What to do with farm

geowhitey96

Hi there, I have just bought a 48 acre farm of medium quality land. About 45 acres are good the others are bog! i have a four bay slatted shed, a large hay shed, several stone sheds and a yard. 15 acres are around the house in 3 fields, the rest are 4 large fields opposite the drive. I come from an agricultural background and have been to college. I would like to farm it and provide myself with extra income as i work 4 days a week. how feasable would it be to milk 30-35 cows? i thought of putting in a second hand 6 unit parlour and a new shed and milking before and after work... or milk once a day? would like to have either high yeilding friesians or good jerseys. ideally i would install everything and start with say 15 and work up to 35. im not out to make money, just a bit on the side... any advice welcome.

greenfield21

I think your mad to have even bought it wit a plan for dairying considering the costs involved in getting going. will this be added to a home block for expansion?

I wish I could buy 50acres and have basically no idea what I wanted from it.

geowhitey96

I havn't planned on doing anything just yet, ive always wanted a small dairy herd but am just mulling through my options atm. I also looked into sucklers but the margins are just too tight, I cant see how anyone is making money from it. the other option is to put up another shed and just do drystock... either way im not expecting a full wage from 50 acres... just enough to make it worthwhile perhaps. Also I wouldn't just want to set up within weeks either, I would install a small parlour/tank first and then gradually over a few years get to the stage where I could buy some cows. theres loads of ground around here for rent atm so I could always expand if I wanted. I wouldn't be borrowing any money either

einn32

geowhitey96 wrote: »

Hi there, I have just bought a 48 acre farm of medium quality land. About 45 acres are good the others are bog! i have a four bay slatted shed, a large hay shed, several stone sheds and a yard. 15 acres are around the house in 3 fields, the rest are 4 large fields opposite the drive. I come from an agricultural background and have been to college. I would like to farm it and provide myself with extra income as i work 4 days a week. how feasable would it be to milk 30-35 cows? i thought of putting in a second hand 6 unit parlour and a new shed and milking before and after work... or milk once a day? would like to have either high yeilding friesians or good jerseys. ideally i would install everything and start with say 15 and work up to 35. im not out to make money, just a bit on the side... any advice welcome.

Fair play. I wish I could do it! It could be doable and sounds like you have a few ideas. You will.have to figure out the cost of getting it into a working farm though which might not be feasible. The land sounds.like it needs tlc which could be costly. Just get your farm stream lined to make everything smooth for milking etc. OAD is nice in terms of less milking but it might mean less pay. Four days a week job would probably lend itself to part time farming. You won't make much but if you want to farm then do it. It won't be easy in reality what you're trying to do. Best of luck.

geowhitey96

the ground isn't bad, could do with some reseeding though. but I agree in terms of sorting out everything first. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that aha

farmerjj

geowhitey96 wrote: »

Hi there, I have just bought a 48 acre farm of medium quality land. About 45 acres are good the others are bog! i have a four bay slatted shed, a large hay shed, several stone sheds and a yard. 15 acres are around the house in 3 fields, the rest are 4 large fields opposite the drive. I come from an agricultural background and have been to college. I would like to farm it and provide myself with extra income as i work 4 days a week. how feasable would it be to milk 30-35 cows? i thought of putting in a second hand 6 unit parlour and a new shed and milking before and after work... or milk once a day? would like to have either high yeilding friesians or good jerseys. ideally i would install everything and start with say 15 and work up to 35. im not out to make money, just a bit on the side... any advice welcome.

Should you not have thought of this before you bought the land,
But you might do best raising calves to beef, or maybe a few pedigree suckers, either way don't buy the yacht yet.

Nettleman

IMO you have to be well setup beforehand to farm & work fulltime. You need to be able to do routne jobs in less time, with less people, and that takes infrastruacture, and a half decent tractor. Sheds that are not falling apart, excellent water system, drainage, handling facilities, cattle walk ways, meal & chemicals and fodder storage, yeard lighting, secure boundary fencing etc etc. Have you cover for AI/breeding and calving times, and adequate housing for calving? Good infrastructure definitely helps make it manageable without pulling your hair out, but its upfront cost. Years ago it didnt matter if dosing took six hours because nobody was running off to a job.

geowhitey96

i bought the land purely as an investment and also to give my future children the same rural upbringing I had. I was only able to afford the land because my own family farm was sold and my grandfather died. He left me some money and I think he'll be glad I bought a farm with it. Has anyone had experience selling raw milk? I have seen people milking 15 cows and bottling the milk themselves... one chap is charging 2 euro 50 per litre and apparently he has no problem selling it... food for thought.

