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Dairy Farm Planning and Systems Analysis

Michigan State University, E. Lansing 48824

ABSTRACT

The Extension Service, United States Department of Agriculture, funded a special project to approach development of extension materials for dairy farmers by systems analysis. Agricultural engineers created video tapes and publications on manure, feed handling, calf housing, and milking subsystems. Dairy scientists created slide-tapes and publications on controlling feed losses during harvest, storage, and feeding. Agricultural economists created publications and interactive computer programs to aid in the total farm planning process. The first computer program suggests a profit-maximizing combination of crops and dairy livestock by linear programming. The second program accumulates the total investment required plus other financial indicators for a dairy farm expansion after the farmer has specified components desired to the new operation. The third program traces selected monthly changes in the dairy livestock inventory, monthly gross income, monthly feed needs, and monthly manure production from the current time up to 20 yr into the future. The fourth interactive computer program tests the financial feasibility and provides an annual cash flow analysis of a proposed farm plan.