Information
Ingredients- Allows you to enter every feed ingredient that you feed on your dairy. Includes the ability to include unit of measure, cost, dry matter percentage, shrink percentage, whether the ingredient is grown or not (and whether you want to value these grown feeds at cost or market) and whether the item is equivalent to corn, soybeans or soybean meal (along with its related equivalency percentage).
Rations- Allows you to enter every ration that you feed to any cattle on your farm, along with the ability to designate it as a lactating, non-lactating (dry cow) or youngstock ration. Once your feed ingredients are set up entering your rations is very quick and easy. There are some exclusive features that allow you to enter information by pounds or percentage and to ensure that all ingredients are properly accounted for in the ration.
Cows- Allows you to identify the number of cattle being fed each ration. This also allows you to enter the pounds of milk production per cow (either on a ration by ration basis or overall average for the herd). We know that time is valuable so if you want to duplicate the same information for any number of future months MARGINSMART® allows that to happen in literally seconds to save you time.
Grown Feed- Allows you to enter any ingredients that you grow on your dairy to feed to your cattle. These are entered in the expectation of feed usage. You also can enter your exact cost, an estimated cost or choose to value these at a market price.
Market- Exclusive feature allows you to enter the exact basis for milk, corn, soybeans and soybean meal for your farm. Basis is the difference between the commodity prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or the Chicago Board of Trade and the actual prices you receive for milk or pay for corn, soybeans and soybean meal. This is important because ultimately you cannot feed “paper contracts” to your dairy herd as everything has to flow through the physical commodities. For milk, basis is the difference between your “Mailbox Price” and the announced Class III price, so this includes plant differentials and other premiums and discounts specific to your dairy. MARGINSMART® realizes that the overall basis level of these commodities is EXTREMELY important to customizing the results specifically to your dairy. MARGINSMART® can help guide you in determining the basis for your farm.
Commitments- This area is broken out into two areas: Futures Contracts and Physical Contracts. The Futures Contract area allows you to enter extensive information related to any futures contract related to Class III milk, corn, soybeans or soybean meal and includes information to close those contracts out and include any related gains or losses in your overall margin calculations. The Physical Contract area allows you to enter extensive information related to any contract you have to buy or sell milk or any feed ingredient.
Reports & Charts
Projected Milk Production and Value Report– On a monthly basis this report shows a summary (by lactating ration) of the number of cows, milk production per cow, overall cwts. of milk produced; as well as your current projected blended milk price based on hedges, contracts and current CME Class III Milk Futures prices. Lastly it shows your overall projected milk revenue.
Projected Feed Ingredient Usage– On a monthly basis this report shows the number of head eating every ration, average as fed pounds of every ration and the projected total tons of every feed ingredient which will be fed to all cattle in your herd.
Overall Summary Report– Your “One Stop” for a quick overall summary of your milk margin and a few other important pieces of info. This report shows overall number of milk cows, projected milk production and feed usage of corn, soybeans and soybean meal equivalents, along with the percentage of the price risk covered for each of these. Most importantly it displays the milk margin – both in total dollars and per cwt. Finally you can choose to display the milk margin in a comprehensive format, which includes all outstanding contracts, futures positions and grown feed at their respective prices and costs (and the balance which are unpriced at current market), or in a 100% market format which will convert all milk, corn, soybeans and soybean meal equivalent ingredients to the then current CME and CBOT prices.
Financial Charts Report- This shows two line graphs. The first one identifies the overall comprehensive milk price and feed costs on a per cwt. basis in a clear, easy-to-read format. The second one identifies your comprehensive milk margin on a per cwt. basis. You can also very easily adjust the number of months on the chart to virtually any number.
Margin History Chart- This chart shows the history of your actual comprehensive milk margin over any number of days that you select. It will show the high, low and last for each day so that you can very easily see what has been happening to your margins over time.