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Viability of small dairy farm

Ford4life

Farming 60 acres, 12 acres silage and the rest grazing, 8 acres over the road, 35 acres grazing at home,10 acres is a bit rough but would do fine for calves (5 acres waste ground off silage ground) Currently have 19 sucklers, their calves and a few bought in calves, generally around 45 animals between cows calves everything on the farm at one time (very understocked i know), 24 cubicles on one side of the shed and straw bedded are on the other side.
Wondering whats the viability of buying in 24 fleckvieh heifers, average 6500-7000 litres a year and you have a good solid beef calf aswell, milk solids would be around 3.4% protein and 4.1% butterfat, assuming milk price would generally be around 35cent for this but will assume worst case scenario of base price in local coop of 31c/l, milk alone would be worth €2000 and keeping the calf to a year to keep the rough ground grazed, would be worth around 600-800 local mart, meaning 2600 per cow per year over 24 cows would be 62,400 income, second hand parlour off donedeal and new bulk tank, youd be in the door of dairy for 40,000 and you'd have that paid off in 3-4 years, we do our own slurry, contractor would do silage, we have a pit for first cut also could put second cut in there too and take a few paddocks for bales.
Once i'd have a bit saved up then i would plan to expand to 50/60 cows, put up a new 60 cubicle shed and new milking parlour and sell all calves at 2-4wks old

This is just hypothesising not a definitive plan just wondering would it work

Also has anyone ever used the injection to bring cattle into heat all at once AI them all on the one day that you could calve them all on the one day and would save a lot of long nights, same injection that would be given to young heifers if they have been bulled to get them to cycle and get rid of calf.

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Ford4life

JustJoe7240 wrote: »

Nothing more to add to what has been posted really, as for synchronisation. In theory it's possible but realistically that would never happen. Did calving on a large dairy farm. Had the numbers you're talking about regularly.it wasn't fun, and they had the facilities to handle it

Thats why I'd use the synchronised breeding so it would all be over in 2 days and then 2 days more calving 3 weeks later and that would be calving season done with hopefully, if you had 20 cows calving each day over a couple weeks that just wouldnt be possible, it would wear you down and would break your heart. Would have the father around to help with keeping an eye on them and assisting, once they wouldnt be overfat is the main thing

Ford4life

Water John wrote: »

You should be able to pick up a second hand parlour for something over €1K and it will do the job for years fine.
At least with Drinagh you'll have one of the best prices in the country, but you'd need to check early that they'll collect.

31c/l as base price, tis some job, if they were closed down with covid then it would of finished christ knows how many farmers around here, right off a busy main road that they would be going past anyway which is a bonus but would definitely be ringing them up before anything would be bought

trg

Ford4life wrote: »

Sucklers are being forgotten by all the politicians that were promising us money, we keep our costs to an absolute minimum and still lose money on them, and thats without even accounting for the hours worked per year, cost of keeping a cow for the year is about €600 for us, sell the calf at 9 months and they tend to make 800/900, this means a rough profit of 5700 at 300 profit per head, this sounds great until you factor in the cost of keeping the calf at a couple hundred, insurance for the farm of 2000, diesel of around 500, contractor 2000, ration of around 1000 and general expenses of 500 for the odd parts needed that leaves you with a net loss of 300 euro and thats best case scenario ðŸ˜‚ sucklers are a waste of time unless we start getting €4 a kilo in the mart but even then a decent dairy bull at the same age wouldnt be far off making the same and you get the milk from the cow to sell also
Forgot SFP, would be around 5k but still not near enough to make it worth the time involved in them, that would work out at paying yourself €4.70 for every hour you work, any bottom level job would be a tenner an hour and no risk involved, cow dies thats €800 down the drain, calf dies thats a waste of €600 keeping the cow for the year

What age are you?
Do you work off farm?

