Milk Price- Please read Mod note in post #1

browned

kowtow wrote: »

For the few years I have been reading it the journal has contained endless "make an extra xyz per cow" mostly AFAIK containing the same list of tips which that article contained..

They certainly didn't have an article saying "waste 15k per year with the following optional extras" in amongst the how to borrow more for a shed special focuses.

So I'm a bit bemused, I thought we were pretty fine tuned as producers, I didn't realise that half the stuff we were doing religiously was just for sh##ts and giggles.

Why don't they have an article aimed at co-ops entitled "get real, your not a wall Street hot shot, your a man in a cheap suit who works in Mitchelstown"

It could contain a list of optional things not to spend farmers money on.

If we're so fine tuned as producers why is there such variation across profit monitor results every year. The simple realities is that some farmers are more efficient than others and believe it or not these are probably the farmers that aren't constantly blaming the coops for the low price.

Farmer Ed

browned wrote: »

If we're so fine tuned as producers why is there such variation across profit monitor results every year. The simple realities is that some farmers are more efficient than others and believe it or not these are probably the farmers that aren't constantly blaming the coops for the low price.

I'm doing very well thank you very much.saving 150 euro not buying the journal and hopefully in the near future I can get on the board of one of the lowest paying co ops. And from there to Ornua and God only knows how many more quangos. Sure I'll never have to worry about money. Sure it's just like being on ex factor or one of those programs. You never know when you might strike it big. Nothing wrong with price of milk. People's own fault if their not all making millions out of it. I know as soon as I get my political career going I will be.

kevthegaff

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I was in the barber's one day as a board member came in to Dye his hair

Which boards member was it??

Farmer Ed

kevthegaff wrote: »

Which boards member was it??

Look carefully at their photographs. I think you should be able to guess.
IMO nothing wrong with going grey gracefully.

Pacoa

Or you could become a Dairygold milk supplier. Then you will get a free magazine called "Milk matters" every month that has a recommended retail price of 3.40. But if you're a DG supplier you will get it for free! Like it magic! No one pays for it! Its totally free!!!
As for the RRP. I am not aware that they have ever managed to sell one?

Shur who'd pay to read someone else's adverts if ya know what I mean.

Farmer Ed

Just got a call from someone who told me there is a bit on the examiner today, quoting the IFA dairy chairman as not being in favour of MSAs. When I did a google search this is all I could find. I reckon he's about 3 years too late with his miraculous conversion.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/agri-business/ifa-dairy-chairman-urges-dairygold-members-to-approve-supply-deal-227511.html

Sacrolyte

Farmer Ed wrote: »

Look carefully at their photographs. I think you should be able to guess.
IMO nothing wrong with going grey gracefully.

Me thinks that just went over your head ed.

Water John

Hope we'll have a lot of conversions.
Would there being a new president in the IFA have anything to do with it?

I see nothing wrong with short term MSA's. Even if it was annual. Just have a transfer window, say 30 days notice in the off season. That would seem balanced and fair.

Feck the Gentlemens agreement. Most of them aren't gentlemen or indeed ladies any way.

Willfarman

browned wrote: »

If we're so fine tuned as producers why is there such variation across profit monitor results every year. The simple realities is that some farmers are more efficient than others and believe it or not these are probably the farmers that aren't constantly blaming the coops for the low price.

inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality there imo.

Land type has a massive bearing as would regional weather variation, family labour, personal health, how the aul place was left to a lad,ie family issues, land fertility

As I said before I cannot for the life of me understand why Irish dairy farmer are not showering the head bottle washers on glanbia with slurry and burning the gets out.
Fat cats and shareholders taking the cream!
But begorra paddy farmer must get more efficient. Don't buy paper towels for the parlour ,or a few stakes and wire ,or put a few times in the hay bob... Count the grains of nitrogen... Ffs

keep going

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I was in the barber's one day as a board member came in to Dye his hair.Not sure what it cost him because my annual shearing job was a much faster process. This year I might just ask one of the lads that do the sheep.

