darragh_haven wrote: » Does anyone really foresee a milk price slump? I can't see it in the immediate future, but maybe......
bob charles wrote: » not even if there was a milk price slump?
bob charles wrote: » did you foresee whats happened in beef? it takes very little to upset the apple cart, I doubt there will be a price fall but with inputs rising on an hourly basis surely you would need a couple of more cents per ltr over last year just to stand still
stanflt wrote: » if the price drops you have to produce more to make the same income if price drops and you decrease output you will double your debt potential-learned this in first economics class
Tipp Man wrote: » Thats not strictly true though 1) if you increase supply then you increase the amount of the oversupply which further depresses the market price and/or extends the length of time it takes for the price to recover (on a world market the individual obviously isn't producing enough to make a difference but if everybody operated like this then ...) 2) It depends on your cost structure and the relationship between fixed and variable costs. If you have say 10 cent fixed and 10 cent variable then if milk price falls to say 18c producing extra milk increases your losses. but if your fixed costs are say 19c with 1 cent variable then selling milk at 18c reduces your losses
stanflt wrote: » who in there right mind would be suppling milk at a loss?
leg wax wrote: » i will breed from all 3 of them ,:D, cant wait to see what comes off the bull ,i should have 20 or so parts this spring and i am thinking of going all part if i am happy with them.
bob charles wrote: » May I ask what the break even price for most guys supplying milk. I didnt think there was such a big margin between break even and current price. biggest danger if price drops doing the above the cost of your system can rocket as getting more out of each unit of production will require much more inputs driving up your break even price.
stanflt wrote: » around 20c litre
bob charles wrote: » Ah right, your principle would be right so if milk went down to around 25 - 24ish but after that one would become a busy fool. You boyos milking must be making serious wedge at 10c net profit per ltr
Juniorhurler wrote: » I would say (and I have never been in milk production) that there is a good living in it but no fortune. It is a seriously labour intensive business and from a different business (now gone) I know that nothing eats money quicker than hired labour. I have a good off farm job and a suckler herd which is low margin. U would probably have the grazing platform around the yard for 70 - 80 cows and a silage base on an out farm. I still wouldn't dream of swapping despite sucklers being so low margin. The dairy farmer deserves his wedge. I had 6 cows valve over a day and a half last week. The amount of time this took with getting calves up and running was huge, without having to milk twice a day.
bob charles wrote: » Was the 20c per ltr not after paying for labour, either self or hired :eek:
reilig wrote: » This straw feeding of incalf cows is working out well. No problems calving and calves appear to be pretty hardy. I have only one complaint - the cows on the straw aren't making a big bag of milk before they calve and its very hard to judge them - especially the pedigrees who don't normally make a big bag of milk anyway.
freedominacup wrote: » If you're sure of your dates you could put a group of springers a week to 10 days from calving together and give them a shake of meal. It'll help keep their energy/blood sugars up for calving and might bring in the milk a bit better. They'd only want to be in the last 10 days before claving or you'll start undoing your good work with the straw diet.
keep going wrote: » so bob will give up tearing around the country assembling cattle for larry goodman or who ever to rip you off(if they havent done so already they soon will) and buy a nice little herd of cows and take it easy and make a nice handy living;)
Timmaay wrote: » I think just like 2010 was a good year, and everyone forgot 2009 moving on into 2011 which rocketed over, same thing will happen in 2014! With it being soo close to the end of quotas, and the country awash with cows alot of people will probably struggle to stay under. Of course this is assuming that no other big event happens, like the wet last summer, or a world crash in milk prices etc.
delaval wrote: » Jesus no he'd have to sell the diet feeder:)
whelan1 wrote: » had a guy ring me last night looking for biestings, i keep some in the freezer, he said he had a heifer calved yesterday morning and the calf hadnt drank yet, he said he would get the biestings this morning, so calf wont have had a drink for a full 24 hours after it was born:eek::eek: not a great start for it
just do it wrote: » Out of interest, how much straw are you giving them? Mixed with silage?
reilig wrote: » They're getting a bale of straw for every 3 bales of silage. So 25%. When they calve, they go onto good silage and they get a bit of fodder stretcher meal.
whelan1 wrote: » our vet always says they should be on a rising plane of nutrtion for a week before calving, we give them the dairy mix - silage, straw and meal-
reilig wrote: » He'll be dead this morning so. Remember as a young lad of 8 or 10, my parents were gone to a wedding and we had a heifer calved out in the field. Calf was up and sucking after 20 minutes. But about 12 hours later he was down. Put the heifer into a crush to see what the milk was like and it turned out that she had none at all. Calf died. Expensive lesson for a young lad, but a valuable one too. Always get the beastings into the calf asap. Marty lenehan who has the "Better Farm" in sligo told us on his farm walk that he stomach tubes a pint of beastings into every calf that is born on his farm within 20 minutes of them hitting the ground regardless of how strong the calf is. Then he leaves it to mother nature - he said that he rarely has to ush a calf up to suck after that.
