Small Dairy Herd - Part Time

TheClubMan

Well folks,

A friend of mine (49) is thinking of getting out of sucklers and setting up a small dairy herd. He has a good part time job which is flexible and local. He also has dairy experience and can get a dig out from family now and again. In the yard he has a four bay cubicle shed, a 3 bay straw bedded shed beside it, a 3 bay hay shed, an outhouse with a loft and a silage pit. He has 20 acres down the road from me which he uses for silage and another 50 acres or more around the yard which he uses for grazing. It's well laid out but a lot of it needs reseeding, lime etc. His plan was to address the land issues, build a parlour with a good second hand machine and buy low maintenance dairy cows with the funds from selling his beef stock.

What would be your advice to him?

ellewood

TheClubMan wrote: »

Well folks,

A friend of mine (49) is thinking of getting out of sucklers and setting up a small dairy herd. He has a good part time job which is flexible and local. He also has dairy experience and can get a dig out from family now and again. In the yard he has a four bay cubicle shed, a 3 bay straw bedded shed beside it, a 3 bay hay shed, an outhouse with a loft and a silage pit. He has 20 acres down the road from me which he uses for silage and another 50 acres or more around the yard which he uses for grazing. It's well laid out but a lot of it needs reseeding, lime etc. His plan was to address the land issues, build a parlour with a good second hand machine and buy low maintenance dairy cows with the funds from selling his beef stock.

What would be your advice to him?

If he can grow good grass and utilise most if with a long grazing season can make top quality silage and have good AI'ing- then tell to go find a daily man/woman who needs to get their young stock reared he will have no investment as he has shed already and a month after the heifers arrive he will have income and still work part time no problem

greenfield21

what an absolute mad man, tell him to stick with the sucklers and keep his sanity.

TheClubMan

ellewood wrote: »

If he can grow good grass and utilise most if with a long grazing season can make top quality silage and have good AI'ing- then tell to go find a daily man/woman who needs to get their young stock reared he will have no investment as he has shed already and a month after the heifers arrive he will have income and still work part time no problem

I made the suggestion of heifer rearing to him as there are a lot of dairy farmers in the area but he is fairly keen on going down the dairy route as he see's more money in it and also we're in a TBC black spot so farmers may be reluctant to let him rear their heifers. There's also another 20 acres beside his grazing block that may be available for rent.

Timmaay

If he's mad keen about dairying, has experience of being on the ground during a calving season, and ultimately accepts that the dairying will largely be more of a hobby that supplements his off farm job (and only after afew yrs after its up and running and paid for necessary investment), then it might be a runner.

If he thinks dairying is the only game in town and his only way of making afew handy quid from milking afew handly low maintenance cows who will calves themselves and hit the ground running for rest of the year etc, then run a mile from it.

cosatron

why would a 49 year old person be considering going into milking, nourishment not punishment is what he/she needs. In ten years time when he finally has everything set up and paid off his 7 seven years of pension age.

pedigree 6

You can't be a part time dairy farmer and be serious about it.
Otherwise expect scouring calves, more visits from the dead Lorry and torn up paddocks from cows in the rain when they should be in.
Part time dairy farmers won't win farmer of the year anyway.

Even new entrants from the tillage side some of whom think that putting in robots means that they can have a hands off approach are getting a shock now when they have to physically push in heifers into the units. It wasn't mentioned in the brochures.:D

Can you be a part time dairy farmer?
Don't know maybe with someone else to milk the cows at home and keep an eye on things.

I think it's either a full time job or don't bother.

lakill Farm

source and install a 2nd hand robot

Continue his p/t work

Why cant it work

Buford T. Justice XIX

I was at a discussion group walk this morning with a farmer in his late 30s who works part time. 60 acres, 46 cows and replacements by himself.

Luckily he has most of the housing/facilities already in place.

In your friends situation, it would be a runner if he is interested in farming. The sale of the sucklers will go most of the way towards buying the cows so he will only(?) have the parlour and milking machine and tank to buy.

