Dairy farming in the uk

trixi2011

Anyone ever work on dairyfarms across the pond or toured farms on discussion group trips?

high_beta

british dairy farmers appear to loathe grass

trixi2011

high_beta wrote: »

british dairy farmers appear to loathe grass

Not them all seems to be quite an amount of grass based farms over the uk these days mostly on cheese contracts from what I hear

Coonagh

Some bloody good grass based operators in South Wales there operating at a huge scale too, Rhys Williams is well worth a follow on twitter I think he's based in Pembrokeshire

trixi2011

Coonagh wrote: »

Some bloody good grass based operators in South Wales there operating at a huge scale too, Rhys Williams is well worth a follow on twitter I think he's based in Pembrokeshire

must look him up alright, was over for a look around a few farms in the last few weeks further north was really surprised with the scale of farms over there

psychotic tantrum

one hour of drawing silage in north cork is worth about 1 hr :25 mins in uk

frazzledhome

trixi2011 wrote: »

must look him up alright, was over for a look around a few farms in the last few weeks further north was really surprised with the scale of farms over there

If you need a few contacts pm me
**** hot grass boys in Wales St Scotland Devon Cornwall Bristol area. That's where all the surplus heifers are going

trixi2011

frazzledhome wrote: »

If you need a few contacts pm me
**** hot grass boys in Wales St Scotland Devon Cornwall Bristol area. That's where all the surplus heifers are going

have been over in st Scotland last week saw some serious grassland farms real eye opener

frazzledhome

4-5 deep at the robot display. Methinks there could be trouble ahead. I priced a basic parlour and was told I was the one of a very few in 3 days to do so.

darragh_haven

frazzledhome wrote: »

4-5 deep at the robot display. Methinks there could be trouble ahead. I priced a basic parlour and was told I was the one of a very few in 3 days to do so.

I'm sure the majority of people at the robot display would be there for the novelty factor. Even tho I'd hive no interest in putting in a robot, I'd stand there looking at it for half an hour (if I went to the ploughing).
I've seen large and small dairy operations through out the UK, and there are a lot of grass based systems, but a lot less of a percentage than ireland.

Timmaay

frazzledhome wrote: »

4-5 deep at the robot display. Methinks there could be trouble ahead. I priced a basic parlour and was told I was the one of a very few in 3 days to do so.

Ya mind saying what size parlour you priced and how much?

frazzledhome

Timmaay wrote: »

Ya mind saying what size parlour you priced and how much?

22 unit, no trough, feeders, plate cooler or water heater €33k.

I would of course be putting in all the above. Feeders and bin 10k, heater and plate cooler 2k

c45k minus 40% grant gives me a parlour for 23-4k

darragh_haven

frazzledhome wrote: »

22 unit, no trough, feeders, plate cooler or water heater €33k.

I would of course be putting in all the above. Feeders and bin 10k, heater and plate cooler 2k

c45k minus 40% grant gives me a parlour for 23-4k

Would the grant cover the building, meal bin and feeders if you were building in a green field site.

frazzledhome

darragh_haven wrote: »

Would the grant cover the building, meal bin and feeders if you were building in a green field site.

No this is milking and cooling equipment grant only. I have building and yard

Fuxake

frazzledhome wrote: »

No this is milking and cooling equipment grant only. I have building and yard

Grant is only available for milking equipment aand tanks and there will be a maximum spend on each probably 30k for mm and 15k for tank so 12k grant for mm max

frazzledhome

frazzledhome wrote: »

22 unit, no trough, feeders, plate cooler or water heater €33k.

I would of course be putting in all the above. Feeders and bin 10k, heater and plate cooler 2k

c45k minus 40% grant gives me a parlour for 23-4k

Correction feeders not covered so nett will be more

frazzledhome

Fuxake wrote: »

Grant is only available for milking equipment aand tanks and there will be a maximum spend on each probably 30k for mm and 15k for tank so 12k grant for mm max

Entitled to double grant here

Timmaay

Good chance feeders will be covered in the new grant frazz. Install the new parlour now and leave feeders till later would be my suggestion if it's practical for you to survive without them for now.

Anyways on the costings, I thought I was doing well at 35k after the grant for a 14unit, with Acrs, dumpline, milk meters, auto washer and batch feeders. I'd happily consider a barebones parlour like yours but seeing as I do 95% of the milkings myself those few luxuries are well worth the spend.

frazzledhome

Timmaay wrote: »

Good chance feeders will be covered in the new grant frazz. Install the new parlour now and leave feeders till later would be my suggestion if it's practical for you to survive without them for now.

Anyways on the costings, I thought I was doing well at 35k after the grant for a 14unit, with Acrs, dumpline, milk meters, auto washer and batch feeders. I'd happily consider a barebones parlour like yours but seeing as I do 95% of the milkings myself those few luxuries are well worth the spend.

