Mad prices for dairy heifers

jt65

we got a questionnaire from the coop some time enquiring how many we hoped to milk up to 2020

I put 85 into each answer box

at the bottom I put a note " if price drops below 30c/ltr change answer to 50 "

the note was written more in jest than anything else but the more I think of it , the more I think it will happen

Timmaay

Mulumpy wrote: »

Im trying to take a step back in my situation before expanding because im limited with land unless I rent or buy. Ive increased milk from 5000lt av to 6100lt in 4 years and solids from 420 to 490kg/ms. Ive reduced cow numbers from 65 to 58 in order to reseed more of my land. I have ofj in the dairy manufacturing industry so see both sides. Once I get better at growing grass and breeding an efficient cow I'll be looking fir opportunites to expand and stay at home full time

Up about 1000l delivered/cow/yr here in the past 2yrs, I've another 2kl to go before I'm happy ha.

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

Up about 1000l delivered/cow/yr here in the past 2yrs, I've another 2kl to go before I'm happy ha.

I thought you were moving towards a cow that will deliver a higher amount of solids with the mik you have?

Timmaay

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I thought you were moving towards a cow that will deliver a higher amount of solids with the mik you have?

I got alot of cows who can potentially milk 8kl a yr, but huge diff between that and actually delivered litres/yr!

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I thought you were moving towards a cow that will deliver a higher amount of solids with the mik you have?

Higher volume dosnt mean lower solids chief

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Higher volume dosnt mean lower solids chief

What solids did your highest yeilder give last year?

Timmaay

Greengrass1 wrote: »

What solids did your highest yeilder give last year?

My highest was 8700L (milk recorded, 316 DIM), 3.4%F, 3% P :eek:. However that was still 561kgMS. Shes a 7th lactation, and has calved in Feb every single year. HO or not, and it might be utterly rubbish % of solids, but ya can't put a value on cows like her who calf in feb without fail. I will admit straightout she would have got on average 5kg of nuts over her full lactation, so over the 316days that 1580kgs, at say 290e/ton average thats 460euros feed! But still, call it 8300Litres she delivered, at say 37cent average last year (my average milk price was 40cent, I'm calling it 37 for her due to the low solids), anyways thats over 3k in milk from her. If the whole herd could do the same I wouldn't be doing too bad. Instead from looking at my milk recording results, the 2nd and 3th highest yeilds both got 4 or 5 serves between AI and the bull, and are still empty, so are hitting the road!

Greengrass1

Highest yeild I can find is 7200 from a 60/40 fr/je 622 kg/ms on 305 days.
4 lactation.
Happy with that.
She is a march calver so would have been milked up till Christmas or before

trixi2011

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Highest yeild I can find is 7200 from a 60/40 fr/je 622 kg/ms on 305 days.
4 lactation.
Happy with that.
She is a march calver so would have been milked up till Christmas or before

One of the farms in my group takes all the late cavers oct and nov which would equal april and may calvers at home they do 450-470 solids a cow on a grass only diet. They only milk until mid June as well :eek:

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

What solids did your highest yeilder give last year?

10156 kg milk 3.89 fat 3.46 p scc 108 296 days

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

10156 kg milk 3.89 fat 3.46 p scc 108 296 days

746kg, good cow. How much grub?

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

746kg, good cow. How much grub?

Roughly 1.6 tonnes

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

Roughly 1.6 tonnes

A herd of them and you'd be laughing

That's an average of 1kg solids for every 2 kg meal.

Meal 45c/ kg *2= 90c
Milk 1kg*5.50= 5.50

Think that price per kg is correct, maybe a maths guru could confirm

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

A herd of them and you'd be laughing

That's an average of 1kg solids for every 2 kg meal.

Meal 45c/ kg *2= 90c
Milk 1kg*5.50= 5.50

Think that price per kg is correct, maybe a maths guru could confirm

That cow is exceptional ,sixth year in milk no more than 2 serves and calves in feb every year bar as a heifer when she calved early April.ill take a pic of her later.had a bull calf which was tested this year .ebi 290 with milk index of 94..they didn't want her though

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

That cow is exceptional ,sixth year in milk no more than 2 serves and calves in feb every year bar as a heifer when she calved early April.ill take a pic of her later.had a bull calf which was tested this year .ebi 290 with milk index of 94..they didn't want her though

A pic? Why would we give a shyte what she looks likeðŸ„ðŸ„

case 956

exceptional cow j, what her breeding background like?

charleysurf

http://www.thebullvine.com/news/life-dairy-farm-milk-quotas/

saw a piece on twitter this morning, this fellow in meath has a pure Danish je herd doing 6,000L herd at 6% fat and 4% pr, that something like 618kgs/ms . thought the most interesting part was the estimated intakes of the cows in his herd. averaging 17.5kg/dm intake in the winter and 16.5 in summer. he claims a FCE of 1.45-1.5

loveta

benjydagg wrote: »

Land mobility scheme????? :cool:

I'm 49, two daughters with no interest in farming.
North Tipperary, good land, no quota, looking for a long term lease to a young dairy farmer. Slatted accommodation for 150+ and loose houses.

Finishing in REPS 2015.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE START A THREAD ON LAND MOBILITY!!!!

Any of them daughters single :D

mahoney_j

case 956 wrote: »

exceptional cow j, what her breeding background like?

