Labour Cost per Litre

Manager

Member
Mixed Farmer
Can anyone point me in the right direction, I'm trying to find comparable labour costs per litre for different systems. We run a 250 Holstein cow autumn block system, and I need to show the directors how we compare against other systems and wether we should try to increase yield or take a more lower input approach.

Thanks
 

More to life

Member
Location
Somerset
Lower input may end up in a higher labour cost per litre but a lower overall cost… seriously difficult one to compare across farms. For example I’m around 500000 litres per labour unit but do everything from slurry spreading to building work in house. Farmer A down the road maybe sits at 1000000 litres but only puts cups on.
I agree it's easier to piont out what a hopeless benchmark it is.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
All kinds of variables come into it, one of which is how modern and high capacity the milking parlour is. Accurate cost forecast is a bit of an art and, as always, every farm will be different in some way. In my own case the time taken to milk cows is ridiculous but at my stage in life and circumstances the last thing I would do is invest in what is now needed, a complete new milking unit including slurry, cubicles, housing and silos. In two or three years these will be 45 years old and well past their use-by date and until we finally pack it in, the labour cost will remain high per unit of output relative to even the average today. However, other costs offset this by being very low.
 

Kiss

Member
Location
North west
2.4p here for milking 3x and feeding, foot trimming in house ai outsourced,calves sold at 1 month. Includes myself.
could probably have it less but I do like a tidy place what’s it all about at end of day.
2.4ppl is seriously cheap, does that include yourself/ other unpaid?

OP join a discussion group and do a cfp as has been mentioned above it can be dressed up how you want- higher labour should mean lower contractors and so on

We are just over 5p all cow work in house all tractor work contracted out, rearing replacements to. Not sure how we could do it cheaper sensibly. Spring block
 

Wesley

Member
What we actually pay ourselves (parents & me)...under 1.7ppl 🤣 Large amount of the tractor work & foot trimming outsourced but would like to do more in house if we could find the time. That includes rearing every calf born for either replacement or finished beef
 
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Milkcow365

Member
Location
Sw Scotland
2.4ppl is seriously cheap, does that include yourself/ other unpaid?

OP join a discussion group and do a cfp as has been mentioned above it can be dressed up how you want- higher labour should mean lower contractors and so on

We are just over 5p all cow work in house all tractor work contracted out, rearing replacements to. Not sure how we could do it cheaper sensibly. Spring block
yeah includes me as I draw a decent salary, lots of litres and fast milking times help, all scraping is auto, But it’s all horses for courses and don’t start me on my electric 🥴
 

O'Reilly

Member
I think in the Old mill accountants report they refer to 'cogwod' - cost of getting work done- which is labour, machinery and contractors combined, this allows for the difference between farms that do everything in house and those who only milk cows. @farmerdan7618 wrote it, so he can explain a lot more than I.
 

Bramble

Member
7.5ppl including family drawings and all contacting costs, plus 350 acres of arable.

Replacements all reared on farm, foot trimming/AI in house. Contractors for maize harvesting, some muck carting, muckspreading, hedgecutting, plus 25% of the ploughing
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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