Dairy Start up - Curious

Cran

As someone with little or no knowledge of Dairy I'm curious more than anything with all this talk of people moving into Dairy.

What are the numbers around it Say 200 acre block of good land as an example, with limited sheds. How many cows could you realistically run, how many litres of milk annually, cost of set-up cows, parlour, cow shed, silage slab etc......

freedominacup

Cran wrote: »

As someone with little or no knowledge of Dairy I'm curious more than anything with all this talk of people moving into Dairy.

What are the numbers around it Say 200 acre block of good land as an example, with limited sheds. How many cows could you realistically run, how many litres of milk annually, cost of set-up cows, parlour, cow shed, silage slab etc......

I costed out re-seeding, roadways, fencing, and water for a 24 acre block where roadways and water were extensions of an extensive system already in place and had no change out of €500/acre with most of my own stone and no field boundaries to shift/remove/alter.

Other guys can give you chapter and verse on parlours. Cows over the next 2 years you could be budgeting for between €1500 and €2000 ea. Don't forget you will need to buy upto 50% of the cows you buy over the first 2 years you are milking to replace culls.

The 200 acre block of good land? You are in one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter territory here. How do you define good? If it's really good and you contract rear all young stock and buy in most forage with a substantial winter milk operation you could conceiveably supply 4 million litres from 400 very high yielding ho cows, assuming the forage suppliers would take slurry back from you. If it's lateish land with a 2/ha stocking limit and no real access to bought in forage with JEX cows and no contract rearing you could be talking about 500,000l-550,000l supplied.

Beyond roadways and fencing all facilities are how much you are willing to spend. There was a poster on here who put in topless cubicles for €220 ea where he had adequate slurry storage in place already but TBH you could probably spend more than that on cubicle dividers and beds in a rolls royce covered shed unit before you poured a metre of concrete. You'll need to be more specific about what you want to acheive in order to get accurate answers.

Future Farmer

1st things first, where in the country are you?

This will effect - your length of winter, type of cow & system (spring or all year).

Is the place in grass?

Have you experience with stock?

Fermec2

There will always be a Living from 40 -50 Cows, Always Was. Plenty of People Reared Familys , Put Kids Through College etc on those Kinda Systems, They never Went Nuts On Buildings, Machinery , the Same Car probably Lasted them 15 Years, Very Few had Fancy 4X4 Jeeps. Wernt Killed from Work & Payed all there Bills, Its only in the Last Number of Years that Teagasc are telling us we Should be all Milking 200 Cows Like in Newzealand to Make a Living, One Wet Year & the Country had to Import Hay From France. As one of the Biggest Dairy Farmers in the Country Said " You Dont Have to be Big to Make Money"!. Just Remmember the Bigger they are The Harder they Fall.

foxy farmer

Try a few years on 2009 milk price and fodder scarcity of 2012-13. Either is bad on its own. Both together could spell ruin.