Dairy Farming (A few Questions)

Mr.Success

How many liters per day does a fresian cow produce?

How often have they to be milked?

What is the cost of building a parlour for eg. 40 cows?

How much in euro are farmers paid for their milk?

Are the calves born seen as a hindrance because the farmer just wants milk?

Timmaay

Mr.Success wrote: »

How many liters per day does a fresian cow produce?

Average figure would be 6000L/yr, which would be 20L/day if the lactation period is 305days

How often have they to be milked?

Ah here!! between 1 and 3! But usually (like for 99% of Irish farmer), its the number between 1 and 3!

What is the cost of building a parlour for eg. 40 cows?

2000euros per unit is a typical figure for a new parlour. 40cows is not a lot though, u will pickup a 2nd hand 6unit swingover which will mike 40cows, go checkup donedeal

How much in euro are farmers paid for their milk?

At the minute, about 33cent/litre. This has jumped between 44 and 20cent over the past few years!

Are the calves born seen as a hindrance because the farmer just wants milk?

Hmm, I'm guessing you haven't thought much about any of this!! Where do you think the replacement heifers come from?

.

Farmer Pudsey

Mr.Success wrote: »

How many liters per day does a fresian cow produce?

How often have they to be milked?

What is the cost of building a parlour for eg. 40 cows?

How much in euro are farmers paid for their milk?

Are the calves born seen as a hindrance because the farmer just wants milk?

Are you thinking of going milking cows

Mr.Success

If a cow makes 6000 litres x €0.33c = €1980
40 cows x 1980 = €79,200

After you minus diesel, contracting, fertilizer, fencing, general farm maintenence would you be left with much turnover?

Bizzum

Mr.Success wrote: »

If a cow makes 6000 litres x €0.33c = €1980
40 cows x 1980 = €79,200

After you minus diesel, contracting, fertilizer, fencing, general farm maintenence would you be left with much turnover?

Dont forget the very valuable calf that the cow produces too.
All things being equal 40 cows would leave you with €79160 clear profit, for minimal work. Go for it. Money for old rope:D

Mr.Success

the only problem is all my profit would be swallowed up for years modernising the place. Land drainage, roadways, fencing, hedgecutting, upgrading machinery, building sheds to regulation standards and last but not least you never would have a holiday, not one day in the year.

Timmaay

http://www.teagasc.ie/news/2011/201111-15b.asp a must read for anyone seriously thinking about it. Setting up a 40cow herd at the minute would not be a good idea in my view, aim for 80cows at least, whether that means partnership etc!

Farmer Pudsey

Mr.Success wrote: »

the only problem is all my profit would be swallowed up for years modernising the place. Land drainage, roadways, fencing, hedgecutting, upgrading machinery, building sheds to regulation standards and last but not least you never would have a holiday, not one day in the year.

If you did not know how much a cow milked,how much it made the value of the calf anything about parlour's there is no point of you considering going milking also I know dairy farmers that go for two holidays in a year

milkprofit

how did you get this figurle as profit
things being equal 40 cows would leave you with €79160 clear profit, for minimal work. Go for it. Money for old rope

Bizzum

milkprofit wrote: »

how did you get this figurle as profit

OK Hands up.........I made it up.:D

I sorta figured if ya didn't know how often a cow is milked ya might just buy my figures!

Don't go telling me I was right:eek:?????????????

5live

Mr.Success wrote: »

If a cow makes 6000 litres x €0.33c = €1980
40 cows x 1980 = €79,200

After you minus diesel, contracting, fertilizer, fencing, general farm maintenence would you be left with much turnover?

I think he is pulling your leg;).

That is a gross figure. You have to take off feed, fertiliser, AI, bank repayments, fencing, diesel etc etc etc etc(x1000) costs. Average costs would be around 20c or thereabouts so this year you would be looking at 10c a litre profit(projected 30c this year) and yields per cow at under 5000l on average over the irish herd

pakalasa

So all in, you're talking about 5,000Lt X (30-20 cents) = €500 profit per cow.

5live

pakalasa wrote: »

So all in, you're talking about 5,000Lt X (30-20 cents) = €500 profit per cow.

On average, yeah

PMU

the best run herds would be doing a profit of E800 /cow.find out the members of your local discussion group and ask can you listen in on a few meetings.you will learn more from these meetings than anywhere else

Mr.Success

If €800 euro/cow is the best then dairying isnt all its cracked up to be. I mean weanlings off suckler cows are making over €800 now and you dont have to build a parlour.

dar31

Mr.Success wrote: »

If €800 euro/cow is the best then dairying isnt all its cracked up to be. I mean weanlings off suckler cows are making over €800 now and you dont have to build a parlour.

them weanlings dont live on fresh air though

Tipp Man

Mr.Success wrote: »

If €800 euro/cow is the best then dairying isnt all its cracked up to be. I mean weanlings off suckler cows are making over €800 now and you dont have to build a parlour.