Jimlh86

Why not start off with some sucklers or bought in calves? You could be tipping away with these to get a feel for how you can mix farming and full time work? It would also leave you a bit of time to sort out drainage/reseeding or whatever else the place needs in your own time. No need IMO to rush into an enterprise as labour intensive as dairy straight away. Just my tuppence worth, whatever you do best of luck with it!

geowhitey96

that was my initial thought, perhaps winter a few bullocks on the slats and graze in the summer. would buy me time and perhaps pay towards sorting it all out. thanks

sako 85

geowhitey96 wrote: »

Hi there, I have just bought a 48 acre farm of medium quality land. About 45 acres are good the others are bog! i have a four bay slatted shed, a large hay shed, several stone sheds and a yard. 15 acres are around the house in 3 fields, the rest are 4 large fields opposite the drive. I come from an agricultural background and have been to college. I would like to farm it and provide myself with extra income as i work 4 days a week. how feasable would it be to milk 30-35 cows? i thought of putting in a second hand 6 unit parlour and a new shed and milking before and after work... or milk once a day? would like to have either high yeilding friesians or good jerseys. ideally i would install everything and start with say 15 and work up to 35. im not out to make money, just a bit on the side... any advice welcome.

I know nothing about Dairy so I wont offer any advice, but I'd like to congratulate you on your purchase and wish you the very best of luck. Fair play to you.

kowtow

geowhitey96 wrote: »

Has anyone had experience selling raw milk? I have seen people milking 15 cows and bottling the milk themselves... one chap is charging 2 euro 50 per litre and apparently he has no problem selling it... food for thought.

Food for thought indeed but - as someone who is rebuilding a farm and milking a small herd for cheese - I have to say that the investment & effort required to milk a couple of dozen cows often seems no different to that required to milk the more usual herd of 50 or 60 + ....

Almost everything - from TB testing, to AI, to parlour washing, electricity, detergent, is just as complex & just as expensive whether you are milking six cows or sixty. AI in particular (unless you do it yourself) is going to be a bit of a trial and you may or may not want to run a bull with a herd that size.

I sometimes think there is a sort of Murphy's law in operation where milking is concerned... milking takes up an hour and ten minutes more or less no matter how many cows are involved (if it takes a lot more the imperative is there to add labour / units etc. and then it takes less...)... I've been milking a couple of sides only this year and washdown still takes as long as it would with five times that...

I certainly don't mean to put you off.. there are fantastic possibilities for smaller herds & niche products, but it is a bit of a vocation (just as it is with a larger herd). As other posters have said above it may be that infrastructure is actually more important with the smaller herd than the larger herd.. you want to be able to handle things quickly, safely, and on your own.

djmc

Fair play for having a go.
Word of caution milking cows is a full time job and its not the gravey train its made out to be either especially on marginal ground.
It's hard enough to make it pay milking twice a day I think once a day would be a loss maker.
My advice is either rare dry cattle or dairy heifer calves or contract rear and do a bit of milking for another farmer or with Frs.before and after working your own job to see how you get on and if you like it.
Get your soil fertility and ph right and reseeding done over the next few years then when heifer calves are reared you can decide if you want to sell incalf or keep and start milking.
Don't borrow or waste money until you know for sure you will have a good return on investment.
Best of luck.

geowhitey96

Thanks for the advice. The idea of rearing heifers sounds attractive. In terms of getting the ground right it needs liming and reseeding and a good dose of fert I imagine. I do plan to invest a bit in terms of builds etc but the basics are there. I was talking to a chap last night who knew of someone milking 10 jerseys with a bucket machine and then he pours it into bottles and sells it around the villiage! cant be doing too badly as its his only income and has a new car on the drive... but like you said its all relative

farmerjj

geowhitey96 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. The idea of rearing heifers sounds attractive. In terms of getting the ground right it needs liming and reseeding and a good dose of fert I imagine. I do plan to invest a bit in terms of builds etc but the basics are there. I was talking to a chap last night who knew of someone milking 10 jerseys with a bucket machine and then he pours it into bottles and sells it around the villiage! cant be doing too badly as its his only income and has a new car on the drive... but like you said its all relative

What experience do you have of diary cows/milking?

geowhitey96

Back home in England I was working for granddad, we were milking 160 Friesian/hol with followers. We also had a 60 strong suckler herd which was predominatly Hereford/fri cows all put to limo bull. 190 acres owned and 70 rented. At the moment i'm relief milking and tractor driving on local farm.

Thargor

A hostile start to the thread, best of luck to you and please keep us updated, this is something Im thinking of myself instead of just renting out the family farm in a few years time.

Jonti

Start off with beef, easier to look after. Milkers take a lot of looking after.

patsy_mccabe

Funny how the people that have done exactly what you are suggesting, are the ones saying you are mad to do it.

ganmo

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Funny how the people that have done exactly what you are suggesting, are the ones saying you are mad to do it.

Does that mean they are mad themselves?

Op I wish you the best

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

kowtow

ganmo wrote: »

Does that mean they are mad themselves?

In my case, beyond a doubt.

But in case the OP is in any doubt I am certainly not discouraging them. Quite the contrary, if you're determined to milk cows you should certainly do it. It is good for the soul, if not always the wallet.

ellewood

I'd contract rearing fr heifers

Ya have sheds to winter and grass
No outlay on stock or milking parlor etc
If u have good stock skills and are able to grow plenty of grass it's what I'd do
U will probably make more wit Sucklers/beef done well, but u are at mercy of markets, though rearing will at least be constant