WEEK 12: Farm Economics & Data-Driven Decision Making

Economic Analysis & Profitability

Details/Subtopics

• Income over feed cost (IOFC)
• Breakeven analysis
• Linking biological data to financial outcomes
• Introduction to decision-support tools

Activities/Tasks

• Lecture (4/14): Economics of dairy production: key metrics and data needs
• Lecture (4/16): Case study: Using data to evaluate management changes
• Lab (4/16):
  • Calculate IOFC from CURC data
  • Simple economic modeling exercise (e.g., cost of disease, value of improved reproduction)
  • Discuss ethical considerations in data interpretation

Due Dates:

• Economics lab worksheet (due start of Week 13)

Datasets/Resources

• CURC production and financial summary data
• Milk and feed price data