Dairy chit chat II

yewtree · 03-07-2018 01:05PM

There is a squeeze right now with the dry weather but to suggest that farmers with grass based systems are completely broken is utter nonsense. Some lads need to tweak their system like all small businesses as time moves on.
If you ran low on silage in April you don't need to make twice the silage this year. The only thing we have in Ireland is grass, any sustainable system has to maximise that, whether you feed 200kg/cow or 2 tonne/cow is secondary.
Targeting to do 460 kg milk solids this year. We ran tight on silage in April and are short on grass now.
If I was to believe the stuff on this thread we are F##ked. In reality I will meet all commitments and pay myself a living wage at the end of every month. Always looking to improve but blind panic isn't going to help any farm

Buford T. Justice XIX · 03-07-2018 01:15PM

yewtree wrote: »

There is a squeeze right now with the dry weather but to suggest that farmers with grass based systems are completely broken is utter nonsense. Some lads need to tweak their system like all small businesses as time moves on.
If you ran low on silage in April you don't need to make twice the silage this year. The only thing we have in Ireland is grass, any sustainable system has to maximise that, whether you feed 200kg/cow or 2 tonne/cow is secondary.
Targeting to do 460 kg milk solids this year. We ran tight on silage in April and are short on grass now.
If I was to believe the stuff on this thread we are F##ked. In reality I will meet all commitments and pay myself a living wage at the end of every month. Always looking to improve but blind panic isn't going to help any farm

+1, couldn't have said it better.

We are used to drought and grass stopping growing in Summer. We more or less budget for a month of every Summer on 4+kgs of ration. This year is no different just starting 6 weeks earlier than normal so we will have to go in with silage next week, reluctantly.

Still have grass + ration only for the next 10 days but after that it starts getting tricky with no regrowths for the last 2 weeks. Not over stocked, just over the 170LUs but will offload some passengers if the rain doesn't come.

Pretty much the same as any other year, tbh, and there's worse things happening out there than not getting rain.

Panch18 · 03-07-2018 01:19PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

Mooooo wrote: »

Rain snow and drought

1995 had them all

I can’t remeber if there was rain and snow in 1995 but there was definately a drought

But I’ll tell you 1 massive difference between now and 1995. Like most dairy farms we are milking double the amount of cows now than we were in 95, more than twice the amount of work. And the only certainty is that we are making less money now than in 95 relavite to the rest of society.

More work, more investment, a hell of a lot more stress and less reward. That is the simple fact of the matter

Our planning going forward is the exit strategy from cows. There is no future in them

Timmaay · 03-07-2018 01:23PM

For everything 2018 has thrown at us so far, at least the milk price didn't crash, the financial loss will still pale in comparison to a base milk price approaching 25c (now if only Glanbia could cop on with their price ha)

Panch18 · 03-07-2018 01:27PM

Timmaay wrote: »

For everything 2018 has thrown at us so far, at least the milk price didn't crash, the financial loss will still pale in comparison to a base milk price approaching 25c (now if only Glanbia could cop on with their price ha)

It’s amazing how **** a milk price farmers will now accept as being a decent price. I think we talked ourselves into accepting it

Look up the price of milk in the 90’s. A full 30 years ago.

wrangler · 03-07-2018 01:40PM

Panch18 wrote: »

It’s amazing how **** a milk price farmers will now accept as being a decent price. I think we talked ourselves into accepting it

Look up the price of milk in the 90’s. A full 30 years ago.

Like the beef price at the time, prices were manipulated, farmers that could produce milk cheaper weren't allowed, the whole thing was protected.
There's no point comparing prices with that scenario....only annoying yourself

Panch18 · 03-07-2018 01:50PM

wrangler wrote: »

Panch18 wrote: »

It’s amazing how **** a milk price farmers will now accept as being a decent price. I think we talked ourselves into accepting it

Look up the price of milk in the 90’s. A full 30 years ago.

Like the beef price at the time, prices were manipulated, farmers that could produce milk cheaper weren't allowed, the whole thing was protected.
There's no point comparing prices with that scenario....only annoying yourself

It’s not about producing cheaper, that the whole bloody problem. We are being fooled into cheaper cheaper cheaper.

It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation that farmers are worse off now than 30 years ago. More cows or more cattle to make less money

It’s the ultimate con job

Timmaay · 03-07-2018 02:04PM

Text from Glanbia this morning, with a number for a "drought helpline"... Do we get Jack Kennedy on the other end with reassuring messaged that it will be all OK ha?

wrangler · 03-07-2018 02:19PM

Panch18 wrote: »

It’s not about producing cheaper, that the whole bloody problem. We are being fooled into cheaper cheaper cheaper.

