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Dairy chit chat II
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No tillage farmer I know could possibly be described as "gold digging". Once anything involves digging they get a contractor in!
More seriously I have long wondered why more flexible open-market partnerships between dairy farmers and other disciplines weren't part of the focus here. This drought, if nothing else, has woken all of us up to the additional fodder capacity on both tillage and dry stock farms and that surely has to create some possibilities going forward.
For example, if there was only a sensible market for bales (as opposed to an all-or-nothing lucky bag approach) then drystock farmers would be incentivised to make better silage for themselves and sell the excess. Teagasc and the co-ops could actually get that going right now by promoting in-field testing (NIRS is only 2K or 3K a unit) and putting a label on the bales. We would have more productive drystock farms and a supply of known-quality silage with a more transparent market. Better for beef and better for dairy.
Same goes for tillage farmers, fodder crops, etc. - plenty of scope to contract on an ad-hoc or more permanent basis between dairy and tillage to secure straw, wholecrop, and even part of the ration requirement - although a feed mill or co-op might be required to intermediate, also constructive from a nitrates perspective. Once again a transparent market place which helped match spare capacity to demand would help both sides in coming to terms before the country is in crisis, and not at the time of the shortage which is really no use to anyone.
I suppose in a way that would be a modern distributed take on the mixed/dairy farm of old - closer to Dawg's model in France or the kind of setup you see in the UK. Have we gone too far to the grass-only model to make this feasible? It's no good teaming up with tillage farmers when the cows are already hungry and/or aren't bred to produce profitably from nuts.
And if the whole thing did work year in / year out would it just end up too expensive or too intensive for the environment?
We've been through the whole gamut since quotas went - describing ourselves as everything from sustainable to resilient, and sometimes even profitable - surely now with this year we've realised that it's not just the milk price which can be volatile. Time to fine tune the plan for the future?0 -
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Even if that was in place it would have done little to prevent fodder shortages, this years issues are entirely due to lack of buffers and too much belief in these sustainable resilient intensive systems.No tillage farmer I know could possibly be described as "gold digging". Once anything involves digging they get a contractor in!
More seriously I have long wondered why more flexible open-market partnerships between dairy farmers and other disciplines weren't part of the focus here. This drought, if nothing else, has woken all of us up to the additional fodder capacity on both tillage and dry stock farms and that surely has to create some possibilities going forward.
For example, if there was only a sensible market for bales (as opposed to an all-or-nothing lucky bag approach) then drystock farmers would be incentivised to make better silage for themselves and sell the excess. Teagasc and the co-ops could actually get that going right now by promoting in-field testing (NIRS is only 2K or 3K a unit) and putting a label on the bales. We would have more productive drystock farms and a supply of known-quality silage with a more transparent market. Better for beef and better for dairy.
Same goes for tillage farmers, fodder crops, etc. - plenty of scope to contract on an ad-hoc or more permanent basis between dairy and tillage to secure straw, wholecrop, and even part of the ration requirement - although a feed mill or co-op might be required to intermediate, also constructive from a nitrates perspective. Once again a transparent market place which helped match spare capacity to demand would help both sides in coming to terms before the country is in crisis, and not at the time of the shortage which is really no use to anyone.
I suppose in a way that would be a modern distributed take on the mixed/dairy farm of old - closer to Dawg's model in France or the kind of setup you see in the UK. Have we gone too far to the grass-only model to make this feasible? It's no good teaming up with tillage farmers when the cows are already hungry and/or aren't bred to produce profitably from nuts.
And if the whole thing did work year in / year out would it just end up too expensive or too intensive for the environment?
We've been through the whole gamut since quotas went - describing ourselves as everything from sustainable to resilient, and sometimes even profitable - surely now with this year we've realised that it's not just the milk price which can be volatile. Time to fine tune the plan for the future?
"Grass will grow and silage will be made" is what's got us into this mess, a buffer for when grass doesn't grow and silage isn't made is the only prevention.0 -
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This discussion has been closed.
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