Milk Price III

I was at an ICMSA meeting last night and they are hoping/predicting that the milk price should stay around 45c up to June.

I'd swear I never saw fellas so pissed off and sick of dairy farming. Morale seems to be very low at the moment.

TBH it's you are at the apples and oranges. First off it was heifers both myself and @farmertipp referenced. Next on nitrates a mid rate cow at 92kgsN is equivlent to 1.8 heifers. Turnover would be 2600. You will not need to pare there hooves for lameness, bring them in twice a day to milk them lose 1k say every 5 years between cull and replacement cost. No electricity every day for 9 months to milk them. They will not need a cubicle to lie on for the winter or a scraper to clean behind them. No milking parlour fixed costs and the rations will be coming in 20-30% cheaper than dairy rations. Ya they will need a bit of extra straw from 21 days to 35-40 days old but the way things are going dairy farmer could be keeping them another 7-10 days within a couple of years.

Workload is significantly different as are costs.

The question I answered regarding cost of production, was where the farmer owed the land was carrying very little debt, was at a relatively low stocking rate below 170kgs/ HA. Big difference where the farm is still needing investment, has rented land and has a lot of labour saving investment.

Ya good return. Many are forgetting tgat comparing to 10+ years ago, a HE bull calf leaving a farm was making 300 on average at 3 weeks, now they are back around 200 average. HE heifers were making 200-220, last spring somewhere around 100 was the average.

Beef price base varied from3.5-4/ kg this year it was hardly below 5/kg. This has transformed tge profitability of beef. Yes there is an issue with some of the quality in breeding but beef is profitable.

Mentioning labour cost is like mentioning the holocaust in a debate the person mentioning has lost the argument. I deal with the rest.

One was on ration 7 and the other 10 weeks. Technically they were getting 3 kgs but being the smallest in the bunch I doubt if the were eating that. But we give it they were 3kgs by 60 days 180 kgs@ sub 30c/ kg 54 euro. Dosing I buy Bimectin plus@ 175 for 1.25L (75/ half litre)and ordinary Bimectin for 30/ half L. They got a shot of multimin as well. They were small cattle so 7.50 for the lot. Herd test 4.50. Transport from the mart and to the factory 10 each way 20 in total

I bought them early March they were in a paddock with a bale for three weeks with a few more. They ate half a bale each so 16 euro in that time. I not dusting the grass with cocaine so I generally allow 100 euro for grazing even though I doubt if they have eaten that as they were light cattle but I will let it at 100 euro. That is 186 euro I will put in 40 euro for miscellaneous costs.

Taking a farmer that had a farm well set 10+ years ago with an ancillary beef operation, who did not expand completely into dairying comparing to a farmer that went with his land 100% milking cows

When you factor in the extra costs, workload and the way cull and calf prices reduced, is there that much extra profitability in it if he has some hired labour input.

5 years ago I would have ( and did say) 100% dairy operation, now I thing the numbers have swung the other way unless you have significant land rental costs. Even simple thing where you are borderline on banding finishing a few cull cows can significantly change the economics of the business.

It's like the magic cows 🐄........... you're very familiar with that cconcept your not the first genius to put on a pair of wellies and call yourself better than the rest .…