It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation that farmers are worse off now than 30 years ago. More cows or more cattle to make less money

It’s the ultimate con job

It's business, everyone goes for the cheapest price when they're buying, most efficient survives, we're going the way of the small shops pubs and postoffices.
Tesco deliver here every fortnight, so am in no position to expect any different from other businesses, plenty on here support the supermakets that are screwing
the farmer.

Say my name · 03-07-2018 02:44PM

Timmaay wrote: »

Text from Glanbia this morning, with a number for a "drought helpline"... Do we get Jack Kennedy on the other end with reassuring messaged that it will be all OK ha?

You'll be put on a list of possible suppliers looking for fodder. I imagine.
Either that or a 5cent milk price increase?

I was around Enniscorthy there now and all land looks like it was sprayed with round-up. Winter crops have burnt in now too ready for the combine.

Is it wrong to suggest that you'd like to see Nenagh suffer a bit now?

mahoney_j · 03-07-2018 02:50PM

Say my name wrote: »

You'll be put on a list of possible suppliers looking for fodder. I imagine.
Either that or a 5cent milk price increase?

I was around Enniscorthy there now and all land looks like it was sprayed with round-up. Winter crops have burnt in now too ready for the combine.

Is it wrong to suggest that you'd like to see Nenagh suffer a bit now?

Nenagh is and has been suffering for last 1/2 weeks depending on which side u pick .nice to see u wishing a bit of suffering on a fellow farmer by the way .thanks

whelan2 · 03-07-2018 02:51PM

Ffs lads give it a rest. It's getting very boring now

Gawddawggonnit · 03-07-2018 03:10PM

‘63-‘69 were good summers, with ‘69 being the driest.
‘76 and ‘79 were good, with ‘76 being the driest I can remember in Ireland.

This year has a long way to go before it comes close to ‘76...no drop of rain until Sept and fairly high temps (for Ireland).

I can only speak for good dry tillage land...

Ireland was after joining the EEC a few years before and there was a massive push for expansion. On good land the expansion was in tillage. Poor land was the stronghold of dairy and beef.
There was little, if any, winter cereals grown. The vast majority of land was down to spring crops. It was a disaster.
I remember trying to harvest sbarley that was so short that it was falling away from the knife of the combine. Swheat was better because wheat by its nature prefers the dry. Also it was just before the advent of semi-dwarf varieties. Swheat would often grow to 6’ tall...

We had over 150 dairy cows. They didn’t die of starvation or anything, but milk yield was way back.
Beef cattle weighed like lead that autumn.

Before the young lads here start thinking that it was ‘pig in the parlor’ times, it certainly was not!
Irish farming was extremely dynamic and progressive. The photos of the donkeys bringing turf from the bog were for tourists.

Progressive farmers were heavily borrowed and were after seeing out the oil crisis of ‘73-‘74. Oil price, iirc, trebled.
Interest rates were around 16-18%.

EVERYONE SURVIVED.

As far as I can see, the only real lesson that Irish farmers learned from ‘76 was the importance of a good water supply to livestock.

[In ‘76 the drought was borderline catastrophic in France. Farmers cut branches from trees that had leaves left on them to feed to cattle. The pickings were scarce as the only trees with leaves were the ones beside watercourses etc. The Gov laid on trains to import straw from Spain or there would have been severe livestock deaths.
The French immediately invested heavily in irrigation systems. Never since has there been a fodder crisis in France.]

The price of fodder and grains went crazy expensive so the shock of low yields was ameliorated.
I presume that our only real market for dairy produce in ‘76 was the UK, who also experienced severe drought, so I would think that price was strong.

***Everyone survived.

wats the craic · 03-07-2018 03:12PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

1995 was the last time their was a drought of this significance, droughts arent common in ireland in way or the other

well my uncle reckons 1976 was the year its like most around here anyways lad

Buford T. Justice XIX · 03-07-2018 03:19PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Nenagh is and has been suffering for last 1/2 weeks depending on which side u pick .nice to see u wishing a bit of suffering on a fellow farmer by the way .thanks

Tbh, j, I don't think that's what he meant at all, I can't remember wishing anything bad on any poster here.

Folks, we're all stressed out with the heat these days so could we please remember that when we post?

mahoney_j · 03-07-2018 03:52PM

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Tbh, j, I don't think that's what he meant at all, I can't remember wishing anything bad on any poster here.

