Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121959933#Comment_121959933

Different approach here.first thing tax year is June to July so that means there's never any worry about having a decent cash surplus 31 December. We carry that cash into the spring and typically would be cash poor at tax year end but the bigger checks are landing around then so you are soon out of it.often the actual profit on winter milk is miniscule and may not contribute nothing to profit

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960170#Comment_121960170

might mean you have the price of a few load of bales come March and your own stocks ran out, theirs some mad stuff going on around us locally grazing wise on poor ground and no silage left, paddocks are been destroyed

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960170#Comment_121960170

Incorrect regarding the winter milk if you do your job properly. The higher price and grow the feed yourself.

With the derogation reduction any farmer worth his salt should have the land available to grow his winter supplements.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121959833#Comment_121959833

Teagasc have a webinar on Tuesday night about "managing the herd in the current conditions". I guess they will have their usual choir boys on to show how it's all done. Plenty silage around I'd say. I had 200 bales for sale and nobody wanted them. Fed them to my own herd after.

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121959902#Comment_121959902

I know that young lad. A Hardy buck and has a serious job done in a few years. His speech about money and optimism in agriculture was absolutely bang on.

kevthegaff

milked through de winter and it saved me between cows selling for good money in February and pushing out the bills iykwim. Co op didn't hassle for money when there was steady milk cheques.Still tight regardless but God only knows if I hadn't kept milking.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121959902#Comment_121959902

He shouldn't have needed a degree in ag science to work that out. Sounds like another victim of the lads pushing "highly profitable dairy farming".

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960401#Comment_121960401

Alot bigger issue looming re the exchangeable bond the co-op used to part finance the plc buyout, the plc then going and doing a share-buy back shemce which has inflated the plc share-price meaning the above bond will be cashed in as plc shares rather than the loan been repayed, probably taking a 70 million euro loss, compared to if they had funded the money through a loan

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960247#Comment_121960247

I take it you have too top the rushes to grow a bit of grass for to feed the cows like myself. In middling ground stick to grass.

Winter milk is OK, but infairness you would want a good bonus and a fairly infertile herd. I dried off the middle of December and have two left to calve today. I finish the dry cows in march. Well there's always 1 or 2 that go to April.

The lactose fine is 4cent here if below 4.2. Then the electricity and water heating, detergents. And I always say a one man band would want a few weeks off from the parlour every year. The children are young, it's nice to do things than always be running home to milk

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960313#Comment_121960313

Was it tirlan that ran the webinar. Joe pattan was cautious about buying lots of feed incase a couple of dry days come. No one bit of advice going to suit every farm. Have plenty of silage but barring a few paddocks second rotation will be tight going unless heat comes aswell.

Patton did say one thing in fairness about getting away from the farm early if you're getting stressed.

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121959933#Comment_121959933

Fairly sure it was dairy Edge podcast I heard that it's recommended to have 300eur per cow of a fund for early spring. Now he said it can be in different forms ie merchant debt or an arrangement with contractors.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960572#Comment_121960572

Patton should know by now that half the problem is that people can't get away from the farm.

K.G.

Are you suggesting using contractors to grow crops on rented ground.if that be so it requires alot of cash management and can increase work load and risk

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960710#Comment_121960710

I presumed he meant not paying for spring slurry work for a few months.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960247#Comment_121960247

the 20% rule is a killer tho if in dero …I’m contract rearing young stock due to banding and dero reductions …grow 12 acres Maize would love to grow 12 acres barley just for straw alone but over 20% of my land wouldn’t be in permanent grassland the.

mahoney_j

valve everything in spring …milk thru last few years …oad from late November to when calving starts mid Jan ….the workload is over exaggerated your in yard anyway milking adds maby 30/40 minutes to day at most …cull cows come into nice ball of money from mid January and with heifers synched the stale cows guide them into parlour

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960798#Comment_121960798

HHave you any bother with SCC with late lactation cows on OAD?

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960597#Comment_121960597

My son is building a house direct labour. Concrete, blocks and stone coming from a Roadstone plant. Credit terms are 30 days credit. That usually means you get invoiced at the end of the month and pay within 30 days. Not with Roadstone they invoice you fron when you hit a credit limit after you start. The CL is pretty low so effectively after you pour foundations they invoice you and you have 30 days to pay first bill, if you do not pay thete is a 5% surcharge.

Credit from merchants is one thing, Co-op and merchants charge 1% and its getting harder and harder to get it knocked off FFS trying to get a discount off a bill is getting harder and harder.

