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Dairy Initiative Aims To Improve Profitability

By Matt Surtel, The Daily News, 12/22/07

Dairy farmers are experts when it comes to production.

Their skill and knowledge has helped make Wyoming County the state's top dairy region. But profitability can be a challenge, where price per hundredweight is notoriously shaky.

Officials unveiled an effort Thursday to enhance the profitability and sustainability of area dairy farms.

"We were contacted by the New York Farm Viability Institute to see if we were interested in having this grant," said Executive Director Bill Maddison of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wyoming County. "I said yes, because I saw it as a way of benefiting our producers."

The county will receive a total of $55,000 over two years. The money will help fund a team of four to six advisors for each participating farm.

The teams will analyze each farm's operation and find ways to become more efficient and effective, enhancing their long-term viability. The concept originated in Pennsylvania, and similar programs are already under way in Jefferson and Madison counties.

Participating farmers will choose their own advisory teams based on their needs, said Dick Barth, a business advisor who is serving as the Profit Teams Institute's grant director.

The $55,000 is enough for five farms to participate.

Farms can't control how much they get for milk, so they instead looks at costs, Barth said.

"The whole purpose is literally like the name," he said. "To make the farms that participate more profitable... None of it is going to be on the income side. It's going to be on the cost side."

The program's requirements are basic. Participants need to be Wyoming County dairy farmers, with some kind of recordkeeping.

Total expense is estimated at $750 maximum, with the farms covering 20 percent of each meeting's costs. Teams will typically include a nutritionist, crop specialist, veterinarian, facilitator and others.

Officials said it's hoped the Institute will eventually be able to expand.

"I can imagine if this were held up in front of most entrepreneurs, they'd jump at the opportunity," Barth said.