Four key management tasks for resilient dairy farming

Dairy herd expansion can increase profitability, but initially places added physical and financial pressures on the farm family.

Average herd size has increased from 25 cows per farm in 1990 to 74 in 2015, and is anticipated to increase to 84 by 2020, corresponding to an increase in labour requirement from 25 to 75 hours per week.

The extra expansion workload, and the need for excellent technical performance, adds to the management burden of increasingly busy farmers, also coping with lower marginal profitability and less free cash. That’s why farmers will need to spend more time managing (planning, monitoring, evaluating and adjusting).