future plans??

tismesoitis

with the outlook for farming looking a little brighter than it has done in recent years has anyone any plans for expansion of their existing operation or quiting the part/full time job to go farming full time? maybe i'l start...
we ,re running approx 70 sucklers and intend to push to 120 in the next 3 years. this year will put in a new silage slab to allow us to use existing covered pits for more stock accomadation.working part time but would love to farm full time in 2 or 3 years!! wife might get heart attack if i told her that:D:D

stanflt

have expanded herd over last three years from milking 60 cows to 100cows in the parlour all year round. on paper have 140cows. soon as one calves we dry off as i only currently have 100 cubicle spaces. calving from august to may. im only at home full time since last spring but we started expanding three years ago because i saw the writing on the wall with the job. (construction sales rep)
havent got as much money now:( but i am much happier. if farming is for you go for it. the wife will come around. have to go theres milking to be done-ah the joys of it:)

blue5000

I'd still like to be doing something off farm for a couple of days a week, even voluntary work. So I want to continue making the farm labour friendly so that neccessary work can be done as efficiently as possible.

I'm not talking huge expense, just gates in the right places, good fencing, that sort of stuff. This year I want to creep graze calves in front of cows. Planning to keep some weanlings for the first winter instead of selling all of them in the autumn. Long term I intend keeping more cows, but that won't be happening this year.

whelan1

we can all dream , i would love to get to 200 cows BUT the banks are the major limiting factor , have enough land , would need more cubicles and cows

babybrian

I want to lease a farm on a long-term lease to increase cow numbers because on the home farm we can have a max of 40cows and Im not going down the zero grazer option.. Its not easy find a suitable one tho which is very irritating!!especially when I see big farms around just ticking over with a few cattle and probably a huge SFP
Worked on a 500 cow herd in Oz (thats the dream for here too)

pakalasa

This might be of interest to people, land selling for €4K/acre in France;
http://www.francepcsupport.com/wip/farmingfrancais/index.php?option=com_realestatemanager&task=view&id=15&catid=42&Itemid=72

Land can be rented too for around €40~50/acre on an 18 year lease.
http://www.francepcsupport.com/wip/farmingfrancais/index.php?option=com_realestatemanager&task=view&id=27&catid=42&Itemid=72

dar31

will probally work away as i am for the next 3 or so years. milk 160- 180 cows, may be hit the 200, depending on how superlevy goes for the next year or two. all the facilities are under serious pressure at these no.s.
any further expansion will require some serious investment, but could milk about 280 -300 on the milking platform. there will be some serious number crunching done to move forward, all said and done they might not stack up and be just as well as i am.
some thing to aim the sights on anyway.

contract rearing heifers is going to become a big thing in the next few years, something for ye dry stock farmers to consider. set contracts, monthly incomes etc.

Juniorhurler

Love to pack in the job, but just bought 45 acres and need the security of the cash from the job to get it up and running.
Great time to buy though. I paid 248k for the land. 3-4 years ago that would have been at least double. Jesus did I jump through hoops for the banks though to get the money. Now I need to go build another slatted shed, wonder what faces the bank manager will make at me this time? Hope to put another 30 sucklers out on this ground but heifers are dear at the moment so may just set the ground this year til I get some more cash together as the deposit for the land and the stamp cleaned me out.

ihatetractors

On the home bllock we're set up well, perfect for dairy or beef(dairy at the mo). We're limited to 55 acres here though and no real chance of expansion. We work with my uncle for handyness and share work over 320 acres of tillage mostly rented on longterm lease a few miles away. Over the next ten years we intend to leave dairy and finish cattle on the home block. On the tillage size depending on next year we're geting a new combine(but one that'd do about 7-8 hundred acre handly enough) as we'd intend over the next 10 years to breach the one 1k mark. And finaly to build our own proper storage facilities for grain. Wil require lots of number crunching etc but could be done. Nice if beet came back, used to hav an awful lot in years gone by