By Hugh Black, MDC West Midlands Extension Officer As with any business enterprise, people want to get the maximum results for their hard-work, and dairy producers are no different.

One such way could be to change buyer, but this is not often an easy option. Therefore farmers need to take a close look at both their contracts and their management systems to make sure they are getting the best out of both.

Currently, the MDC is seeing up to 6p per litre difference between the highest and lowest milk price on farms on the same contract - £60,000 for a 1,000,000-litre producer.

So the question that needs to be addressed is: "Am I maximising my current contract?"

Take a close look at your contract and tailor as much of your business as possible to meet the buyer's needs and ask specific questions such as, what does the milk buyer require, what does he pay for, when is the milk required?

The sort of answers to the above questions - every day/ other day collection, how much is paid for fat or protein, what are the payment caps or seasonality penalties, bonuses and volume bonuses - will provide a basis for making management changes.

The next step is to ask whether you can change management to achieve some of these. For example, in the short term is there a feeding problem which could be addressed to improve milk quality or quantity, or are the ingredients used the right ones for a balanced ration. Are there any particular months when you are failing to achieve a good result?

Look at your current calving pattern, is this the right one? In the long term make sure that the breeding programme/bull selection is correct for your herd, maybe you could consider cross breeding or even changing breed.

However ultimately, as in any type of business, you have to be rational and decide what is best for the business and the overriding factor and key question must be - "Will I be left with more profit at the end of the year?"

At the end of the day it is no use going to big expense and introducing complicated systems if there is no more, or worse, even less profit.