Even though the headline payout isn’t the best, the value of milk protein is at $5.32 so producing kilo’s of protein rather than fat has twice the benefit.
Fonterra’s average Protein:Fat ratio is around 0.77 higher ratio’s are possible, even for jersey herds.
Tracker contains a calculator to allow you to look at the effects of the ratio on your payout. The table below shows the results on one of the farms currently monitoring their production on Tracker. If this farm maintains their ‘Actual’ ratio, they will earn another 6c/MS worth $12,600. If they increase the ratio to 0.9 they could add another 4c to the payout and earn an additional $8,400. A total of 10c or $21,000
Dairy Club will shortly issue a Technical Note for members detailing the main factors that effect milk protein and the likely costs and returns from manipulating the ratio.