I like your thinking anyway, it's easier give out about the sucklers than do something about it

Ford4life

Mooooo wrote: »

If your in west cork, go away and work on a dairy farm if you can this spring it will give you an idea of what involved. If you cant do that approach the coop/ teagasc and ask if there is a local discussion group that wouldn't mind you attending a few meetings.
Tbh I'd stay away from the fleckveih, they'll eat all round them and hol/ fr will beat them for milk. Starting out with a young herd yields will be closer to between 5 and 6k litres. Something to consider would be just have cows, buy in replacements as needed, would simplify the system. What you need to know is how much grass you can grow and then you'll know how many cows you can comfortably carry.
Plenty knowledgeable lads down there so a discussion group would be a good place to start

Been planning it for this spring anyway but with the leaving cert coming up the mother has me inside "Studying" next year will definitely be possible and will be going to darragh college next year so theres a good few months of placement on farms with the dairy herd management course, carrying 19 sucklers that are generally around 600-700kgs each and their calves on the 35 acres without spreading any fertilizer or slurry on the land, throughout the drought of 2018 we had to feed 10 small square bales of hay roughly equal to a single silage bale so well understocked at that, 24 fleckviehs would be roughly equal to that and you'd have a good beef calf at the end of it, not to mention the rascists in the mart 😂 sold a black limousin and a red limousin in the mart, same weight same size, only difference was one was red and he made an extra 200 over the other fella, with the fleckvieh youd have the same colour as a limousin nearly and the beef farmers would pay a decent price for an animal that with a bit of ration could be 400kgs at 9mths, in theory spreading fertilizer would atleast double the grass production bringing it to 48 cows and spreading of lime required in a lot of the fields would probably bring it to 60 cows capacity roughly but that would be a few years down the line as i would save up to put up a new cubicle shed and a new milking parlour in the one go, 10 acres of half rock half grass that i would like to reclaim also

What would be the general opinion on jerseys? 40c/l milk price minimum roughly in drinagh coop and if cow was bred with a decent bull you wouldnt have the worst calf at the end of it

Ford4life

Grueller wrote: »

I have done similar to what you are talking about. 60 cows on 35 acres. New 12 unit parlour. Reduced sucklers from 85 to 40 to use an outfarm.
Here is my advice and I am assuming that you are under 25. Go away and get a qualification that you can work part time with good earning potential. I manage the farm with no help, but contract out most machinery work. I work off farm 10 hours per week but earn more than full time the average industrial wage from that. This makes the farm seriously viable as I can take minimal drawings from it. Spend 5-10 years getting to that position.

Currently heading into the dairy herd management course in darragh and then will go to pallaskenry for the agricultural engineering course, only about 2 fellas at it around here and charge in the region of 70 euro an hour and some contractors around here would nearly take a mechanic on full time, so fairly secure job once you get a bit of experience behind ya, plus the bonus of being able to fix any rare problems on our own machinery

Ford4life

Water John wrote: »

Maybe check with Glenilen if they'd be interested in using a goat or sheep milk supply, if you're open to the idea.

I wouldnt say no at all if there was a lot more money in it but the problem would be them in year round, drawing in grass and drawing out **** so would it make it worth it the extra costs associated is the issue, how many goats would you feed for 1 milking cow would you know? 5-10 at a guess i would assume

Ford4life

trg wrote: »

What age are you?
Do you work off farm?

I like your thinking anyway, it's easier give out about the sucklers than do something about it

im 17, work off the farm but im thinking a few years in advance when the father might eventually hand over the farm and peoples recommendations for different things to do with it

Sucklers are not profitable by any means, if you have to rely on a SFP then its a waste of time, we are very understocked, keep the costs to a minimum and still lose money on them, unless we get €4 a kilo in the mart all of a sudden for weanlings then the last few sucklers will die out and leave the beef farmers rearing calves

cute geoge

I never heard much about fleckl. cows ,if they were any use surely they would be more popular . you would be better off starting off with british fr/holstein cowand dont be expecting record yields starting out ,forget about rearing beef calves if you are milking as your milkers would make mote profitable use of the land

greysides

Ford4life wrote: »

Thats why I'd use the synchronised breeding so it would all be over in 2 days and then 2 days more calving 3 weeks later and that would be calving season done with hopefully...

Just. Not. Possible.

