Download: A Texas Dairy Farmer’s Guide to Benchmarking
There is no downloadable benchmarking file on this page. Instead, here is a step-by-step way to build a benchmarking worksheet of your own, using your numbers and sources you can name.
Step one: decide what you want to learn
Benchmarking works best when it answers a question. Is feed cost out of line? Are cows lasting long enough? Is labor stretched thin? Pick one or two questions, since trying to compare everything leads to confusion.
Write the question at the top of your worksheet. Everything below it should help answer it.
If a worksheet starts to feel like homework, simplify it. The goal is a tool you will use, not a masterpiece. Ask yourself what decision the answer would change. If the answer would not change anything, pick a different question.
Step two: choose your measures
Pick a few measures you can calculate consistently from records you already keep. Examples include feed cost per hundredweight, milk per cow, component levels, cow turnover and labor hours per cow.
Write down exactly how each one is calculated, including what is in and what is out. Definitions matter, since two farms can use the same name for different things. Publications such as Hoard's Dairyman often explain common measures. For regional economics, farmdoc daily and the Dallas Fed publish background.
- Feed cost per hundredweight
- Milk per cow
- Butterfat and protein
- Herd turnover
- Labor hours per cow
- Total cost of production
Step three: find honest comparisons
Look for sources that describe their method and sample. National statistics are available through USDA NASS, and economic research is at the Economic Research Service. Extension programs, including Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and your cooperative may have data for farms like yours.
Do not copy a number into your worksheet without writing down its source and year. Add a column for the reference group, so you remember who you are comparing with.
Some farms trade benchmarks with a few trusted neighbors or join a discussion group facilitated by an advisor. Agree on definitions and confidentiality at the start, and share what each person is comfortable sharing.
Step four: fill it in and look for patterns
Enter your numbers monthly or quarterly and compare them with your reference. Note the gaps, then ask why. Weather, feed changes, health events and decisions all play a part. Write the cause beside the number.
Do not jump to a fix. A gap may be fine if it reflects a trade-off, such as paying more for labor to improve cow care. Compare with similar farms near Stephenville and across Texas, rather than with a very different system.
Keep notes about what you tried. If a fix works, you will want to repeat it, and if it does not, you will want to avoid it.
Step five: turn it into action
Choose one change, set a target date and name who is responsible. Meet briefly each quarter to check progress. Bring your lender or advisor in when a change affects money, and use ideas from this farm money guide.
For herd-level improvement, the dairy herd guide can supply ideas, and this small farm planning resource offers worksheets for smaller operations.
Remember that people are part of the plan. Explain the goal to the crew and ask for their ideas, because they see problems before the numbers do.
Worksheet layout ideas
A basic layout has one row per measure and columns for last year, this year, reference, source and notes. Keep it to a single page if you can. Add a second page for causes and actions.
Color coding is fine, but do not let it take over. What matters is that you can look at the page and see in a minute where to focus.
Save a fresh copy each year and keep the old ones. After three or four years, you will have a real history of your own farm.
- Measure and how it is calculated
- Last year and this year
- Reference value, source and year
- Possible causes
- Action, owner and date
Keep it light and keep it going
Review the worksheet each year, retire measures you do not use and add new ones. For a break, farm.FM has a dairy section and a farm jokes page, plus a farm.FM story about comparing farms. Over at farm.FM they say comparing yourself with the neighbor is a time-honored sport.
Meanwhile, the real work is in your own records and the sources you have named.
Sources and further reading
- Hoard's Dairyman: dairy trade publication
- USDA NASS: agricultural statistics and surveys
- USDA Economic Research Service: farm economy data and analysis
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Texas extension service
- farmdoc daily: University of Illinois farm economics
- Dallas Fed: regional economy including Texas and Oklahoma
Ask locally: Your nutritionist, your lender and your county AgriLife Extension agent can help you pick measures and fair comparisons.