Dairy Farming General

frazzledhome wrote: »

They've contracted their milk to them, I think you can work out the reason for the SL deduction. Can't have your cake and eat it.

I really cannot understand what a coop shareholder supplying milk is thinking by not signing a MSA.

If your not signing one and refusing not to your mad not to leave. There's no other way about this.

For every 1000 litres supplied its€20, so every week is €140 per 1000 litres per week supplied you're without. That's 40 average cows at the moment. For 80 its €280/ week:(

Thats a tidy sum frazz, but do you think this is at the expense of your milk price or from investors!! Would you prefer to be just paid for your milk? Or build up shares?

Mulumpy wrote: »

I think relations have soured so can't see any takeovers happening for a while. Only possibility is in the liquid milk end of things.

What dairygold offered was NOT a takeover mulumphy ,that's what was put out first to shareholders and rep committee.we were told it was a cash only offer but back tracking had to be done when digging was done and questions asked that it was a cash plus shares offer for a merger

I do wonder that the co-ops aren't providing free feed silos and fertiliser spreaders to us, as an incentive to make us buy inputs from them.

Seems only fair, when we have to buy them shiny great processing plants in order to get them to buy our milk.

Cull cow? Carryover who never got dried off?

frazzledhome wrote: »

Bit of a Wtf moment here this am. We're finished calving since last week of April so you can imagine my surprise when I was collecting cows this am to find a Hereford bull calf sucking a cow in the paddock.

Now to register??????? Doh!!

nice handy beer money:)

frazzledhome wrote: »

But aren't "we" the co op?

We are, in the simplest sense.

But there is a much more complex web of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the typical modern Irish creamery (even before we get into the related parties / plc structures) than was typical in the old fashioned co-operative organisation.

The co-ops seek to enforce (sometimes by means of a bonus) an exclusive right to every farmer's milk supply. They also seek investment by way of shareholding, purportedly in order to increase either handling capacity or value achieved for milk sold.

And they seek to tie farmers to purchasing inputs from them, by means of bonus payments etc.

In many cases they also seek to exploit their monopoly positions as first purchasers and collectors of milk (sometimes jointly with other co-ops). I daresay there are many people who in a practical sense can only supply milk at all if they accept the terms dictated by a single co-op.

None of these point to a healthy situation going forward for farmers. There are far too many conflicts of interest and strategy, between co-op managers & farmers, old and new shareholders, agreement signers and free agents, related party manufacturers etc. ... all of these things arose for good reasons, and with the best intentions. But when the sh***t hits the fan it will be impossible to untangle who paid for the risk and who could or should take the rewards & the losses.

Every farmer should be free to sign up to the most demanding supplier agreement and purchasing agreement if the terms suit his business - hell, if he wants to, he should get a salary from the co-op and a company car with a small bonus for milk produced, as some chicken & pork producers do.

But by the same token any farmer who needs the co-op to collect milk should be able to sell that milk, preferably at some kind of "national pool" price which can be set between the co-ops, with no strings attached. That way the co-ops legal status & duties as first purchasers of milk would be satisfied, and those who choose to play dice with the co-op board over the bells and whistles of a contract, input purchases, etc. can do so knowing exactly what premium over the base price they are getting in return for their commitment.

frazzledhome wrote: »

No she was dried. We recon brought out by mistake with a group of calved cows. What astonishes me is that she's milking a few weeks now and considering this we didn't have a pos antibiotic test. Very lucky

If you fell out of a plane you'd go up.

what routine does everyone have with milking. we pre-spray, wipe, put on cluster, dip clusters in nano dual, and post spray. this is as a result of having very high cell count cows and mastitis problems over the last 6 months. but the problem with dipping the clusters is the fumes in the pit are bad, my nose runs and i get a sore throat from it. do others with mastitis problems have this issue

Henwin wrote: »

what routine does everyone have with milking. we pre-spray, wipe, put on cluster, dip clusters in nano dual, and post spray. this is as a result of having very high cell count cows and mastitis problems over the last 6 months. but the problem with dipping the clusters is the fumes in the pit are bad, my nose runs and i get a sore throat from it. do others with mastitis problems have this issue

I dont think the nano dual would have a rapid enough action on the bugs.
Petacetic acid will sanitise faster and better.
Strong smelling too but not too "fumy" imo