW and Northern Victoria over the last 7 years. This has provided the industry with quality foundational information on the profitability, cost structures and risks of these systems. Claire Waterman from Agriculture Victoria and Sheena Carter (NSW DPI) led the project for their respective regions and were recently interviewed for a Rural Bank podcast called “Beyond the Farm Gate”. A big thank you to Rural Bank who have kindly allowed us to use the recording to share the project findings via this podcast.

Links to useful resources related to this podcast:

Project Report and Case Studies Intensive Farm Systems Economics | Dairy Australia

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

Feed costs are typically the largest component of operational costs in a dairy business, typically making up 50 – 60% of total costs, depending on feeding system, seasons and conditions. Hence it is vital that what is being fed to the cows results in good milk production. David Barber, DairyNEXT nutritionist joins us this month to discuss the important topic of feed conversion efficiency. He outlines what it is, how to measure it, targets for different types of feeding systems and factors that can impact it. He also introduces a metric he calls ‘True Feed Conversion Efficiency’, which he uses to determine how economical a farm’s feed conversion efficiency is. 

Links to useful resources related to this podcast:

David Barber: [email protected] 

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

The use of a structured approach within a NSW dairying business to assist with decision making and risk management, is discussed this month with Kay Smith from Bulahdelah. The Smiths have been operating a family dairy business for over 40 years and 5 years ago, faced with a number of challenges, were weighing up their future options. One of these involved a significant change to the business requiring a lot of capital investment and risk. Kay introduces us to the business and steps us through their reason for creating their advisory group, how they set it up and how it assisted them in getting to where they are today. We would like to thank the NSW Farm Business Resilience Program for their support in the production of this episode. This program encourages best practice knowledge sharing to highlight the social and economic benefits with forward planning and investment.

Links to useful resources related to this podcast:

GRDC publication “Farm Decision Making”

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit 

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript here

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice. 

This episode follows on from episode 35 “Successfully navigating farm loans” but focusses specifically on financing for large infrastructure projects such as cow housing facilities. This topic was addressed by my guest, Greg Kuchel, Senior Insights Manager at Rural Bank at the 2nd Raising the Roof conference in Hunter Valley of NSW earlier this year. Greg also touches on the evolving area of farm Carbon Plans and their place in seeking farm finance.

Links to useful resources related to this podcast:

Rural Bank Insight Reports

Australian Dairy Carbon Calculator

DairyBase

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript

Produced by Video Lift

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice.

My guest for this episode is Greg Kuchel, Senior Insights Manager at Rural Bank who spoke recently at the “Raising the Roof” conference in Hunter Valley of NSW about farm loans in particular for infrastructure loans related to cow housing facilities. Greg and I had such a good discussion that we have turned this into a two-part series. This first episode covers the general principles and considerations when approaching banks for finance – what you need to do, information you need to provide, what banks are looking for from you and in you and the types of loans available. In the next episode we move into financing large infrastructure projects on farms, so remember to tune in next month for part two!

Links to useful resources related to this podcast:

Rural Bank Insight Reports

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPI Dairy Business Advisory Unit

It is brought to you in partnership the Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address [email protected]

Further NSW DPI Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include:

NSW DPI Dairy Facebook page

DPI Intensive Livestock Twitter feed

NSW DPI Dairy Newsletter

Transcript

Produced by “Video Lift”

The information discussed in this podcast are for informative and educational purposes only and do not constitute advice.