Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

If he was able to get in at his predicted 3k a cow, its a easily repayable loan in fairness, worry would be economically you get a sharp downturn in the states finances and like the last crash, tams funding gets chopped straight away, if the project goes over budget and tams wasn't available your up at 5-6k a cow in debt and the viability of the move is alot shakier

I have other incomes other than the farm itself.have my own machines to do everything bar reseeding and hedgecutting.I do work contracting for a few neibouring farm nothing major but still a nice little earner along with being able to do my own work.We have a simple airbnb in part of the farm house here that requires very little input only for key hand over and cleaning.Also have a small peice of land leased of industrial use too

Im looking at getting max return for farming my land here as it requires the most time and regardless of system the yard needs investment if I plan on stocking my ground to the optimum level.

My wife and I work as a team with the different enterprises here.She is extremely competent with stock and really enjoys working with them.We also have only 1 child who is 11 and is showing huge intreast in stock for the past couple years.

The concern i have is being tied to 20k per year for 15 years to a system i have no business experience of whatsoever.Like I have ofter took loans for machinery or stock in the past an no issues but this just seems daunting

If everyone is on board and yes can pull money for yere selves from elsewhere for probably two years then I say it's very doable your not going to have any income for two years from the farm I think anyway. Plus with outside income I think it’s more likely you can clear a portion of the debt quicker to ease things payment wise to be honest from the sounds of your farming abilities now i think you would make a tasty dairy farmer/farmers. If its really what you want to do go for it baldheaded.😁

Intetest tax deductible also a help

Id be confident enough to be able to pay back the loan quicker than the 15 years. Id be hoping to buy British x holstein type cow/heifers and aim to sell 6000 liter avrage per cow off 1 ton of nuts and grass/bale silage...its what id be aiming for anyway

Not too push on breed per say..if I can get my stock from farms consistently doing 500-550kg solids off a mainly grass based diet they will tick the box.not ruling out a few crossbred or British x cows but extreme Jersey or holsteins won't suit my system i think

The main reason that the dairy side of thing looks like a good option here it it allows me to invest in upgrading the whole yard to a level that's required and will still be making profit.My current system just doesn't have the repayment ability to expand the yard and still leave viable profit for the work the system requires.

Sounds good. Just remember €6/kg of milk solids means a bull calf worth €60 more needs to make up for 10kgms. 95% of lads have the same “system”. Sometimes the other 5% of people are fairly noisy and some of the 95% are pretending it isnt where they make their money. That is Maximising milk from grazed grass. Just some do it differently depending on their setup.

Out of curiosity what is the obsession with modernising your facilities? From a return on capital point of view it’s probably the least effective thing you can do. I would agree if it’s a pride/mental thing but be under no illusions. Cows are to make money but youcan’t do them half heartedly.

What about cull cow value, it "could" be argued that the cow type your advocating is a 450-500kgs mature cow, so on a good day might kill out at 220kgs deadweight, a good hol/fr cow north of 300kgs so by your estimations assuming a 20% replacement rate the jersey cow needs to do 20kgs more kilos of ms yearly to make up for lost beef value...

I’m not advocating a 450-500kg cow. I’m saying %s are the soft money in dairy farming for any new entrant. Very few new entrants will have 20% replacement rates cause they’re building numbers. You have to drive the Yaris before the Passat….

Both have their place and long term the Passat is the car to have economically and for comfort but a Yaris is the sensible thing to have when you’re starting fresh with no experience

unreal …..of course they matter …no point having your 5% fat anc 4% protein averages if it’s only doing 430/450 kgms on a normal sized farm …no pint having extreme litres with crap% either unless a big liquid contract …you need balance not extremes

The modern ebi cow is a black and white jersey the calves are very poor from some type is very poor same with feet fertility is the only thing thats gd milk is average gd but very variable.A gd british friesian wont be bet if can get gd ones

On track here to do circa 7600-7800litres at 4.55%bf and 3.6pr if they match last years autumn/winter production, international genetics are rapidly gaining ground on the gold standard 5f 4pr that the best crossbreed herds in the country are doing, granted the cows here are buffered with tmr year round but its really paying given where meal costs are versus grain prices