Dairy Chit Chat- Please read Mod note in post #1

jack o shea wrote: »

At breaking point physically and mentally, worst winter/spring of all time,least it was dry in 2013.

In 2013 i had half the cows and stretched grass to the 1st of may. Cows were content because the place was dry and even if there was nothing to eat in a field they were still content. The place was skint by may which set it up for the year. Now i have double the cows. What feels like triple the work, three times the meal bill. One day of grass left in 1st rotation.. All for the same milk cheque.
To add salt to the wound my co op sales rep call me yesterday to tell me my protein is getting too low and i need to feeding there spring breeder nut @290 a ton delivered.. Will i fcuk.. out of protest for been second bottom on the milk league i have decided to stop purchasing meal off said co-op for this year. I might only be a small supplier but i would rather my near 10k meal bill go to my local grain merchant who is open on a saturday then to a money hungry Glanbia..

Things will pick up, we are in april now and it can change very quickly this month. A few good days with abit of heat would really help things along.

mahoney_j wrote:

Our CEO in Arrabawn is confident markets have now bottomed out with new announcement on extra intervention storage for powder .i hope he is right

If they have bottomed out for the time being think it came a fair bit before that announcement.

Although far be it from me to deny the EU politicians the credit for changing the tides, milk price, global oil price as well as staving off El Nino!

whelan2 wrote:

There are people who cannot wait for these guys to fail. Let them work away , have enough to be worrying about with whats going on on my farm without worrying about tommy up the road

+1000.

In the great scheme of things most of those guys who have enough energy and determination to take on dairy will find a way to make it work somehow even if their timing was a bit over enthusiastic in the first place.

A lot of lessons will be learned quickly by the survivors, and everyone will benefit from a bit more healthy cynicism next time round.

The big issue is the long term direction of the industry.. I think the real naivety so far has been from the processors and politicians who reckon the best we can be is a cheap knock off of new Zealand.

dar31 wrote: »

25 c/l stress testing it down to 22c plus stress test of +2% interest

Could want to factor in a weather test too, costing nearly 2 grand a week extra to keep stock feed this year as opposed to last year when extra silage/meal been feed is taken into account....
Then the next problem will be trying to get quality silage and enough of it made for next winter/spring with it looking like silage ground will have to be grazed again

whelan2 wrote: »

Someone posted the other day that Bergin is saying a Glanbia price in the low twenties. Is that a reality or Glanbias bottom of the table price?

if we drop another few cents would we qualify for the "fair trade" branding?? (serious question as it will be below cost of production what differentiates us from the fair trade coco farmers at present)

could save a few pound on the sustainability scheme if we could put fair trade like cadbuary chocolate on all our products where only 30% of coco is bought from fair trade suppliers (if one in every three year could be loss making we could match the cadbuary 30% figure), dont think anyone in Africa gives a tuppence about the sustainability of our product considering they are paying for it by drawing oil from the earth, suppose our ceo needs something to talk about at trade fairs and sustainability is the buzz word in the corporate world for last few years

new born calf today no tail and no eyes but drinking like a horse, what are his chances of survival we think he was a month premature, under the heat light well see how he goes

jack o shea wrote: »

At breaking point physically and mentally, worst winter/spring of all time,least it was dry in 2013.

I had this forecast back before christmas with the floods and the severe heights of the water table, but few gave a fiddlers. Now we're getting reports of zero growth on kilkenny dairy farm walk. Reports of 'difficult grazing' and no silage from a poster on here in .... mid Cork. Nobody panic but I'd be bracing oneself for a rough landing when this 'spring' decides to touchdown.

Muckit wrote: »

I had this forecast back before christmas with the floods and the severe heights of the water table, but few gave a fiddlers. Now we're getting reports of zero growth on kilkenny dairy farm walk. Reports of 'difficult grazing' and no silage from a poster on here in .... mid Cork. Nobody panic but I'd be bracing oneself for a rough landing when this 'spring' decides to touchdown.

It really all depends how quick growthy weather comes now . It could be worse than 2013 because its too wet to even let most cattle out here and there is no growth anyhow yet OR it could heat up , grass will fly and we will forget about the bad spring of a shot !

Dawggone wrote: »

Jeez Muckit.

Chill.
Nothing is EVER as bad as it seems.


Spring will come and all will be dandy when the sun shines...as always.

Coming to the end of the hungry months never comes quick enough here in the west and we got absolutely no summer at all last year . It is amazing how quick we will forget about it though when the sun shines

jack o shea wrote: »

At breaking point physically and mentally, worst winter/spring of all time,least it was dry in 2013.

All you can do is your best and look forward to the dust clouds in the summer

Dawggone wrote: »

Slurry quotas to become law in Holland from Jan1 next year. This is to massively reduce the dairy herd by 4-8%.
Probably will make the Dutch produce more milk per cow...

German dairy farmers Union are backing a return to restrictions/quota.

That just leaves those pesky Irish...says French press. Quoting that Irish dairy farmers have invested €1.5 billion on expansion. Is that correct?

If you count what's invested on farm and in processing probably more. Even back as far as 07 farmers were using the farm improvement scheme to add facilities and "future proof". The abolition of quotas was announced as far back as 2006 and dairy farmers have been moving around the chess pieces since, breeding and facilities. It was well flagged that Ireland were targeting an increase of 50% by 2020.