On the Rise for the 2023-24 Season
Fonterra's most recent FMP (fixed milk price) offering on the 8th May shows Fonterra's outlook is $8.49kgMS with the 10c service fee to be deducted from. This has increased $0.92c from the last fixed milk price offering of $7.57 on the 12 April 2023.
Although there is a steady increase trending, the pressure on dairy farmers farm working expenses will still remain, in order to stay in 'the green'.
It is prudent to have a deep dive into what it has cost you to produce 1kgMS in the 22/23 season, as it is unlikely we will see any reduction in a lot of these costs.
Focus on where you get value for money. Prioritise your time and money on the aspects of your business that generate the best return. Marginal milk is very expensive, so don't spend 50% of your time focusing on 5% of the business.
Key areas to focus on are,
Feed
Fertiliser
R&M
A great example of the supplements purchased category was coming out of the drought last year. There was an enormous feed deficit, and instead of focusing on filling this genuine gap with more dry matter, there were examples of it being filled with a highly nutritious, very expensive feed type. This didn't provide a great return on investment as a lot of herds were still in an energy deficit. The focus first needs to be on meeting the baseline energy requirement and then building on the nutritive value beyond here.
