Dairy Farming

Gballs

Hi Lads

Can anyone tell me if this might be a viable farming plan.
Right now I have 70 acres but hoping to acquire another 20 or 30 in the near future.
My plan is to go into dairy farming when the quota goes in 2015, house cows all year round in a vrey open plan straw bed shed and zerograze.
Because the farm is so small and there is little or no chance of renting land I was intending to buy all winter forage and also extra supplement during the milking period.
The plan is to have a high yielding Mountbelard heard and have as high of stocking rate as possible.
I will be starting from scratch but love hard work, but dont want to be waisting money if its not a viable project.
In time there might be a chance to increase the size of the farm maybe up to 150/200 acres but the farming strategy would stay the same as the land is very fragmented but all within 2km.
WHAT DO YE THINK ???...

farmman

are d 70 acres in d 1 block??,,,if yes ud b way btr off grazing normally

farmerjack

livefortoday wrote: »

im in a similar position have 75 acres in one block and 73acres 10 miles away. havent a lot of money to get set up have about €30,000. was thinking of going into a five year partnership with someone that might have cows and no way of getting quota. i should be able to get 200000 litres as a new entrant hopefully also im in the connaught gold area so i should be able to buy quota probably another 200000 litres over the next couple of years. basically i would be bringing the following to the partnership
75 acres.
a labour unit.
machinery to run the farm.
shed to put parlour in.
housing for 40 cows.
outwintering for another 20 or 30 cows on outfarm.
whats needed is as follows
farm reseeded and paddocked and water piped through farm
parlour and dairy installed in existing shed.
concrete apron /collecting yard put in place
tank for washings put in place possibly fairly small with facility to pump to existing tank.
i wonder would a partnership like this work where the work would be shared and the profits shared.
...................................................................................................................
for the other farmer with the 70 acres it would be best to graze it zerograzing and housing would be very high cost dairying.

You can't enter a partnership with quota attained from the new entrant to dairy scheme. You must be in a position to setup as a separate independent milk producer.

Viewtodiefor

Why would you zerograze? Do you have a block of 70 acres to graze or is this split up too? Im not sure zerograzing would be profitable maybe at last yrs prices but def not a 2009 prices of 21 cent a liter you couldn't put bread on the table never mind pay any loans bck! However if you have seventy acres together then graze it there a thousands of dairy farmers out there with that size farm they are probably in the majority! Wer only told about the ones with hundreds of acres but mr average is still around you know!
Have you milked cows before ? Do you know what you are letting yourself in for?

Enderol

When you say the land is fragmented, how much do you mean. Simply roads running through it or blocks of 10/20 acres a bit away?

If your too fragmented you may be as well to sell and try and colsolidate yourself into one block.

6480

i dont think ur plan will work ,

farmerjack

livefortoday wrote: »

hello farmerjack

what if it wasnt a partnership as such could the cows be leased for a couple of years untill i could afford to own lets say 80 cows. a lot of father son partnerships exist where 2 herds are in the same family.

From my understanding of the scheme you must have your own separate herd number, milking facilities and land, the land can be owned or leased. Another herd number cannot be linked to the farm in which the cows are to be milked. Regarding leasing the cows, whether the cows are leased or owned outright I don't think matters but they will have to be held in the applicants herd number before you will receive quota if successful with your application. Bear in mind that a detailed 5 year business plan has to be submitted with your application. This must be realistic, if not they will see straight through it.