Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Theirs two local men where its a lack of funds, both would be considered top top farmers, court the media etc, but at the end of the day cashflow is king and drying of cows in November and not having a penny coming in till the following march/april really has stung these lads this year.

Any operation where their is 150 plus cows been milked with borrowings/staff etc, need a minimum of 10-15k a month just to keep fixed costs paid and up to date, last backend their was no rainy day fund was built up and now their simply running out of cash

might mean you have the price of a few load of bales come March and your own stocks ran out, theirs some mad stuff going on around us locally grazing wise on poor ground and no silage left, paddocks are been destroyed

milked through de winter and it saved me between cows selling for good money in February and pushing out the bills iykwim. Co op didn't hassle for money when there was steady milk cheques.Still tight regardless but God only knows if I hadn't kept milking.

Alot bigger issue looming re the exchangeable bond the co-op used to part finance the plc buyout, the plc then going and doing a share-buy back shemce which has inflated the plc share-price meaning the above bond will be cashed in as plc shares rather than the loan been repayed, probably taking a 70 million euro loss, compared to if they had funded the money through a loan

Was it tirlan that ran the webinar. Joe pattan was cautious about buying lots of feed incase a couple of dry days come. No one bit of advice going to suit every farm. Have plenty of silage but barring a few paddocks second rotation will be tight going unless heat comes aswell.

Patton did say one thing in fairness about getting away from the farm early if you're getting stressed.

I presumed he meant not paying for spring slurry work for a few months.

valve everything in spring …milk thru last few years …oad from late November to when calving starts mid Jan ….the workload is over exaggerated your in yard anyway milking adds maby 30/40 minutes to day at most …cull cows come into nice ball of money from mid January and with heifers synched the stale cows guide them into parlour

it pays and I’ve a margin and that’s even before any other benefits …no Maize fed at that stage that’s fed from mid February into summer when it’s needed and the response is there ……really good bales and 4 kg in parlour …very simple ……good quality grass and best quality forage I can make makes system hum ….1.5/1.8 tonne meal fed but majority of cows are bred to produce good volume of milk backed with %

Every business needs cash coming in all year round. Can you imagine your local grocery shop shutting up for 2 months in winter. Any good milky cow not in calf will generate 8 to 10 Euros a day over the winter and probably increase in value by 500 to 600 Euros over the same time period. Then you can time it so your in calf cows are dry for 6 weeks, maybee 8 weeks for second calvers or thin cows. Long dry periods are a disaster. Start to dry them off as others calve in the Spring. It is not for everyone. You must have top quality feed in the yard, good silage, maize or beet or wholecrop. Possibly crimp or some other pitted feeds. If you don''t have the skills to grow crops why not do a deal with a tillage man to supply the feed.

good quality silage and nuts in the parlour will suffice for milking over the winter… you dont need to complicate things with maize wholecrop beet etc.. cows should get 8wks dry and heifers 10wks.. have done the 6wks dry its not enuf.. you'll get away with it once but not every year.. cows need a break..

i see the manager in castleisland mart there in livestock live tell a few of the jobbers no talking across the ring or the door if they don't fair play to him no messing about there