Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Jeez they are deluded. Wouldn’t a fella with 170 cows want an extra 200 acres to send him to an early grave.

FFS. You’d want a mortgage to buy the fertiliser alone this year.

We already produce enough food for 10 billion people. Any ‘starvation’, if it comes to pass, will be because of politics, not a shortage of actual food.

Why does the agri industry keep peddling this lie?

Politics has always caused famine, never lack of food.

Tackling food waste is more important than producing more food to be let rot. Producing food inevitably leaves a mark on the environment, and producing food to be let rot is wrong on so many levels.

New legislation here has banned the dumping of food…I got a call asking would I be interested in taking some out of date vegetables and I agreed to take an artic. I’ve stopped now because they were dumping it on me and it was contaminated with fruit that animals wouldn’t eat. Still better than taking it to the dump I suppose. A local stables said they’d take some carrots for the horses…a truck arrived on with 16t of carrots! When you see up close the vast quantities that are being dumped it is quite shocking.

With food inflation were starting to see it, a few military coups in recent weeks in Africa which will lead to famines. Energy inflation is also impacting, russia have a strong hand now with gas.

I don't think that there will be much good to come this way for profits. Dawg, the south Americans and Eastern Europeans will all probably do quite well.

But I think all farming in this country is going to be squeezed more. Similar conditions to the late 1800s with the end of "high farming" is where we're headed imo. Relative land values need to be slashed and inputs reduced if things do go that way

Due to N regulations (etc) France is back 20% on food production with the last 20yrs. The ‘farm to fork’ proposal from Brussels is predicted to drop back production by a further 15%. There’s no talk of compensation and the sfp continues to get decimated…meanwhile costs keep rising, and rising. These policies are going to cost and inevitably it’s the farmers that are going to have to bear that cost. If food price inflation doesn’t happen it could have some serious repercussions at farm level.

Even more worrying is Macron capped EDF (Irish equivalent of ESB) to a 4% price rise for this year…resulting in a cost of €8.4 billion to EDF and wiped 25% off their share value. If Macron can do that to energy, he’ll have no qualms on capping food prices also. Scary stuff.

GASC (Egyptian wheat buying apparatus) won’t allow any civil unrest due to food prices, ditto for all the Maghreb. That lesson has been learned.

Imo, the UK will be a litmus test for the immediate future in the EU. Will they wean farmers off the sfp? Will they allow farmers to keep polluting the environment to keep food production up? Will they lower imported food standards to keep their population fed?

This!!

Fresh milk would be higher. How long are the bulk of the milkers calved?

What was your collection for sane period last year?

most likely just stressed cows/heifers after calving

Don Crowley has a good interview on the dairy edge podcast from this time last year that’s well worth a listen. I found it very interesting

Calved between 24 days and barely out of withdrawal at 4 days.