Coincidence that!!!
A fierce coincidence 😂
160 cows between 3 families on mostly rented ground.... 🤔 The cows would want to be efficient in that case.
Was on that farm once …..serious operators and serious cows ……father is a mountain of knowledge when it came to cows and breeding …remember owners asking at end what we thought and any pointers we could giVe them …..our advisor scratched his head and said ….maby a few loads of filling for a few pot holes on road leading to farm 😀
That's fairly normal sucking up at an open day. I've had open days here and they're a great encouragement I find. I'd be the first person to see all the things wrong with my own place but when people come in and are in awe of the place it is pleasing.
Def no sucking up ….always great to see a good farm been ran very well whilst bucking the trend as to what we’re told we should be doing
Ya, very interesting for sure but 365 day milking and high inputs and high labour mask alot of the weaknesses.
Cost of production lower than the majority of the best ran simple spring calving - due to dilution that Teagasc won’t talk about
160 cows producing the same milk as 350 spring calving cows
every euro on infrastructure spend goes twice as far as only 1/2 the cows required for same volume of milk/ ie only 1 cow cubicle needed while spring men need 2
better for the environment- 106kg n produced to deliver 8500 litres while 2 spring calving cows emit 160kgs for same volume
i only use 25% of the fertiliser to deliver 1350000 litres compared to a 350xow spring calving system
less cows less antibiotic s etc etc
less bull calves
less ghg emissions as maize silage and brewers are the lowest ghg emitting feeds for cows
i could go on all night
To be fair 1/2 the cows is nonesense, most well run spring dairy farms are doing 500 -550 kg ms,
with the greatest of repect your cows are only doing 15-20% more in terms of milk solids and you have to milk all year. You are also taking no account of the land required to grow the imported feed.
There is alot of extra work in winter milk systems that to be honest you are badly paid for.
I am sure you are doing what is best for your farm but there are farms just as profitable running grass based systems that dont require anything like the labour input
Post a link there to the claim about maize and brewers being the lowest ghg feeds. That sounds completely made up
The average kg of milk sold from spring calving cows is 378kg ms sold when icbf don’t count cows changed from dairy to beef - oh yes the elephant in the room that icbf and ebi system won’t talk about or ban people from doing
Far less labour with 160 cows than there is with 350
in a few years we will possibly sell 750kg ms per cow- that will be twice the national average
That all makes sense in fairness. I'm a fan of less cows, more milk
Any comparsion should compare the most efficent operators of any system. Your cows simply are not producing twice what cows in a well run grass based spring calving system are producing or anywhere close to it
Again labour should be compared between efficent operators. A well run 160 cow spring calving dairy farm needs far less labour input.
The best of luck with your system its working well for you but its no better than a low input grass based system.
Seriously lad to get 750kg ms ud have to leave the cows in all the time i know a few gd holstein herds serious men to feed arent even getting 600kgms some as low as 500.
It’s with pleasure I can post this picture- teagasc have since taken it down from their website
Yeah but a lot of men don’t understand the fundamentals of dairying- for efficiency grass quality first then add quality feeds-
It is a brave man that would put their system of dairying up here. Always somebody ready knock you down.
Just don't mention EBI, Irish bulls or grass. Asked and you should be safe enough. 🤔
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀laughable
Have the first batch of conti heifers coming into the parlour in spring. Great looking heifers. Got the highest percentage of heifers to bulls using conti as well.
Ebi is designed in nz system, low milk low input. Most family farms don't have the land or appetite to milk 100s of cows thus preferring to milk 120 moderate to higher yielded. Ebi is lower on these farms so they don't pay much attention to it. Irish bulls are in a protected system. Alot of bulls cannot be sold outside ireland due to poor figures this is because along time ago ai companies figured out its more profitable to stud your own bull thanpay money for semen to be shipped from abroad. On the grass , everyone here grows grass, measures grass and tries their best to grow top quality silage, what we do say is that grass is not mana from heaven and there is a benefit buffer feeding with it to meet the animals nutritional requirements at certain times of the year or during extreme weather.
On the ICBF site checking bull EBI proofs, bulls with genomic proofs, the genomic portion of the proofs can vary from 10% to 35%. I presume the remainder of the proof is parent average. Why the difference, it seems to be random the genomic weighting.
How ?
you can’t go comparing the very best of one system against a different system but only use averages
There are pro/cons to all systems. If you milk cows all year round and calf cows in spring and autumn you will put in more hours of labour, it suits some farms but i think farms are badly paid fot the additional labour and effort
We sold 510 kg ms cow this year fed 800kg of concentrate, i dont think our system is better than anyone elses, but its not inferior either.
It’s a very tegasc answer there from Aidan ….or is it jack …less of 2 shites given either way ….article above and family in question show what can be done and achieved
If every farm costed labour etc properly it would be an eye opener …..tgeres far more way to milk cows profitably than what your saying
Happened me about 5 years ago, talk about the Spanish inquisition 😀😀
Your forgetting about gross income generated from livestock sales, probably generating 10 cent a litre plus in output across the milk sent in, our the equivalent of milking another 50 extra cows
I’m not questioning anyone’s ability or farming style. I’m saying you can’t compare the very best of one system against another and use the av figures for the system youre arguing against
alot of it is down to the person behind the system. 10 years ago we would have been doing 450 kgs ms in a spring and autumn calving system
now we’re selling 560-570 kgs every year in a fully spring milk system. You can’t compare the 2
I would much prefer the system we have now. Fully dry now till late Jan and get a nice break from it all and recharge the batteries. I could never see us going back to milking or calving year round
Agreed, it’s false logic to compare the specific to the general. However it’s no harm in this case because it shows what’s possible outside of the norm.
Even though I scoff at carbon emissions from Agriculture, it is interesting that it could be possible to go carbon neutral with Stan’s system.
I’m getting paid by companies that use my place as a carbon sink so that they can offset carbon emissions. I know it’s only a scam but I get a few bob from them all the same.