Or it would be commonplace, in some form.

carrollsno1

Ford4life wrote: »

im 17, work off the farm but im thinking a few years in advance when the father might eventually hand over the farm and peoples recommendations for different things to do with it

Sucklers are not profitable by any means, if you have to rely on a SFP then its a waste of time, we are very understocked, keep the costs to a minimum and still lose money on them, unless we get €4 a kilo in the mart all of a sudden for weanlings then the last few sucklers will die out and leave the beef farmers rearing calves

You remind me of someone very similar to myself at that age, you seem to have been awful blinkered like myself growing up havent seen anything outside farming. You made remark about youre mother putting an emphasis on studying this year, id advise you to take her advice on that, i presumed i didnt need it and hadnt needed it until last year when i was 25.
As grueller said go out and get educated hes dead right on that point as its not a hard load to carry. One thing i had thought of doing when i was around 20 was going with my uncles a few days a week on site to see something different but i stuck at the farming instead. Id advise you to forget about farming and go work on a site for the summer and see how it goes i didnt know what money was until i went working in Oz despite being on good twine here at the time.
You mentioned a figure of €22k profit from the cows after all youre investment and everything else well i was only working the 6 months of last year as an apprentice and earned over €12k so going by that a first year apprentice is making more than you will be farming with no need to invest heavily in a set up and you still have to be there 7 days a week while im almost always a monday to friday man. Only downside is i have to travel s bit a standard day is being gone for 12hrs of the day maybe more when youre travelling to site but you just get on with it.

Also re the leaving cert im working with an awful dose at the minute whos just a genius and knows everything about everything so much so that he tells the tradesmen and everyone else how to do there job. Hes nearly 19 and was offered a start as an apprentive here after working as a GO for a bit but he told me he knows enough and he couldnt do one anyway even if he wanted to as he didnt bother with the leaving at the time as he was flat out farming and too cool for school.

Ford4life

cute geoge wrote: »

I never heard much about fleckl. cows ,if they were any use surely they would be more popular . you would be better off starting off with british fr/holstein cowand dont be expecting record yields starting out ,forget about rearing beef calves if you are milking as your milkers would make mote profitable use of the land

Theyre an austrian breed, average yield for a mature cow would be around 7000 litres so a heifer would produce roughly 6000 litres i would assume, sure if no one tried anything new then we would still be in the stone age, reason i'd be keeping the calves on to 9 months would be to graze the rougher land which are also the farthest fields from where i plan to put the parlour (half grass half rock kinda land, around 10 acres of it) in our current shed we only have 24 cubicles, hence the odd enough number of starting out with 24 cows and 24 cows is way too much for 35 acres of land, then in a few years i would put up a 60 cubicle shed and a new milking parlour in one go and get 60 cattle and sell the calves at 2wks to 4 wks old

Ford4life

greysides wrote: »

Just. Not. Possible.

Or it would be commonplace, in some form.

Well that put an awful damper on my plans 😊

Grueller

Ford4life wrote: »

Currently heading into the dairy herd management course in darragh and then will go to pallaskenry for the agricultural engineering course, only about 2 fellas at it around here and charge in the region of 70 euro an hour and some contractors around here would nearly take a mechanic on full time, so fairly secure job once you get a bit of experience behind ya, plus the bonus of being able to fix any rare problems on our own machinery

Wrong road imo. If a lad is broken down in silage season or the harvest and needs to be going again asap he won't want to hear that you have 3 line of cows left and you will be on when you wash up.
You are also working too hard. Think sitting down job. Have a bit left in the tank when you are finished your day job. The trades are fine if you don't want to do anything after work, but if you want to do a physical job in the evening your day job needs to be handy.

Water John

The Fleckveih is the most popular breed in Germany AFAIK. Good number in Austria, Switzerland and some in The Netherlands. A milking Simmental.

carrollsno1

Grueller wrote: »

Wrong road imo. If a lad is broken down in silage season or the harvest and needs to be going again asap he won't want to hear that you have 3 line of cows left and you will be on when you wash up.
You are also working too hard. Think sitting down job. Have a bit left in the tank when you are finished your day job. The trades are fine if you don't want to do anything after work, but if you want to do a physical job in the evening your day job needs to be handy.

