Gawddawggonnit wrote: » https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/how-ireland-is-turning-into-a-food-processing-giant-1.3434864 This raises a few questions.
Mooooo wrote: » Let the cows out for 3 hours today as scrapers are giving trouble as well, they were at the gap waiting for me and part they grazed didn't look too bad as I was heading up for them. Fcuk me for some unknown reason the whole lot took off running and did two laps of the area and ploughed it up. Was after coming to terms with the weather and the scrapers for the day but by Christ some times they know how to put you in a bad mood. Only small at the end of the day but this spring the small things going wrong seem as annoying as the big things
Brown Podzol wrote: » The big players like Kerry, Glanbia, Greencore and Ornua have fingers in pies all over the globe, and are major players in the race to produce the foods that mean we don’t have to cook for ourselves, the snacks that push our crave buttons and nail our bliss points, infant formula as close to human breast milk as scientifically possible, all the while keeping ingredients costs as low as possible. Not much good to Irish farmers.
alps wrote: » Milk and Honey....why can't we simplify? Pure...unadulterated....wholesome....nourishing...ageless....timeless...proven....
alps wrote: » It's a sad reflection that the perception mirrored from a UCC professor is the growth in "food" industry is driven through factory innovation and throughput and not by effort or investment from the primary producer... Our third level institutions now create a graduate so indoctrinated in the belief that food comes from a factory, created from raw materials that originated on a farm but fortified and made safe and healthy in the food "manufacture process", that we are almost at the powerless stage of maintaining any title of being food producers. We certainly are now powerless of creating a good producers margin, and are at best now at the whim of a corporate in allowing us said margin. Our identity, our brand, our worth as a business has been stripped, and alarmingly we have not only allowed this to happen through naive trust, through our lethargic influence, while alarmingly in many cases have handed out financially to resource such institutions.... Farmers have lobby groups, but have no influence groups. Sadly I believe farmers are completely to fault for this themselves. We pay no attention to the route to market for our product once it has gone up the ramp or sucked in the tank. Our representatives have to play political games in an effort to gain position, in many instances against corporate influence and regulation. At the instance of being allowed a margin, we give it away, and build in little to protect it... We try our damnedest to get ourselves to the bottom of the pile....We accept output price reductions, we accept input price increases, all to the assessement that we can do nothing to affect the outcome of either. Milk and Honey....why can't we simplify? Pure...unadulterated....wholesome....nourishing...ageless....timeless...proven....
yosemitesam1 wrote: » The market for that is growing rapidly, it won't and can't be supplied by any factory but a lot of people are at risk of getting too big to adapt IMO.
Say my name wrote: » The simple truth is most farmers are too proud or set in their ways to change or lack the proper social skills and business acumen to start up a spin off business off their farm. Ye can bitch and moan and say it's terrible stuff but it won't change a thing. Two local dairy farmers here one makes yoghurt, the other sells bottled milk. The one that sells fresh milk is a publican as well and is well used to dealing with customers and the public and knows how to run a business and dealing with problems. The one that sells yoghurt married a woman who was involved in the catering business and between the two of them saw an opportunity to add value to the farms produce. They bought the rights to an existing yoghurt brand and then started on developing markets while making the product. They had sample days in supermarkets and gradually kept increasing the market. Now they have expanded onto the world stage and the product is even for sale now in Dubai. Tell me good posters of boards is there many people on here willing to do all that? Being honest I wouldn't and I'd say a lot here wouldn't either.
alps wrote: » It need not be the way you describe... The gains from our product research, our educational programmes, our effort in the end sale of our product, tends to favour the corporate world. Probably more than half the milk in the country now routed through plc pockets, the largest co-op dairygold having sold their consumer foods, only the smaller portion has a direct route to market that's to the benefit of the producer. Credit these co-ops, some very inventive in what they continue to do. The future I believe lies in what these coops can dream up and achieve. These are the institutions that will at least return their market gains to the producer and will remain the yardstick at best as to what the plc will be forced to cough up for its input. But the brain drain will be towards the corporate plc world. That's where the education points towards, that's where the accolades are rejoiced from, that's where Ireland Inc. likes to position itself..... Education, influence, social values and beliefs are all things which the marketeers of our products, and indeed us as producers too, need to be more involved with. The newfound respect for butter as a "health food" must in still a belief and some pride in us as farmers as to how our product, our endeavour does not need to be adulterated by another entity so as to make it worthy, healthy or valuable...
freedominacup wrote: » Cows have eaten 24kgs dm in past 24hrs. First day back in full-time for a week. Hard to see them going out again for another week. Doing 31l at 4.1 and 3.35. Judging by the tank they're up slightly over past 48 hrs. Pit is going to be very small in 10 days time at this rate.
jaymla627 wrote: » See captain jack doing greenfield update alluding to 300 cows milking and 25 left to calve, they stared of with 370 where's the 50 cows after ending up I wonder...
mf240 wrote: » jaymla627 wrote: » See captain jack doing greenfield update alluding to 300 cows milking and 25 left to calve, they stared of with 370 where's the 50 cows after ending up I wonder... Some of the bigger cows ate them
mf240 wrote: » Some of the bigger cows ate them
einn32 wrote: » http://www.theland.com.au/story/5316880/dairy-producers-warn-of-survival-of-the-fittest-times-for-farmers/?cs=4951 We're not the only ones under pressure.
visatorro wrote: » 915eur for well fleshed cow straight out of parlour. 471eur for another one that had twins and was very stiff and sore in herself. Calved before the snow. She's one that could have sat down in the yard and gone either way! Another couple that were mid range size/condition around the 700mark. Straight from parlour as well. Sold four similar animals to dealer out of the yard last year and had to beat 2400 outta him. Seemed to work out killing the last few anyway.
Gawddawggonnit wrote: » Just finished loading out two artics of hay destined for ye’re shores. Really good ryegrass tested at 12.8% protein. Two more artics this evening of round bales of clover. Some profiteering going on...if the drivers are to be believed. 2013 on repeat.
