How do we compare to others? What can we do to improve? Are we making the right changes? These are all questions the most progressive dairy managers ask regularly. Of course, most producers are basically doing the same thing (i.e., producing milk), but those that are the most profitable are doing some things better or differently. Benchmarking your dairy on key performance indicators (KPI) is a key ingredient to increasing profitability on your dairy.

What is benchmarking?
Benchmarking is an ongoing process to evaluate the best practices that produce superior performance.

Benchmarking is not just a process to gather and compare data from several farms to determine how you compare – good or bad. This process alone will not make you more profitable, and it may just add frustration instead.

True benchmarking takes two more steps. First, the analysis identifies what “top performing” farms are actually doing to produce great results in areas like production, reproduction or calf health. The second step is to design a plan to implement “top performer” practices on your farm, using either your own management team or bringing in external assistance.

A benchmarking program, the kind that actually works to help improve profitability, includes three management steps – comparing, identifying and implementing.

The value of benchmarking
How does this work in practice? Let’s compare a sample of farm data for heat detection rates (HDR) in 500-cow dairies listed in Table 1*. The HDR for the bottom 10 percent of dairies in the dataset is 30 percent, while it is 63 percent for the top 10 percent of herds. If the conception rates on these dairies is the same at 33 percent, then we find a pregnancy rate of 10 percent for the lowest and 21 percent for the highest performers.

For a dairy wanting to break out of the bottom 10 percent in HDR, the key next step is identifying what the top 10 percent of dairies are doing. In this case, the dairies with the highest HDR performance are devoting more time to this important function. Their practice includes the “cow pusher” recording signs of primary (e.g., mounting) and secondary (e.g., mucus secretion) indicators of estrus and requiring this information to be reported to the breeders on the dairy. More eyeballs on the cows leads to better efficiency in HDR, which leads to higher pregnancy rates and reproduction efficiency.

This is a best practice operating procedure that is fairly easy to implement for the dairy that wants to improve HDR. It will require training the cow pusher and the breeders, plus adding a reporting method (paper or computer). But the economic value of improvement is significant. According to recent research by Dr. Milo Wiltbank, professor of reproductive physiology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, each 1 percent improvement in pregnancy rate equates to recovering $150 per cow.

A new benchmarking program
Starting with the next issue of Progressive Dairyman, this column will include KPI data from 175 Alta Advantage® herds. These herds have been product development and young sire testing partners with Alta Genetics for the past seven years. They each manage an average milking herd of 850 cows, and they provide some of the most competitive management environments in the country. More importantly for you, this group of dairies provides the only source of current production, reproduction and herd health data exclusively from commercial herds in the U.S. today.

The KPI data we will show will help you to leap into a benchmarking program; it will give you a point to compare your own performance against. Next issue I will discuss a benchmarking analysis of reproduction. So take the time to know your own performance before opening your next month’s issue. Not only will the series show the Advantage® herd performance, but Alta’s Advantage® consultants who work with these dairies can also identify and share the practices that have made these top performers most successful.

Benchmarking must be management-relevant. It must provide insight into what level of performance is possible. It must lead to changes that deliver results and contribute profitability. The complete benchmarking program allows dairy managers to compare, identify and implement. That’s key to creating value for progressive dairy managers. PD

Table omitted but is available upon request to editor@progressivedairy.com.