Exactly right about getting calls during silage snd they could be at any time of the night or day too. Its grand to say youre charging €70/hr but if youre only doing ten hours a week over 7 days for say 6 weeks of the year st silage its not much. Someone in our line of work is getting €45/hr for a pen pushing job we thought its great money but an auld fella thats been around the block told us youd have very little left after you take PRSI, Income tax, youre pension, run a jeep and sort accomadation ln top of it all.

davidk1394

Ford4life wrote: »

im 17, work off the farm but im thinking a few years in advance when the father might eventually hand over the farm and peoples recommendations for different things to do with it.

I was the exact same as you at 17. All I wanted was farming, tractors, diesel, long days and pints on a weekend. I started off contacting and it helped me put money together. I'm currently building a parlor and going milking.

My advice regardless of herd size is finish school and go to college ideally somewhere away from home and enjoy yourself. Work in a different sector and if possible go abroad. You will have a different thought process when you go farming. The farm will be there for when you get older.

I did these things and looking back I'm delighted I did. There was some days in college I wanted to pack it in but I kept at it and made it through. Dont be in a rush home and live your life first.

Ford4life

carrollsno1 wrote: »

You remind me of someone very similar to myself at that age, you seem to have been awful blinkered like myself growing up havent seen anything outside farming. You made remark about youre mother putting an emphasis on studying this year, id advise you to take her advice on that, i presumed i didnt need it and hadnt needed it until last year when i was 25.
As grueller said go out and get educated hes dead right on that point as its not a hard load to carry. One thing i had thought of doing when i was around 20 was going with my uncles a few days a week on site to see something different but i stuck at the farming instead. Id advise you to forget about farming and go work on a site for the summer and see how it goes i didnt know what money was until i went working in Oz despite being on good twine here at the time.
You mentioned a figure of €22k profit from the cows after all youre investment and everything else well i was only working the 6 months of last year as an apprentice and earned over €12k so going by that a first year apprentice is making more than you will be farming with no need to invest heavily in a set up and you still have to be there 7 days a week while im almost always a monday to friday man. Only downside is i have to travel s bit a standard day is being gone for 12hrs of the day maybe more when youre travelling to site but you just get on with it.

Also re the leaving cert im working with an awful dose at the minute whos just a genius and knows everything about everything so much so that he tells the tradesmen and everyone else how to do there job. Hes nearly 19 and was offered a start as an apprentive here after working as a GO for a bit but he told me he knows enough and he couldnt do one anyway even if he wanted to as he didnt bother with the leaving at the time as he was flat out farming and too cool for school.

Work with a fella at concrete work and general farm work on his farm slurry silage etc, at the moment, have no great love for the concrete work tbh fine the odd day here and there but couldnt do it every day the rest of my life and farming is where my heart is, im not putting 1000 hours a year into the farm at home when i might get paid a tenner at the end of it because of the money!

I find it very hard to concentrate on the studying, 10 mins into reading the books and my mind would be wandering, info goes in one ear and out the other generally, unless its something to do with the farm then usually i'm okay at remembering things

Doing the dairy course now next 2 years and then ill head off to pallaskenry for the agricultural engineering course, the two fellas in my area at it would be charging 70 euro an hour roughly and a few contractors would nearly have full time jobs for mechanics so pretty much a guaranteed job at the end of it.

Currently sat at around 300-350 points, just praying to god that stubborn bitch Norma Foley will give up on the traditional leaving as my memory is like a sieve and doesn't suit remembering 6 years worth of work and writing it down in 3 hrs.

I would be the type of fella to ask a tradesman why he does things one way and not another but by god I wouldn't tell them what to do, unless they asked me for my opinion specifically.

