Making Money with “Milk Money”
How Wisconsin Farmers Improve Milk Quality
by Pamela Ruegg, DVM, MPVM,
Extension Milk Quality Specialist
UW Department of Dairy Science

Like to add eight cents a hundredweight to your milk check? How about 20? Maybe 41 cents a hundredweight would help? Dairy producers all across Wisconsin are finding those added pennies in their milk checks after participating in Milk Money.

Milk Money is a program that helps producers and their advisors form self-directed teams to reach farm-specific milk quality goals. More than 350 Wisconsin dairy farms have enrolled in Milk Money. Recently, we assessed actions and outcomes of 113 farms completing the program.

Producers participating in Milk Money are generally pleased with their results. More than two-thirds of the farms completing the program report achieving their milk quality goals. And, 99.1 percent of the producers agreed that their teams were useful for improving milk quality.

Most farms that enroll in Milk Money indicated a desire to improve somatic cell count and most were successful in doing so. Somatic cell counts dropped an average of 78,000 cells/ml for farms that completed the Milk Money program. Farms that began the program with somatic cell counts of more than 400,000 cell/ml experienced the most dramatic improvement and reduced their somatic cell count by more than 181,000 cells/ml on average.

Improvements in milk quality can lead to improvements in both milk price quality premiums and improvements in production efficiency. Frequently, improved milk quality increases milk production, reduces discarded milk, and reduces treatment expenses.

As expected, the improvements in somatic cell count experienced by Milk Money herds led to improvements in several financial characteristics. Most farms that completed Milk Money reported that they increased their milk quality premiums. Increased premiums of $0.08/cwt, $0.20/cwt, and $0.41/cwt were reported for herds that began the program with bulk tank somatic cell counts of less than 250,000, 250,000-400,000, and greater than 400,000, respectively.

At the beginning of the program, farms reported that 6.1 percent of their cows developed clinical mastitis each month. By the end of the program, that rate had dropped to 4.9 percent. For herds that had monthly DHI SCC test values, the rate of new infections with subclinical mastitis dropped by a similar percentage. Farms also reported that they increased milk production because of reduced sub-clinical mastitis. On average, farms estimated that the value of the increased milk production was $1.12 per cow per month.