Disgraceful carry on dying hair, should call an egm and have them removed straight away

Water John

The main problem, is there any thing under the hair, dyed or grey?

kowtow

browned wrote:

If we're so fine tuned as producers why is there such variation across profit monitor results every year. The simple realities is that some farmers are more efficient than others and believe it or not these are probably the farmers that aren't constantly blaming the coops for the low price.

I never blame co-ops for low priced, far too much of an old market whore to do that..

I do blame them for stroking their egos while p1ssing members funds up the wall in pursuit of their own corporate delusions at the very moment when their owners and suppliers are having to cut to the bone.

Is it the farmers journal or the processors monthly? I'd hazard a guess that some of the bigger savings to be made by dairy farmers are inside the door of the processor rather than the farm gate and I wonder whether our fearless journalists ought to pursue that line a little more.

Low hanging fruit and all that.

Farmer Ed

Water John wrote: »

The main problem, is there any thing under the hair, dyed or grey?

Not doing much good to the reputation of long suffering blondes either.

whelan2

On cutting costs, for the first winter I didnt use fertility minerals on the autumn calving cows, all came bulling and all went in calf saved about 1k by leaving them out.

pedigree 6

kowtow wrote: »

I never blame co-ops for low priced, far too much of an old market whore to do that..

I do blame them for stroking their egos while p1ssing members funds up the wall in pursuit of their own corporate delusions at the very moment when their owners and suppliers are having to cut to the bone.

Is it the farmers journal or the processors monthly? I'd hazard a guess that some of the bigger savings to be made by dairy farmers are inside the door of the processor rather than the farm gate and I wonder whether our fearless journalists ought to pursue that line a little more.

Low hanging fruit and all that.

Dumb question here.
But someone should always ask.
What is their processor's cost per litre and are there savings to be made.
Can we rank them to see who is the most efficient?

No harm in asking?

keep going

Farmer Ed wrote: »

Not doing much good to the reputation of long suffering blondes either.

Do you think there could be more than one board member dying the hair

Water John

I'd say Siobhan gets a tint.

Farmer Ed

keep going wrote: »

Do you think there could be more than one board member dying the hair

I have no idea. I just use the same stylist as one of them but obviously not as frequently. As soon as I confirm my campaign to be elected to the board. I may need to go to the stylist more often myself. Apparently keeping up appearance is very important in that line of work. was it Enda and Bertie who racked up the makeup bills?

atlantic mist

cant even get a full P&L from gii so we never know what they are at, have a source inside that told me they are found of the creative accounting and we wouldnt cop on as we dont have access to full accounts, hate to be a shareholder:)

a few pages ago ye were on bout management teams in carbery vrs our large coops, the one thing that spring to mind is that the investment they make in building in germany is contributing to their milk price and not depleting asset value and our investment was in glanbia plc which is not contributing to milk price as we had to sell a part of it to pay ourselves out of our own pockets, the carbery model does work best for farmers and suppliers, its a diversified portfolio to smooth out difficult periods it was what our coop original intention was before glanbia turned into the bear it is now and management took over, could management replicate the carbery model in our coops of course but its a different management style and way of thinking. Our Ceo was quite proud to say we would be in second place behind carbery for last year based on kpmg milk audit, imagine to be sitting in the largest processor in the country and making excuses why he cant beat a small coop with the scale at his disposal and his head hunted management team, he showed no signs of ambition to achieve this either

Water John

Atlantic, if Dg + Four West Cork Coops had retained the wind portfolio that SWS sold. It would now have its loans repaid and be delivering a handsome dividend to help with milk price.
But then management at SWS wanted to cash in their chips, when they should have been told, go whistle dixie.
DG had the controlling share.

