Inside Milk
Make up for a roughage shortage or restrict feeding?
Many dairy farmers are faced with a difficult choice: keep roughage and concentrate costs limited at the expense of milk production or maintain milk production and purchase roughage. This is because there is a roughage shortage on many farms that is becoming more acute due to late spring.
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Purchasing roughage is not easy because there is little available, making prices very high. To get good roughage, you quickly have to pay €70 to €75 per tonne. The silage maize trade has yet to get going, but prices also appear to be above €70 per tonne.
The margin is getting smaller
This dilemma for dairy farmers is made more difficult by a rising milk price. However, this does not increase proportionately. A-brok increased by 2020% from April 11,2 to April this year, while the milk price only increased by 3% in the same period.
Because the feed costs of both roughage and concentrates have risen much faster than the milk price, dairy farmers now have less margin left. Due to the cold weather, the first cut will be later than last year. The maize was sown late throughout the Netherlands - or this has yet to be done - which also means a later harvest time, which entails more risk. All this does not help to solve the roughage shortage.
Price increases continue
The A-brok price is expected to rise further in the summer. Dairy farmers are therefore faced with a dilemma whether to purchase feed to maintain production or reduce feed to increase the feed margin.