Tell Us all about it now sure. I'm interested to know…
I'm not. I couldn't care less. 🤣😎
In fairness he mentioned his home situation before with a deceased parent at a young age.
We'll all mock one another on here. But between bits and pieces let slip we'll mostly respect one another. Most on here have done the hard yards in life.
I will when I get the violin back.
H 😄 😆
I seen tom Pemberton saying the dry cows go in with the milkers a fortnight before calving to get them on milkers diet. Is this common practice or a good idea? Is there that much benefit to it? Also I presume they aren't getting dry cow minerals for that fortnight, is that a potential problem? Im fairly sure he gives calcium boluses to anything out for calving.
I don't know what you would want a violin for to tell us how you bought a farm.
Your 100 percent right lad. I see loads that started asvcheap as posdible working in misery ever year spending to improve conditionds for man and cow .
I’ve said it to him before about it. Seems to get an awful lot of milk fever, he’s always bottling cows
Don't Mind milk fever in autumn calvers but there's a problem if you're getting it in the spring
Gave up watching him years ago. So they go through the parlour? Giving close up cows a diluted milk cow ration is a well established thing but not mixing cows. A separate precalving group. Avoid mixing cows close to calving with milking cows at all costs
One could easily get milked by accident or anything.
As far as i can make out they go through the parlour. Remember years ago here the milkers were in the yard and the dries were in the 'lower yard". One gate separating the 2 yards. Only gate in ever seen here with 2 chains!
In fairness he wouldn't have a typical farm that youd see here either. Cows seem to be doing well. Anyone else draw milk straight from the cow into your morning coffee?
Dunno what it is with milk fever here. Seem to get maybe 2 in a row, than nothing for ages and might get another 2 in a row. Some people seem to have alot of trouble with it.
"Anyone else draw milk straight from the cow into your morning coffee?"
No, we don't have the cow in the kitchen anymore!
As my mother on law is fond of warning;
"When poverty comes in the door, love goes out the window"!
That was my mother's saying as well
Yea it's all well and good saying money isn't everything, that's alright till you need to put food on the table.
'your health is your wealth'. Again, that's alright till your sick and need a minimum of 60 euro to see a gp.
Usually, it's the people with plenty of disposable income than can ryme of these sayings.
Try living on the breadline.
We've lived on the breadline, know all about it. There are ways of putting food on the table, there's a difference between saying We've nothing to eat and ordering a takeaway and making do with what's in the presses or freezer. Every house will have something put away somewhere for an emergency, even the box with the coins in it can get pulled out here to make ends meet. Sell some stuff that kids dont use anymore. It's how you deal with situations that makes the difference. Most gps will give you credit if you tell them the story or go to a and e and it can be paid later. I'll still say your health is your wealth as if you're dead you dont have to worry about it. When daughter was small she wasnt very well and needed alot of gp visits, no free care at that stage, all visits had to be paid for. At least 2 visits a month and some hospital stays
The simple facts are 75cows at good performance is 400000litres.as a given average margin before capital costs is maybe 10 cent ,the repayments on 300 k over 10 years wipes out any income.going for a longer repayment time could be worse as it's impossible to judge the margin in in longer term and it has consistently dropped over the last 100 years.just for reference the margin on milk 20 years ago was 50 % now it's closer to 20 % give or take
That's very true. A set of timber swings with slides in a garden is €1200. The story of the man on his death bed saying I wish I worked less is countered with the waster alcoholic on his deathbed who also died penniless who I bet would say I wish I worked some more to help my family.
Ah come on now, there is no need for dairy farmers to be pleading poverty.
On owned land, a well run dairy farm over the last five years on average would easily be over 20 c/litre margin before capital repayments. The interest would already be included. A lot of farms in 2025 were near 70c/litre gross output.
I do not think repayments over 10years is sustainable. Repayments of 36k a year or 3k per month @4% interest rate. Ya on a longer term loan you can pay off a lump of it in a very profitable year.
Thats where my issue is with borrowing alot of money. Theres abit land going to come on the market shortly near me. I was doing sums in my head. Id basically be under pressure every year until I retire to fund it. For what? What's the point of having a profitable year to make no extra money? Iykwim
My kids are too young to know whether they'd farm or not. And I dont think id even want them to stay in the country the way its going!
I be holding off buying expensive land at present. Prices are not sustainable. If a bit us value ya but silly prices at present
Valid points.
But we should be careful taking any deathbed wisdom too seriously. I can only imagine the mindset would be different at that stage no matter what had gone before and the advice would be of limited value.
Buying in good genetics I would consider 400,000 litres not good enough on 75 cows. It's a little over 5300 litres a cow. You would want to be aiming for 1000 litres more to maximize the 92kg band per cow.
As an average 10 cent isn't far away from it.70!!!!!.the average for our group was around 55 and that's in west cork coops.what made alot of things look good was the beef value side of things.anything that doubles in value in 12 months never lasts.
The problem is will you access those genetics starting up. If you can it will it cost 500/cow extra. As well startups have a higher percentage of heifers in the herd. 50%+ compared to.15-20%. I was allowing 5.5k liters in my calculations.
I did similar calculations recently for land beside me that I used have notions of buying. But the sums don’t come close to adding up for me either.