Jimlh86

Willfarman wrote: »

Did ye all see the 2 page cost cutting advise in in last weeks journal? "SAVE 15000"
sweet Jesus. Don't fence. 10 euro a cow. Don't spread nitrogen. 10 euro a cow. Don't fix machinery when it inevitably breaks down.. 10 euro a cow. Don't have a third pint of a Saturday night. 3 euro a cow.. And always ride the wife down the hill to save the welly boots... .005 euro a cow

Was it written by a transition year student or wtf

I'm not a dairy farmer but I found the tone of the article really condescending! The journal is gas I find some of the articles look down the nose at farmers!

browned

Willfarman wrote: »

inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality there imo.

Land type has a massive bearing as would regional weather variation, family labour, personal health, how the aul place was left to a lad,ie family issues, land fertility

As I said before I cannot for the life of me understand why Irish dairy farmer are not showering the head bottle washers on glanbia with slurry and burning the gets out.
Fat cats and shareholders taking the cream!
But begorra paddy farmer must get more efficient. Don't buy paper towels for the parlour ,or a few stakes and wire ,or put a few times in the hay bob... Count the grains of nitrogen... Ffs

How does a non Catholic develop this inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality, is it contagious or something?

In 2014 There was €400 of a difference in net profit/cow between the top 10% and the average farmer submitting figures. There are plenty farmers on poor landmaking more money than lads with the best land in the country. If you keep finding excuses not to succeed you'll prove yourself right eventually. Sucessfull businesses tend not to hide behind excuses.

But then again it may just be this Catholic guilt mentality

browned

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I'm doing very well thank you very much.saving 150 euro not buying the journal and hopefully in the near future I can get on the board of one of the lowest paying co ops. And from there to Ornua and God only knows how many more quangos. Sure I'll never have to worry about money. Sure it's just like being on ex factor or one of those programs. You never know when you might strike it big. Nothing wrong with price of milk. People's own fault if their not all making millions out of it. I know as soon as I get my political career going I will be.

Serious question ed. what is the actual problem with the milk price at the minute. I got 35c/l last month and 37c/l the month before that.

farmerjj

browned wrote: »

Serious question ed. what is the actual problem with the milk price at the minute. I got 35c/l last month and 37c/l the month before that.

And what is the co-op average?

jaymla627

browned wrote: »

Serious question ed. what is the actual problem with the milk price at the minute. I got 35c/l last month and 37c/l the month before that.

Take it you supply one of the west cork co-ops and must have a nice bit fixed on top of that....I got just under 25 cent last month and about the same in Feb, how would you go at that wasn't white water either Bf around 4% and pr3.35%

browned

kowtow wrote: »

I never blame co-ops for low priced, far too much of an old market whore to do that..

I do blame them for stroking their egos while p1ssing members funds up the wall in pursuit of their own corporate delusions at the very moment when their owners and suppliers are having to cut to the bone.

Is it the farmers journal or the processors monthly? I'd hazard a guess that some of the bigger savings to be made by dairy farmers are inside the door of the processor rather than the farm gate and I wonder whether our fearless journalists ought to pursue that line a little more.

Low hanging fruit and all that.

I remember the journal doing plenty of articles about cost cutting in the coops when we had good milk prices. I can remember them because they went on for a couple of months and I was getting sick of reading them and would have preferred reading about a farmer and learning how he was doing things.

browned

farmerjj wrote: »

And what is the co-op average?

27cent. So 8 and 9 cent above the average.

Willfarman

browned wrote: »

How does a non Catholic develop this inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality, is it contagious or something?

In 2014 There was €400 of a difference in net profit/cow between the top 10% and the average farmer submitting figures. There are plenty farmers on poor landmaking more money than lads with the best land in the country. If you keep finding excuses not to succeed you'll prove yourself right eventually. Sucessfull businesses tend not to hide behind excuses.

But then again it may just be this Catholic guilt mentality

Ah I agree with you there. There are guysvthT have debt free farms given to them but still go on like its a huge burden, if they won the lotto they'd moan about having to go collect it!

However as another poster noted like myself a non dairy farmer this article was extremely patronising and petty beyond the point of stupidity. The mind the pennies and let the pounds mind themselves analogy..

Farmer Ed

browned wrote: »

Serious question ed. what is the actual problem with the milk price at the minute. I got 35c/l last month and 37c/l the month before that.

