Dairy Herd Size Has Tremendous Impact on Costs | Dairy Herd
A recent article by Dairy Herd’s Jim Dickrell reviewed the United States Department of Agricultural Research Report from July 2020.
“While not totally surprising, a new study shows almost a two-fold difference in the total economic cost of producing milk between the nation’s smallest and largest dairy farms.”
Abstract from Consolidation in U.S. Dairy Farming by James M. MacDonald, Jonathan Law, and Roberto Mosheim
“The number of licensed U.S. dairy herds fell by more than half between 2002 and 2019, with an accelerating rate of decline in 2018 and 2019, even as milk production continued to grow. As a result, production has been shifting to much larger but fewer farms. Larger operations realize lower costs of production, on average, and those advantages persist. This structural change also features shifts in the location of dairy farming and in the production practices used on farms. This report, following upon two earlier ERS reports on the subject, details how the dairy sector has been transformed, and assesses the financial and productive factors behind that transformation.”
