Dairy chit chat II

Reggie.

kerry cow wrote: »

Are these guys really farmers , who pump 12 millon into 1200 cows .that 10k per cow .
Is it the real world ?
The general joe soap can never aspire to that .
We ll just keep plodding along .
What do ye make of these guys who splash the cash and then become poster boys for us all to come visit .?

This guy is real alright. Know of at least 3 lads that big in the country

wrangler

kerry cow wrote: »

Are these guys really farmers , who pump 12 millon into 1200 cows .that 10k per cow .
Is it the real world ?
The general joe soap can never aspire to that .
We ll just keep plodding along .
What do ye make of these guys who splash the cash and then become poster boys for us all to come visit .?

He done it all by renting land for tillage, a very hard worker, I don't see his name in the top ten SBP anytime either.
You know what they say ''the harder you work the luckier you get''

kevthegaff

wrangler wrote: »

He done it all by renting land for tillage, a very hard worker, I don't see his name in the top ten SBP anytime either.
You know what they say ''the harder you work the luckier you get''

Fair play to him, the next question which I don't know the answer is would it be wiser to invest your 12 million elsewhere..

whelan2

First of autumn calvers dried off and dosed this morning. Will be milking under ten rows now

White Clover

If I had 12 million and wanted to milk cows, I'd milk 40 in a 10 unit parlour. No stress or headaches and still have my cows!

Buford T. Justice XIX

White Clover wrote: »

If I had 12 million and wanted to milk cows, I'd milk 40 in a 10 unit parlour. No stress or headaches and still have my cows!

Sure milk 50 which is just 1 rotation of the rotary and leave the rest of the lads finish off the next 600 #sorted

Gawddawggonnit

freedominacup wrote: »

I had a look at that alfalfa hay today. Very dusty to my mind, looked to be an awful lot of stem. I couldn't see anything that looked like flowers but I couldn't see much leaf either. Maybe a function of the big square balers but it seemed to be chopped? I wouldn't be rushing to buy atm. Any thoughts dawg?

It’s always going to be dusty because the leaves just break down to dust. As Jay said it should be a deep dark green.
When I sell it there’s always a sample analysis, why don’t the retailers furnish one?

Gawddawggonnit

visatorro wrote: »

Is molasses any use feeding on straw or hay? For milkers

Excellent feed. Water it down.

White Clover

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Sure milk 50 which is just 1 rotation of the rotary and leave the rest of the lads finish off the next 600 #sorted

Could i back the 165 into that to get the cows milked if the power went?

Gawddawggonnit

visatorro wrote: »

Is molasses any use feeding on straw or hay? For milkers

Molasses is excellent but hay and straw are not.

kowtow

White Clover wrote: »

If I had 12 million and wanted to milk cows, I'd milk 40 in a 10 unit parlour. No stress or headaches and still have my cows!

Now there is a man talking sense.

Mooooo

Fairplay to him. Prob employing 10 or 12 by the time he is up and running along with everything else twill bring to the area. Lads like that who've worked hard to get where they are prob don't stop up anyway, just keep on going. Dunno the lad but best of luck to him

kowtow

kevthegaff wrote: »

Fair play to him, the next question which I don't know the answer is would it be wiser to invest your 12 million elsewhere..

I Suppose the question is, what does it take for a cow to pay you back 10K - and not 10K in land, but in concrete, parlours, cubicles etc...

She must pay you - 250? - to rent the acre she eats.

She must pay you - 450? - for the three days work she takes a year

And when she has done that the profit you have left from her milk is the return on your 10K. I suppose she might be giving you 2 or 3% back in OK years...

It's a lot more work than a trip to the post office.

Buford T. Justice XIX

White Clover wrote: »

Could i back the 165 into that to get the cows milked if the power went?

Splash out and get a 168:D

wrangler

Mooooo wrote: »

Fairplay to him. Prob employing 10 or 12 by the time he is up and running along with everything else twill bring to the area. Lads like that who've worked hard to get where they are prob don't stop up anyway, just keep on going. Dunno the lad but best of luck to him

He runs on adrenaline, as you say they don't stop....one of my tenants is the same, he has 27 tractors contracting all around the country, I never see him

wrangler

kowtow wrote: »

I Suppose the question is, what does it take for a cow to pay you back 10K - and not 10K in land, but in concrete, parlours, cubicles etc...

She must pay you - 250? - to rent the acre she eats.

She must pay you - 450? - for the three days work she takes a year

And when she has done that the profit you have left from her milk is the return on your 10K. I suppose she might be giving you 2 or 3% back in OK years...

It's a lot more work than a trip to the post office.

does the infrastucture cost €10000/cow, surely you'd get out a lot less than that

White Clover

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Splash out and get a 168:D

I had my eye on a 290 but i couldn't face the stress of the repayments on it !!

freedominacup

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

It’s always going to be dusty because the leaves just break down to dust. As Jay said it should be a deep dark green.
When I sell it there’s always a sample analysis, why don’t the retailers furnish one?

Definitely not dark green. More like the colour of poor hay.

kowtow

wrangler wrote: »

does the infrastucture cost €10000/cow, surely you'd get out a lot less than that

You certainly should, I was going by Kerry's figure above. The reality is a fair amount of the 10K per cow might be in land, in which case some of the 275 is paying you back as well.

One way or another it's a fairly low ROI unless - and this is the critical one - you can reduce the labour per kg/ms ... in a big operation done right, or a small operation done cleverly, you may well be able to do that.

