What if any changes are you going to make to you're current system with costs going out of control.

15 cattle I was going to finish in November and December went in to January instead. Finish 65 roughly a year. Haven't bought replacements.

Most of Others were bought last December, White head heifers 350kg at 640, was lucky enough so they will go in Summer.

Continentals and Friesian till October. So I have flexibility built in this year.

Will increase ewes, buying in Lleyn and Cheviot scanned to twins where possible.

If cattle are cheaper in the summer I'll start picking up ones for well in to next year.

The Sheep are grazing half of the silage block now, slurry out next week hopefully. Have good p and k and nwill give 100 units of Urea when opportunity arises

The sheep half will try make 20th may silage on, feed first half of winter.. The other half will not be grazed, it'll be shook with a 100 of urea, big bulky crop, glad to have it job. Don't want to risk another cold April and May.

Will set an acre of sugar beet along the edge of the block the Sheep graze in winter, strip graze with grass, will lamb later in April.

Hope to pick up numbers throughout the year. Light cattle.

So basically more sheep, run small number of cattle for most of the year. Big crop of bales and pick up ones for next year as chance arises but full number's in to shed next winter. A class of skipping the year.

Next winter ration will be scarce and bought in silage will probably North of 50, plenty of it and get through the year and hope for a new balance.

Lad in England, big beef Farming family, and sales rep for a ration company. He was saying he has had 5 people already this week tell him they are thinking of emptying the shed.

with minimal tweaking seeing out a year or two of high inputs should be no trouble, but if they remain then agriculture will have to change.

we spread minimal fertiliser, only contractor work is baling silage.

Probably expand the wholecrop oat acreage and water down the slurry for a start.

idk about the contractors, I'd say a good few of them are on the hook for a lot of money on all the new machinery and tractors. I already had the argument with my contractor, in fairness he was giving lads the heads up on the price increases going forward but I pointed out he didn't reduce the prices when diesel was 40c/litre. I think he will be in trouble financially but I could be wrong. Anyways I'll not be using him this year, I've already bought hay and have about 70% of my fodder for winter 2022/3 and I'll just make up a bit of hay myself for the difference.

Running cost are going to eat a large chunk out of contactors margins. Secondly people will only do what they have to do this year to get by. This will reduce the amount of work they complete.

Labour is also going to pinch as workers will want a bit more due to their living costs having risen.

Reduced output is going to hit hard. Any of the pit crews are seriously going to have to look at the cost of long draws and heavy crops.

It's a double edged sword and I can see some getting into serious bother unless they are better at gathering payment for work completed. Can't see too many oil companies waiting too long for payment. The only light they have is the value of repayments have been reduced due to inflation

We'd want to be reasonable with the contractor this year cause we'll need him next year as well.

Correct on numbers. Every farm dependent on indoor feeding, is going to the be under serious pressure due to oil price of getting feed in and poo out. This has risen and eroded their tight margin.

I have a feeling we will see a huge cull and reduction of numbers in these systems later this year. This will drive up beef production and depress price a for a while until they are flushed thru the system. After that price will rise greatly and hold for longer.

I have a feeling that Larry and his friends sheds will a lot quieter this year.

Secondly are the coops going to come under pressure for gas with peak milk supply.

The rise in prices is going to focus the average consumer on fuel, food and a roof over their head. This is going to reduce the amount of discretionary spending. The quantities of mochas and avacodos consumed will really drop. The focus will be back to the basics. This is about to hearld a change in farmer fortunes

There’ll be very little difference in the cost of white and green so at that rate.

@James2022 The plan has to be to get the cheapest feed possible into your cattle. I let out a lot of cattle on heavy ground last week and they are spread in small bunches and strip wires up. Even the dry cows went out to graze during the day. It's bloody amazing the reduction in silage being feed. The silage currently in the yard is the cheapest winter feed that I will have next year. This gives you options, either to go for a multicut or an option of bulk.