Fatal-hairy Breiz-Newhouse sjored-galtee merci.

case 956

mahoney_j wrote: »

Fatal-hairy Breiz-Newhouse sjored-galtee merci.

I know breeding has a lot to do with high solids too but Management of a cow is a different ball game and the right breed and management with a cow can deliever serious results and Mahoney, frazzle and stan are 3 serious producers and I for 1 look up to them and learn as much as I can off 3 serious opertors, Thanks lads

freedominacup

Mulumpy wrote: »

Heres one prophet of doom. I think its mad lads getting so excited about 2015. Quotas dont end til March 31st next year. Lads with all these heifers need to be calving them in Feb so gonna drive the country way over again. Its 2016 lads should be planning for when price drops below 30c/l.

What about it? :rolleyes: There's lads converting out of suckling and they're going to be wondering what to do with all the money they're making compared to suckling. The last time the brakes were off like this plenty of guys got into milk and into serious numbers also with little or no experience (my father among them) before they started miking. They made mistakes but they also put together substantial dairy operations in a few short years. They left many established dairy farms trailing in their dust and I think the same will happen this time. Instead of worrying about what might happen from a position of comfort they'll be working their asses off from a position of having to in order to keep the banks paid. Quota has been such an impediment over the past thirty years and those who are most comfortable with it are those most likely to experience problems in the years ahead IMO.

frazzledhome

Sorry Freedom, can only thank once!

Mulumpy

freedominacup wrote: »

What about it? :rolleyes: There's lads converting out of suckling and they're going to be wondering what to do with all the availability re making compared to suckling. The last time the brakes were off like this plenty of guys got into milk and into serious numbers also with little or no experience (my father among them) before they started miking. They made mistakes but they also put together substantial dairy operations in a few short years. They left many established dairy farms trailing in their dust and I think the same will happen this time. Instead of worrying about what might happen from a position of comfort they'll be working their asses off from a position of having to in order to keep the banks paid. Quota has been such an impediment over the past thirty years and those who are most comfortable with it are those most likely to experience problems in the years ahead IMO.

im all for quotas going and milk price will be always be volitile. If anything it'll shake the coops up a bit. The biggest problem with quotas going is the availability of land for expansion and cost of rental.

mahoney_j

Mulumpy wrote: »

im all for quotas going and milk price will be always be volitile. If anything it'll shake the coops up a bit. The biggest problem with quotas going is the availability of land for expansion and cost of rental.

Very true ,land as you well know in our area mulumphy land is scarce and when it come up it makes ridiculous money (up to 350 an acre).how would u make mobey at that???.some lads will break themselves just to get land ,more cows etc than the lad next door and wave there willy!!!.in reality they will end up loosing money .they would be better off consolidating what they have first and have a lean well functioning business .more cows and more land dose not mean more money in the bank.on quotas going ,good riddance and I look forward to producing more milk milking more cows and hopefully making more money than having one eye on quota position every month and having to dry off early or hold cows back in spring.

Greengrass1

If there was a thing to keep me on my toes it will be the mortgage.
We made a big fub up in 09 where we hadn't enough cows milking and we had to cut wood to get by.
I won't be doing that again partly because I've feck all trees left
But more so we fell behind even further with cows because we weren't paying enough attention.
It was literally milk and go cut wood and back to milk.
No calves looked after or cows looked for heats.
Only really started getting really back on track this year .

So I can't wait for quotas to go as the last generation of farmers gone have been tied down

frazzledhome

GG methinks you're not one of the people to be worrying about

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

GG methinks you're not one of the people to be worrying about

I hope not.
I'll stay steady but I'll take a big burst some year in the next 3 and I'll need to up my management then.

I think the bigger problem will be occasional help.
Someone to help out a few days here and there.

Bunclody was recently named the poorest town in Ireland but ye know why when ye go try get someone to help you out

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I hope not.
I'll stay steady but I'll take a big burst some year in the next 3 and I'll need to up my management then.

I think the bigger problem will be occasional help.
Someone to help out a few days here and there.

Bunclody was recently named the poorest town in Ireland but ye know why when ye go try get someone to help you out

I think as an industry we are going to have to work out our labour issues. Expansion is going to have to be geared to some degree around labour. It takes at least 40 cows to cover a wage assuming the extra stock can be put in place without too much extra debt. The idea of being able to get good casual labour is pie in the sky imo. I know of a few places where they have good experienced full time labour and judging by the standard of living of these men they are well paid but they get the job done and can deal with problems as they arise. These farmers have no difficulty taking holidays or a weekend off knowing that bar an absolute catastrophe everything will as they would hope to find it when they get back.

It goes back to the old saying, no matter how little you get a boy for a man is always cheaper. Students, part timers never come in and hit the ground running and are prone to making mistakes. You're still getting someone like that set up when a good worker would be filling the fifth load and checking with you what rate you wanted the next few paddocks covered at.

Greengrass1

Id like to think I'd be able to look after 120 cows on my own.

Know a few lads doing it. Know one lad actually calving 160 cows but only milks 120 of them and he is on his own apart from his father feeding the calves.

The only way I would hirer a full time lad would be if I was going to 200+ but that will never happen unless more land comes my way

mf240

Lad less than two miles from me milking 120 cows and keeps all the calves to beef or as replacements also fattens the culls. No help other than his 13 year old who's taking an interest.

He doesn't have any hobbies or interests outside farming. I think he's a legend.