I can be a right stubborn bastard and thick as pig **** sometimes but in fairness if im proved wrong ill admit i'm wrong

The 22k figure would just be for a few years until i could get a new 60 cubicle slatted shed and new milking parlour up without having to take out too much of a loan, 60 cows would be more than enough, 5 years of milking 24 cows would nearly cover the cost of the 60 cubicle shed and then maybe 100,000 for new milking parlour, its just to avoid taking out 300000 from the bank and then if the milk price went to **** I wouldn't be badly burnt at having 40000 out for a second hand parlour and new bulk tank, compared to some of the lads that have 300/400k on loan from the bank

Ford4life

Grueller wrote: »

Wrong road imo. If a lad is broken down in silage season or the harvest and needs to be going again asap he won't want to hear that you have 3 line of cows left and you will be on when you wash up.
You are also working too hard. Think sitting down job. Have a bit left in the tank when you are finished your day job. The trades are fine if you don't want to do anything after work, but if you want to do a physical job in the evening your day job needs to be handy.

Im planning for the future after a few years of the mechanic work, that i could slow down on that side of things and get into the cattle, but also have that job to fall back on if milk price went to ****, plus the father could relief milk the odd time if he had to, im not afraid of the long hours and long days and to be honest i prefer them, hate sitting down and doing nothing unless its to watch someone else farming on youtube or whatever
Could get a handy job in the council working as a mechanic 😉 9-5 would be manageable enough and take time off for calving or whatever is going on, hence why i was hoping that fellas would say synchronised breeding would be a massive success 😞 that they would all calve over 1-2 days

carrollsno1

Ford4life wrote: »

Work with a fella at concrete work and general farm work on his farm slurry silage etc, at the moment, have no great love for the concrete work tbh fine the odd day here and there but couldnt do it every day the rest of my life and farming is where my heart is, im not putting 1000 hours a year into the farm at home when i might get paid a tenner at the end of it because of the money!

I find it very hard to concentrate on the studying, 10 mins into reading the books and my mind would be wandering, info goes in one ear and out the other generally, unless its something to do with the farm then usually i'm okay at remembering things

Doing the dairy course now next 2 years and then ill head off to pallaskenry for the agricultural engineering course, the two fellas in my area at it would be charging 70 euro an hour roughly and a few contractors would nearly have full time jobs for mechanics so pretty much a guaranteed job at the end of it.

Currently sat at around 300-350 points, just praying to god that stubborn bitch Norma Foley will give up on the traditional leaving as my memory is like a sieve and doesn't suit remembering 6 years worth of work and writing it down in 3 hrs.

I would be the type of fella to ask a tradesman why he does things one way and not another but by god I wouldn't tell them what to do, unless they asked me for my opinion specifically.

I can be a right stubborn bastard and thick as pig **** sometimes but in fairness if im proved wrong ill admit i'm wrong

The 22k figure would just be for a few years until i could get a new 60 cubicle slatted shed and new milking parlour up without having to take out too much of a loan, 60 cows would be more than enough, 5 years of milking 24 cows would nearly cover the cost of the 60 cubicle shed and then maybe 100,000 for new milking parlour, its just to avoid taking out 300000 from the bank and then if the milk price went to **** I wouldn't be badly burnt at having 40000 out for a second hand parlour and new bulk tank, compared to some of the lads that have 300/400k on loan from the bank

If youre planning on doing the ag engineering course why are you going doing the dairy one first? It sounds like youll be doing the ag engineering work before the cows if daddys still at home. Theres more to construction than concreting the mechanical side of it is only getting bigger and bigger from what i can see and it sounds like thats something you might have an interest in if youre doing agri engineering. You say the two contractors would have full time work for a mechanic but you never mentioned anywhere in youre plan about serving youre time as a fitter or mechanic?