If you cant see a problem then good for you. But if it keeps dropping at 2 cent per month this time next year what will you be getting? Are you milking Jerseys?
I will still be doing much better than you when I hatch my plan to get on a couple of those boards.

browned

jaymla627 wrote: »

Take it you supply one of the west cork co-ops and must have a nice bit fixed on top of that....I got just under 25 cent last month and about the same in Feb, how would you go at that wasn't white water either Bf around 4% and pr3.35%

West cork coop who According to the journal are not well ahead of the rest of the country in terms of milk price. the difference between Carbery and dg is 2.5c and 2c above glanbia. I think they're 2 cent.
I chose to enter the fixed twice available. the first scheme was only taken up by less than 15% and the scheme by less than 25% I think.

Willfarman

browned wrote: »

How does a non Catholic develop this inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality, is it contagious or something?

In 2014 There was €400 of a difference in net profit/cow between the top 10% and the average farmer submitting figures. There are plenty farmers on poor landmaking more money than lads with the best land in the country. If you keep finding excuses not to succeed you'll prove yourself right eventually. Sucessfull businesses tend not to hide behind excuses.

But then again it may just be this Catholic guilt mentality

Ah I agree with you there. There are guysvthT have debt free farms given to them but still go on like its a huge burden, if they won the lotto they'd moan about having to go collect it!

However as another poster noted like myself a non dairy farmer this article was extremely patronising and petty beyond the point of stupidity. The mind the pennies and let the pounds mind themselves analogy..

browned

Willfarman wrote: »

Ah I agree with you there. There are guysvthT have debt free farms given to them but still go on like its a huge burden, if they won the lotto they'd moan about having to go collect it!

However as another poster noted like myself a non dairy farmer this article was extremely patronising and petty beyond the point of stupidity. The mind the pennies and let the pounds mind themselves analogy..

ah it wasn't tho.
No 2 put off reseeding and fix soil fertility. That is practical advice
No6 milk recording. Remember a thread on here questioning milk recording to a similar effect and most agreeing.
No9 using white drench is twice as expensive as ivermectin. Never knew that before. Just assumed the opposite.
No13 water/fencing. Buy water fittings online cheaper. And it's so true that you go into a coop to buy one thing and end up bringing home 3-4 other things.

The saving of up to €15000 is just a clitbait heading and only applies to a herd of 100 cows but the whole premise of the article was to plan ahead and look at costs on the farm now while there is time to cut them out.

Farmer Ed

browned wrote: »

West cork coop who According to the journal are not well ahead of the rest of the country in terms of milk price. the difference between Carbery and dg is 2.5c and 2c above glanbia. I think they're 2 cent.
I chose to enter the fixed twice available. the first scheme was only taken up by less than 15% and the scheme by less than 25% I think.

2.5 cent on a supply of 600000 Litres is 15000 so there is your 15000 made straight away. Our 15150 if you don't buy the Journal as well.

browned

Farmer Ed wrote: »

If you cant see a problem then good for you. But if it keeps dropping at 2 cent per month this time next year what will you be getting? Are you milking Jerseys?
I will still be doing much better than you when I hatch my plan to get on a couple of those boards.

If it keeps dropping by 2 cent a month it'll mean I'll have a base price of 0.7c/l and dg suppliers will be paying their coop 1.7c/l. If it comes to that I'll prob sell up and move on.
More power to you on that plan but if milk price drops to -1.7c/l I doubt you'll have any boards to get on

Bass Reeves

browned wrote: »

How does a non Catholic develop this inbuilt Irish Catholic guilt mentality, is it contagious or something?

In 2014 There was €400 of a difference in net profit/cow between the top 10% and the average farmer submitting figures. There are plenty farmers on poor landmaking more money than lads with the best land in the country. If you keep finding excuses not to succeed you'll prove yourself right eventually. Sucessfull businesses tend not to hide behind excuses.

