Dairy Profit Teams

A traditional Dairy Profit Team offers participating dairy farms a broad-based approach to making better decisions and improving profitability through the use of a profit team. Participating farms enrolled in the program must have the goal of increasing profitability and total milk flow from the farm. Teams are required to meet at least four times a year, and the teams must be willing to engage in a strategic review and comprehensive planning process for the entire dairy farm operation.

Annual funding levels for a traditional Dairy Profit Team are:
-- $1,500 for new teams
-- $1,000 for existing teams

The funding can be used to cover the cost of paid team members as well as discovery-related costs associated with the team's work. All expenses must be submitted to the Center for Dairy Excellence within 60 days of incurring the expense for reimbursement. Meeting notes and other requested reports should also be provided on a timely basis.

For an application, click here.

For an application for the Transformation Team program, click here.

The Program:

• New Dairy Profit Teams are eligible to receive up to $1,500 in funding from Jan. 1 - Dec. 1, 2010. Funding for profit teams in existence prior to Dec. 1, 2009, are eligible to receive $1,000.
• The Center and the Penn State Dairy Alliance, an initiative of Penn State Cooperative Extension, provide a “start- up” training workshop for new teams and assign a support person to each team to provide resources and share successful ideas from other teams. Click here for dates and times of upcoming team training sessions.
• Once accepted into the program, the producer must choose team members, which could include key farm management, lender, nutritionist, veterinarian, accountant and A.I. or DHIA representative, as well as a team facilitator. The facilitator’s role is critical to the team, so facilitators are encouraged to attend Facilitator Training Workshops.
• The producer can also enlist the service of a Practical Dairy Advisors (PDA), who is an experienced producer hired by the Center to serve as an advisor for a dairy farm involved in the profit team or target team programs.
• The Profitability Assessment Dairy Tool (PA Dairy Tool) developed by Penn State Dairy Extension is available to help the team drill down to specific bottlenecks in the operation.
  Please note: To use the PA Dairy Tool, farms must have detailed financial data available for input into the tool. The spreadsheet they must use to collect data, along with instructions on how to complete the spreadsheet, are available online at http://www.das.psu.edu/das/dairy/patool.
• The profit team meets preferably monthly or bi-monthly to do comprehensive evaluations of the farm operation, including both financial and performance records. A minimum of four meetings during the year is required. Target areas of improvement are identified, and goals are set for each area. Action plans are prepared.
• Activities and results must be monitored and reported to the Center for Dairy Excellence as requested. And additional plans/strategies are developed as the Team meets routinely. Next highest priority items are incorporated into the plan/activities as time and manpower allow. At some point during the year, farms must provide a strategic planning document to the Center for Dairy Excellence to document their progress.
• Teams are encouraged to utilize the Center for Dairy Excellence's risk management services and should plan to have Alan Zepp, risk management specialist for the Center, attend at least one of their 2010 profit team meetings to explain available risk management resources.

For more information, contact Program Manager Heidi Zimmerman at 717-346-0849 or hzimmerman@centerfordairyexcellence.org.