Feed costs are eating your margin. Here's where to look first.

On most dairy farms, feed is 50 to 70 percent of the cost of producing a litre of milk. When margins get tight the instinct is to buy cheaper feed — but cheaper feed often means less milk, and you can end up worse off. Before you change what you buy, it is worth finding where the feed you already pay for is being wasted.

1. Feeding the whole herd like the top cows

A cow giving 5 litres does not need the same ration as one giving 25. When everyone eats the high-production mix, you are pouring expensive concentrate into animals that cannot turn it into milk. Grouping by production stage — even loosely — is one of the fastest ways to cut cost without cutting yield.

2. Guessing at quantities

Eyeballing scoops drifts upward over time, and a little extra per cow per day multiplied across the herd across the month is a serious number. Mixing to an actual target for the actual number of animals in each group keeps that drift in check — and tells you honestly when stock is running low instead of surprising you.

3. Buying without records

If you do not track what feed costs you against what milk it produces, you cannot tell a good buy from a bad one. The supplier who is "a bit cheaper" might give you less milk per kilo and cost more per litre sold. You only see that when the feed and the milk sit in the same place.

None of this needs a nutritionist on speed dial. It needs your feed, your herd counts, and your milk in one view so the waste becomes obvious — which is exactly what the feed and production tools in Herd Signals are for.