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30 years of change

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  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

The Dairy Farm Business Summary & Analysis Project (DFBS) is one of the longest applied research efforts within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University that interacts directly with rural stakeholders of the land grant mission. The DFBS started as a project in 1956 and works with dairy farm families to analyze financial and business performance over time, with the objective to improve business and financial management within the dairy industry using modern analysis techniques and historical farm data.  

In 2002 DFBS was converted to a secure web-based system and farm data from 1993 forward is available online to individual participating farms. With completion of the 2022 year by participating farms, 30 years of data are now within the web-based system, covering the business years of 1993 through 2022.  

Recognizing this 30-year milestone is an opportunity to recognize the continued participation over time by dairy farm families across New York State. 38 farms statewide participated for both the 1993 and 2022 business years. 

"Out of these 38 farms, 21 have participated every year since 1993, which is a testament of the importance these farm families place on participating in the DFBS and supporting this applied research and extension project at Cornell," said PRO-DAIRY Farm Business Management specialist Jason Karszes. "Many of these farms may also have participated before 1993 but records of individual farms participating before 1993 have been lost to time."

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