Myself and DavidK were in college together and like he said it was all about long days and pints at the weekend but theres a lot more to life than that.
Theres probably as much lads after doing trades or going back to education after ag college out of our year than lads that went home fulltime and not to mention the lads that got stuck in at home wishing they did something else.

carrollsno1

Ford4life wrote: »

Im planning for the future after a few years of the mechanic work, that i could slow down on that side of things and get into the cattle, but also have that job to fall back on if milk price went to ****, plus the father could relief milk the odd time if he had to, im not afraid of the long hours and long days and to be honest i prefer them, hate sitting down and doing nothing unless its to watch someone else farming on youtube or whatever
Could get a handy job in the council working as a mechanic ðŸ˜‰ 9-5 would be manageable enough and take time off for calving or whatever is going on, hence why i was hoping that fellas would say synchronised breeding would be a massive success ðŸ˜ž that they would all calve over 1-2 days

Again re the mechanic part when are you starting the apprenticeship in rhat?
Long hours and looking at tractors on youtube? I know theres little going on at the moment with Covid but theres better things to be at than that. Wait till ye head off to college and discover drinking and women the farmflix subscription will be long forgotten about then

Ford4life

davidk1394 wrote: »

I was the exact same as you at 17. All I wanted was farming, tractors, diesel, long days and pints on a weekend. I started off contacting and it helped me put money together. I'm currently building a parlor and going milking.

My advice regardless of herd size is finish school and go to college ideally somewhere away from home and enjoy yourself. Work in a different sector and if possible go abroad. You will have a different thought process when you go farming. The farm will be there for when you get older.

I did these things and looking back I'm delighted I did. There was some days in college I wanted to pack it in but I kept at it and made it through. Dont be in a rush home and live your life first.

What did you start off doing when contracting? Drawing bales and slurry?

Might try organise a group of my friends to go drawing silage in the land down under, be some craic

40/50 years would be long enough farming i suppose but that's why ya have children down the line, the unpaid farm labour 😉
Lot of fellas rush home and get pissed off as the father wont let them change a bit, my father would be that exact way, just refuses to accept change and is terrified of electrics, wouldnt even go for a 2005-2010 tractor as they have too much electrics for him yet would be considered ancient to the tractors nowadays, also so I hope he'll transfer over the farm before its too late for me to get into dairy with it, what age are you now?

In 2 years time ill go to pallaskenry and do the agricultural engineering course, i dont really know what other sector i'd go work in tbh, do bits and pieces in concrete work but its not a job i could see myself doing 6 days a week for 5-10 years and cant think of anything worse than working in an office, maybe ill take up gardening....

Ford4life

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Again re the mechanic part when are you starting the apprenticeship in rhat?
Long hours and looking at tractors on youtube? I know theres little going on at the moment with Covid but theres better things to be at than that. Wait till ye head off to college and discover drinking and women the farmflix subscription will be long forgotten about then

Be heading off to pallaskenry in 2 years for the 2 year course in agri engineering, then maybe will keep going with it to lvl 7 or else go working straight away depending on how much i'd hopefully know after 2 years anyway
Long hours working is what i like to do as if im not working be it at home or for another fella then ill find myself watching other farmers working and learn from things they do on their farm and see can I do it at home
Doing the 2yr course in dairy herd management first until i can get my full license as cant get my lessons done with this bastard virus, 2 hours in a bus and the buses being unreliable and expensive doesnt sound nice to me

carrollsno1

Ford4life wrote: »

What did you start off doing when contracting? Drawing bales and slurry?

Might try organise a group of my friends to go drawing silage in the land down under, be some craic

40/50 years would be long enough farming i suppose but that's why ya have children down the line, the unpaid farm labour ðŸ˜‰
Lot of fellas rush home and get pissed off as the father wont let them change a bit, my father would be that exact way, just refuses to accept change and is terrified of electrics, wouldnt even go for a 2005-2010 tractor as they have too much electrics for him yet would be considered ancient to the tractors nowadays, also so I hope he'll transfer over the farm before its too late for me to get into dairy with it, what age are you now?

In 2 years time ill go to pallaskenry and do the agricultural engineering course, i dont really know what other sector i'd go work in tbh, do bits and pieces in concrete work but its not a job i could see myself doing 6 days a week for 5-10 years and cant think of anything worse than working in an office, maybe ill take up gardening....

