Too often, dairy farmers fail to plan adequately for expansion, says Kilcer. Absorbed in the details of building the structures, farmers barely nod at their increased needs for forage. After the builder leaves the income falls short of projections. When forage planning is inadequate, all feed must be fed to the cows, regardless of its quality. With poorer feed, potential milk yield is compromised.
More grain is fed to compensate, and sub clinical acidosis results, eroding production even further.
In some cases undersized harvest systems that fit the old operation wear out under the increased use and must be replaced, at a cost that wasn't taken into consideration during the initial expansion. Typically, farmers facing bad weather must pay twice for their forage - once by planting, growing and harvesting a crop that fails to meet expectations, and again by buying forage to fill their needs. Kilcer says farmers should take their current potential to produce feed into account before they plan to grow. Most small farms, in New York at least, don't really know how many acres they have available to crop, and operators may be surprised at the amount of land that is out of operation. He says a key to consider before any expansion is how much feed a farm should grow.