Folks, we're all stressed out with the heat these days so could we please remember that when we post?

I don’t think he meant it either just a childish smart arse comment in current situation

older by the day · 03-07-2018 04:38PM

Panch18 wrote: »

It’s not about producing cheaper, that the whole bloody problem. We are being fooled into cheaper cheaper cheaper.

It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation that farmers are worse off now than 30 years ago. More cows or more cattle to make less money

It’s the ultimate con job

Are you telling me the quota abolishion party has stopped, YES A PARTY, to seeing an asset worth what was once worth 2euro a gallon maybe more, taken in one day. Talk about Turkey's and Christmas

Wildsurfer · 03-07-2018 04:54PM

older by the day wrote: »

Are you telling me the quota abolishion party has stopped, YES A PARTY, to seeing an asset worth what was once worth 2euro a gallon maybe more, taken in one day. Talk about Turkey's and Christmas

Only worth that if you were selling out, worthless otherwise. Id be gone from farming if they hadnt been abolished. And now you have a capital loss to carry forward if you sell any other asset.

mf240 · 03-07-2018 04:58PM

Few lads on here could do with a 99 and a chill pill.

It's wicked warm though. A heavy chap wouldn't get the second day out of an underpants in this weather.

Say my name · 03-07-2018 05:18PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Nenagh is and has been suffering for last 1/2 weeks depending on which side u pick .nice to see u wishing a bit of suffering on a fellow farmer by the way .thanks

The drum you were banging about was telling a poster to repeatedly cut their stocking rates.

My point is from experience comes perspective. From perspective comes opinion.
You haven't got the experience atm.
So yea maybe you could do with a bit more drought.
(Carlow/Wexford border).

https://m.imgur.com/KqwKckR

If you had the experience you'd know that it's gone way past stocking rate at the moment. Maybe overall numbers but it doesn't matter whether you've one cow per 5 acres or 2 cows per acre the grass is simply not there.

So for now it looks like you've made it personal. Especially with the Twitter remarks on blowing about grass and stocking rate.

Nothing to do with me as I'm not active on Twitter. But if this raises about how boards gets used for point scoring then not so bad.

(If anyone has fodder for sale. Send me a pm. Carlow/Wexford border especially.)

Buford T. Justice XIX · 03-07-2018 05:23PM

A few Irish companies mentioned in an American mid year review of dairy companies.

http://blog.usdec.org/usdairyexporter/2018-mid-year-global-dairy-business-review-0?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_content=73842762&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

mahoney_j · 03-07-2018 05:59PM

Say my name wrote: »

The drum you were banging about was telling a poster to repeatedly cut their stocking rates.

My point is from experience comes perspective. From perspective comes opinion.
You haven't got the experience atm.
So yea maybe you could do with a bit more drought.
(Carlow/Wexford border).

https://m.imgur.com/KqwKckR

If you had the experience you'd know that it's gone way past stocking rate at the moment. Maybe overall numbers but it doesn't matter whether you've one cow per 5 acres or 2 cows per acre the grass is simply not there.

So for now it looks like you've made it personal. Especially with the Twitter remarks on blowing about grass and stocking rate.

Nothing to do with me as I'm not active on Twitter. But if this raises about how boards gets used for point scoring then not so bad.

(If anyone has fodder for sale. Send me a pm. Carlow/Wexford border especially.)

Complete arrogance on your behalf there ,I offered an opinion and solution some of ye rubbished it that’s yer business as for rest of your post re point scoring I literally couldn’t care less this is a forum I’ve been here a while I offer an opinion and look for opinion on various things u want to attack a poster cause u do t agree with his view then fire away anyway fire away and get a 99 and cool down
I ain’t totally thick either and have experience and perspective thank u. Very much .well aware it’s gone past Sr but by cutting passengers u reduce demand if ur short winter feed second cut grazed ur **** out of options then add drought lack of rain and not knowing when more will come it’ll be into August at best before things come right

Panch18 · 03-07-2018 06:03PM

older by the day wrote: »

Panch18 wrote: »

It’s not about producing cheaper, that the whole bloody problem. We are being fooled into cheaper cheaper cheaper.

