Diversify as much as you can. Only a certain amount of time left before the 200 cow man will be the norm.
Definitely not sure you can have 300 ebi plus cows doing 900kg ms
A red fr cow /calf is always the best to sell
The cumulation of all inputs rising the past 3 years has lead to break-even prices heading into the 40's, even taking something like dairy chemicals present day, with chlorine been banned and what it's costing just for the above combined with the requirements for hot water to keep parlours right is insane....
For a herd sending a million litres, back in 2017/2018 combined parlour running costs for electricity and dairy chemicals etc where probably averaging under a cent a litre, present day going of 2023 costings its at circa 2.5 cent a litre here , having to use the likes of serpent at 100 euro for 20l litres and descaler everyday for the morning wash at 500 euro for a 200 litre barrel, plus a doubling/tripling of electricity prices really squeezes things
Vetinary costs with vaccinations/callouts etc is another area where what's was a 6-8k bill annually now is up at 13-15k, had to buy a double shot of salmonella vaccince last week for the herd and was charged 2400 euro for 360 doses, few bottles of antibiotics and parfour and their was 3100 euro spent that morning, unless milk stays above 40c of a average going forward the profitability/long term prospects aren't good
Anyone remember how the high the milk price was in 07-08?
I know 09 went to 17 cent. But from vague memory I think milk was 45 cent ish. Now if its below 45 cent I'm under pressure anyway.
Also I remember when quota went lads used to annoy me saying anything over 20 and I'm making money. You don't hear that talk any more.
Bit of a rant
Absolutely no offence on this but milking times are just habits nothing wrong with 7 am 3/4 pm milking time and been finished out of yard by 6 bar some days at busiest time of year .milking is first and last job of day ……working off farm thought me valuable lesson of what a defined working day is
So the two are not mutually exclusive then you say
Depends on the cow yield but you can definitely go less than the 12 hour split 9/10 would be my limit
Atm milking here could be any time depending on how the afternoon as gone
but I definitely see no issue with the longer time between evening milking and the following morning
Start milking around 6.15 am and around 3.15 pm. Finished up after checking outfarm definitely before 5pm. Milking doesn't take long now in new parlour.
Our co op news letter this month has a section about shortening the working day, starting milking at 7am and then 3pm again, with no effect on SCC and kgs of solids.
Do many do this.
I'm a 12/12 between milking, more bad habits than anything. its a fair gap 16hrs at peak milk
€3,125 for top red hol heifer in new ross today
They were but they were high ebi with milk and type
Great that's working for you be all the better if it worked for the rest also (it would solve a hell of an issue )but its cow size I'm wondering about
They can and now do also but it used to be by accident really. Some of the best cows here had minimal numbers some in the single digits
I'm killing beef breed cross steers off crossbred cows at 20-22 months myself for a couple of years now, bought direct from farm. No problem getting to 300kg carcass and fattened on the smell of grass. They're great wee beef animal and the fact that lads dont value them as calves makes it all the better. They leave a few more pound after them than the SimLim sucklers that were here before.
Pride and opinion are two very bad profit killers in the beef game.
Could well be true. The lads with high EBI stock in place probably wouldn't need to be buying cows in mid Tipp mart in February.
Spending silly money on 'good cows with milk' in a mart says more about the buyer than the stock.
Can’t BF and Hol cows have high EBI too?
Genuine question.
We’re they not high ebi stock ?
There was a hell of a sale for dairy cows in mid tipp mart today
there seems to be a massive trend now- good cows with milk are averaging twice as much as high ebi and xbred stock
I have to try it, guy shoots deer here gave me loads and he shoots on de land here no fuss. The calf is meant to be the best so I'm told
There wasn't much highbred vigor there...
Do you like the deer I only ever had a piece of steak of one ...or that's what I was told anyway
After talking to a couple of new ones the other day I don't think they are capable of thinking anything else.
Put a high ebi stock bull here on the heifers for one cross back just to clean up after ai and his heifers calving down last year and this year are a foot on average smaller height wise, their tanks of heifers in-fairness as he had a touch of br fr, in him, and will cross back nice to a good holstein but how badly their type was affected with just one cross was hard to believe
Bought a ninja air fryer and a slow cooker. Money well spent, have very few take aways, the timers are great as no risk of burning the dinner (once you know the correct amount of time). We bought a smart plug for the slow cooker so that can be turned on or off when we're not there.
Killed an empty heifer last year and some deer also in the freezer. Really saves on the butcher bill.
They will never change it until they capitulate that the whole set up of cow type was a mistake. The Jersey crosses were a really really bad base but the little ebi cows used back on these are a disaster.
Is it true that cows are gone as small as lads are saying to me. (I wouldn'tbe in yards to see them).
Hardly overwhelming support with a 55% response rate from the most optimistic suppliers. Ticking a box is one thing, putting your hand in a pocket is another story altogether for those lads.
I'd say teagasc hardly believe that "solution" themselves
