is entering dairying still an option

OP, I'm someone who decided to go back into milk at 40, second year in the parlour now and love it. We had a dairy herd up until 2005 so I knew what was involved but it is a fantastic way of life. Lads give out about being too busy at calving but its exhilarating. You don't know tiredness until you've done it but its the best time of year. We've had a baby the last two years and the flexibility it gives for family life is brilliant. In my experience there is no issue with getting relief milkers once you're set up well.

I'd agree with getting the infrastructure as cheap as you can, I put the roads in myself. I did find it difficult to find a bank to lend to me was one thing I'd look out for, BOI said no, AIB offered over 9 years which was a non-runner, UB were very helpful but theyre not an option now.

You mentioned your dad had tillage, how are the P&K? Could be a massive hidden cost. If you can reseed everything before you start, growing as much grass as you can is key.

I'd agree with what Pinsnbushings says below, you mentioned a clearance sale, do everything you can to get as good as stock as you can, ignore the price where they are concerned. I'd also agree with the replacements, the best way of improving your herd is to breed your own. If you've bought in good quality stock you'll have no shortage of lads looking for anything leaving your farm

I'd disagree with GTM and suggest JEX, with the right breeding you'll do 600kg and you'll have a smaller cow, maintenance above €30.

You mentioned that you couldn't be looking at extreme JE or HO round the place, my advice is that whatever type of cow you do go for lose that attitude, its all about the cow's genomic potential. If she has four legs and no obvious defect thats all you need to worry about, the rest is what her paper says about her, if you've seen the film moneyball its like that.

Best of luck with it

That is the third secret of Fatima. You have just posted scarilege. You must include a land charge as well as an own labour charge and include an opportunity cost.

A cow milking 5500 litres is grossing about 2.5k in milk sales at present. If it back at 33c/ L it's about 1.8k per cow Try to calculate from that

The one thing for sure lads will be very slow to fix a milk price from now on. Heard rumours about farmers that had 50%+ of there milk fixed at 30-32c/ L. 😓. It must be a disaster for these lads. Some have 1-2 years left on contracts

Fixed pricing only benefits larger buyers. It's not in the interest of farmers as lads have learned now

I remember posting a few years ago about fixed prices. Grain producers got caught fixing 5+ years ago and got caught by rising prices and bad harvests.

Last year processor's were quoting fixed price deals at 4-6c/ below market prices and milk prices were rising. When prices were 24/26c per liter fixed price were 28c/ L. You are always and I mean always better to ride the waves of the market. There is no upside in fixed prices for the average farmer

However lads made them choices. There fear was if a market collapse. They never figured on a price surge like what happened.

I'd be very slow to go with fixed price. I think we have only seen the start of price inflation and and any Agriculture prices are only doing catch up at the moment.

Most stick skills are transferrable. It's similar to any trade or skill. Yes the adaptability if the person counts. I be as much afraid of the business skills as the stockman skills.

To build up calving skills use easy calving bulls if you have not calved cows before.. A two day old calf is a lot easier to adapt to a new feeding system than a three week old calf.

Milking is a repetitive process. Of you have a relief milker how long to train him in. After that hygiene goes a long way and knowledge about mastitis is a learning curve.

It's the business skill of handling a larger cash flow that could be as big a catch. A lad milking 60 cows this year could be turning over 150k here on a similar drystock farm maybe half that.

But costs are higher and you have to realise you have to spend but also have to manage costs if you want to maximise return

Hard one to put a figure on, going off 2020 accounts their was a 150 cows milked, with 60 acres of ground leased for 2 cuts of silage and 22 acres of maize contract grown, all in all this equates to circa 250 tons of imported dm of feed which with circa 1.8 ton of meal going into the cows here, would feed 75 cows a full tmr diet, so you can work it back that 75 cows is what I can carry here plus replacement heifers.

Total cost of imported feed was 60k, total milk sales from these 75 extra cows was 600,000 litres @ 34 cent was 204000 euro less 60k imported silage/maize and another 35k for meal, these ladies left a gross margin of 110k and then you take of your day to day running costs etc, and principal plus intrest payments of circa 20k yearly for infrastructure to facilitate these extra cows, net profit before depreciation/capital allowances extra was circa 750 euro a cow in 2020, if I was milking just the 75 I'd say around the same to be honest, but obviously my workload would be halved

Theirs no fortune been made here to be honest, but what has been achieved is a fairly well set up dairy unit, and alot of land reclaimed and drained that was growing the best of rushes

Where are you getting 750€/cow from ?

add in jays deprication (not a cash cost to the system, only used for tax purposes) at 51k he made 634/cow

id be quite the opposite system to jay but paying for every acre we’re farming between rent and mortgage, running a grass based spring calving system

our figure was 120€ /cow more and total milk sales weren’t as high

this is not a dig jay, you’re very clued in but I think you should reevaluate your production model/system

Don't use either of them. Just salmonella and rotavirus