Dairy farming in 2013 was being reshaped by a hard reality: it could no longer be treated simply as a way of life. Escalating costs, deregulation and limited resources were pushing agriculture towards a more explicitly business-driven model. In South Africa, thousands of dairy role-players had already left the industry over the previous two decades, and producers who remained were being pressed to rethink how their farms were organised and managed. The central lesson was not that every farm must grow at any cost, but that every producer needed to adapt deliberately.
Start with the business, not a slogan
The familiar advice to “get big or get out” was challenged in the Dairy Mail material. Scale can create advantages, but it is not a sound strategy for everyone: farms that expanded too quickly or at the wrong time had failed. Producers unable to grow independently could consider joining with fellow farmers to form larger units. Whatever the route, the common requirement was to raise efficiency as margins came under pressure. A more useful maxim was: “Get bigger, get better, get together or get out.”
That shift requires looking closely at the relationship between what a farm pays for inputs and what it receives for output. When input prices rise faster than product prices, margins per unit fall, pushing producers towards higher production or greater production efficiency. Dairy farmers were experiencing that squeeze, including through the changing relationship between milk and feed prices. The practical response is to assess the operation as a business: identify where costs and resources are being used, choose investments that improve performance, and avoid assuming that expansion alone will solve a weak margin.
Use information to act before cow health worsens
Technology can support that efficiency while improving animal management. Swedish producer Andreas Andersson used robotic milking stations as voluntary milking systems that gathered information from cows. Milk samples provided data displayed on a monitor, with particular attention paid to somatic cell counts as an indicator of health. When counts rose, proactive management could help address a problem early. The barn itself also gave cows options: they could eat, lie down, visit a robotic station or use a swinging brush for a back rub.
Producer Patrik Boner used a herd navigator programme to assess animals’ risk of mastitis, ketosis and other health problems. Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in milk samples indicated ketosis risk; when levels were elevated, he could treat the cow with propylene glycol. High levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) indicated increased mastitis risk, and at-risk cows could be allowed to stop at a robotic station for more frequent milk-out. The point is not technology for its own sake: monitoring is useful when information leads to timely, specific management.
The same principle applies to farm investment more broadly. A 2013 editorial urged farmers to learn about tools such as activity meters for heat detection, automatic calf feeders, genomic testing, smartphones and electronic management systems rather than letting unfamiliarity become a reason to avoid change. Farmers were encouraged to investigate what they could do differently and better for their own farms.
Prepare for volatile costs and markets
The environment made planning difficult. Producers were dealing with sparse and modest milk-price increases over four years while administrative costs and feed costs rose rapidly, leaving smaller margins and, in some cases, negative returns that affected milk supply. At the same time, international and local market conditions were changing. The rand-dollar exchange rate had shifted, increasing import parity, and international agencies were forecasting continued global dairy-product shortages and upward price trends. The warning was that a failure to respond to changing conditions could contribute to damaging boom-and-bust price cycles.
A later market snapshot showed the tension clearly. Despite a New Zealand botulism scare, prices at the following Fonterra auction fell by only about 2.5%, suggesting underlying strength in the international market. Fonterra announced an advance payment of R4.30 per litre to New Zealand farmers, significantly above the then South African average farm price for similar milk. South African import and export parity for milk equivalent were also significantly higher than the local producer price. Although summer production might temporarily restrain price increases, exports still exceeded imports and reported consumption exceeded production, indicating a strengthening market for raw milk.
These signals do not remove uncertainty, but they make it important to track costs, supply and market conditions and to make decisions before pressure becomes a crisis. Producers were urged to keep progressing and investing—through better management, more efficient equipment and infrastructure improvements—so they could be more productive in good times and better able to meet the challenges ahead.
Innovate for consumers, not just the farm
Adaptation also extends beyond the milking parlour. At the 2013 World Dairy Summit, a key message was that future success depended on continuous product innovation in response to changing consumer needs. Dairy products were described as offering nutrition, affordability and versatility, while examples of innovation included protein-fortified drinks, sports recovery products, breakfast-on-the-go items, Greek yogurt and snack-sized portions.
Even basic milk was being reinvented through convenient packaging and niche products. Resealable bottles and aseptic packages of 250 to 500 millilitres were gaining ground in convenience stores, while extended shelf-life and UHT milk were growing categories. The wider lesson for producers and processors is to recognise that the market is not static: understanding changing demand and finding ways to create value in familiar products can complement improvements on the farm.
A resilient dairy business, then, combines sound choices about scale with close attention to efficiency, animal-health information, investment and market change. No single tool or growth strategy fits every farm. But a willingness to learn, measure and adapt can help producers protect the herd, use resources more effectively and position their businesses for the conditions ahead.
Key points
- Treat dairy farming as a business and evaluate investments by their contribution to efficiency, not by growth alone.
- Use monitoring systems to turn milk-sample and herd data into timely, specific cow-health interventions.
- Track input costs, milk supply and market signals; changing conditions can create opportunities as well as risks.
- Look for consumer-led innovation in dairy products, packaging and formats.