The guy we were with today gets his cows out as fast as possible and plenty of colostrum into the calves and loads of vaccinations to reduce the workload in spring.

He would want to do his figures carefully though, it's no bed of roses and he will want to have roadways and fencing up to a good level from the start.

pedigree 6

lakill Farm wrote: »

source and install a 2nd hand robot

Continue his p/t work

Why cant it work

Because the way dairy farming is going in this country it's either try and produce milk as cheap as you can on a manufacturing price (and I don't think robot comes under that) or calve all year round with a guaranteed liquid price and possibly robot might get in there.

pedigree 6

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I was at a discussion group walk this morning with a farmer in his late 30s who works part time. 60 acres, 46 cows and replacements by himself.

Luckily he has most of the housing/facilities already in place.

In your friends situation, it would be a runner if he is interested in farming. The sale of the sucklers will go most of the way towards buying the cows so he will only(?) have the parlour and milking machine and tank to buy.

The guy we were with today gets his cows out as fast as possible and plenty of colostrum into the calves and loads of vaccinations to reduce the workload in spring.

He would want to do his figures carefully though, it's no bed of roses and he will want to have roadways and fencing up to a good level from the start.

Is all this talk of part time dairy farming, farming to live or living to farm?

Don't mind me Buford.
I'm a bit grumpy today.

yosemitesam1

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Because the way dairy farming is going in this country it's either try and produce milk as cheap as you can on a manufacturing price (and I don't think robot comes under that) or calve all year round with a guaranteed liquid price and possibly robot might get in there.

I wonder could 60-70 cows on oad through a basic 20 unit parlour be a runner

TheClubMan

I think he'd be better off selling the sucklers and investing the money in getting the land in proper order and getting a heifer rearing contract from someone. He'd probably have to wait until next year though. He's dead set on dairying at the moment. Where can he source a good second hand milking machine other than done deal? Are there specialists in Ireland?

visatorro

I dunno if there's feck all investment, and work is flexible then why not. Few pound to put kids thru college. Let most calves off asap. Good herd health programme.

lakill Farm

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Because the way dairy farming is going in this country it's either try and produce milk as cheap as you can on a manufacturing price (and I don't think robot comes under that) or calve all year round with a guaranteed liquid price and possibly robot might get in there.

2nd hand robot is about 35k in Holland. you would spend that putting in a 2nd hand parlour and building a shed for it etc, where the robot will fit in one of his own sheds, just build a dairy for the tank and coolers (cost with robot or parlour)

still can have freedom of suckler with monthly cheque

Timmaay

lakill Farm wrote: »

2nd hand robot is about 35k in Holland. you would spend that putting in a 2nd hand parlour and building a shed for it etc, where the robot will fit in one of his own sheds, just build a dairy for the tank and coolers (cost with robot or parlour)

still can have freedom of suckler with monthly cheque

Was only looking at the likes of that the other day, supposely you can get a service contract with lely independent of buying the robot, there is an independent Chap in the uk supplying parts etc also. Food for thought here I'll admit, OAD milking still probably more sensible solution however.

lakill Farm

Timmaay wrote: »

Was only looking at the likes of that the other day, supposely you can get a service contract with lely independent of buying the robot, there is an independent Chap in the uk supplying parts etc also. Food for thought here I'll admit, OAD milking still probably more sensible solution however.

OAD versus never milking :cool:

I think the labour element over weekends and the morning after a few pints is the difference.

cute geoge

lakill Farm wrote: »

2nd hand robot is about 35k in Holland. you would spend that putting in a 2nd hand parlour and building a shed for it etc, where the robot will fit in one of his own sheds, just build a dairy for the tank and coolers (cost with robot or parlour)

still can have freedom of suckler with monthly cheque

I read somewhere the lifespan of a lely robot is 12 - 15 years ,dont ask me what happens them then or how much there are worth but wondering how old are them robots in holland you are on about??

mf240

Tell him not to bother his hole

Feckoffcup

Has he thought about running a drugs racket?

cosatron

Feckoffcup wrote: »

Has he thought about running a drugs racket?

