Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117876501#Comment_117876501

will you be going and calving a bunch in the autumn so?

speaking from experience, it only adds labour to the whole thing, We’re an awful lot less busy here than we were and milking a fair few extra

its streamlined the thing to no end

if I wanted to milk extra cows calving them in the autumn would do nothing for me, we’ve the same spring peak now as when we were 60:40 autumn spring calving, all I would be doing would be increasing my cost of production

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117876588#Comment_117876588

You reckon a 5000 l cow eats the same DM as a 10 or 12k litre cow?

if guys want more bands they should ask for it but it’s only going to leave guys that have high yielding cows with higher N figures

I’ve no interest in calving cows in may or June to benefit the bosses in glanbia.going to stick to what suits me in spring calving herd.like my time off from early December to near end of January plus I don’t want to be calving cows when championship hurling is on.want a life not tied to 🐄

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117876929#Comment_117876929

Not Glanbia supplier so dosnt affect me yet but I fully expect similar in Arrabawn sooner rather tvdn later ….yes I’d have no issue doing it and am actively considering it ….have things fairly well fine tuned and yard set up fairly good but the spring workload is relentless snd I dread to think what would happen if I had crypto etc at some stage in spring ….I can get relief Milker’s from may on ….I have been able to get help in spring so far. But don’t have scale to offer anything substantial or long term ….calving 15 or so cows September October wouldn’t overly concern me ….just need calves snd gone by December

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877015#Comment_117877015

That’s fair enough everyone has to do what suits but we have to adapt too ….if u continue as normal and supply milk in April/June that Glanbia can’t process and charge u for it would u do that ??

back to Tegasc etc again they have just shoved one system for a long time and not looked at bigger picture ….they forgot about all the extra calves (one of there highly respected advisors admitted that )they never thought about us having enough processing capacity nor having a strong market for the big flush of milk every year a compact calving spring model gives ….they didn’t think about slurry storage and enviro issues till horse bolted either (load on cows then worry about storages etc later .have fertiliser spreader on snd ready for 12 January …100 units out by April 1 )

Mooooo

Lads ye seem to be forgetting that for the products that are returning the higher margins, butters, cheese etc its the grass fed aspect that sells it. There isn't much kerrygold made when the cows go in. Yes there are issues with processing efficiency of spring based systems, but anyone willing to milk fresh calvers thru the winter without a correct bonus payment would want to redo the figures. This is some one coming from a history of winter milk and the work load and feed involved.

Calving twice a year even if facilities are good also increases disease risk among calves due to the shorter timeframe between use of calving sheds and having different age groups of youngstock on farm, along with extra breeding, cows bulling inside etc. Not a mind if tb comes to fcuk the show. If the processors want winter milk, let them come up with a way of selling it at a price which will cover the cost of it on the farmers side.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877260#Comment_117877260

You can make winter milking as difficult or as easy as you like. Great weather at the moment to be calving outside. Hopefully cows will be out for another 2 months and milk away off grass.

Mooooo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877285#Comment_117877285

Aware of that, but would you be doing without your liquid contract? Find spring calving better myself. 5.6c from dairygold was the bonus on the volume allowed, not worth it for me with added costs involved

whelan2

The way my ground is and labour availability winter milk suits me. Reading of lads having springing cows in at the moment feeding them silage etc. It's all at a cost

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117876938#Comment_117876938

I said no such thing. 12k is nearly two and a half time 5 you know. Alot of the reason guys aren't getting over the 6300 litres has to do with their calving date and compactness of same.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877260#Comment_117877260

Processors are gouging us and we never get the premium our grass fed milk etc were told we are

I could of got liquid quota a few years back …did the figures and from solids I did up to Christmas with my empties ,late calvers etc I’d of lost out if I supplied that on a liquid contract ….manufacturing prices was higher …maby not calve cows in back end …can’t see much wrong calving cows like when’s dose at this time of year outside …less pressure …alternatively leave bull with cows longer and calve the stranglers in April /may …milk them over winter with empties and March calvers till you start in spring again ….even milk oad from Xmas week to end January ….if coops start saying they don’t want anymore excess milk in April /June we will have to adapt

a shame drying off coed early December not calving till mid March on

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877441#Comment_117877441

We'll have to start an organic milk price section in the journal.

What is it 35c in summer. 60c in winter.

Liquid market by a few. Have to supply year round.

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117877441#Comment_117877441

Processors will gouge us if we calf the cow in Feb or August, personally given my farm layout, long enough grazing season, reasonably basic winter accommodation, and then other off farm stuff I'd sooner get out of dairying than go back doing any sort of split calving.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117878383#Comment_117878383

Did you stop milking last winter?

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117878446#Comment_117878446

Nope, usually got OAD from early dec to 10th feb (not good for SCC however...), Aside from the scc it works very well, half hour milking in the morning before you feed/bed. Last cow due 12th April this coming spring so I'll be defo drying off. Milking 2 rows of stale cows through the winter is a totally different story to having to split calving, thats a 2nd season of calving, breeding, drying off etc, and also would well complicate things for the relief milkers who do near half the milkings here.