Even getting out lighter stock now will help greatly. The amount of grass that grew this winter is huge. You have to graze it to grow it. Regrowths are there you can see it over the past week. Had ground graze at the end of January with yearlings and there is a lovely cover back on it.

Haven't spread any fertiliser and only spread 5 loads of slurry so far.

Ration we get jumped 50 a tonne to 370 this week.

Not sure about that - most conventional Dairy here relies heavily on inputs like Chem Fert, sprays,Diesel etc. alot of that is shelled out on intensive PRG silage production. The price of these things are only going one way and will significantly hit bottom lines even if we get a good spring/summer for grass growth.

Just a word of caution - be careful about too much clover in the grazing pasture as it can cause severe bloat. Years ago we use to use a product called Bloatguard that we added to the drinkers.

when is the best time to sow clover? Was thinking of putting in the spreader with fertilizer

Do be honest that won't work. It's a waste of clover esp with it at €10 a kg. To have a good chance of germination you need to stitch it in. Know plenty of lads who claim clover won't work but they tried to sow it with that method and sure there's no way to be accurate or get it down to soil level.

If you were spreading lime could you mix clover in with the lime.

Green diesel doesn't have 56c a litre excise. As of March 2021, it was 11.8c per litre. I don't know if it went up since. The 2c comes off that. The carbon tax remains (gotta keep the green people happy (and hungry))

Listened to that lad.

He was off his melt.

Though off topic, his Amish approach is very successful in Agriculture in America where they are buying land nonstop.

I agree with him in that it is skewed against the farming industry.

2017 to 2020 I was ramping up numbers of sheep, pondering what to do with the loss making sucklers, and generally trying to get this run down place back in shape having come back into it in 2014.

Workload went mad (I have a summer occupation as well) and winters became utter misery with bad house/yard setup, poor fencing and grass management etc.

After being at home all 2020 and most of 21 due to Covid (No tourism) all I had out of it was bigger co-op bills, more work needing doing, more stock and no money with herself getting right sour over it all.

I had decided to go organic before the current sh1tshow and had changed out the Limo/Shorts for Dexters.

I culled the ewes ruthlessly last Autumn and will cull again this year.

No fertilizer going out bar dung and a bit of imported slurry this year, and I've barely any ration fed to sheep yet.

Those two alone will halve my coop bill and assuming I get in, the payment will be for jam.

I really wanted to build up the operation, but it's pis5ung against the wind with input costs, workload, and modern life.

I'm 48 and the housing/slurry management investment alone I'd need I couldn't ever pay back without breaking my hole until I'm 80.

My children are small and if they ever want to go farming, they'll know how and have the land, but not grow up resenting it because I'm never there.

I'm planting a couple of ridges of garden this year for the first time in decades because I have the few minutes to spare.

When I was doing an MBA a few years ago the first thing they taught us was "Turnover is for vanity, and profit is for sanity"

I'm looking at it from the beef side of things. Fertiliser applications are few and low. This stands us in a better position if we can sort some self sufficiency around the grain issue. 8-9 fertiliser applications is just chronic, it's the crack cocaine of farming

The 3 F's are now the major pressures. Feeding beef cattle on grazed grass has the lowest of the requirement, when not over stocked. It's about finding that sweet spot in every farming system.

Fuel and fertiliser is going to have a big pressure on these indoor systems. Just look at the chronic situation with the pig industry across Europe. It's the price of inputs that has pinched their margin. European dairy and beef will be under pressure.

Never waste a good crisis

This time is about the change the view on food production and security in europe. Being aware of international factors and a willingness to make changes inside your own farm gate is key to riding this situation with a strong business

Nothing much beyond what we would have been doing anyway. 2 cows to cull that got a free pass for a few years.

Had some reseeding planned, but that is now on hold. All non-essential spend on infrastructure is on hold until prices drop.

Will try to make some better quality silage for the weanlings.

Part of my solution is a third more ewes. Lol