Jones Engineering are doing phone interviews for Mechanical and Electrical apprentices this week AFAIK. Give s look at them on facebook.

carrollsno1

Ford4life wrote: »

Be heading off to pallaskenry in 2 years for the 2 year course in agri engineering, then maybe will keep going with it to lvl 7 or else go working straight away depending on how much i'd hopefully know after 2 years anyway
Long hours working is what i like to do as if im not working be it at home or for another fella then ill find myself watching other farmers working and learn from things they do on their farm and see can I do it at home
Doing the 2yr course in dairy herd management first until i can get my full license as cant get my lessons done with this bastard virus, 2 hours in a bus and the buses being unreliable and expensive doesnt sound nice to me

Fair enough j never realised about the licence and Covid. What jobs xan you get out of that course in Pallas? As fair as i knew it was mainly lads selling parts that did that in my time.

Ford4life

carrollsno1 wrote: »

If youre planning on doing the ag engineering course why are you going doing the dairy one first? It sounds like youll be doing the ag engineering work before the cows if daddys still at home. Theres more to construction than concreting the mechanical side of it is only getting bigger and bigger from what i can see and it sounds like thats something you might have an interest in if youre doing agri engineering. You say the two contractors would have full time work for a mechanic but you never mentioned anywhere in youre plan about serving youre time as a fitter or mechanic?

Myself and DavidK were in college together and like he said it was all about long days and pints at the weekend but theres a lot more to life than that.
Theres probably as much lads after doing trades or going back to education after ag college out of our year than lads that went home fulltime and not to mention the lads that got stuck in at home wishing they did something else.

Doing the 2yr course in dairy herd management first until i can get my full license as cant get my driving lessons done with this bastard virus, 2 hours in a bus and the buses being unreliable and expensive doesnt sound nice to me, then ill head off to pallaskenry and get my lvl 6 qualification and maybe continue it from there to lvl 7 or go straight out working maybe

Father is 60 now so give him 10 years and he might hand it over then

i haven't done much in the lines of mechanic work yet besides hold the torch and pass the spanner as that was the fathers way of educating me which surprise surprise wasnt very educational :eek:
Thats a good point about the mechanic side of things in the construction industry, didnt think about that part of it

Most fellas after it would end up in dealership workshops or with contractors and some just go out on their own fixing tractors for farmers and see a bit of the countryside
Thanks for saying about jones engineering, will look into that for sure (tomorrow)

Ford4life

Water John wrote: »

The Fleckveih is the most popular breed in Germany AFAIK. Good number in Austria, Switzerland and some in The Netherlands. A milking Simmental.

Theyre a good all round breed, not too bad of a milk price with them too, think its roughly 33/34 c/l on average for them. Best way to describe them is a milking Simmental as you said

[Deleted User]

Ford4life wrote: »

Doing the 2yr course in dairy herd management first until i can get my full license as cant get my driving lessons done with this bastard virus, 2 hours in a bus and the buses being unreliable and expensive doesnt sound nice to me, then ill head off to pallaskenry and get my lvl 6 qualification and maybe continue it from there to lvl 7 or go straight out working maybe

Father is 60 now so give him 10 years and he might hand it over then

i haven't done much in the lines of mechanic work yet besides hold the torch and pass the spanner as that was the fathers way of educating me which surprise surprise wasnt very educational :eek:
Thats a good point about the mechanic side of things in the construction industry, didnt think about that part of it

Most fellas after it would end up in dealership workshops or with contractors and some just go out on their own fixing tractors for farmers and see a bit of the countryside
Thanks for saying about jones engineering, will look into that for sure (tomorrow)

if your honest about wanting to work as a mechanic,do the tradional apprenticeship....theres no substitude for experience.....

Steer well clear of agri main dealers,i done years and years at it ....long hours,crap pay,always pressure to smash through work and turn around gear at silage/harvest season and even the wet days are worse nearly as everyone turns up with niggly then as "sure nothing else on"

Id suggest do the HGV or plant fitting,though the 3 of em are v.close and you'll make more money at em,i worked on the bigger stuff abroad,worked in countries i never heard of,before being sent there.....had a job offer for hitachi in mongolia at 200K a year,before my ould lad got sick and i come home.....got a job with a civil engineering place now,finished 5pm friday,no weekends and reasonable enough wages for me to turn down e21 an hour plus van in a quarry........

steer well clear of agri work,most farmers work long hours for fcuk all,and expect everyone else to work same hours for less

K.G.

