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The dairy boom.Can we officially say its over

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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,867 Mod ✭✭✭✭K.G.


    Yes.but it depends scale and borrowing. You need 3 things to milk land,infrastructure and cows.ifyou haven't got at least 2 out of 3 without borrowing forget it



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,607 ✭✭✭JustJoe7240


    Do you mean Yes there's still opportunity? Or Yes the option is gone?



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 5,150 Mod ✭✭✭✭Siamsa Sessions


    I’m still trying to get builder quotes here for milking before I make any decision. So I’ve a vested interest in the price of milk.

    But if someone decided to convert just because of one good year, like last year - surely that’s not the best evidence or motivation.

    To use the financial terms, why would you buy in at the top of the market or when everyone was saying things could only go up or stay up for ever?

    Would it be like buying a house in 2007? (Which myself and Herself did!)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54 ✭✭1848


    Have to take a long term approach as new entrant. Most borrowings are over 10-15 year period. Used to reckon on €200-250K for start up say 80 cows. Problem is start up costs are gone well past that & interest rates have risen. Each situation is different. In case of father/son situation, maybe a need for one party to work off-farm for a few years. One or two good years at the start make a big difference - last few years were in that category.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭green daries


    Could well be the milk but just bare in mind coeliac disease. ....... obviously Could be nothing to do with it.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭green daries


    Ya if we could only manage it with everything we produce



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭green daries


    Ya agree happening me regularly now with anything more than a handful of porridge



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭green daries


    It's supposed to be good used as a salve or poltic on eczema I have heard also



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,867 Mod ✭✭✭✭K.G.


    I think the time to start up is gone unless you have the price of either the buildings and infrastructure or the cows and a fine tract of land.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,434 ✭✭✭cute geoge


    Why don't you lease a small dairy farm instead of going building a dairy unit.You could offset the cost by leasing some of your own ground tax free for 5 years!!



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,325 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,002 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    There are farmers in Ireland whose organic oats goes into making organic oat 'milk'😉.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,936 ✭✭✭mf240


    One good year is hardly a boom.

    The price will bottom out and recover eventually.

    If a lad was going to get into cows it would be easier handle salesmen in a downturn.

    If you can get in without taking on too much debt then its worth a chance. ( I would of said exact same , this time last year)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,293 ✭✭✭✭mahoney_j


    Last year was a complete freak year even with high fert and meal costs the milk cheque was so big it trumped it ….this year Is fairly humbling …..can’t see the same gra now for expansion or getting into milk ….landscape has and is changing …high interest rates …astronomical costs to do any building costs or even routine mantinance jobs around farm then throw in nitrates banding etc



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 879 ✭✭✭Pinsnbushings


    I think it will take until next spring before the euphoria built up over the last couple of years settle.. a neighbour spending 400k plus getting into milk, but they have alternative sources of income.. another man on smallish land base getting in down the road.

    Coming out of the Tullamore show yesterday, some were saying that would be the last on that site..500 cows to be milked there going forward. No idea if there is any truth in that



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,297 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    We tend to look at the farm as an island or this country. Some of the biggest factors of affecting margin happen outside the farm gate with commodities prices. We have a serious set of skilled farmers in this country who have a unique method of production compared to over 95% of dairy produced. Using this to our advantage will be vital in the next few year.

    There will be casualties over the next few year, some good new entrants will join, but their numbers will be low. Being flexible and able to adjust numbers by +/- 10% annually could be safest move some could make for the next few years



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,224 ✭✭✭charolais0153


    i know a few lads who are just out of college and getting into cows. If your young enough and have enough land theres no reason why you cant go at it



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,715 ✭✭✭TinyMuffin


    A life sentence.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 5,150 Mod ✭✭✭✭Siamsa Sessions


    I’d rule nothing out but I don’t think there’s any place around me that’s up for lease anytime soon. Plus I want to walk to the parlour (it’d be a 3-min walk from my front door) rather than get in a car and drive to it. I wouldn’t get the rent tax free either on my own ground but I like that outside the box thinking 😀

    That’s pretty much why I’d ignore last year. I’m trying to think in terms of the next 20 years and what I’ll be doing for those 20 years.

    I need to spend money on slurry storage. Full stop. My options are (a) milk 60 cows, (b) rear and fatten 70 calves/cattle and try to stay at the off-farm job, or (c) forget about farming, sell the place (I wouldn’t lease it again), and go back to the Mon-Fri 9-5 that I can’t stand. The slurry storage for (a) and (b) will cost roughly the same.

    I’m 46 and I’ve 20 years of full time work left. I’m open to any other options people suggest but at the moment, option (a) is the one I’m aiming for for several reasons. If the finances add up - that goes without saying. I might be a bit of an eejit but I’ve a young family so I can’t afford to be a complete eejit 😀

    Sorry for getting slightly philosophical about this and thanks for reading - writing things out helps get things someway straight in my head.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 5,892 ✭✭✭bogman_bass




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,016 ✭✭✭weatherbyfoxer


    Would you reckon you wouldn't need an off farm job along with 60 cows?..Most posts I see on here are talking 75-80 cows for a living?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 22,698 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    Rear and fatten cattle and hold onto the day job. Hardest part is building the shed. A decent straight 4 bay slatted, 9 or 10' deep tank. 16' slats. Run back off one bay with area to be scraped will hold 30+ bucket fed weanlings. The rest of the shed will hold the finishers. You would probably nearly get away with a 3 bay designed like that but it would be tight unless you slaughtered a good few off grass at 20 months.

    It's impossible to make money out of beef unless you finish them yourself.

    Slava Ukrainii



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 5,150 Mod ✭✭✭✭Siamsa Sessions


    Income is only half the equation. Outgoings will be the deciding factor for the financial side of the decision, which I guess will depend mostly on the cost of slurry storage in my case and the related loan repayments.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 261 ✭✭Fox Tail


    Thats the way the world is going.

    Meat products will reduce in consumption in first world countries.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 261 ✭✭Fox Tail


    You dont need to milk it to drink it.

    These products are certainly becoming more and more popular. Plenty of cafes using them also.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 5,150 Mod ✭✭✭✭Siamsa Sessions


    Again, I wouldn’t rule it out. But you’d probably have to get on better with the partner than you do with the wife.

    I phoned the land mobility crowd (think that’s the name?) but never heard anything back from them.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,867 Mod ✭✭✭✭K.G.


    Don't ignore one important fact if you re considering starting milking ,government and indeed European policy is firmly going against you.i would caution anyone borrowing on the strength of derogation type stocking rate.i think 200 will be the next step or abolition completely. Why pay to get rid of cows when they can do it a one stroke of a pen and seem like carbon hero's as well



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,965 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    You need to keep an eye on the land mobility section in the farmers journal

    Every farm gets put up on it



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭tesla_newbie


    I live in rural Ireland and read this farming forum now and again, a good few folks including myself are allergic to cows milk , I end up coughing and wheezing if I eat dairy, I use hazelnut milk as I hate the other alternatives , oat milk isn’t an option as I’m also gluten intolerant

    plenty go for vegan milk to be trendy clowns but it’s necessary for some



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