MANAGEMENT DECISION SUPPORT METRICS: DATA-DRIVEN MANAGEMENT CAPACITY THAT PAYS WITH PERFORMANCE FOR U.S. DAIRY PRODUCERS

This project will develop and implement simple and extremely low cost data entry methods accessible on multiple platforms (hard copy forms, mobile, and web) and provide access to users to comparative analysis of essential data streams characterizing operations and the economic environment in which dairy farms operate. Second, the project will develop automated, background capacity to compute current farm-level, economic, performance-oriented benchmarks based on economic peer farm identification drawn from state-of-the-art methods and management decision support metrics (MDSMs) such as profitability, productivity, and efficiency. The project will focus on dairy and related crops (forages, corn and soybean), farm-wide as well as enterprise data and metrics, however also provide capacity to analyze specific aspects such as feed and nutrient management. The project will contribute by advancing data gathering and conducting research on cost of production, farm profitability factors, and farm policy (FBMB obj#2), and improve producer's ability to manage risk emanating from price volatility (FBMB obj#7).