Pinsnbushings

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117878545#Comment_117878545

I think you're on the ball timmaay, I'd love to be in your situation where the farm can provide a good full time income and a flexible lifestyle.

Farming will never be a get rich scheme but it can provide flexibility and consistent cashflow to explore other investments/enterprises which could be very rewarding. I think a lot if lads pushing on cow numbers are.racing to the bottom

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117878963#Comment_117878963

+1

Landlocked here on mp with 40 acres so no capital investment with years but instead chanelled excess cash into property last few years .The returns make you wonder why anybody would milk extra cows .Local sucessfull property invester remarked farmers were the only ''FOOLS''who spend money to make extra work and hardship for themselves .The margin is not out of milk to be renting land at E350/acre and infacturure costs of Xthousnads to milk extra cows full stop

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117879242#Comment_117879242

Property certainly has done well last few yrs, as has the stock market and crypto etc ha, always a certain element of luck and educated guessing involved with investment, and for me back in like 2012, when my dad was looking for me to come back farming I saw the farm here as being a reasonable "investment", certainly given the ending of quotas and our land block etc, (and yep cute, obv me getting 110ac to milk on against 40 would totally change all the sums), anyways I've very little regrets in all that across the last 9yrs, like we all say I should of invested that bit extra all along and put in another bay, another 2 units, another foot wider of cowlane while I was at it ha. The dynamics certainly are changing now with both more environment regulations, much higher capital ex costs, lack of labour and back door quota's etc, but thats life, the property market was quite strong 5yrs ago also, who could of predicated it would of gone as well as it has since, and who knows what the next 5yrs will hold, similar with farming, maybe the milk base price will stay over 40c? Anyways I happily diversify my investment these days across afew sectors, no point reinvesting every penny back into the farm, but equally so no point spending nothing on the farm but buying 2 investment properties that could land you with gobshite tenants and big repair costs etc. One thing I'd be very slow about with any investment however would be very large borrowings, we all know how that ended up with property during the Celtic tiger ha, and nowadays sinking 300/ 500k+ into a dairy start-up is the normal, I'd have commitment issue's with any business that would have me borrowing that unless the sums were extremely good lol.

straight

Ya, I'd love to see the base price go over 40 cent. I only got 38 I think last month. Property is taking off. Will crash in 2025 - 26. You heard it here first 😉

greenfield21

Also Tim's farming on a sandbank if recall, so when we're all running out to put life jackets on our posts he is on here giving out about how hard it is to get the pig tails into the ground. Dry ground saves alot of time.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117881035#Comment_117881035

You forgot about the twice yearly droughts he suffers with...

funkey_monkey

Not into the diary game. Is this type of thing common?

Farm partnership for sale in Cork for €5 on DoneDeal

Gawddawggonnit

This is the way the bands are in France.

Mooooo

French isn't that great is the monthly period on the left based on the time they are housed?

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117883845#Comment_117883845

Wouldn't be common place, a share farming set-up like above ended up in the high Court locally here, over breaches of contract, that lead to the landowner having to basically get his partner removed of the farm, he's going into partnership with a neighbour now under a different type of arrangement where the land owner provides all land/facilities/ and upkeep of the farm plus half the cows in return for 20% of the milk cheque, the previous agreement was for 50% of the milk cheque but land owner was paying half the costs of running the place and that's where the first partnership fell down as their was a lot of messing going on

Gawddawggonnit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117884343#Comment_117884343

It’s based on time spent outdoors.

*I think that it was revised downwards in 2015.

blackdog1

That's very interesting thanks for sharing Dawg. That 126kg figure gets thrown around by Teagasc as a scare tactic but they obviously fail to mention that's for herds who spend more than 7 months indoors. In reality alot of herds producing over 8k litres only spend less than 4 months indoors so they would actually have an n value of 91kg. I also find it interesting that they are trying to increase the storage requirements for a high producing cow as I'm a winter milk producer on very good land and my mean date for housing my milking cows is Dec 1st and in a good spring can be out Feb 1st but I usually go out March but the decreased housing time isn't taken into account in these calculations. Seems they are he'll bent on eradicating all high producing cows and push for NZ type system. No mention of animal welfare of course...

Mooooo

We must be reading it differently blackdog, my understanding from the explanation above is the higher figure is for cows outdoors.

blackdog1

Maybe your right my french could use some work. Hard to follow why a cow fed indoors would produce less nitrogen than a cow outdoors. I would imagine the less slurry spread the less damage to rivers waterways would accur. I'd imagine spreading slurry in big volumes would have significant more damage to the environment

Gawddawggonnit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117885829#Comment_117885829

The longer they spend outdoors (on grass) the higher the figure…grass is higher in protein and therefore more N excreted. Diet indoors is ~15%pr whereas grass can be 18-28%pr. Higher intake of pr = higher N excreted.

(I suppose that’s why they want the ration % to be dropped in dero farms?).

Id never seen those tables before. With the discussion here I asked my planner to send them on so as ye would know.