But then again it may just be this Catholic guilt mentality

I always think it is great the way Teagasc and the journal quote the top 10%. These may be at a different development stage or on different land. Yes one can cut costs but this can only go so far. The lowest cost producers in the world NZ are going broke. The reality is that we are hitting the point where it will cost some farmers to produce milk.

The FJ article as one poster said was condescending. Cut back fertlizer use and silage quanity made save 20-30 euro/head and if we get a very dry summer, a one that will not grow as much grass as last year or we get a long winter next year again that couple euro will quickly go out the door in a meal bill.

I bet you they have a top 10% in NZ as well and a middle section of dairy farmers that made money. In any business you have a top 10%. American company's operate a bonus scheme, there target is that 60-80% of workers will make the bonus, 10-20% will exceed the bonus targets and get a higher bonus. The final 10-20% will not make the grade and generally if these are the same people year after year the company squeezes them out.

If we transfer this to dairying the top 10-20% are those that make that extra profit, the middle 60-80% should make a profit and the bottom 10-20% will be the lads that if they fail to change there systems will go broke.

However at present the middle 60-80% are suffering as well. If milk slumps much lower they will be producing at a loss. Processors are not often efficient enough and high wages that they earn are not reflected in there ability to manage the business.

What is happening in milk is also happening in grain. And next year beef will be the same

Farmer Ed

browned wrote: »

If it keeps dropping by 2 cent a month it'll mean I'll have a base price of 0.7c/l and dg suppliers will be paying their coop 1.7c/l. If it comes to that I'll prob sell up and move on.
More power to you on that plan but if milk price drops to -1.7c/l I doubt you'll have any boards to get on

Ah now you're being negative. You shouldn't trample on my dreams just like that.
As one prominent board member who was co opted on to yet another board recently is reported to have said. "Be positive, be positive.be positive" Obviously the man has the whole situation under control.

keep going

Is there a co relation between the number of board members who dye their hair and milk price

Brown Podzol

I seem to remember Pat Bolger who used to write in the IFJ years ago who wrote " there is only so much money can be saved by straightening bent nails and chasing crows over long distances to retrieve small potatoes".

Willfarman

Brown Podzol wrote: »

I seem to remember Pat Bolger who used to write in the IFJ years ago who wrote " there is only so much money can be saved by straightening bent nails and chasing crows over long distances to retrieve small potatoes".

Brilliant!!!!

Farmer Ed

keep going wrote: »

Is there a co relation between the number of board members who dye their hair and milk price

You are dead right. Feel free to open another thread on suitable fashion tips for board members. I've noticed lately an increasing number of people dying their hair blue.

Water John

Not sure how hair colour affects them, but a certain amount of brainpower and balls by them might affect milk price.

browned

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I always think it is great the way Teagasc and the journal quote the top 10%. These may be at a different development stage or on different land. Yes one can cut costs but this can only go so far. The lowest cost producers in the world NZ are going broke. The reality is that we are hitting the point where it will cost some farmers to produce milk.

The FJ article as one poster said was condescending. Cut back fertlizer use and silage quanity made save 20-30 euro/head and if we get a very dry summer, a one that will not grow as much grass as last year or we get a long winter next year again that couple euro will quickly go out the door in a meal bill.

I bet you they have a top 10% in NZ as well and a middle section of dairy farmers that made money. In any business you have a top 10%. American company's operate a bonus scheme, there target is that 60-80% of workers will make the bonus, 10-20% will exceed the bonus targets and get a higher bonus. The final 10-20% will not make the grade and generally if these are the same people year after year the company squeezes them out.

If we transfer this to dairying the top 10-20% are those that make that extra profit, the middle 60-80% should make a profit and the bottom 10-20% will be the lads that if they fail to change there systems will go broke.

However at present the middle 60-80% are suffering as well. If milk slumps much lower they will be producing at a loss. Processors are not often efficient enough and high wages that they earn are not reflected in there ability to manage the business.

