New Dairy Farm Benchmarking Statistics for 2023
We said when we first released our farm benchmarking statistics that knowledge is power—and that still rings true! While that sentiment hasn’t changed, the numbers have. Malloch McClean has just released dairy farm benchmarking statistics for 2023. Stay up-to-date and make informed decisions for your farm.
If you don’t know what’s happening in the dairy sector, it’s all too easy to be left behind.
What is benchmarking?
Put simply, it’s comparing your business against others. Rather than comparing themselves against other individual operations (because that won’t necessarily reveal much), businesses will use statistics taken from across the industry as a whole. This can offer them great insight and guidance in their planning.
Farm benchmarking
Accurate benchmarking statistics are a valuable tool that allow farm owners and managers to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They are a solid foundation for any business development plan, and allow farms to make the most of opportunities to improve.
Key highlights from the 2023 Dairy Farm Benchmarking Statistics:
- Milk income is obviously back with the lower payout. It is interesting to note many famers took up the fixed milk offers from earlier in the season, which proved to be a smart decision.
- While total farm costs have increased by 12%, the cost per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS) has only risen 2.4%. This is due to increased production of 7% from 2022. Remembering that large parts of Southland were in drought in 2022.
- Feed costs have decreased on the whole from 2022, primarily attributed to significant growth in 2023. In 2022, the increased demand for feed was primarily driven by the drought, compelling farmers to purchase larger quantities of feed.
Many other costs have, of course, increased due to the general inflation trend. As the majority of dairy farmers have their term debt on floating interest rates, the impact of increased rates has hit them earlier than other sectors.
If you are aiming to make your operations more profitable, more sustainable, more efficient, or all of the above, then our dairy farm benchmarking statistics will be of interest. We are also working on beef and sheep farm benchmarking statistics, so stay tuned for those to be released in the near future.
The Malloch McClean team is dedicated to helping business owners succeed, and agribusiness—a key New Zealand industry— is one of our specialties. Again in 2023 we have collated targeted benchmarking reports that include the most relevant data for clients seeking to improve their operations; these are freely available to all farm owners and managers as a resource.
Click here to take a look!
Need help putting the information into action? The Malloch McClean team can work with you to create achievable goals for your farm
operations and make a plan to succeed. Book a free consult today.