An Inside Look at 2,500+ Cow Dairies: 70 pounds, $1.4M profit
By Lucas Sjostrom
In the times of both high feed and high milk costs, large dairy farms with land in the Upper Midwest look to be very profitable endeavors. While every location and farm is different, large farms can generally see a benefit in asset and labor utilization, specialized care, and lower wages as employees can take over jobs typically offered to higher-paid specialists and consultants, like veterinarians.
As these larger farms become normal in the Upper Midwest, the University of Minnesota examined the animal welfare, management, and economics of a cross-section of 15 dairies with over 2,500 cows in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, averaging 4,972 cows. Dr. Marcia Endres and graduate student Tyler Evink completed the study, which totaled a full third of such operations in the region at the time.
Read more at www.DairyHerd.com.