What is happening in milk is also happening in grain. And next year beef will be the same

you can say that the top 10% of farmers are made up of lads with favourable land and at a later stage of development but you could equally say that the top 10% is made up of lads on so called marginal lands and the early stages of development. the fact of the matter is they don't publish all the farmers who made up the top 10% in a given year so its all just speculaton. are the kiwis the lowest cost producers in the world still? as far as I know the milk price in nz was lower 10 years ago than it is at present and at that stage they defiantly were the lowest cost producers in the world. the problem for the kiwis was better milk prices lead to systems creep and made some of them less competitive. there are still plenty of nz dairy farmers thriving in the current market conditions. the problem is you don't hear about these lads as much and as a result you just hear about the lads who shout the loudest about things going wrong.

on the nitrogen he says to do a budget on how much silage you need to take you over the winter. his advice is if you can produce all your silage needs from your outfarms putting out excessive nitrogen on the milking platform will result in expensive round bales that aren't required. resulting in a saving in N and contractor costs of 10 euros(quite modest). if he was to put in a proviso for every different circumstance that can happen on a farm them the article would run over the course of 4 or 5 pages and no one would bother reading it.

I don't disagree with the point that processors are efficient enough but all im suggesting is that neither are the farmers. at the end of the day my farm is my business if it fails it will be my fault. everything that has lead me to that point will be because of a choice I made and no amount of complaining about china, the eu, nz, russia, the states, the eu commissioner, teagasc, ifj, ifa, the government, the department of ag, the coop, the weather will change that fact.

Milked out

AFAIK two states in the US had the lowest cop last time I saw a list, not 100% but they were Def below nz. Lads at the end of the day browned is right take from those articles what you will but the quality ,or lack of, of the written word or its content is there for you to take in or ignore. Our own discussion group had similar content discussed 2 months ago, get rid of bottom 10% of herd but then you'll just have extra silage etc, etc nor arguing just discussion of what we can do. Simple as that. Unless you get involved at meetings and let your views known etc you won't have any impact on price paid or coop cost saving but at least you do within your own gate. Personally I won't be cutting back on fert as stocked high enough and I ain't planning on reliving 2013 anytime soon but others may be in a position to do so. Have cut back on recording and a few other things but basically if this trough drags on we will all have to look at everything

darragh_haven

pedigree 6 wrote: »

I'll take that as a firm NO then.

FFS you asked the question 19 mins ago. He just might have a life outside of boards.ie. Or maybe a long relaxing sh1t

Water John

Pedigree, I got on about a reply or back up proof on another site, almost 24 hours after an original request and got a Mod warning!!!!

kevthegaff

Water John wrote: »

Pedigree, I got on about a reply or back up proof on another site, almost 24 hours after an original request and got a Mod warning!!!!

I'd say the glanbia/dairygold spinsters are trying to figure out who Walter J and Farmer Ed for knocking their good name online:-D!!

kowtow

browned wrote:

Sucessfull businesses tend not to hide behind excuses.

Quite right.

Trouble is I don't see any excuses here, just a keen interest in a monopoly business owned by those supplying it.

An excuse would be something like "the rep in Nigeria is having trouble because the milk price thread on boards.ie is giving away the reality at farm level"

Timmaay

It's all right everyone, the US are aware of their oversupply problem and are activity encouraging everyone over there to eat more cheese http://www.vice.com/read/the-united-states-officially-has-way-too-much-cheese-right-now-vgtrn?utm_source=vicefbus&utm_campaign=global

briangriffin

jaymla627 wrote: »

Take it you supply one of the west cork co-ops and must have a nice bit fixed on top of that....I got just under 25 cent last month and about the same in Feb, how would you go at that wasn't white water either Bf around 4% and pr3.35%

Price here was 25 cent a litre
Protein was 3.25 group average 3.23
Butterfat was 4.1 group average 4.20
Group average price was 23 cent plus 2 cent in supports
In fairness if your getting 35 cent a litre for March milk this year id imagine you are one of very few getting it

