Gawddawggonnit wrote: * Maybe it’s about a cut in disadvantaged area payments? Was the stage in the mountains?
Birdnuts wrote: » Was it you Dawg upsetting a certain Mr Froome and the rest of Le Tour yesterday??;)
Buford T. Justice V wrote: » Don't know about not culling, j. There's a long year there yet and about 2/3 of normal growth past now. I'll be culling regardless over the next few months. Ration prices look likely to rise, shortages of silage, grass and straw and lads now depending on perfect growth and grazing conditions to get from from now till next March. I'm probably getting more risk adverse as I get older but I can't see a good outcome for this:(
mahoney_j wrote: » Same up these parts 10 days to 2 weeks delay I see the coops are advising not to cull and milk supplies back over 2.5% in some regions this month .one positive of all this is going to be a strong milk price well into next year.
Buford T. Justice V wrote: » Talking to a few lads on Tuesday and they were saying 2 weeks in Cork and 15-16 days in Wexford direction. And getting longer.
whelan2 wrote: » Anyone send cows to the factory from the parlour recently, how long was the wait to get them in and what's the price like?
Gawddawggonnit wrote: They think I’m... A foreigner. A capitalist. A polluter.
Gawddawggonnit wrote: » They think I’m... A foreigner. A capitalist. A polluter. I’m after more calls this week than any of the previous crises from merchants and farmers asking about fodder.When I say that there’s a possibility that more fodder may be needed...the response is inevitably...AGAIN??? Nutshell... The natives think ye’re fcukin nuts. (So pots and kettles I guess).
K.G. wrote: » And they are right,wouldnt be unlike the french to get up on a high horse and look down on everyone
kowtow wrote: » 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?
K.G. wrote: » Often wonder what your frecnh neighbours make of you over there and what they think about irish farmers
ted_182 wrote: » Dont post much here but feel i have to stick up for mr kelleher, maybe its the accent from west of the city ye cant grasp but the man says 'all of a sudden theyre gold again'
Say my name wrote: » Well there's a bit of cheating as I call it can go on with carrying cows over to the next block calving. Nothing wrong with it. It's a highly profitable system (says me from the outside). Especially if you have a liquid contract. Welcome to crap prices and no excuse for escaping the relations on Christmas day.
GrasstoMilk wrote: » Personally I take insult to that when ever it's said to me as it takes quiet a lot of work and discipline to keep to tight calving blocks. We're gone all spring as of next year so I don't have to worry about that now :P
Say my name wrote: » Did I get Holstein correct at least? Don't worry. I call anyone that calves in the autumn and spring an all year rounder.
freedominacup wrote: » Block calving, not American. Waiting for icbf report but hoping to be under 380 days ci which would be a big improvement on 420 around the time quotas went and we would milk anything that could walk into the parlour.
Timmaay wrote: » Say your cows aren't a million miles off frees or Jay's? As in yielding over 30l at peak?
Say my name wrote: » Yes but you said yourself you're used to this weather. So maybe out but not grazing. At best being always supplemented with silage for the summer. You have to have a store of silage for your normal summer. Jay has to have a store of silage for his summer sometimes or more normally the shoulders being on a wet farm. Jay has the American Holstein calving all year round same as yourself. Ye are brothers from another mother.
jaymla627 wrote: » 200 days at grass here in a normal year, this is what the neighbours is growing beside the field i was spreading in
