Free Income Over Feed Cost (IOFC) Calculator
margin over feed per cow & per herd.
Income Over Feed Cost is one of the most useful financial measures in commercial dairying. Calculate your daily margin over feed per cow and your monthly herd margin over feed in USD ($).
Income Over Feed Cost Simulation
Adjust milk and feed figures to see the daily margin over feed.
Want feed cost per litre and milk accounts from your own records?
Herd Manager shows each pen's feed cost per litre of milk and feed conversion from the feed and milk you record, keeps buyer milk ledgers with fat/SNF-based pricing, and produces income and expense reports.
Understanding Income Over Feed Cost (IOFC)
Why gross milk production is vanity, but Income Over Feed Cost is sanity.
The Mathematical Equation
IOFC = Gross Milk Revenue - Total Feed Cost (Concentrates + Forage + Silage + Minerals). Feed is usually the largest single cost on a dairy farm. An extra 2 liters of milk loses money if the extra concentrate needed to produce it costs more than those 2 liters sell for.
- Healthy Ratio: Total feed cost under 55% of milk revenue.
- Caution Zone: Feed cost between 55% and 65% of milk revenue.
- Loss Zone: Feed cost exceeding 65% indicates ration imbalance or poor feed conversion.
Breed IOFC Dynamics
Holstein cows give more milk, but water buffaloes (Nili-Ravi & Murrah) can reach a similar IOFC where their 6.5–7.5% fat milk earns a higher price, for example from desi ghee and sweet makers.
- Quality Premiums: Buffalo milk usually sells for more per liter than cow milk because of its higher fat content.
- Cheaper Feed Sourcing: Replacing some bought-in wanda with by-products such as wheat bran and banola cake, as long as the ration stays balanced.
- Per-Animal Records: Spotting low-yielding animals in late lactation whose milk no longer pays for their feed.
How to use this calculator
- Choose the breed preset closest to your animals. It fills in example figures to start from; replace each one with your own.
- Enter the number of animals in milk and their average milk yield per head per day.
- Enter the milk price you actually receive, after any deductions.
- Enter your concentrate price and how much concentrate each animal eats per day, then the daily cost of forage and silage per head. Add minerals and other supplements to the forage figure so no feed cost is left out.
- The results update as you type. Change one figure at a time to see which one moves your margin most.
Reading the result
Daily IOFC per cow is what one milking animal's milk earns each day after her feed is paid for. Monthly herd margin multiplies that by your number of milking animals and by 30.5 days. It is a margin before all other costs, so it is not the same as profit: labour, vet and breeding costs, power, repairs, loan payments and depreciation still have to come out of it. If the daily IOFC turns red, the feed costs as much as or more than the milk earns. When IOFC drops, check milk yield, milk price and feed cost one at a time, and compare with your own past months rather than with another farm's figure.
Common questions about IOFC
What a good IOFC looks like, how it is worked out, and which animals to include.
What is a good Income Over Feed Cost (IOFC)?
There is no single figure for every farm, because milk prices and feed costs differ between countries and seasons. A practical check is the share of milk income spent on feed: under about 55% is healthy, 55–65% is worth a closer look, and over 65% suggests a problem with the ration, feed prices or milk yield. What is left has to pay for labour, vet costs, power, repairs, depreciation and profit, so track your own IOFC month by month and watch the trend.
How is IOFC calculated?
Multiply each animal's average daily milk yield by the milk price to get daily milk income, then subtract the day's feed cost: the concentrate fed times its price, plus the daily cost of forage and silage. This calculator multiplies the result by the number of milking animals and by 30.5 days to give the monthly herd margin.
Should dry cows be included?
Not in this calculator, which works out IOFC for milking animals only. Dry cows and young stock still eat but give no milk, so track their feed cost separately. Some advisers also quote a whole-herd figure that includes dry cows, so check which one you are comparing with.
Decision support only. Not a substitute for your veterinarian.