It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation that farmers are worse off now than 30 years ago. More cows or more cattle to make less money

It’s the ultimate con job

Are you telling me the quota abolishion party has stopped, YES A PARTY, to seeing an asset worth what was once worth 2euro a gallon maybe more, taken in one day. Talk about Turkey's and Christmas

The beginning of the end for most dairy farmers

The smart ones took the quota money, tax free if I remember correctly, took the big money cows were making at the time and ran

And what did they do then - well they went along and leased their land to fools expanding in milk for massive money that was TAX FREE

The quota going was a great thing - especially if you had the smartness to get out of milk, we didn’t here unfortunately

Gawddawggonnit · 03-07-2018 06:11PM

http://www.agri-outlook.org/Agricultural-Outlook-2018.pdf

yewtree · 03-07-2018 06:40PM

Panch18 wrote: »

The beginning of the end for most dairy farmers

The smart ones took the quota money, tax free if I remember correctly, took the big money cows were making at the time and ran

And what did they do then - well they went along and leased their land to fools expanding in milk for massive money that was TAX FREE

The quota going was a great thing - especially if you had the smartness to get out of milk, we didn’t here unfortunately

What's stopping you getting out?
A lad up the road from me got out, never liked it, he is delighted now.
Also know a new entrant and his only regret is he didn't do it sooner.
I can never understand lads who stay at something they hate, you will never be sucessful doing something you hate

freedominacup · 03-07-2018 06:56PM

Panch18 wrote: »

The beginning of the end for most dairy farmers

The smart ones took the quota money, tax free if I remember correctly, took the big money cows were making at the time and ran

And what did they do then - well they went along and leased their land to fools expanding in milk for massive money that was TAX FREE

The quota going was a great thing - especially if you had the smartness to get out of milk, we didn’t here unfortunately

I've been out. I just got wholly disillusioned with the restrictions of the quota regime. We started another business had the tiger by the tail and got badly burned when it turned. Biggest mistake we made was not keeping the milk side of things running until we had the other business more established. Hindsight is twenty twenty. If you do decide to get out make sure your alternative is delivering before you shut down the dairy and be slow to dismantle the infrastructure.

I'm happy to be back milking esp as quota restrictions are gone. We've milked more cows in the past but output wouldn't have been within 30% of what we expect to do this year in litres or money. I enjoyed the other business, made plenty of mistakes not the least of them believing that I was after cracking it when all I was really doing was riding the wave along with many others.

One of the largest agribusiness enterprises in the country is based near me. They still own and operate with family members all of the farms the business grew from. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater but don't be tied to something you're not getting satisfaction from either.

freedominacup · 03-07-2018 06:58PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

http://www.agri-outlook.org/Agricultural-Outlook-2018.pdf

Are you serious? A bit of gentle nighttime reading. Hopefully I'll get through it before the 2019 one hits the presses.

older by the day · 03-07-2018 08:01PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

http://www.agri-outlook.org/Agricultural-Outlook-2018.pdf

Hi can you summarise that, my attention span can't cope with that

Keepgrowing · 03-07-2018 08:01PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Complete arrogance on your behalf there ,I offered an opinion and solution some of ye rubbished it that’s yer business as for rest of your post re point scoring I literally couldn’t care less this is a forum I’ve been here a while I offer an opinion and look for opinion on various things u want to attack a poster cause u do t agree with his view then fire away anyway fire away and get a 99 and cool down
I ain’t totally thick either and have experience and perspective thank u. Very much .well aware it’s gone past Sr but by cutting passengers u reduce demand if ur short winter feed second cut grazed ur **** out of options then add drought lack of rain and not knowing when more will come it’ll be into August at best before things come right

Sir,
You haven’t a phucking clue, let it go. Passed you way on Sat not your place specially but ye think you know drought. Drive east for 40 mins and you see that the advise your freely dishing out is pure bull shyte

Say my name · 03-07-2018 08:06PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Complete arrogance on your behalf there ,I offered an opinion and solution some of ye rubbished it that’s yer business as for rest of your post re point scoring I literally couldn’t care less this is a forum I’ve been here a while I offer an opinion and look for opinion on various things u want to attack a poster cause u do t agree with his view then fire away anyway fire away and get a 99 and cool down
I ain’t totally thick either and have experience and perspective thank u. Very much .well aware it’s gone past Sr but by cutting passengers u reduce demand if ur short winter feed second cut grazed ur **** out of options then add drought lack of rain and not knowing when more will come it’ll be into August at best before things come right

I meant experience of the current conditions down here.
I thought that was obvious especially with the picture and with the previous post about if you had the conditions down here. Ye got rain up there when we didn't.

You're always the one with the superlatives about posters you're responding to. There's no need for it.

Dairy chit chat II

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