Gawddawggonnit

freedominacup wrote: »

Definitely not dark green. More like the colour of poor hay.

Expensive gutfill.

Gawddawggonnit

kowtow wrote: »

I Suppose the question is, what does it take for a cow to pay you back 10K - and not 10K in land, but in concrete, parlours, cubicles etc...

She must pay you - 250? - to rent the acre she eats.

She must pay you - 450? - for the three days work she takes a year

And when she has done that the profit you have left from her milk is the return on your 10K. I suppose she might be giving you 2 or 3% back in OK years...

It's a lot more work than a trip to the post office.

Five lads close by are grouping together to create a 220ha farm.
Investing €1.5mln for housing for 150cows and three duck sheds.

None of them ever milked a cow...

Met them last year and they were telling me their plans...I offered them the dairy farm with 280ha for the price of their investment...no go. I thought I was making them a good offer but the look of a new shed tickles the fancy of some folk.

freedominacup

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Alfalfa (lucerne) hay isn’t much good for milking cows. Excellent for young stock.

In the form of hay it retails at about €90/t...~€45/big square.

Alfalfa in wraps is a brilliant feed for dairy cows. Retails at about €140/ton. At around 30%dm, 4kg is equal to a kg of soya, but feeds out better iykwim.

* Extrême caution when buying...
If baled (wrapped) before any flowers appear it should be 23-24% protein. Quality plummets rapidly when flowers appear...

Likewise with alfalfa hay. Good hay would come in at about 18% protein, but as the flowers appear it plummets rapidly.

The dregs of alfalfa is when the seed has been harvested...that means that it was way past flowering and resulting hay (straw!) would be only gutfill.

I’d buy hay or straw over the phone, but I’d go see alfalfa before buying.
Careful now.

Saying 18%.

freedominacup

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Five lads close by are grouping together to create a 220ha farm.
Investing €1.5mln for housing for 150cows and three duck sheds.

None of them ever milked a cow...

Met them last year and they were telling me their plans...I offered them the dairy farm with 280ha for the price of their investment...no go. I thought I was making them a good offer but the look of a new shed tickles the fancy of some folk.

I met a group very like that at greenfields one day. They were definitely working off the greater fool theory. Whole proposed operation was based on some poor sucker being delighted to come in to manage their operations more or less fir the joy of working with cows. None of them had ever milked a cow or had any intention of ever doing it. One phrase kept coming to mind as I observed them and was when thieves fall out. I don't mean to diparage them but I got the feeling the rose tinted glasses were being worn by everyone and if the bucks weren't as free as expected I wouldn't be sure how long they'd stay committed. Could get very messy esp if the phrase " joint and several" appeared in any loan agreement.

GrasstoMilk

Anyone here have a bit more in depth knowledge of milking machines than my basic level?
Want to make a single unit milking machine in the calving shed.
I have a dump bucket with a pulsator on it already and I have a motor and a vacuum pump from our old 6 unit.
Is it just a matter of getting the motor wired up and getting the pump plumbed up and sticking a gauge on it?

Timmaay

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Anyone here have a bit more in depth knowledge of milking machines than my basic level?
Want to make a single unit milking machine in the calving shed.
I have a dump bucket with a pulsator on it already and I have a motor and a vacuum pump from our old 6 unit.
Is it just a matter of getting the motor wired up and getting the pump plumbed up and sticking a gauge on it?

When you say a gauge you mean a regulator? Definitely needs a regulator, pressure will keep going sky high otherwise and stall the motor. If you still got the old milking machine the whole lot should be there.

farisfat

White Clover wrote: »

If I had 12 million and wanted to milk cows, I'd milk 40 in a 10 unit parlour. No stress or headaches and still have my cows!

And a full-time labour unit to leave things handy.

Snowfire

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Anyone here have a bit more in depth knowledge of milking machines than my basic level?
Want to make a single unit milking machine in the calving shed.
I have a dump bucket with a pulsator on it already and I have a motor and a vacuum pump from our old 6 unit.
Is it just a matter of getting the motor wired up and getting the pump plumbed up and sticking a gauge on it?

Would you not buy one of them mobile bucket type on wheels. They come ready to plug in and go. Vac gauge, pulsation etc.
I bought one couple of years ago from Connacht agri, and I think it’s the bees knees. I’ve often put it on heifers while they are calving and I’ve beastings to stomach tube the calf with straight away.
I give it a good wash after each cow.

Dakota Dan

wrangler wrote: »

He runs on adrenaline, as you say they don't stop....one of my tenants is the same, he has 27 tractors contracting all around the country, I never see him

Except on payday.

GrasstoMilk

Snowfire wrote: »

Would you not buy one of them mobile bucket type on wheels. They come ready to plug in and go. Vac gauge, pulsation etc.
I bought one couple of years ago from Connacht agri, and I think it’s the bees knees. I’ve often put it on heifers while they are calving and I’ve beastings to stomach tube the calf with straight away.
I give it a good wash after each cow.

That was always the plan but gathering the money for it can be hard justified at the best of times, never mind with the way this year could be ending up ATM. If I could make it up with out buying too much I'd try it.
We run paracitic and hot water through our dump bucket after every cow. Keeps it fairly right

Gawddawggonnit

freedominacup wrote: »

Saying 18%.

Did it test as 18%?

Or are they saying that it should be 18%?