I think you need to learn the difference between turnover and profit - 2 hugely different things

Mr.Success

You just have to creep feed them for a few weeks before you sell. Then you can relax untill calving the following spring. Just feed the cows twice a day. I'd say a dairy cow lactating over the winter would require a lot more concentrates than the few weanlings.

F.D

Mr.Success wrote: »

You just have to creep feed them for a few weeks before you sell. Then you can relax untill calving the following spring. Just feed the cows twice a day. I'd say a dairy cow lactating over the winter would require a lot more concentrates than the few weanlings.

Why are there so many suckler farmer's with off farm employment then?
obviously not enough profit to make a living out of it
Dairy Farming is a full time job, Yes But if you were not doing it you would have another full time job, so you cant really compare the two

pakalasa

Would I be right in saying that the main downside to dairying is the twice a day milking? My dad milked cows years ago and I always remember that. If we were away anywhere, we always had to be home early to do the milking.
If they could solve this problem, it would really take the slavery out of it, wouldn't it. I know there's farm relief services, but they are expensive.
You would think they would form local groups, where farmers would cover for each other when they are away. I know it happens informally, but has it ever be done formally, with a proper structure. I'm thinking more of the guy with 50 or so cows than the larger units that have permanent hired help.

Tipp Man

pakalasa wrote: »

Would I be right in saying that the main downside to dairying is the twice a day milking? My dad milked cows years ago and I always remember that. If we were away anywhere, we always had to be home early to do the milking.
If they could solve this problem, it would really take the slavery out of it, wouldn't it. I know there's farm relief services, but they are expensive.
You would think they would form local groups, where farmers would cover for each other when they are away. I know it happens informally, but has it ever be done formally, with a proper structure. I'm thinking more of the guy with 50 or so cows than the larger units that have permanent hired help.

Once a Day milking is the answer to your question - about 10% of dairy farms in NZ are once a day i believe

Of course if you milk em once a day then the yield will fall and the cell count will rise

Very few in Ireland that i know of are doing it

mattthetrasher

no no no lads the thing to do is get about 50 right good fr cows and a robot.no parlour no feeding no milking just tap away at the laptop and cash the cheque,now your sucking diesel

5live

PMU wrote: »

the best run herds would be doing a profit of E800 /cow.find out the members of your local discussion group and ask can you listen in on a few meetings.you will learn more from these meetings than anywhere else

Thanks for that. I forgot to put in calf sales of about 150 (200 euro less replacements 25%)and culls at 150 (750 by 20%). And SFP of 130 a cow (average at 270 a ha at 2 cows to the ha).

Those improve the figures a bit Pakalasa:pac:

And as for 2x a day milking, you get kind of used to it after 20 or so years:cool:

dar31

pakalasa wrote: »

Would I be right in saying that the main downside to dairying is the twice a day milking? My dad milked cows years ago and I always remember that. If we were away anywhere, we always had to be home early to do the milking.
If they could solve this problem, it would really take the slavery out of it, wouldn't it. I know there's farm relief services, but they are expensive.
You would think they would form local groups, where farmers would cover for each other when they are away. I know it happens informally, but has it ever be done formally, with a proper structure. I'm thinking more of the guy with 50 or so cows than the larger units that have permanent hired help.

13 times a week, once you get over peak production

F.D

dar31 wrote: »

13 times a week, once you get over peak production

Do you stagger the milking times to get sunday afternoon off or how do you achieve this

Viewtodiefor

Anyone here do 16hr intervals or hear of how it works?

bbam

Mr.Success wrote: »

You just have to creep feed them for a few weeks before you sell. Then you can relax untill calving the following spring. Just feed the cows twice a day. I'd say a dairy cow lactating over the winter would require a lot more concentrates than the few weanlings.

No offence intended but you have a very juvinile impression of farming as a business.
You really think that a cow drops a calf, throw him a few KG of meal and BINGO a €1000 weanling in a few months.
Sit down with excel and start recording the expenses of running a 20 cow suckled herd or a 40 cow dairy herd. You'll be shocked to see how the costs stack up, then add 25% for unforeseen costs and bad luck. Might be a good idea to look at milk/beef prices from 2009 and see how that compares to your costs.

Tipp Man

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Anyone here do 16hr intervals or hear of how it works?

