Income over feed cost (IOFC) is a key metric that provides a clear view of your farm’s profitability, helping you evaluate and optimize management decisions. It calculates the difference between milk revenue and feed costs on an individual cow basis, offering insights into efficiency and financial performance.
How Does It Work
IOFC is available for farms that have data on per-head milk production, milk price and feed cost data. It is shown in dollars per cow per day and is calculated using the formula below:
IOFC = Milk weight (per head) * Milk price - Feed cost milking cows (per head)
This calculation relies on key data sources:
Milk production data: based on shipped milk yield or milking system data if shipped milk yield is unavailable.
Feed costs: obtained daily from integrated feed management software or input manually by the user.
Milk price: Based on class III milk price factors, collected monthly from the USDA and adjusted based on farm-specific protein and fat levels, or input manually by the user.
The USDA calculated milk price is based on Class III milk prices and does not include additional premiums or bonuses. If your milk contract is not Class III, please contact us for adjustments. In cases where the USDA calculated milk price does not closely match the mailbox milk price for the farm, manual milk price entry is recommended.
Capturing IOFC Data: Integrated vs. Manual Entry
For many farms, IOFC calculations are automated through software integrations that pull real-time data on feed cost. However, there may be cases where no feed management software is in use, or the price data captured from the feed management software is inaccurate. To ensure flexibility and accuracy, the platform allows users to manually enter milk price and feed cost data when necessary.
Using Manual Data Entry
Some valuable on-farm data cannot be accurately captured through software integrations. To address this, the Platform allows users to manually input data. The current values available for user entry are milk price and feed cost, which are used in Income Over Feed Cost (IOFC) calculations.
This feature is available to all farms and users, regardless of their integration status.
How Does It Work
Go to Farm inputs under Settings and follow these steps to enter milk price or feed cost data manually:
Select a start date
Click the calendar icon to choose the start date for the milk price or feed cost entry.
Enter the dollar amount
Input the amount in US dollars using the format ##.##.
Click the "submit" button to confirm the entry.
View entries in the table
The entered date and dollar amount will appear in the table below.
Understanding data ranges
Enter only the start date of the new milk price or feed cost. Each new entry defines the range for the previous value.
Example: If a milk price of $21.50 is entered for August 1st and $22.75 for September 1st, the price of $21.50 applies from August 1st through August 30th. The price of $22.75 will apply from September 1st until the date of the next entered milk price.
Correcting an entry
If an incorrect value is entered, click the "delete" button to remove it.
Add the correct data as a new entry.
By following these steps, you can ensure accurate data entry for milk price and feed cost calculations within the platform.