My tuppence worth
We have seen waves of dual purpose cows coming into fashion over the years and all have gone again.the management required to get 7000 litres out of them would be top class and wouldn't be grass based.5000 litres would be excellent for irish type systems.if you are going milking you re going milking and forget about the mart as such.
You will never be building a new parlour/cubicle hse because you will never have the money at that scale.the investment required to get you up and running and the constant reduction in margin means you will never be able to make a decent return unless you get money from somewhere else.the set ups you see around you are the result of years of buildup and would nt be throwing off big income afterwords.
Listen to your mother.you dont have to get 600 points but the leaving cert is the first acceptted acreditation you will have in your life and while it in a few years it wont matter much in terms of getting a job make no mistake you will work harder for less money for the rest of your life if you have a poorer leaving cert.
I being blunt but there are better ways to make a living if you are starting from scratch.by the way i have done what you want to do so i know what i am talking about.the only way you will get to do what you want to do is to get a good job and the leaving is the first step on the way to that.best of luck to you

Bass Reeves

There is two thing I learned over the years, never have all your eggs in one basket and never work for a lad that paying you directly. You are young, you are all on about the craic. Unless you are earning good money the craic flies out of he window. If you struggle with study my advice is get a trade bit away from farming. No farmer or contractor will want to pay more than minimum wage.15/ hour tops. Agriculture diesel mechanics all seem burnt out by 50-60.

65 acres is neither here nor there at dairying. Your father you is 60 and you are 17. By the time he is 70 you will only be 27. That is enough time to consider dairying. Go away and get a trade, electrician, plumber, motor mechanic. Motor mechanic is a great one not the best paying but possible to work from home long-term. Electrician is the best paying at present with loads of different area's to opt as not. Going doing an agricultural course leaves you down a dead end road. You can always do it later in life.

You struggle to get to 65 cows, more than likely 50 tops on that amount of land. Even at a net margin of 700/ cow it only 35k. Good money for a seat warming 40 honour a week job but not great to be tied to for 7 days a week. As a tradesman you will earn 1k+/ week by the time you are in your Late 20's with the exception of motor mechanic but then you are at a internal job.

A good well run drystock farm on 65 acres along with a decent job will beat dairying on that scale any day. If you had an aptitude for study I day go to college and get a college education. Ballincollig is only an hour away with a college education plenty of MNC paying 40k / year for handy jobs that allow you to have plenty of time to part time farm

_Brian

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There is two thing I learned over the years, never have all your eggs in one basket and never work for a lad that paying you directly. You are young, you are all on about the craic. Unless you are earning good money the craic flies out of he window. If you struggle with study my advice is get a trade bit away from farming. No farmer or contractor will want to pay more than minimum wage.15/ hour tops. Agriculture diesel mechanics all seem burnt out by 50-60.

65 acres is neither here nor there at dairying. Your father you is 60 and you are 17. By the time he is 70 you will only be 27. That is enough time to consider dairying. Go away and get a trade, electrician, plumber, motor mechanic. Motor mechanic is a great one not the best paying but possible to work from home long-term. Electrician is the best paying at present with loads of different area's to opt as not. Going doing an agricultural course leaves you down a dead end road. You can always do it later in life.

You struggle to get to 65 cows, more than likely 50 tops on that amount of land. Even at a net margin of 700/ cow it only 35k. Good money for a seat warming 40 honour a week job but not great to be tied to for 7 days a week. As a tradesman you will earn 1k+/ week by the time you are in your Late 20's with the exception of motor mechanic but then you are at a internal job.

A good well run drystock farm on 65 acres along with a decent job will beat dairying on that scale any day. If you had an aptitude for study I day go to college and get a college education. Ballincollig is only an hour away with a college education plenty of MNC paying 40k / year for handy jobs that allow you to have plenty of time to part time farm

I think that’s a great balanced post with great advice.

The land block required to be viable even at dairy is getting bigger and bigger. I know two lads who left dairy within last two years milking 20-25 cows each, just not viable when inputs are taken into account.