Dairy farm profit calculator
What a herd that size actually earns once feed, labour and everything else is paid for — and what a litre really costs you to produce.
Why most dairy profit estimates are wrong
Three mistakes turn up in almost every projection we see.
Dry animals are ignored
A dry cow eats and produces nothing. Her income over feed cost is negative, and leaving her out of the calculation flatters the herd number substantially. On a 15-animal farm where five are dry, that omission alone can overstate profit by a fifth.
Peak yield is used as average yield
An animal peaking at 18 litres does not average 18 litres. Across a full lactation, average daily yield is typically 60–70% of peak. Projections built on peak numbers are optimistic by roughly a third.
Only feed is counted as cost
Feed is usually 55–65% of milk income, not 100% of cost. Labour, medicine, semen, electricity, transport, depreciation and mortality are all real, and together they are what turns an apparently profitable farm into one that never quite has cash.
Guess less
Lactra computes cost per litre from your actual feed purchases, treatments and milkings — every day, not once at the end of the year.