Future For Dairy Farming

kevthegaff

I see around here lads will go up in the next few years but alot are restricted by landbase, i see more z grazers around also which may solve some of theyre feed issues. Do ye see more cows indoor and going down this route, with also more contract rearing, maize, beet, silage being bought in. Our will it stay as much grass based as possible??

Timmaay

I've just after lost 50acres which I was renting, its been all set to tillage now. Rented land here, like the rest of the country is very limited, so moving forward I'll be aiming to contract rear all youngstock, stick with a 7.5kL HO, and buy in wholecrop or maize from the neighbouring tillage farms.

Grass will be still king on the grazing block, however outside of that, I don't know, one thing is for sure I'm not interested in conacre of small parcels of land for silage/heifers etc, waste of time in my view, just too fragmented, too much time wasted transporting stock around, and the usually problem with short term renting, you just finish fencing/reseeding etc, and some other chap pulls it from under your feet.

However, ZG, indoors, no way, I'll lease the farm before I bother going down that route.

rancher

Timmaay wrote: »

I've just after lost 50acres which I was renting, its been all set to tillage now. Rented land here, like the rest of the country is very limited, so moving forward I'll be aiming to contract rear all youngstock, stick with a 7.5kL HO, and buy in wholecrop or maize from the neighbouring tillage farms.

Grass will be still king on the grazing block, however outside of that, I don't know, one thing is for sure I'm not interested in conacre of small parcels of land for silage/heifers etc, waste of time in my view, just too fragmented, too much time wasted transporting stock around, and the usually problem with short term renting, you just finish fencing/reseeding etc, and some other chap pulls it from under your feet.

However, ZG, indoors, no way, I'll lease the farm before I bother going down that route.

Will you be able to stay under the stocking limits for nitrates with that system

Timmaay

rancher wrote: »

Will you be able to stay under the stocking limits for nitrates with that system

Will just export slurry, problem solved. Wholecrop and maize are a fodder against a concentrate, so don't impact on nitrates figures. I'd be much more concerned about droughts when running a high stocking rate. Hopefully will be only an issue 1 in 10yrs!

larrymiller

Timmaay wrote: »

I've just after lost 50acres which I was renting, its been all set to tillage now. Rented land here, like the rest of the country is very limited, so moving forward I'll be aiming to contract rear all youngstock, stick with a 7.5kL HO, and buy in wholecrop or maize from the neighbouring tillage farms.

Grass will be still king on the grazing block, however outside of that, I don't know, one thing is for sure I'm not interested in conacre of small parcels of land for silage/heifers etc, waste of time in my view, just too fragmented, too much time wasted transporting stock around, and the usually problem with short term renting, you just finish fencing/reseeding etc, and some other chap pulls it from under your feet.

However, ZG, indoors, no way, I'll lease the farm before I bother going down that route.

Feck 50 acres is some loss, I don't know how tillage lads can out pay the dairy people, do you know what he is going to sow?

freedominacup

Timmaay wrote: »

I've just after lost 50acres which I was renting, its been all set to tillage now. Rented land here, like the rest of the country is very limited, so moving forward I'll be aiming to contract rear all youngstock, stick with a 7.5kL HO, and buy in wholecrop or maize from the neighbouring tillage farms.

Grass will be still king on the grazing block, however outside of that, I don't know, one thing is for sure I'm not interested in conacre of small parcels of land for silage/heifers etc, waste of time in my view, just too fragmented, too much time wasted transporting stock around, and the usually problem with short term renting, you just finish fencing/reseeding etc, and some other chap pulls it from under your feet.

However, ZG, indoors, no way, I'll lease the farm before I bother going down that route.

That's more or less the plan here. I hope all these contract rearers turn up though. Probably aim slightly higher with yields though. 9k plus hopefully.

kevthegaff

i rented 25 acres 185 per acre with no maps a mile down the road, so that will be for replacement and a cut of silage freshly reseeded and limed and a lot flatter than my own ground so at least i can plan ahead now. Ill stay with the crossbreds as theyre suited to this land and stay with grazing the route as a z grazer wouldnt travel 50% of the land here!

Greengrass1

We were talking about this today. And the penalty for white water in the A+B-C scheme will be rising from 4c to 9c over the next few yrs

kevthegaff

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We were talking about this today. And the penalty for white water in the A+B-C scheme will be rising from 4c to 9c over the next few yrs

what ye mean by white water, low bf and protein??

Greengrass1

kevthegaff wrote: »

what ye mean by white water, low bf and protein??

On the a+b-c scheme the penalty now is 4c for c. It is going to rise to 9c.

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

On the a+b-c scheme the penalty now is 4c for c. It is going to rise to 9c.

Gg I'd check ur facts on that one.no point what so ever in having a high solids cow with a crap volume,she'll still require supplementation if u go bargain basement route and feed will do nothing only change the colour of what comes out of her rear end .ur getting at the Holstein again with white water talk but u know u can have a milky Holstein with loads of solids if attention to detail on breeding,feeding and grass management is good.

kevthegaff

Do ye think lads will go back to Holsteins as land availability will become more difficult? I have no problem with any of the 3 breeds as they all have pros/cons

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Gg I'd check ur facts on that one.no point what so ever in having a high solids cow with a crap volume,she'll still require supplementation if u go bargain basement route and feed will do nothing only change the colour of what comes out of her rear end .ur getting at the Holstein again with white water talk but u know u can have a milky Holstein with loads of solids if attention to detail on breeding,feeding and grass management is good.

That's what was said today. Based on this yrs and last years calf's born glanbia and other coops are planning to rise the penalty due the these calf's having better production.
Obviously the price for fat and pro should rise.
Not getting at HO at all.
What they don't want to happen is once lads are milking the most amount of cows they can that they then start pushing on milk and leave solids behind

mf240

I'm going to tip along milking my 50 cows and finishing most of the cattle.

If I can't make a living out of that I will plant the whole place.

kevthegaff

At times i think wouldnt it be a lot handier milking a certain number without expanding, but i do love surpassing my largest milk collection every year:pac::pac:. Ill be probably dead by 40 the way im thinking!

Timmaay

larrymiller wrote: »

Feck 50 acres is some loss, I don't know how tillage lads can out pay the dairy people, do you know what he is going to sow?

I'd guess 9 out of 10 land sales local to me since the bust are rich farmers buying back land from nama/developers! The farming enterprise is largely irrelevant, its how much you sold land for during the boom, or how many sites etc.

Gillespy

mf240 wrote: »

I'm going to tip along milking my 50 cows and finishing most of the cattle.

If I can't make a living out of that I will plant the whole place.

I think it mandatory to expand by at least 20%.

Timmaay

mf240 wrote: »

I'm going to tip along milking my 50 cows and finishing most of the cattle.

If I can't make a living out of that I will plant the whole place.

I was talking to a friend about this last night ha, if I could rent the farm for 300quid a year it would be a very nice 30k a year in my pocket, then go back engineering fulltime, I'd be mad not to do that ha! How much per acre would forestry net you anyways? Say averaged over the 30yrs you plant for?

sheebadog

Expand expand expand. Ad nauseum.

The logical end to infinite expansion is going to be high input ( possibly indoor) Holstein herds.


Will there be more money in it for more work? Or more money for PLC's?


Will ye look back at the "glory" days of quota and say what was it all for?

Just thinking.....

larrymiller

Timmaay wrote: »

I'd guess 9 out of 10 land sales local to me since the bust are rich farmers buying back land from nama/developers! The farming enterprise is largely irrelevant, its how much you sold land for during the boom, or how many sites etc.

Well for them ain't it. What are they doing with it now? Still farming?