Check out some of the latest DairyBase benchmarks by region here.

How to use benchmarking data

There are several ways to work through a DairyBase benchmarking report - it just depends on business goals and what information is in the reports.

A benchmarking report is an ideal starting point for discussion with a consultant, accountant or banker to talk about the farm business. The impact of a report is magnified when it is discussed with an advisor.

For more information contact DairyBase.

Key performance indicators

DairyBase uses two types of KPIs when benchmarking - financial and physical.

• Financial

  • Operating Profit/ha:  Measure of dairy farm profitability by ha.  This is the dairy operating return after an allowance for the value of change in: dairy livestock numbers; non-paid labour and management; supplementary feed inventory change; owned run-off adjustment and depreciation
  • Farm Working Expenses/kgMS: The total dairy farm cash expenditure, including labour, stock feed, and other working expenses and overheads per milksolids
  • Operating Return on Dairy Assets (%): Dairy operating profit (as above) plus owned run-off adjustment, less rent as a percentage of opening assets (last years’ closing). The return on assets employed at beginning of the year to generate the income
  • Return on Equity (%): Dairy operating profit (above) plus owned run-off adjustment  plus net off farm income, less rent less interest as a percentage of opening equity (last years’ closing equity). This measures the return on the funds employed by the owner.  There are two calculations - one is calculated taking into account the change in capital value of assets, the other is based on recorded costs per the financial statements (which may or not maybe re-valued)
  • Growth in Equity (%): The change in owner’s equity during the year as a percentage of opening equity
  • Discretionary Cash: This represents the cash available to meet capital purchases, debt repayments, drawings, and extraordinary expenses.  Cash operating surplus less rent, interest and tax, plus net non-dairy cash income, income equalisation and net off-farm income.

• Physical

  • Cow efficiency (MS as % of liveweight): The production per cow in relation to average liveweight for the herd
  • Pasture eaten (tDM/ha) and energy eaten (MJME/ha): How much of the pasture is eaten and how much feed energy each hectare produced
  • Total Supplements Used (kg DM/cow): How much the cows eat.

Valid information

To ensure the information is statistically reliable and that individual data remains confidential a minimum of 20 farms must be entered for a benchmark group before statistics become available.

The greater the number in the sample, the more accurate the data will be.