Get rid of frills go 20 unit and add as your knees give in

frazzledhome

Timmaay wrote: »

Good chance feeders will be covered in the new grant frazz. Install the new parlour now and leave feeders till later would be my suggestion if it's practical for you to survive without them for now.

Anyways on the costings, I thought I was doing well at 35k after the grant for a 14unit, with Acrs, dumpline, milk meters, auto washer and batch feeders. I'd happily consider a barebones parlour like yours but seeing as I do 95% of the milkings myself those few luxuries are well worth the spend.

No I'll put in feeders, simple batch with 12 t bin. Won't go back there to no feeders. Too much work in Spring and Oct. Will be 100% paid labour so it needs to be simple and quick

trixi2011

Was up north yesterday and reading one of the farming papers they have a grass check like the Ifj shocking stuff as these lads are seen as good grassland mangers.

frazzledhome

trixi2011 wrote: »

Was up north yesterday and reading one of the farming papers they have a grass check like the Ifj shocking stuff as these lads are seen as good grassland mangers.

Good lot if grass. Looking at wedge I'd say the cows are ****ting on more grass than they're grazing. Lowest covers way too high. Looks to me like poor graze out. Growing tonnes not utilising.
Looks like last grazed paddock was grazed to 500 in our language.
Whatyou think Trix?

trixi2011

frazzledhome wrote: »

Good lot if grass. Looking at wedge I'd say the cows are ****ting on more grass than they're grazing. Lowest covers way too high. Looks to me like poor graze out. Growing tonnes not utilising.
Looks like last grazed paddock was grazed to 500 in our language.
Whatyou think Trix?

Crazy stuff there's some top grass operators up there but they wouldn't print any of their figures because there seen as mad . Cows not even hitting 500 target lowest paddock seems to be at 700/800 and only producing 21 l and feeding 16kg of grass and 5kg of meal. A lot of cows housed already up there but there still cutting silage hard to know how they make money

trixi2011

Most cows don't go out to graze up there they go out to have a break from eating meal

Greengrass1

trixi2011 wrote: »

Was up north yesterday and reading one of the farming papers they have a grass check like the Ifj shocking stuff as these lads are seen as good grassland mangers.

There hardly using nz graas systems?

trixi2011

Greengrass1 wrote: »

There hardly using nz graas systems?

Some are up there and doing really well but what's in the grass check would be closer to the norm. Really a different approach to feeding cows

Coonagh

I had a group from tyrone visit me on Thursday, they were down at the ploughing for a couple of days. I gave them a grass measuring demo and I swear to god they taught I had completely lost it. When they saw my parlour they couldn't understand why I had no meters, acrs feed to yield etc

trixi2011

Coonagh wrote: »

I had a group from tyrone visit me on Thursday, they were down at the ploughing for a couple of days. I gave them a grass measuring demo and I swear to god they taught I had completely lost it. When they saw my parlour they couldn't understand why I had no meters, acrs feed to yield etc

Was one grass based farmer in my college class in green mount even the college lectures tought he was mad , he was the only lad in the class willing to show his cost of production and profit , he prob was the only lad making money

Greengrass1

trixi2011 wrote: »

Was one grass based farmer in my college class in green mount even the college lectures tought he was mad , he was the only lad in the class willing to show his cost of production and profit , he prob was the only lad making money

Spent a week in green mount and Harper before.
We were told we wouldn't be farmers and were lazy

trixi2011

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Spent a week in green mount and Harper before.
We were told we wouldn't be farmers and were lazy

Lol , what you think of the cream herd , 4t o meal per cow

Timmaay

frazzledhome wrote: »

Get rid of frills go 20 unit and add as your knees give in

My dad is having a heart attack about a 14unit as is, and really doesn't want to go over 12 ha. I priced up 18k after the grant for a 14 unit no frills, then 5k for the pig feeders so 23k (same as your 22unit!). Anyways my 35k figure including the acrs, mm, dumpline and auto wash is an extra 12k now, however in the future that would be substantially more to retrofit, as the grant would be unlikely to cover it. It's one question I will pose to the salesman actually, what would the exact cost of upgrading in the future be. All in all this 12k is a minor enough figure in the grand scale of things, growing 16tons grass, compact calving and a 365CI would give me multiple times that cost saving and reduced labour, so I'm not going to stress much over it either way.

frazzledhome

Coonagh wrote: »

I had a group from tyrone visit me on Thursday, they were down at the ploughing for a couple of days. I gave them a grass measuring demo and I swear to god they taught I had completely lost it. When they saw my parlour they couldn't understand why I had no meters, acrs feed to yield etc

If grass measuring required a machine that was 10k everyone would do it. It's too simple

Deepsouthwest

trixi2011 wrote: »

Was up north yesterday and reading one of the farming papers they have a grass check like the Ifj shocking stuff as these lads are seen as good grassland mangers.

