is entering dairying still an option

What age are you? As it's a long term commitment

Are you farming full time at present? Do you have any other skills or education behind you? Are there any other careers that might interest you..? I ask because I've a similar enough farm and I'm similar vintage and it's easy get blinkered by the farm and then dairying being the only way to make a living from it...there are fantastic opportunities out there now that will definitely give an easier life for possibly more financial reward.

But if farming is a passion it can be a great way of life too, I'd second getting some experience on on a dairy farm before spending a penny though

It looks like you have enough slurry storage and decent grazing infrastructure, will the sheep cover the cost of buying cows? You could rear heifers instead of the bull calfs for next couple of years, bit if you don't go ahead with the conversion demand for them in 2 years mightnt be wonderful with talk of herd restrictions etc..

have you plan for cubicles layed out and costs on these..building costs are gone through the roof, I'm building a shed at the moment and it's scary.

If you need to build a shed for the parlour, at your scale and setup a robot may be an option if it could be fitted in an existing shed and may suit your contracting. Again thorough costings need to be done and robots aren't plain sailing either, but for a new entrant they provide great information.

Overall I'd be nervous of doing anything drastic for the next couple of years, maybe rear some heifer calves and get some experience, don't mind any of the bullshit on the papers or online, there's no fortune in dairy especially at our scale. If you could winter the ewes without silage and too much meal, with the way costs are spirally I'd say they might be as profitable as the dairy.

Your last paragraph will not allow you get to 1200 profit. I started with brfr cows and they just are not capable of the volumes. I have 60/40 hol/fr that do €500 more milk per year than the brfr with the same feeding. The British are too fond of putting it on their back. I am only in year 3 milking and leaving sucklers I was mad for British too, but won't even breed replacement heifers from them now.

This is the makings of a great thread and is something so lacking in terms of research and information for a panthers of similar sized farms. The work /life balance is a bigger issue than the money,

the point earlier about needing to be an excellent farmer before starting is that it takes income and revenue to put a shine on a place.

I presume you will need to finance some or all of the 100k. There is still Brexit bmo ey out there unfortunately it is only over 6 or 7 years.

At present AIB have there scheme closed off but NOI are still lending. Interest rate is variable at about 2.9%.

Lending cannot be used for stock but it can be used for infrastructure and machinery. Over ,6 years 60k will cost you slightly less than 5.5k half yearly ( every six months) repayments.

I would not discount the buying heifer calves and rearing them and starting in two years time. On the other hand you will probably pick up cows fairly ok this year.

Are you intending to be up and running by mid summer or is it a 2023 project.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but €1000 profit per cow is not very doable, It's the absolute upper end of performance, To quote the hurling analogy, It's inter county stuff. With input and building costs soaring, I think now would be a good time to work on a dairy farm to see if you actually like it, IT's not for everyone and if you don't like it it's a life sentence

This is great advice imo

Just on the work comment, your tied to the place if your milking, I'm a couple of years younger than you and I'm seriously considering pulling the plug in the next few years.

You'd have to factor in replacement costs as they are significant at about 10 replacements every year @€1200 each less cull value of old cows €4500.

Which opens up another line of thinking but are dairy farmers actively looking for people to do contract rearing. As an alternative to sucklers it could be very profitable by using existing setups

1000 euro plus for any form of fertilizer, 500 euro plus for meal on the cards, and 100%plus increases in electricity and diseal costs and your still plugging the 1200 euro odd profit per cow, Jesus wept

Yeah, I can't keep going like I'm going now, life is passing me by.

I think the reality of the margin is there. OP is talking about a 60 cow operation on 33 HA. His costs are going to be totally different to larger scale farms.

His organic N level will be about 160kgsN/HA for his 60 cows. Add a stock bull and a few replacement heifers and he be borderline 170kgsN/HA

A derogation will costs him 500-1k/year so he probably needs to rent 8-10 acres as well to avoid derogation or get his replacements reared. At that stocking level his fertlizer and ration bill will be much lower

Will he make 1k/ cow from year one. No but within 5-8 years it is achievable. Will there be 60k shown in the accounts at year end and 15-20 k going to revenue no there will not be. But the reality of that income will be there.

I have a few fears for him. I am not sure if he has considered the lifestyle change. He will be tied to the place for 10-11 months of the year. Has his wife a job, if so is it realistic for her to milk the cows once a day. Getting the finance structured right first day is an issues as well.

However 100k borrowed over 15 years at 5% from a credit union costs 9.2k/ year for 15 years. When you invest in something like this 100k is nothing. However he dose some agri contracting so this means he can cut some costs elsewhere. He could rent a ten acre field and grow a crop of barley. 25-30ton would structure his ration costs to be very manageable. Know a lad doing similar he crimps it.

Smaller operation can be way more flexible that larger ones. No need of a Landcruiser or a 130-150HP tractor costing 80k. No 14' Ivor Williams box

Even in op situation because he contracts and is familiar with machinery a small zero grazer may be an option at the start. This avoids the need to put in a lot of road and water infrastructure at present. It something I would not normally advocate but I saw a handy one bought for 15 k. Let's the cows access to 1-2 acres and feed inside. No walking, no roads no water infrastructure.