Dairy Feed Cost Calculator: Cost per Litre of Milk
The number that decides whether a milk price is workable. Enter the ration, the price and the yield to see feed cost per litre and margin over feed cost across the herd.
Inputs
Results
- Feed cost per cow per day
- 6.16
- Feed cost per litre
- 0.205
- Margin over feed cost per litre
- 0.215
- Herd feed cost per day
- 924
- Herd feed cost per month
- 27,720
- Feed as % of milk revenue
- 48.9%
- Ration needed per month
- 99.0 t
Feed cost per litre of milk = (daily ration intake in kg × feed price per kg) ÷ litres produced per cow per day. A cow eating 22 kg of dry matter at 0.28 per kg while producing 30 litres carries a feed cost of about 0.21 per litre, and feed typically accounts for 55–65% of the cost of milk production.
The formula
- Feed cost per cow per day = intake (kg) × (price per tonne ÷ 1000)
- Feed cost per litre = feed cost per cow per day ÷ litres per cow per day
- Margin over feed cost = milk price per litre − feed cost per litre
Worked example — 150-cow herd at 30 litres
- · 150 cows
- · 22 kg dry matter per cow per day
- · 280 per tonne
- · 30 litres per cow
- · milk at 0.42
- → 6.16 per cow per day in feed, 0.205 per litre
- → Margin over feed cost 0.215 per litre — feed is 49% of milk revenue
- → 99 t of ration a month, about 27,700 in monthly feed cost
Dairy feed cost benchmarks
| Category | Typical range | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Feed share of production cost | 55–65% | Higher in confinement systems. |
| Dry matter intake | 3.0–4.0% of body weight | 20–26 kg for a 600–650 kg cow. |
| Feed efficiency | 1.3–1.6 litres per kg DM | Milk produced per kg of dry matter. |
| Concentrate per litre | 0.25–0.40 kg | Depends on forage quality. |
Indicative commercial ranges across temperate and tropical systems.
Turn the tonnage into offers
Once you know the tonnage, the next step is pricing it. Send the volume and the specification and we run it across qualified manufacturers and ingredient suppliers, then return every offer normalised to landed cost per tonne. Supplier-neutral and free for buyers.
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