technical efficiency at farm level

merryberry

Just wondering would u consider ur farming system as technically efficient. Do u rate adoption of efficiency as important to ur farming system ? Does price volitility discourage adoption of efficiency?

kevthegaff

Good post! I would rate myself and the farm efficient but there is improvements to be made.
1. Roadway rather then public road
2. Larger milking machine
3. Second tractor forever yoking on/off machinery

merryberry

Thanks kev. I would consider those as efficiencies. I should have been clearer in my first post. Im more interested in the efficiencies that are very cost effective in the long term that are linked to greater production delivery. For example impoving ebi is very cost effective but breeding programmes are more long term and benefits take time to reflect in the herd. Similarly land in continuous tillage would benefit from increasing organic matter...again no silver bullet. The farmer builds om up over time by incorporating slurry or reverting to short term lay. Does this put farmers off adopting these types of efficiencies or is long term uncertainty with price a deterrent? Age profile of farmers is another issue for slow uptake perhaps

Miname

I'm as technically efficient as I can afford to be. It's a long term run with me but I've started on the basics and hopefully get there in the next few years. I'm suckling so it's slightly more forgiving than dairying however I still need to push it on regardless. Organic matter and breeding takes years but they don't be long coming around either.

Timmaay

Farm efficency is a very open ended term. What one farmer might consider efficient another would consider a waste of money (I'm thinking MJ with his fancy milking parlour against frazz who'd rather a barebones parlour and use the money on extra cows instead ha), it's an important business skill to decide if something that will improve efficiency is worth the spend, and is suitable for youown situation.

The other argument is the task of being efficient isn't always easy, in my case I'm happy to go with the flow to a point, I know there are still a fair few low hanging fruits on the farm, but time and money are a limiting factor, I've got a fair few off farm interests also , I know I could bite the bullet and sort out more of these farm issues which would improve things long term, but at what price to my own free time right now.

So to answer your question ha, is the farm here technically efficient. I've made a decent bit of progress improving it over the last few years, but I've equally so made mistakes, and I've loads left to do yet, it never ended I guess ha. Price volatility itself won't really hinder the drive towards efficency, but will certainly change the rate of efficency where money is involved.

ganmo

what is efficiency to you
can it be simplified to part time farmers need time efficiency with full time farmers needing more ROI?

one thing that prevents adopting new technology for me at home is the outlay, when you count how many lambs needed to pay for x I suddenly reconsider it.

frazzledhome

Efficiency can be a very costly investment.

It can only be truly measured in RoI terms. I think this is what OP's getting at.

I only chase efficiencies that are cost neutral ie high return. Targeted soil nutrition, grass measuring, AI, front loading the calving of heifers, OAD group rearing of calves.

We keep minimum machinery but all would be less than 5yo with no down time and if there is its costing some one else

merryberry

ganmo wrote: »

what is efficiency to you
can it be simplified to part time farmers need time efficiency with full time farmers needing more ROI?

one thing that prevents adopting new technology for me at home is the outlay, when you count how many lambs needed to pay for x I suddenly reconsider it.

I think there is a big gap between what teagasc dafm expect of what could be achived in terms of efficiency versus the farmers opinion of what can b achieved. Beef genomics is a recent example. A policy issue perhaps?

Yes an investment like a farm road or a machine will help time efficiency but u incur a big outlay. But others like ebi soil sampling grass budgeting are all cost effective but farmers are slow to take them on. Why? Perhaps on the one hand u may have full time farmers embracing efficiency and aspiring to these targets as they have time to devote to technical improvements. On the other hand there are the part-time who time poor. Is it then correct to say that inefficiencies of the part time farmer is diluting the efficiencies of the full time farmer when u look at the picture nationally.

kowtow

merryberry wrote: »

Is it then correct to say that inefficiencies of the part time farmer is diluting the efficiencies of the full time farmer when u look at the picture nationally.

I suspect that is true.

Have often wondered whether there is a figure for aggregate horsepower / hectare or similar and where Ireland lies on it - the duplication of tractors, loaders, e.t.c. when you consider the average small farm size and the relatively large number of part time farmers must be frightening.

Not to mention all the other fixed costs we incur which get no relief from economies of scale.

Expensive old business, family farming.