Mad prices for dairy heifers

Greengrass1

mf240 wrote: »

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.

I hope he goes for a pint once a week.
I'd go cracked stuck working none stop on my own

mf240

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I hope he goes for a pint once a week.
I'd go cracked stuck working none stop on my own

Nope, he went to a wedding one November and put the cows through the parlour at one am when he came home.

loveta

mf240 wrote: »

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.

I think he is a slave, unless he is in a tight financial spot at the moment and is doing it as a means to a end for a short time what life has he? or his wife/partner or his family

jack o shea

a kick in the bollix is what he needs

Greengrass1

jack o shea wrote: »

a kick in the bollix is what he needs

Ye cant hack the sess jack

loveta

jack o shea wrote: »

a kick in the bollix is what he needs

eloquently put jack.. :D:D:D

mahoney_j

mf240 wrote: »

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.

Fair play to him I hope he is happy sounds to me like he is a slave to the place.u simply need to have another interest outside the farm.bevit going to the gym playing soccer or some sport or anything to get away from the farm.
Can't understand lads working all hours,there's no need for it.guy bear me with 170 cows,finishes all males as well as rearing replacements has one full time guy with him .starts work at 6 an and itsca rarity you'll seem him doing anything after 6pm.another guy starts milking around 9.30 and starts evening milking at 8 o clock.he loves the winter ,dark at 4.30 and every light and machine in the place going.sees it as a badge of honour and can't figure why the rest finish at 6 .part time farmers is all we are!!.

Farmer Pudsey

I have heard that 70 cows is all one farmer can look after with out extra labour. After that herd and milk quality starts to suffer. Also the farmers has little time to manage the business. Was talking to a contractor and he considered farmers with 55-70 cows the lads that were best to pay on time. He also taught they had the best lifestyle. You can be a bust fool.

charleysurf

for me the number of cows one man can milk on their own depends on the stage of development on the farm and the number of outfarms that they have.

if a farm has been expanding or is just starting off the facilities are more often than not up to the required level, maybe not enough calving boxes not enough calf pens or cow cubicles etc and as a result will be under pressure and that's when thinks go wrong. for anyone working on their own and thinking of expanding I think contract rearing the heifer for those years would really pay off.

in contrast a settled farm should have a better routine in place and should be able to modify facilities to increase labour efficiencies so should in theory be able to handle larger numbers of cows. if all the land was in one block heifers contract reared, good use of contractors and a simple compact spring calving system I think one man can handle 120 cow with just a relief milking service

charleysurf

for me the number of cows one man can milk on their own depends on the stage of development on the farm and the number of outfarms that they have.

if a farm has been expanding or is just starting off the facilities are more often than not up to the required level, maybe not enough calving boxes not enough calf pens or cow cubicles etc and as a result will be under pressure and that's when thinks go wrong. for anyone working on their own and thinking of expanding I think contract rearing the heifer for those years would really pay off.

in contrast a settled farm should have a better routine in place and should be able to modify facilities to increase labour efficiencies so should in theory be able to handle larger numbers of cows. if all the land was in one block heifers contract reared, good use of contractors and a simple compact spring calving system I think one man can handle 120 cow with just a relief milking service

mahoney_j

charleysurf wrote: »

for me the number of cows one man can milk on their own depends on the stage of development on the farm and the number of outfarms that they have.

if a farm has been expanding or is just starting off the facilities are more often than not up to the required level, maybe not enough calving boxes not enough calf pens or cow cubicles etc and as a result will be under pressure and that's when thinks go wrong. for anyone working on their own and thinking of expanding I think contract rearing the heifer for those years would really pay off.

in contrast a settled farm should have a better routine in place and should be able to modify facilities to increase labour efficiencies so should in theory be able to handle larger numbers of cows. if all the land was in one block heifers contract reared, good use of contractors and a simple compact spring calving system I think one man can handle 120 cow with just a relief milking service

Yep agreed I think I'd manage 100 -120 cows on my own with a bit of relief milking and help rearing calves.luckily for me farm is dry and well set up as regards sheds,parlour,roads and grassland so I won't have huge mobey to spend to get there(2 open slurry tanks which I intend to put a shed and 30 cubicles in).my big limit has always been quota.cow nos will be increased gradually here over next few years and I am aiming for 120 cows with labour as above.
A lot of lads starting from scratch though will have a long road ahead.it costs a lot to get an efficient dairy operation set up.and yes I know some of you will say all u need is a parlour grass and cows but don't forget nitrates,slurry storage and cubicles be it with or without a roof pads are not an option worth pursuing

charleysurf

mahoney_j wrote: »

Yep agreed I think I'd manage 100 -120 cows on my own with a bit of relief milking and help rearing calves.luckily for me farm is dry and well set up as regards sheds,parlour,roads and grassland so I won't have huge mobey to spend to get there(2 open slurry tanks which I intend to put a shed and 30 cubicles in).my big limit has always been quota.cow nos will be increased gradually here over next few years and I am aiming for 120 cows with labour as above.
A lot of lads starting from scratch though will have a long road ahead.it costs a lot to get an efficient dairy operation set up.and yes I know some of you will say all u need is a parlour grass and cows but don't forget nitrates,slurry storage and cubicles be it with or without a roof pads are not an option worth pursuing

started farming 10 years ago after I bought a farm 50/50 with my parents, it was easy to take it from a 30 cow unit to a 90 cow unit in terms of cow number but in terms of facilities in order to make the place easy to run I'm only just getting there. that being said if one owned the land starting off it'd be faster but still it takes a lot of time to get a farm running at an efficient level.

parlour grass and cows is where you make money but its all the other things where you lose money and importantly time.