Ha. Just watching breaking bad. Thinking about changing parlour to a meth lab

Timmaay

cosatron wrote: »

Ha. Just watching breaking bad. Thinking about changing parlour to a meth lab

The jars would make utterly insane bongs!!!

Sam Kade

lakill Farm wrote: »

2nd hand robot is about 35k in Holland. you would spend that putting in a 2nd hand parlour and building a shed for it etc, where the robot will fit in one of his own sheds, just build a dairy for the tank and coolers (cost with robot or parlour)

still can have freedom of suckler with monthly cheque

But the robot will be high maintainence, the maintainence cost will eat into profit every year.

davidk1394

Neighbour over the road decided to have a go at part time dairy farming and put in a robot and a 5 span shed. I think the full time job lasted a month. His now full time farming and the robot does the milking. Seems to be going alright and is happy with the robot once he got trained in on it. I couldn't see dairy farming on a part time scale when your in your 50's. If you want to go part time, stick with beef.

Sam Kade

davidk1394 wrote: »

Neighbour over the road decided to have a go at part time dairy farming and put in a robot and a 5 span shed. I think the full time job lasted a month. His now full time farming and the robot does the milking. Seems to be going alright and is happy with the robot once he got trained in on it. I couldn't see dairy farming on a part time scale when your in your 50's. If you want to go part time, stick with beef.

Are farmers over 50 clapped out seeing that ye're advising them to take it handy?

Buford T. Justice XIX

davidk1394 wrote: »

Neighbour over the road decided to have a go at part time dairy farming and put in a robot and a 5 span shed. I think the full time job lasted a month. His now full time farming and the robot does the milking. Seems to be going alright and is happy with the robot once he got trained in on it. I couldn't see dairy farming on a part time scale when your in your 50's. If you want to go part time, stick with beef.

I know a good few lads around me that are Dairying part time with fulltime jobs, most in their 50s:D.

Now it's not easy and these lads would be in the 30-50 cow bracket with a good bit of help especially in the higher numbers and some have invested a lot to simplify the job especially around milking and calf rearing.

davidk1394

I mean to change from one system to another looking at it from the money aspect. My auld lad who's nearly 60 wants to go milking cows but by the time the loans are payed back he'd be 70. So on 2 years time seeing how everything goes i have no issue doing it alongside him and use the grants

its baltic

I have worn this t-shirt,

From what ive learned

1) its do able as long as all your farm infastructure is totally up to scratch for every different job that comes along with the seasons. you really dont have time for maintenance work or infrastructural jobs on the farm

2) ruthless in efficiency in terms of getting rid of calves asap, culling cows if not in calf, compact calving etc

3) Able for pressure, you will be constantly be rushing, getting to work, trying to get away from work, asking for time off, phonecalls from home,delivery guys etc.

Its not for the faint hearted and there is easier ways of making money but if its in you it can be done.

worst day dairy beats best day suckling imo

simx

Have 45 cows here and work 2/3 days a week with a dairy farmer nearby, he's very understanding and if can't come it's ok, or go home early, have camera on phone so can monitor things at home, it's not easy I'll say that, like said already will be rushing and taring anyday working, getting easier now as cows out, certainly doable but takes a lot of effort and late nights

Farfield

I have 80 cows and have been part time for 6 ish years with full time job. Fairly good set up and pay fair bit of reliable labor.
It's dooable but it takes up every minute and then some. The pressure of having to be somewhere all the time and by a certain time is the most difficult part.

Timmaay

Farfield wrote: »

I have 80 cows and have been part time for 6 ish years with full time job. Fairly good set up and pay fair bit of reliable labor.
It's dooable but it takes up every minute and then some. The pressure of having to be somewhere all the time and by a certain time is the most difficult part.

I'm well known to be at rolling 15mins late for utterly everything. That's without a job outside the farm ha, how you lads cope I Duno! This time of the year it's more like 30mins to an hr late!