Bass Reeves

browned wrote: »

you can say that the top 10% of farmers are made up of lads with favourable land and at a later stage of development but you could equally say that the top 10% is made up of lads on so called marginal lands and the early stages of development. the fact of the matter is they don't publish all the farmers who made up the top 10% in a given year so its all just speculaton. are the kiwis the lowest cost producers in the world still? as far as I know the milk price in nz was lower 10 years ago than it is at present and at that stage they defiantly were the lowest cost producers in the world. the problem for the kiwis was better milk prices lead to systems creep and made some of them less competitive. there are still plenty of nz dairy farmers thriving in the current market conditions. the problem is you don't hear about these lads as much and as a result you just hear about the lads who shout the loudest about things going wrong.

on the nitrogen he says to do a budget on how much silage you need to take you over the winter. his advice is if you can produce all your silage needs from your outfarms putting out excessive nitrogen on the milking platform will result in expensive round bales that aren't required. resulting in a saving in N and contractor costs of 10 euros(quite modest). if he was to put in a proviso for every different circumstance that can happen on a farm them the article would run over the course of 4 or 5 pages and no one would bother reading it.

I don't disagree with the point that processors are efficient enough but all im suggesting is that neither are the farmers. at the end of the day my farm is my business if it fails it will be my fault. everything that has lead me to that point will be because of a choice I made and no amount of complaining about china, the eu, nz, russia, the states, the eu commissioner, teagasc, ifj, ifa, the government, the department of ag, the coop, the weather will change that fact.

Browned off if you had read my post I was making the point that Teagasc/IFJ continual point about the top 10% is often misleading. That the top 10% is not the best reference point. I think this fad that if we were all as good as the top 10% that everything would be rosy. The reality I was pointing out was that the middle 60-80% costs are the real cost to look at. The Kiwi may not be as efficient as they were but underling costs are creeping up such as Fertlizer, general costs etc.

Your point about nitrogen and silage and the IFJ are correct. However this is the same paper that a few weeks ago was advising tillage farmers because of the late season to sow forage crops for dairy farmers rather than grain crops.With the year that is in it at present it is unlikly that there will be an excess of forage around. Most dairy farmers use surplus bales as high quality forage to supplement at grass in spring and autumn. Growing grass is an inexact science and right sized covers changes to surplus or shortages very fast. However you may be right there is small saving.

However some of the rest are questionable. Few enough farmers will be doing any fencing or any capital expenditure that is not necessary. I had to laugh at the straw and online savings while true they require one thing CASH. Very little online is credit and I doubt if I went down to Wexford and orders 100 bales of straw off browned off the tillage farmer he would give me credit either.

This from a piece that started off that cash reserves of 300/cow were need at the start of the year:eek:. On a 100 cow herd if you bought the straw and got it landed in the yard you are looking at 10-14/bale if travelling any distance I imagine. The ivermectin is a real saver especially on young light stock. If you want to know what are the cheapest dosing materials contact your local fairly efficient beef farmers not only will he tell you the cheapest he f@@king tell you where to buy it as well. Because believe it or not ivermectin vary in price. But to get value you need to buy multi pack 2.5L for 100 euro. Now to put it in perceptive you will dose over 300 animals at 400kg's with that.

Rations and 3 way mixes everyone knows that they are cheaper than nuts. There are some of us being telling stupid dairy farmers that for years. However they are not very successfull with automatic feeders. However JK of the FJ will tell you to put a few troughs in the yard (opps capital expenditure) and to feed away. Maybe you can feed it under the fence like us beef farmers do at times.

I really liked the picture's of the 7 amigo's at the top of the second page of the savings. One for got to wear the dunces hat as there are only 13 savings I taught they all had to contribute 2. It like everything else there is a lazy 10-20%. In this case it is 14.2857% of the staff. However if like my american company example one might have contributed 3 and the dunce contributed nothing

But we really need to do the figures. If one got the total saving of the gospel according to Aidan it equates to 2.3 c/l. It is unlikely that anyone will gain more than 1c/L from reading it. On your bit about complaining, lobbying and highlighting inefficiency in co-op's 1c/L would be a small gain. To put it in context this article was only a journalist farting around to sound like he had a contribution to make.