Farmer Pudsey

charleysurf wrote: »

for me the number of cows one man can milk on their own depends on the stage of development on the farm and the number of outfarms that they have.

if a farm has been expanding or is just starting off the facilities are more often than not up to the required level, maybe not enough calving boxes not enough calf pens or cow cubicles etc and as a result will be under pressure and that's when thinks go wrong. for anyone working on their own and thinking of expanding I think contract rearing the heifer for those years would really pay off.

in contrast a settled farm should have a better routine in place and should be able to modify facilities to increase labour efficiencies so should in theory be able to handle larger numbers of cows. if all the land was in one block heifers contract reared, good use of contractors and a simple compact spring calving system I think one man can handle 120 cow with just a relief milking service

This lads point was that you need time for herding as well. Also he was on about lifestyle and quality of life. He maintained that lads trying to manage more than 100 were not able to maximise production from the number of cows they had. Maybe he was also taking into account the fragmented nature of irish farms.

He had a big thing about quality of cows, he taught that farmers that were around 70 or below it had a much better quality of cow in general (not always). His point was that after that the farmer was scarficising quality for quanity and was too busy to mind the little things.

td5man

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

This lads point was that you need time for herding as well. Also he was on about lifestyle and quality of life. He maintained that lads trying to manage more than 100 were not able to maximise production from the number of cows they had. Maybe he was also taking into account the fragmented nature of irish farms.

He had a big thing about quality of cows, he taught that farmers that were around 70 or below it had a much better quality of cow in general (not always). His point was that after that the farmer was scarficising quality for quanity and was too busy to mind the little things.

Know a lad that would buy any sort of a cow to willy wave about the number cows he has the cheaper the better.
He cant understand how i'm getting up to 10c litre more than him.
He reckons ebi is a load of nonsense.

charleysurf

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

This lads point was that you need time for herding as well. Also he was on about lifestyle and quality of life. He maintained that lads trying to manage more than 100 were not able to maximise production from the number of cows they had. Maybe he was also taking into account the fragmented nature of irish farms.

He had a big thing about quality of cows, he taught that farmers that were around 70 or below it had a much better quality of cow in general (not always). His point was that after that the farmer was scarficising quality for quanity and was too busy to mind the little things.

I agree that you have more time per animal in a 70 cow herd and can get more performance per cow but I don't think going up on numbers provided a good routine and facilities will sacrifice quality.

with a compact calving it really frees up time on the farm. I was able to calve 86 cows in 7 weeks here with zero interventions and a full nights sleep all spring. for me the only problems this spring was not enough calving area and a poor calf rearing routine (poor facilities and routine). this year was the first time I've had surplus cubicle available and its a real labour saver in being able to have cows divided up pre and post calving.

with a compact calving once the calving is over, April is free to concentrate on pre heat detection, heifer rearing and reseeding and that allows you to concentrate fully on breeding in may and june with silage the only distraction.

if I had only enough land to carry 80 cow I'd be more than happy to farm at that scale because that number of cows should give a very good income going forward.

mahoney_j

td5man wrote: »

Know a lad that would buy any sort of a cow to willy wave about the number cows he has the cheaper the better.
He cant understand how i'm getting up to 10c litre more than him.
He reckons ebi is a load of nonsense.

To be honest I did for a while I did as well but now i am 100 % convinced it is working even in hi volume herds like mine and stans.its doing what it should breeding a fertile high solids cow that thrives on grass be it on a cow that will throw out 9 k Ltrs a year or 5 k Ltrs a year depending on your system.

charleysurf

mahoney_j wrote: »

To be honest I did for a while I did as well but now i am 100 % convinced it is working even in hi volume herds like mine and stans.its doing what it should breeding a fertile high solids cow that thrives on grass be it on a cow that will throw out 9 k Ltrs a year or 5 k Ltrs a year depending on your system.

as you say the ebi identifies the profitable cows/bulls. the problem is the farmer mightn't select the right cow for his/her system and when the cow doesn't preform blames ebi for it.

Deepsouthwest

mf240 wrote: »

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.

He sounds like a pity to me. Life is short, and u only get one go at it. Family time is so precious as well, esp when kids are young. Now I hope my wife doesn't read this, she'll say I should practice what I preach!

Timmaay

I'd say there are plenty of lads at their utter limit milking 70cows out there. That most certainly in my view doesn't mean 70 becomes the magic number above which you are going to be cutting corners however! Its much more down to how well setup you are. Things like autodrafting, well setup yards/paddocks, and then taking a firm line in terms of poor preforming cows, get rid of cows with poor fertility, lameness, mastitis etc etc, all of these end up taking up a huge amount of your time, and often are slipping out of your system anyways, replacing them quickly with an early calving heifer and you'll lose very little money over trying to keep them in the system and wasting time. Other things like running as few groups of animals as possible, mainly done by keeping calving as compact as is possible, and only breed heifers from feb/march cows. Then finally, having sheds etc setup so as feeding, bedding and muking out are all done quickly with the tractor, and very little use of a wheelbarrow/fork! Solve these problems and one man will make light work of 120+ cows in my view, abit of help during calving yes, but during the summer and most the autumn he will be ticking over and probably bored during the day!