Cost and Net Return From the Milking Enterprise on Selected D.H.I.A. Farms in Northern Utah, 1965

A study was made of cost and net return of the milking enterprise of selected D.H.I.A. members of Northern Utah. Production cost for market milk ranged from $6.37 to $3.74 per 100 pounds of milk with the weighted average for all enterprises being $4.71 per 100 pounds of milk. Production cost amounted to an average of $538.24 per cow. Total receipts amounted to $4.64 per 100 pounds of milk or $531.18 per cow per year. Net return was calculated by deducting total cost from total receipts and amounted to minus $335 per enterprise or minus $7.23 per cow per year. Manufacturing milk production cost averaged $543.85 per cow per year and average total receipts were $466.97 per cow per year. Net return averaged minus $76.88 per cow per year. A larger number of cows per herd was associated with lower total cost per cow, but a large herd did not lower cost per cow enough to make low producing cows profitable. In the milking enterprise high efficiency in one measure offered no assurance of high net return. The most successful enterprises were those that were better than average in the greatest number of efficiency measures