Guelph ON, October 6, 2016- Ontario Goat (OG) is pleased to release the results of the 2015 “Ontario Dairy Goat Cost of Production (COP) & Benchmarking Study.” The 2015 COP for one litre of goat milk is $1.30. This is a slight decrease from the 2014 results of $1.37/litre, which is largely attributed to a small reduction in the interest on debt values. The top five farms on the project continue to fall under the average at $0.87/litre. The top three overall costs for dairy goat farmers continue to be feed, labour and interest on debt. It incorporates a value for labour which gives producers a true value for the work done on the farm either by themselves or by hired employees.
Building on the results from the 2014 pilot study, this is the first year of a three-year project and is based on a random sampling of data from 17 licenced Ontario dairy goat farms throughout the year. These farms represent a wide range of feed management programs, herd sizes, production levels, milk marketing methods and geographic locations. A 3rd party accounting firm collected all of the data at the farm which provides additional professional accuracy, integrity, and transparency.
Producers who participated on the project can differentiate their COP for the cost of producing milk from the other costs related to their farm. Each sample farm is not only provided with a report showing their own COP but also have a comparison report of how they measure up against the other sample farm producers. This helps to give them a better understanding of the costs associated with the COP and assists them in identifying key target areas where they may want to create efficiencies on their farm.
“Today, the goat industry is one of the fastest growing commodities across Canada and specifically in Ontario. We are quite excited about the opportunities that are before us as we move towards becoming the North American leaders in the goat industry. Many producers are looking at expansion or start-up opportunities and having a COP value that they can use when working on their business plans is helpful,” states Anton Slingerland, OG President.
A detailed report of the results can be found on the OG website at www.ontariogoat.ca. OG will also be presenting more information on the 2015 COP results at the upcoming Goat Profitability Workshops being held this fall. OG is also beginning recruitment for the 2017 sample farms.
Ontario Goat is a united producer commodity organization that is dedicated to enhancing the goat industry through education, collaboration, innovation and strategic alliances.
This project was funded in part through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of GF2 in Ontario
Source: OntarioGoat