Obviously a story behind it so, I isn't it nice to have a 123 acre out farm I'd only love tho have that as my home block..
They had 3 out farms for sale earlier in the year - 123acres, 60a and 29a.
https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/farm-property/leinster-farm-sales/a-trio-of-westmeath-outfarms-in-tip-top-condition-41655923.html
EU proposed permit system for farms with 150 livestock units and over.
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/ireland-tells-eu-that-farm-permit-system-will-be-onerous/
The seasons seem to be messed up the last few years in our area at least where you used to get may to October where you'd always have good quality grass in front of the cows and a few kgs of nuts and a bit of buffer would see you flying it, the issue now is barely half the diet in june/july/August is grazed grass and at that the quality is crap....
Fertilizer at even a thousand a ton is a non-issue where your able to get the response from it and grass growth but mid summer here at least 20k was spent on 3 rounds of fertiliser on the grazing block and it was a waste of time given what grass was grown....
You take a herd size like above and if your having to buffer cows with 8 plus kgs of dm for most of the summer where you'd usually get away with 2-3kgs of meal, and are still going with normal rates of fertilizer at 1k a ton some savage bills start to get raked up, combined with sourcing enough forage to keep cows feed of the grazing block
But is the grass system that has done very well last few years coming under pressure.if nitrogen stays expensive or becomes unavailable for a period will we be able sustain stocking rates.if stocking rates fall it will squeeze tye margins on farms and also I would question will cows preform on lower nitrogen grass as protein is lower.the operation that is for sale there would really be operating at extreme s of the limits and maybe there was a thought that the future may be a little precarious and it is a good time to exit
Sign of the times I guess. Just not worth the hassle anymore. Owning a large farm and firing in staff is not as passive as it used to be. John A. Woods in cork had a fine farm for years and well bred cows and they sold out a few years ago.
They've heard of a rental property coming for sale...
OK I know nothing about the farm just saw the 600 cows in 265 acres. Sure who knows maybe they have other plans for the money.
True, but who knows the circumstances behind these things.
Was like a merry go round on any of the farms I was on out their re staff turnover, which came with it lots of “sick days” and missed morning milkings, had to run one 700 cows herd basically single handed for two weeks when what was meant to be a team of five people ended up been myself and a junkie bogan, that was as much use as a blind dog, it opened my eyes to how quickly the sh**t hits the fans in larger herds when staff levels are threadbare
Ireland isn’t as bad yet but the pool of young people looking towards dairying as a career as a employee is fairly small, and like you said theirs a lot easier and cleaner work out their at the minute
Also talking to a lad earlier this year who does water testing for the EPA on streams etc. back home in North Kildare - he says they are already working on a licence system for Dairy Farms over a certain stocking rate in "problematic" catchments like the IPC licence the intensive Pig sector needs to operate. Said the EU has basically run out of patience with Teagascs etc. failing efforts on the matter.
Last farm I worked on in Oz had to sell up when the farm manager quit. Could not get a manager or workers to run it. Owner kept some land for beef cattle. Spends a lot of time fishing now! Even labouring in construction is easier and you make more money over less hours.
I think theres a fair bit of ground rented on mp
spollens the concrete company own it, money isn’t an issue
6 winding hilly miles. Bit far for me maybe
How far away is the land your looking at
Why sell at all. You'd have a fine income just renting the place. What could you reinvest in at the moment.
The war in russia probably knocked them about too. Empty cows with lots of milk are selling well at the moment.
Bord bia are getting acess to aim information now, if they decide not to certify anyone over a certain stocking rate them even if not drawing payments you will have to comply.
Why the need to milk 600 cows on 265 acres, wouldn't a good 200 cow herd be far easier managed there and the owner would have a good living and room to employ 1 person on a decent salary aswell I'd say.
On the bands yes directive comes from Europe but a few groups and one main one determined Ireland’s outcome ….they didn’t seek any widespread input into ways this could be mitigated against ….various different groups and individuals made submissions but they weren’t listened to ….smaller fragmented family farms were treated shabbily as bands as now affect them disproportionally …..if over or near 6300 now you may just cull the ones with enough milk for the tae and drive on as efficiently as u can ,milking less cows and doing more milk per cow just seems to be looked down on for some reason …..a lot of the reason why bar grass and form filling im turning away from Tegasc .advice for me has and is too one dimensional twosrds kiwi dairying
People can forget you can grow a business laterally. While everyone else chases numbers. You could be chasing holding onto more of the gross margin in ways that others couldn't or wouldn't be able to do.
Is it good enough to grow a tillage crop? Minimal time input and a crop in your pit each autumn.
They would still be adding to your kgs of N,
If you don't draw any sfp, don't submit any bps at all, their is no penalties, but the cheque every autumn is hard for lads like yourself to give up
Distance and workload are a big turn off. Maybe I could keep the maps and let the land. I grew up with an outside block and I know all about the extra work and costs. They are great to take pressure of the milking block though.
The thing is at the moment I have 70 ish cows, although I have facilities for 100. Will have to reduce to 60 and probably 50 in 2024. 50 cows may not be worth 7days a week for me. I must look into the penalties for going over 250kg.
Technically is it possible to buy in cull cows in lets say September and finish them over the winter, would this bring up your average number of cows for the year and therefore reduce the average litres per cow keeping some farms under 6500kg?
Best of luck with your new project. Have you considered the extra workload, burning time and money travelling back and over to that extra bit of land.
Think you should also have a chat with your accountant before selling rental property, revenue could do well out of it. I think the "wife" would be doing you a favour if she refuses to sell.
Think about that one for a while
Dry off dates has nothing to do with the banding
it’s going to be calculated on litres sold to coop on coop report divided by av cow numbers for the year
If I was you straights I would take the wife out for dinner this evening and tell her your sorry and keep the rental cause the reality is that farming in Ireland could go either way so I wouldn't be making any rash decisions based on banding. It's like when the quotas went everyone was freaking out about trying to stay under but the majority of us went over and paid the superlevy and I didn't see any dairy farmer dying of the hunger
