Herd sizes ranged from under 100 to over 3,000 cows, and production per cow per year ranged from under 10,000 to 22,000 lb. Production is based on actual milk sold. There is a diversity of dairy businesses in the project, many differing by what enterprises are included in the dairy business. Some dairies raise heifers, other do not. Some dairies buy all their feed, some grow large amounts forage.
Some dairies are in the Panhandle, some in North Central Florida, and some are in South Florida.
Future issues of the newletter will break down the costs into groups based on what enterprises are in the businesses, production level, herd size, and other relevant factors. Since one objective of the project is to provide dairies with benchmarks to compare their costs, dairies need to be able to compare themselves to similar operations in similar locations. But dairies also need to compare their economic efficiency to businesses that are structured differently. The project will provide these benchmarks. Measures of profitability such as returns to the operator for labor and management or returns to assets employed in the business require more information than shown in the table on the left.