Personally i don't see the point of it

I can see the advantages of 1 a day and 3 a day but i really don't see the advantage of 16 hours - you wouldn't know if you are coming or going

Min

Isn't it you milk them at a 16 hour interval followed by an 8 hour interval, back to 16 and so on?
So you are milking them at the same time everyday.

Read in the farmers Journal that the Greenfields farm milks them at 7am and then at 3:45 in the evening.
So I guess they have near a 16/8 hour milking routine. But then it is not a normal Irish dairy farm.

Tipp Man

Min wrote: »

Isn't it you milk them at a 16 hour interval followed by an 8 hour interval, back to 16 and so on?
So you are milking them at the same time everyday.

Read in the farmers Journal that the Greenfields farm milks them at 7am and then at 3:45 in the evening.
So I guess they have near a 16/8 hour milking routine. But then it is not a normal Irish dairy farm.

i thought it was that you milked every 16 hours?? so basically you get 2 milkings in 1 day and then 1 the next? I could be completly wrong

Wouldn't most irish farms be on a 14-10 anyway, 7am 5pm ish?

Viewtodiefor

Tipp Man wrote: »

Min wrote: »

Isn't it you milk them at a 16 hour interval followed by an 8 hour interval, back to 16 and so on?
So you are milking them at the same time everyday.

Read in the farmers Journal that the Greenfields farm milks them at 7am and then at 3:45 in the evening.
So I guess they have near a 16/8 hour milking routine. But then it is not a normal Irish dairy farm.

i thought it was that you milked every 16 hours?? so basically you get 2 milkings in 1 day and then 1 the next? I could be completly wrong

Wouldn't most irish farms be on a 14-10 anyway, 7am 5pm ish?

Wel 7 and 5ish is normal ya. Dontt know much about the 16 hr that's why i was wondering?

Tipp Man

Little bit more info on the 16 hour milking here

http://www.dairyexporter.co.nz/cgi-bin/article.cgi?cmd=show&article_id=24596&view=view_printable&border=none

mattthetrasher

the lely robot is an option with feed to yield as a standard option.if you had no existing milking facilities it might not work out that bad cost wise.you are not tied labour wise and it would suit high yielding cows because they could be fed and milked three times a day.it could suit partime

Tipp Man

mattthetrasher wrote: »

the lely robot is an option with feed to yield as a standard option.if you had no existing milking facilities it might not work out that bad cost wise.you are not tied labour wise and it would suit high yielding cows because they could be fed and milked three times a day.it could suit partime

No experience whatsoever of robots but from reading the threads over on BFF it seems that the work changes to a different type of work - dealing with alarms on the robot - bringing in cows who haven't milked. also most of them over there seem to be indoor 365 days so not sure how it would work on a grass based system - I think you would be forever moving fences and I am unsure as to how you could get cows to graze down a paddock properly

mattthetrasher

moorepark are trialing them,and theres an open day in kerry.i don,t know how they would work grass wise either.if a fence was on a 10 hour switch like the ones they sell in mullinahone cows could only come in twice so it would be similar to our own 12 -or 16 hour split.

Viewtodiefor

Tipp Man wrote: »

mattthetrasher wrote: »

the lely robot is an option with feed to yield as a standard option.if you had no existing milking facilities it might not work out that bad cost wise.you are not tied labour wise and it would suit high yielding cows because they could be fed and milked three times a day.it could suit partime

No experience whatsoever of robots but from reading the threads over on BFF it seems that the work changes to a different type of work - dealing with alarms on the robot - bringing in cows who haven't milked. also most of them over there seem to be indoor 365 days so not sure how it would work on a grass based system - I think you would be forever moving fences and I am unsure as to how you could get cows to graze down a paddock properly

From reading some articles on robots, I'd say they do work on grazing platforms but the block would have to be fairly central n well laid out which might not suit too many Irish farms, also I'd say in d early days you'd be culling cows tht dont adapt n spend the first two months hunting cows in, 10 per cent or something like that initially of cows won't work in it n then it drops back also the cost is still bit high. A work in progress

F.D

robots are the future to take the drudgery out of milking and to become more efficient, e.g picking out the poorer cows etc and i've seen good reviews on the grazing aspect too, even in holland now they are trying to promote a higher milk price for cows been outdoors but the nail has been hit on the head earlier, a lot of Irish Farms have land either side of a public road etc or paddocks too far away from the parlour, but if you had them grazing near the robot for one 12 hour interval and on the further away paddock for the other, i can seen it been to much of a problem in cow flow,
I wonder would the banks look more favourable on an investment like that or a low cost setup at start up though?