Milk Price- Please read Mod note in post #1

we are being paid based on protein and butterfat, nothing for whey or lactose, were milking the cows and they are milking us

pedigree i think our biggest problem is the secretary and ceo of coop hold the same position in the plc, its a complete conflict of interest and they have shown a complete abuse of power in the role

our coop Secretary actual sat pruning his nails at a meeting in dungarvan while making the comment that they thought more farmers would sell the shares on spin out and they will be looking at further avenue to address this....here we are!! they are following the kerry group lead, however i think glanbia has had more profit warnings since its establishment than kerry, they have over paid for companies in america and have a nice debt pile

we are one of the suppliers who has increased production, i think were now supplying double what we were pre quota, debts has caused us to keep increasing to try and spread cost but only so far we can go, the model of gii wouldnt provide me with a sustainable way of living so need to start looking at another avenues as piling on more debt is not the answer, keep loans withing stock value and have some sort of exit plan

gii business model is based on low prices with a base of sub 28c, my milk development manager told me they would have issues with me over my cost of production prior to spin out, i replied that once the bundle of cash is spent by coop members on spin out i can see a supplier revolt occuring

kowtow wrote: »

Speaking of production level and NZ model, I have to say very unimpressed with Aidan Brennan article in the journal about the profitability (or not) of feeding cows given low feed prices.

I'm totally unqualified to agree or disagree with his conclusion that grass is cheaper, but I can spot a desperate argument a mile away and that was the way the article was written - basically "it might seem profitable to feed cows this summer, but when we studied farms that fed nuts we found they had all sorts of other costs which I won't go into here, so basically even though ration is cheap it still won't be profitable. Nothing to see here"

I think the establishment needs to stop alternately cheer-leading and patronising farmers and start learning from them.

He copped a fair bit of flak on Twitter from a regular contributor here.
Either our man has fantastically efficient cow's when it comes to milk from forage or their overall efficiency in turning various sources of energy into litres is greatly underestimated .

Won't be long till someone tests the old msa to see if it holds water.

stretch film wrote: »

He copped a fair bit of flak on Twitter from a regular contributor here.
Either our man has fantastically efficient cow's when it comes to milk from forage or their overall efficiency in turning various sources of energy into litres is greatly underestimated .

I saw the Twitter conversation, for me it became too focused on 1/2 herds (excellent herds). The average dairy herd in Ireland produces 380kg Milk solids a cow and feeds about a tonne of concentrates. What response are they getting from meal today?
Everyone wants to believe they are better than average but the reality is- half of us are worse than average.
Looking at it from a national herd perspective the article seemed fair enough to me.

Timmaay wrote: »

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I'd say he will shortly end up in a position in glanbia would be a perfect fit with the crap he is throwing out, the best line was the one where he basically says just tough it out lads the boys with the high cost systems will shortly go broke and then you'll be laughing

Yes Timmay, our good friend M Brady.
Brady would have pushed 500 cow herds to be the norm a few years ago.

Good to see him looking at future trends. But let him put clothes on those figures. What labour input does he see to that herd of 200+ cows?
If my memory of a previous article a few weeks ago is correct, he suggested an average farm income in future of €50K. But only €13/14K was coming from farm activity. €36K was from SFP.
So a farmer is expected to milk 200+ cows for €13K!!! Ah please stop.

He raises the idea that we have made great 'progress' since the abolition of quotas. Yes, we have increased output. But our income is gone through the floor. He has a limited definition of progress.

He goes back to that discredited Teagasc figure of COP of 20 cent/litre.
He accepts some items not included but then he wants off farm income to the house included. I must remember that the next time I'm evaluating a business plan for a shop. I must tell the person that their OH's salary is to be included in the profit figures.

Indo ag section is largely good. Putting in this rubbish only angers me. Raise the bar.

stretch film wrote: »

He copped a fair bit of flak on Twitter from a regular contributor here.
Either our man has fantastically efficient cow's when it comes to milk from forage or their overall efficiency in turning various sources of energy into litres is greatly underestimated .

The "regular contributor" was bang on with his argument and was able to give and prove specific examples in his herd and his herd in totality is proof.
Brennan's argument was just a general non specific, "that's what I've been told so its true" argument.

My herd of cows are no prize winners, and I'm sure my farming wouldn't win too many prizes either, but could Aidan explain how my herd has gone from 5000 L & 420 kgms on 250 kgms flat rate fed ration in 2015 to 7000 L & 500kgms on 1000kg feed to yield ration in 2016.

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

The "regular contributor" was bang on with his argument and was able to give and prove specific examples in his herd and his herd in totality is proof.
Brennan's argument was just a general non specific, "that's what I've been told so its true" argument.

My herd of cows are no prize winners, and I'm sure my farming wouldn't win too many prizes either, but could Aidan explain how my herd has gone from 5000 L & 420 kgms on 250 kgms flat rate fed ration in 2015 to 7000 L & 500kgms on 1000kg feed to yield ration in 2016.

In fairness he was quoting results from research and a large group of commercial farms. there must be variation between those farms some obviously get a better response to meal feeding. Using your individual farm results doesn't disprove the basis of the article, that most farms get a poor response to feeding in mid summer which is showed by the national average production.

Anyone that can get 500 kg ms from their cows is a very efficient farmer.

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

I'm confused. What bar should I be aiming for " Large group","Most Farms", " National average" or top 10%

if individual farmers are getting results from feeding, it means it's possible so why not research and report that.
We'll hear about the the exceptional farmer that's growing 14 tons of grass or the farmer who's costs are 20c , etc. These aren't achievable by the "Large group" or "Most Farmers"

My point isn't that you are wrong. It's nothing to me what bar you aim at.
My point is that one farm can't be used to Dismiss research based on a large number of farms. The results over a large number of farms will give a truer picture of what's happening at farm level. Just like one cow can't be used to prove/disprove the EBI.

There is a fair point that farms with very low costs/ very high grass growth don't represent what happens on average farms.

In my opinion advocating to grow more grass/ cut costs is a much better message in comparison to feeding meals to chase production which has been shown doesn't work on the majority of farms.

I accept that there are farms that can make money feeding higher levels of meal but they are in the minority

browned wrote: »

when I was researching about converting to oad teagasc provided little to no research on the topic so I ended up getting most of my info from England, nz, France and oz. Do I resent teagasc for not having the relevant info for me? Of course not. They've a limited budget and it'd be foolish for them to waste it on a topic which only effects 100 odd farms in Ireland. Teagasc are researching and promoting one model of milk production and that is 500kgsms from grass/silage and 300-500kgs of ration to supplement the shoulders. i don't fall inside this bracket of production and neither do you so why get worked up about an article for which Neither of us are the target audience. theres plenty of research for our system of production out there without having to rely on teagasc to provide it for us.

:), I'm not worked up.
But, if Aidan Brennan came out and said that the majority of farmers aren't doing OAD, so OAD doesn't work, I doubt you would consider it good journalism.