Progress of the Dairy Farm Report

Selected Financial and Production Factors

The objective of the Dairy Farm Business Summary & Analysis Program (DFBS) is to help farm managers improve the financial management of their dairy farm through appropriate use of historical farm data and the application of modern farm business analysis techniques. This information can also be used to track changes within the business, establish goals that will enable the business to better meet its objectives, compare the performance of the farm to other dairy producers, and establish a basis for financial projection and planned changes within the business. This is the final Progress of the Dairy Farm Report for the 2022 business year and represents the 67th year a summary of New York dairy financial and business performance has been published by Cornell.

Over 150 farms across New York participated in the DFBS for 2022.  This report summarizes data for 133 conventional dairy farms that completed the summary for 2022 in which dairy is their main enterprise, with 85% or more of the farm revenue generated from milk sales, dairy cattle, and dairy calf sales.  The Progress of the Dairy Farm Report provides averages of selected financial and production measures for 129 New York State Dairy Farms (pages 2‐4) that participated in the program for both 2021 and 2022 that had submitted records by June 28th, 2023.  The business chart on page 5 reports the data summarizing all 133 farms for 2022.  The report is also broken down into four herd size categories to provide additional comparison reports by herd size.

1. Farms with Less Than 500 Cows Pages 6‐9

2. Farms with 500 Cows to 999 Cows Pages 10‐13

3. Farms with 1,000 Cows to 1,499 Cows

4. Farms with 1,500 and Greater Pages 14‐17 Pages 18‐21

To utilize these reports, begin by comparing how your farm changed from 2021 to 2022 to the change in the average of all farms report. Then, determine which herd size group most closely represents your farm and compare your financial and production parameters and change to the averages of that group. This benchmarking tool can be helpful for farm owners and managers to find areas of opportunity and strengths within their businesses. If you are a DFBS participant, you can work with your extension educator to look at these comparisons for all farms and your farm business.  For definitions of the different terms in the following tables, please refer to E.B. 2023‐07, “Glossary of Terms Associated with the DFBS”. This publication and other information for farms interested in participating can be found at: https://cals.cornell.edu/pro‐dairy/our‐expertise/business/dfbs

These benchmarks and comparisons are provided for comparison purposes only and represent the performance of those farms participating in the Dairy Farm Business Summary and Analysis Program in New York State. These numbers do not represent the average for all dairy farms across New York and are from farms that are generally considered above average dairy farms in New York. No analysis or interpretation of these benchmarks and ratios is provided.

The authors would like to thank the farms that continue to volunteer to participate in this project, the extension educators that work with farms utilizing the DFBS as part of their educational programs, and the financial consultants that work with farms participating in the DFBS.

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