is entering dairying still an option

He doesn't even need to go full time, Dairying is pretty repetitive, A few weeks even. Even to do a bit of relief milking to get a taste for it.

He could possibly try a bit of relief milking to get the idea. Work it around with his contracting. If he finds himself not liking maybe having to go and do a milking on a Sunday morning because he would have rather planned for something else that weekend, then that in itself might be a realisation of the commitment.

That is the reality of employing people. Not know what he was paying him but I imagine in the 12-14/ hour. Probably got s job elsewhere on 2-3 euro/ hour more. Niece works in a small business it's a twenty mile drive. She got a new job less than 5 miles from home on a euro fifty per hour more. However she had to start straight away so could only give her present employer two and a half weeks notice. She had a holiday booked for the week she was starting and that is going by the wayside as well.

There is no loyalty in the sub 15/ hour market. 1-2 euro per hour can make a huge difference to employees like this.

Saw a lad lately go from a 15/ hour job to where he will be earning 50-55k per year in a multi national company. Health inurance paid as well as pension contribution of 1.5 times his contribution up to 10% of wages.

He was asking me about the pension and I explained that fir every tenner he puts it, it's costing him 6 euro and the company will pay 15. So for his six euro he getting 25 into his pension.

If he earns 50k and puts in 3.4k company will put in 5k and it costs him 2k net.

OP admitted that because if his skill set he has limited employment opportunities. He also want to stay farming full-time.

If he was willing to get a job I tell him stay at the drystock part time. Those type of jobs are available mostly around larger towns and cities. Ideally you need a basic third level qualifications at present.

You might be better off to expand your contracting services and let your wife tip away in some handy job .Cattle haulage ,piped slurry ,hedge cutting ,reseeding and dung spreading are some of the jobs to consider.Milking cows is grand but you aint paid for the amount of hours put in .You will hear about highly profitable 500kg solids herds but that would be A1 quality land ,A1 quality management and basically sleeping with cows and spoon feeding them

If you're absolutely certain you like cows...go for it.

15 unit second hand parlour..

4 rows milking

Buy replacements

Every calf out the door..

40K easily..where else would you get it

Ye fair enough we are thinking along the same lines so, a job like the one you mentioned alongside a simple farm setup or lease will not be bet financially I think for anybody with a bit of land..of course not everybody can get those fir whatever reason..the op is still young enough to retrain of they wanted but they obviously have a gra for the farm and nothing wrong with that.

You would get 40k easily enough without any outlay or responsiblity in most multinational or pharmaceuticals, as well as additional income in part time farming sucklers etc

40k is certainly not considered easy in a dairy set up

That's a 100k a year role when I think about it.

Be as well of on an oil rig, health insurance and pension paid extra.

If your considering the job for money, if not ignore the above, but I suspect most are

I transitioned from sheep to cows last year. I was working on different diary farms since 2014. I worked in new Zealand style farms and high input winter milk farms. I milked as often as I could to see whether this is what I wanted to do. I bought calves and reared them to incalf heifers using my own funds. I borrowed for the building of a shed, parlor, handing facilities, collecting yard, slurry tank, feed area and a wall for a calf shed. Before I went down this route I got a job offer to go out to Saudi Arabia working on dairy farms. I know of two other lads who done it. One fella loved it the other hated it.

You can make the system as easy or as difficult as you want. I enjoy farming from a young age and I worked at different things for a while. I'm glad I made the move. It's like any job, you either love it or hate it. It's seven days a week if you want it to be.

Big difference between 40k farming and 40k as a PAYE worker. As a PAYE worker you nett 617 euro per week out of the 40k salary. Out of that wage you may have 50-100/week in travel costs and other work expenses.

A farmer may have part of your day to day expenses written off whether car it's maintenance and running costs, phone and broadband, electricity, bits and pieces that can be written off. These all shelter the marginal rate of tax

Would you have much help at home?

Good parlours come up pretty regularly, there was a nice 10 unit delaval on twitter before Xmas for 5k

I've a colleague on sick leave for over 1 year on full pay, big difference indeed.

Look it's up to OP, I'm just explaining there are easier ways to make a better living outside of the "white gold" every morning,noon and night.

And it certainly takes a tight ship to get anywhere near the figures been given here