But high milk prices are motivating farmers to do their homework before consigning cows to saleyards and abattoirs.

Dairy Australia farm productivity manager Steve Coats said farmers were working through cash flows, feed budgets and costing feed sources as they weighed up their options for their herd size in the coming season.

With pasture growth in many districts starting to fall short of herd requirements, dairy farmers were comparing the pros and cons of either buying in feed or reducing cow numbers.

“Many farmers are looking at ways of keeping up milk flow as profitably as possible to capitalise on the good milk prices,” Mr Coats said.

“Farmers who are deciding to keep cows are identifying which cows are the most productive and making the decision to feed them well.

“They are giving priority to early lactation cows which are the most efficient at converting feed into milk and are looking at culling out poor producers, cows with milk quality issues, empty cows and cows at the end of a long lactation.”

Mr Coats said farmers were making these decisions using support from a range of sources including Department of Primary Industries staff, dairy consultants and financial counsellors.

These decisions included deciding the suitability of borrowing to buy feed, developing cost-effective rations and suitable feeding regimes.

CRC Agrisolutions consultant Brian Crockart said farmers could look at the profitability of feeding stock by doing a simple partial budget based on the assumption that the last cow in the herd would have to be fed solely on purchased feed.

“Calculating the income from milking an extra cow and then deducting all the variable costs associated with the extra cow – such as the herd, shed, feed and perhaps some labour costs – gives you some idea,” he said. 

“If the difference between the cow’s income and variable costs is positive, then it pays to keep the cow. If the margin is negative, then you need to look at how the sale of the cow will affect the equity of the business.”

Mr Crockart said farmers selling cows were most likely to get chopper prices and this would reduce their business equity or capital.

“Some farmers may be better off feeding cows until next season when they could be worth $1000 each, while making a small loss this season, rather than selling cows at chopper values and losing equity,” he said.

“A cow may lose you $100 in cash if you retain her, but she may lose you $600 in capital or equity if you sell her as a chopper.”

For further information call Sid Pickering 03 9694 3894, or 0418 175 611, or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it