Another misconception about milk is that it is a fatty food. Again promotion is needed to counter this negative attitude and halt the decline in consumption which has resulted from the switch from doorstep to retail sales. So all is not gloom and doom in the dairy sector. There are substantial opportunities for market growth. Innovation in product development, packaging, presentation and promotion will enable the industry to capitalise on these opportunities.
Records are the only way to evaluate a business.
At the least, dairy farmers should keep gross margin records. Many farmers are now keeping whole farm accounts - profit is the ultimate goal. A number of systems and providers are available locally. Last year, one dairy farmer producing 6,331 litres of milk per cow on 1,144kg of concentrate decided to counteract the fall in his income by becoming more efficient. For the previous year he had averaged 22.47 pence per litre of milk sold and paid 173 per tonne of concentrates fed.