But contractors are similar to Roadstone actually that is an underestimation, paying going out the gate as opposed to paying 60-100 days later is probably nearer 10 than 5%.

As I often point out farming is a cash business, you cannot carry unstructured debt

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960798#Comment_121960798

Yes , but you have high yield cows, I remember you told us your figures at Christmas. A lot of the cows I have would be 8litre OAD by Xmas. I Don't grow maize. Did you ever calculate the cost per litre of dec/Jan milk for interest sake

So different strokes for different folks.

Reminds me of a farm walk one time, and the man's milk figures were brilliant. In fairness he is a very good farmer. The advisor was trying to tell us that it could be done on grass and low concentrate feeding.

I went back to buy a couple of calves off him the following march, and I could hardly see the cows because of the heap of sugar beet and soya bean meal in front of them. Well I suppose its not concentrate technically

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961212#Comment_121961212

it pays and I’ve a margin and that’s even before any other benefits …no Maize fed at that stage that’s fed from mid February into summer when it’s needed and the response is there ……really good bales and 4 kg in parlour …very simple ……good quality grass and best quality forage I can make makes system hum ….1.5/1.8 tonne meal fed but majority of cows are bred to produce good volume of milk backed with %

mahoney_j

touch wood no

ginger22

Every business needs cash coming in all year round. Can you imagine your local grocery shop shutting up for 2 months in winter. Any good milky cow not in calf will generate 8 to 10 Euros a day over the winter and probably increase in value by 500 to 600 Euros over the same time period. Then you can time it so your in calf cows are dry for 6 weeks, maybee 8 weeks for second calvers or thin cows. Long dry periods are a disaster. Start to dry them off as others calve in the Spring. It is not for everyone. You must have top quality feed in the yard, good silage, maize or beet or wholecrop. Possibly crimp or some other pitted feeds. If you don''t have the skills to grow crops why not do a deal with a tillage man to supply the feed.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961212#Comment_121961212

It dosen't cost as much as you think to milk stale cows. Those high volume cows that MJ has have to be kept in good condition. Neighbour would never have them dried off for longer than 4-6 weeks as his point is it only costs an extra euro and 50 cent ish a day to milk them on.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961357#Comment_121961357

Any business can manage periods with no money coming in as long as it's profitable and you manage cash flow. Problem for a section of dairy farmers is that many have never encountered a period of poor cash flow and bad weather before lasting over 12 months before.

There are many dairy farmers getting on with it, a section that taught you can expand forever or that you can keep spending on modernising may be struggling and some may fall by the wayside. It's exactly the same as the food and entertainment sector at present many businesses are OK a few are struggling as they used the Covid tax holiday to expand and now are struggling to gather the cash to catch up on the tax debt.

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961357#Comment_121961357

good quality silage and nuts in the parlour will suffice for milking over the winter… you dont need to complicate things with maize wholecrop beet etc.. cows should get 8wks dry and heifers 10wks.. have done the 6wks dry its not enuf.. you'll get away with it once but not every year.. cows need a break..

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960798#Comment_121960798

culled a nice few older ladies here from mid December to now straight out of the parlour when they'd got a half decent cover on them, averaging 1100 euro, it's as good as a peak milk cheque when you work it out over the 25 cows ,especially at a time of year when cashflow Is needed

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960247#Comment_121960247

The phrase "a pinch of salt" comes to mind too.

Castlekeeper

My cows are dry for 10-16 weeks, we've plenty cheap high quality low dmd silage for them, no problem with profit or cashflow, it's a great system for us.

Danny healy ray

i see the manager in castleisland mart there in livestock live tell a few of the jobbers no talking across the ring or the door if they don't fair play to him no messing about there

straight

There's 5 million stray cull cows and male calves wandering around India. And they're on to us about our methane. 🤔 💭

K.G.

Milking on culls is very hit and miss.a good milk price year there can be twist in it but usually the money is in the carrying the cull from autumn to the spring Market.how ever you are still producing very low margin milk and has to be balanced up to the loss of higher margin milk that could be produced if you had extra cows during the peak season.also you have to put facilities in place to basically fatten dry cows.its always margin by volume.you may not be increasing your volume that much afterwards and you re probaly decreasing your margin.it all depends on your setup. Now if you have the luxury of having the spring milk producer subsidise it through a winter milk scheme that is a bonus.but I will say one thing the calf issue could make people think about calving every 2 years