Expanding Farm

Viewtodiefor

Hi Guys

In process of taking over farm from the Father. Currently run fairly inefficiently. Quota 150000 Cows milked 27 + 15 sucklers. All calves reared to beef @ 2yrs. 10 acres rented

Just looking for some thoughts on this as trying to get a plan in order for next few years. Some basic info first . Farm Size 90 acres 65 acre grazing block. 25 acres split in different size fields ranging from 8 acres to 2 acre lots, 12 acres of this can be cut for silage.

Going forward My preference is dairy cows with calves to beef. Willing to rent extra land if required. Anyone got ideas on how many cows could be milked efficiently on grazing platform etc.
If i was to increase milking cow numbers to 50 how many acres would i relistically have to graze for this?

Any ideas on where you would take this would be appreciated.

stanflt

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Hi Guys

In process of taking over farm from the Father. Currently run fairly inefficiently. Quota 150000 Cows milked 27 + 15 sucklers. All calves reared to beef @ 2yrs. 10 acres rented

Just looking for some thoughts on this as trying to get a plan in order for next few years. Some basic info first . Farm Size 90 acres 65 acre grazing block. 25 acres split in different size fields ranging from 8 acres to 2 acre lots, 12 acres of this can be cut for silage.

Going forward My preference is dairy cows with calves to beef. Willing to rent extra land if required. Anyone got ideas on how many cows could be milked efficiently on grazing platform etc.
If i was to increase milking cow numbers to 50 how many acres would i relistically have to graze for this?

Any ideas on where you would take this would be appreciated.

milked 97avg this year on 23ha and cut 56acres for silage

could comfortably milk 125 on 23 ha with cows out from feb 1 to nov 20
supplied 7350lt per cow last year

Viewtodiefor

Tnks stan
How much meal are you feeding for this? that seems like very high litres per cow how are you achieving this?

stanflt

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Tnks stan
How much meal are you feeding for this? that seems like very high litres per cow how are you achieving this?

1.58tonne per cow which includes brewers grains

Viewtodiefor

What do you reckon is your net margin out of this? Do you keep or sell calves. Are your cows very high Ebi?

stanflt

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

What do you reckon is your net margin out of this? Do you keep or sell calves. Are your cows very high Ebi?

keep all heifers and about 1/4bulls, all stock breed to hols bulls

bull calves kept for AI or stock bullsales:rolleyes:

stanflt

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

What do you reckon is your net margin out of this? Do you keep or sell calves. Are your cows very high Ebi?

net margin over 16cent a lt for 2011-

ebi of 102

Viewtodiefor

Are these real figures Stan? No offence but I find it hard to believe you are milking 97 high yielding holstiens on 23 hectacres! If you said jerseys i might believe it, what part of the country r ya in?

Viewtodiefor

Seems to me all the teagasc advise at the minute is to go for smaller more robust cows with lower yields and higher p+fat and feed lesst meals such as 300 to 600 kgs. Keeps costs down and you can bring stocking rate up to 4 per hectacre

Viewtodiefor

Lads any thoughts on whether or not to buy quota

stanflt

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Are these real figures Stan? No offence but I find it hard to believe you are milking 97 high yielding holstiens on 23 hectacres! If you said jerseys i might believe it, what part of the country r ya in?

east meath- will prob be having an open day in latter on in the year-all welcome

F.D

stanflt wrote: »

milked 97avg this year on 23ha and cut 56acres for silage

could comfortably milk 125 on 23 ha with cows out from feb 1 to nov 20
supplied 7350lt per cow last year

Cut 56 acres total for silage? or 56 acres with 2 cuts ie 112

stanflt

F.D wrote: »

Cut 56 acres total for silage? or 56 acres with 2 cuts ie 112

no 56in total off the home block

dar31

stanflt wrote: »

no 56in total off the home block

is there much more feed brought in for the milkers, maize, whole crop, molasses,
silage from outside blocks.

stanflt

dar31 wrote: »

is there much more feed brought in for the milkers, maize, whole crop, molasses,
silage from outside blocks.

this year we grew 43acres maize but really only need 18acres as we still have 700ton in a seperate clamp-43 acres your prob saying IS THIS GUY MAD:) grew it to keep nitrates in check-didnt need any more grass and currently at 170units. will sell the maize this year or grow barley

grew so wholecrop-barley undersown with grass this year only as a way of reseeding some long term rented ground as last years silage off this was only 71dmd:(.

dont buy molasses


current diet since mid december

1.5kg barley straw 3kg/dm brewers/citrus 6.66kg 79dmd silage @19%cp and 6kg/dm maize and 1.3kg soya


soya only recently went in as a lot of fresh calvers milking


cows get 18% HE nut in parlour fed to yield- for every litre they get 0.1kg nuts

Viewtodiefor

Stan thanks for all d info very interesting and informative! Apart from the 23 ha block grazing do you have much land elsewhere rented ect?

Viewtodiefor

Anyone got any more thoughts on this one?

John_F

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Anyone got any more thoughts on this one?

realise that there are several ways of producing milk... not just the teagasc mindset of cross breeding and getting short term gains. look at Kilograms of milk soilds, not % of protein and fat, youl get paid on kgs not on %'s.

realise that if you feed a black and white holstein the same as a jersey / norwegin red / cross breed you will not make money, if you dont feed it you wont have it.. especially with Holstein. its not all about stocking rate and feeding limited amount of meal per cow keeping costs low, ok it is important to keep some costs low but costs that affect production and reproduction?? what other business models itself on lowering costs that affect production in such a way??

funny man

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Hi Guys

In process of taking over farm from the Father. Currently run fairly inefficiently. Quota 150000 Cows milked 27 + 15 sucklers. All calves reared to beef @ 2yrs. 10 acres rented

Just looking for some thoughts on this as trying to get a plan in order for next few years. Some basic info first . Farm Size 90 acres 65 acre grazing block. 25 acres split in different size fields ranging from 8 acres to 2 acre lots, 12 acres of this can be cut for silage.

Going forward My preference is dairy cows with calves to beef. Willing to rent extra land if required. Anyone got ideas on how many cows could be milked efficiently on grazing platform etc.
If i was to increase milking cow numbers to 50 how many acres would i relistically have to graze for this?

Any ideas on where you would take this would be appreciated.

I think your coming from the wrong angle on this one, you need to work out what money you need to give you a living and then work out how can the farm do this most effectively without becoming a slave to it. I don't believe you know what makes money on your farm or you wouldn't even mention calf to beef.

The Grazer

It all depends on what production system you want to use:
Grass based system, high input or a mixture of both
Your ultimate goal should be to optimize your grazing platform be it with cow or what ever
My view would be that you could milk 65cows comfortable on the 65 acres with minimal meal usage and a good grassland management programe, and rear all young stock on an outfarm. Quota is your biggest limitation at the moment and you maybe better off selling it while it has a value and get the farm set up for 2015 with the money generated from d sale of it or
Other optioms available to you would be to :
a) rent out the farm on a long term year lease i.e. 10years and 10,000euro is tax free
contract rear stock for a bigger dairy farmer
c) Optimise what you have

Viewtodiefor

interesting idea about selling the quota, first time i heard tht one,