There's a group of us being brought to the north nxt wk, hoping to see 5 or 6 farms in a 3 day trip. Mostly high input systems, totally different to what we're used of down our part of the country. As one guy said "we're going to learn all the things we shouldn't be doing when quotas go"!! I'll post how we get on. There could be fireworks!

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

There's a group of us being brought to the north nxt wk, hoping to see 5 or 6 farms in a 3 day trip. Mostly high input systems, totally different to what we're used of down our part of the country. As one guy said "we're going to learn all the things we shouldn't be doing when quotas go"!! I'll post how we get on. There could be fireworks!

There is one brilliant seasonal producer out side belfast.
Young guy going against grain
Still has to feed alot of silage and meal but makes supper use of grass

frazzledhome

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

There's a group of us being brought to the north nxt wk, hoping to see 5 or 6 farms in a 3 day trip. Mostly high input systems, totally different to what we're used of down our part of the country. As one guy said "we're going to learn all the things we shouldn't be doing when quotas go"!! I'll post how we get on. There could be fireworks!

That'd be really interesting, always something to learn.

frazzledhome

Greengrass1 wrote: »

There is one brilliant seasonal producer out side belfast.
Young guy going against grain
Still has to feed alot of silage and meal but makes supper use of grass

Some serious grass based hi output hers on the Ards peninsula

C0N0R

frazzledhome wrote: »

Some serious grass based hi output hers on the Ards peninsula

Some smashing land there to. Have a relation with a farm out there, from what I seen the last time I was up he isn't included in your statement!

frazzledhome

C0N0R wrote: »

Some smashing land there to. Have a relation with a farm out there, from what I seen the last time I was up he isn't included in your statement!

No frost

trixi2011

frazzledhome wrote: »

No frost

They have there own micro climate up there they say equal to the south of Ireland, Can be prone to drought I think . Allways said id love to farm there and have always told there's not a hope with a name like mine

frazzledhome

trixi2011 wrote: »

They have there own micro climate up there they say equal to the south of Ireland, Can be prone to drought I think . Allways said id love to farm there and have always told there's not a hope with a name like mine

Trixi:):):)??

mayota

trixi2011 wrote: »

They have there own micro climate up there they say equal to the south of Ireland, Can be prone to drought I think . Allways said id love to farm there and have always told there's not a hope with a name like mine

Paddy mcmurphy?

trixi2011

mayota wrote: »

sir Paddy mac-murphy?

fixed it for ya:D

C0N0R

trixi2011 wrote: »

They have there own micro climate up there they say equal to the south of Ireland, Can be prone to drought I think . Allways said id love to farm there and have always told there's not a hope with a name like mine

We could sort something out!

caseman

trixi2011 wrote: »

Anyone ever work on dairyfarms across the pond or toured farms on discussion group trips?

Worked an a dairy farm in cheshire about 16 years ago from september to april no grass in the diet while i was their.
I think drought is a problem over their during the summer months.

trixi2011

caseman wrote: »

Worked an a dairy farm in cheshire about 16 years ago from september to april no grass in the diet while i was their.
I think drought is a problem over their during the summer months.

Yip seems to be the norm over there alright. Heading over in a few weeks to start work on a grass based farm on the Scottish English border

darragh_haven

trixi2011 wrote: »

Yip seems to be the norm over there alright. Heading over in a few weeks to start work on a grass based farm on the Scottish English border

Anywhere near Hawick?

trixi2011

darragh_haven wrote: »

Anywhere near Hawick?

on the west side of the country. Have you clients over their, saw one of your anerobic digesters last week some piece of kit

darragh_haven

trixi2011 wrote: »

on the west side of the country. Have you clients over their, saw one of your anerobic digesters last week some piece of kit

We have one on the very west (stranrear). Are you sure it was one of our plants. Where abouts was it

trixi2011

Was in Antrim toome down beside creagh concrete

darragh_haven

trixi2011 wrote: »

Was in Antrim toome down beside creagh concrete

Were ya talking to the brothers there. Intense lads. That's an impressive plant alright. Pity they aren't viable in the republic of Ireland.

trixi2011

darragh_haven wrote: »

Were ya talking to the brothers there. Intense lads. That's an impressive plant alright. Pity they aren't viable in the republic of Ireland.

Was just passing by with a lad who knew about it done a quick turn about didn't get a right look at it but saw one up in hillborough a few years ago. Land they use for silage isn't far from were I have family farming big money paid for lease/rent