International dairy comparisons

K.G.

Dawg was doing a fair bit of stiring a couple of weeks ago with the potential problems for dairy in ireland and it put me thinking .what about dairying in other countries.what strenghts/weakness have they and is their system sustainable and competitive.to kick it off the US currently have cheap feed but high energy demend and is their system based on cheap mexican labour

davidk1394

K.G. wrote: »

Dawg was doing a fair bit of stiring a couple of weeks ago with the potential problems for dairy in ireland and it put me thinking .what about dairying in other countries.what strenghts/weakness have they and is their system sustainable and competitive.to kick it off the US currently have cheap feed but high energy demend and is their system based on cheap mexican labour

If trump builds that wall the cheap supply could stop. However the U.S dairy farmers just supply their own market and export a small amount.
The system that fascinates me the most is the Saudi dairy farms. How do they actually make money. Everything is imported. Are they run by the government?

Mooooo

I had heard of powder plants going up in the US to export excess, labour is an issue but with them being close to self sufficient in oil gas energy costs may not go up as much., if grain stays down it'll be interesting. I see Danone have pulled out of India but their internal demand is likely to increase and swallow up their production, which is the biggest in the world. I think Danone issue was they went the wrong way of securing supply.

Waffletraktor

davidk1394 wrote: »

If trump builds that wall the cheap supply could stop. However the U.S dairy farmers just supply their own market and export a small amount.
The system that fascinates me the most is the Saudi dairy farms. How do they actually make money. Everything is imported. Are they run by the government?

The saudi farms are like the welfare system, to keep the locals happy regardless of the cost. They've farms in the US growing lucerne to be baled and imported but they're using up their aquafier VERY quickly.

Timmaay

Waffletraktor wrote: »

The saudi farms are like the welfare system, to keep the locals happy regardless of the cost. They've farms in the US growing lucerne to be baled and imported but they're using up their aquafier VERY quickly.

Diesel costs about 7c/l also, so energy use is not a problem. Water is used everywhere, all crops irrigated. Cows sprayed with water to keep cool, fully air conditioned etc also. The water can come from 200km away and from deeper and deeper aquifers. It would be interesting how much each litre of milk costs to produce based on real world energy costs.

yewtree

K.G. wrote: »

Dawg was doing a fair bit of stiring a couple of weeks ago with the potential problems for dairy in ireland and it put me thinking .what about dairying in other countries.what strenghts/weakness have they and is their system sustainable and competitive.to kick it off the US currently have cheap feed but high energy demend and is their system based on cheap mexican labour

The stocking rates on Irish farms aren't that high in reality and from the material at the IGA today there is no need to be going to stocking rates over 3/ha to make money. I think irish dairy is in a good place, with low debt levels and a sustainable production model.
on the negative side we don't have the same scale as other countries and labour is an issue.
The only country I have any actually experience of is NZ, apparently they are a peak cow numbers now and environmental restrictions are there big limiting factor. Also wouldn't fancy their debt levels, but the kiwi grass based model done well with their climate is brilliant way of farming.

alps

Timmaay wrote: »

Diesel costs about 7c/l also, so energy use is not a problem. Water is used everywhere, all crops irrigated. Cows sprayed with water to keep cool, fully air conditioned etc also. The water can come from 200km away and from deeper and deeper aquifers. It would be interesting how much each litre of milk costs to produce based on real world energy costs.

Anyone know if desalinated water can be used for cropping irrigation and for animals? Certainly enough cheap energy in those countries to run the hardware required..

Dakota Dan

Waffletraktor wrote: »

The saudi farms are like the welfare system, to keep the locals happy regardless of the cost. They've farms in the US growing lucerne to be baled and imported but they're using up their aquafier VERY quickly.

If the Ogallala aquifer dries up it could take 6000 years to replenish, it has already dried up in places, serving the mid third of the US it would have some knock on effect on US agriculture.

alps

alps wrote: »

Anyone know if desalinated water can be used for cropping irrigation and for animals? Certainly enough cheap energy in those countries to run the hardware required..

It takes 14kWh to produce 1000gals of desalinated water....not a big cost for oil producing countries...

Brown Podzol

alps wrote: »

It takes 14kWh to produce 1000gals of desalinated water....not a big cost for oil producing countries...

And it takes 1000gals of water to produce one gal of milk.

https://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/05/24/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-produce-one-litre-of-milk/

Thought I'd post this as it looked like you were talking to yourself.

Timmaay

Brown Podzol wrote: »

And it takes 1000gals of water to produce one gal of milk.

https://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/05/24/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-produce-one-litre-of-milk/

Thought I'd post this as it looked like you were talking to yourself.

I don't have a source for it now, but I read before for each gls of saudi milk it takes 2300gls of water!

alps

Brown Podzol wrote: »

And it takes 1000gals of water to produce one gal of milk.

https://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/05/24/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-produce-one-litre-of-milk/

Thought I'd post this as it looked like you were talking to yourself.

There is another used term for playing with yourself...

Serious figures...It wouldn't want to stop raining..