Milk Price- Please read Mod note in post #1

freedominacup

whelan2 wrote: »

We effectively have zero farmer representation. The board members are so far out of touch with reality its laughable.

We voted them in. A friend of mine with strong ambitions in the direction of the board said to me that a huge percentage of the board get appointed by their areas to the family seat in their late thirties/early forties and are duly re-elected every couple of years until compulsory retirement. At least one joker from a midland county is currently moving heaven and earth to get his arse in a plc board seat despite the fact he'll have to compulsorily retire from both before the year is out. With a clear conscience farmers in my area can point out fingers at most other areas within glanbia and say what are ye bitching about ye keep electing these knuckleheads. Hands up anyone from corbolixes area so that the rest of us can offer ye our thanks. This halfwit rose without trace to one of the most important jobs in farmer controlled businesses and ye kept re-electing him. He wouldn't have gotten a seconder for a local advisory around here.

whelan2

freedominacup wrote: »

We voted them in. A friend of mine with strong ambitions in the direction of the board said to me that a huge percentage of the board get appointed by their areas to the family seat in their late thirties/early forties and are duly re-elected every couple of years until compulsory retirement. At least one joker from a midland county is currently moving heaven and earth to get his arse in a plc board seat despite the fact he'll have to compulsorily retire from both before the year is out. With a clear conscience farmers in my area can point out fingers at most other areas within glanbia and say what are ye bitching about ye keep electing these knuckleheads. Hands up anyone from corbolixes area so that the rest of us can offer ye our thanks. This halfwit rose without trace to one of the most important jobs in farmer controlled businesses and ye kept re-electing him. He wouldn't have gotten a seconder for a local advisory around here.

If fairness we did oust his mate for a term,after the first glanbia vote, unfortunately he got back in to his comfortable seat when the other lad reached retirement age

freedominacup

whelan2 wrote: »

If fairness we did oust his mate for a term,after the first glanbia vote, then we couldnt find anyone to go against him when the lad in his place was overage.

Fair enough whelan but until this sort of activisim is the norm in all areas we'll have plenty of statements like the one in the examiner being issued. It can follow the law of unintended consequences at times. Imo the last board member from my own area was a competent and honest guy. He was removed by his own branch and while the guy who replaced him is able enough I'm not sure if he's as good. I will say one thing though. He's easy to get on the phone. The circumstances under which he got his seat would be fairly fresh in his mind. He takes the views of his electorate very seriously.

Farmer Ed

Don't know what structures you have for electing board members in Glanbia? But in Dg it's only members for the inner committee of 60 who are inturn elected by the general committee of 175, are allowed vote in a board election. And as far as I know it is then also broken down in to regions. So in effect only a very small select group get to elect the board.
The system is not too dissimilar to the system used to elect the Chinese leader. Even down to the number of 175 on the outer committee.
I've personally known board members I wouldn't trust to send shopping for a loaf of bread. I promise you I am not exaggerating but I know of board members of who people only smile with amusement or grin with discust at the idea of them being board members.

The general view by a lot of people is they are not too pushed as to who sits on the board as management are calling the shots anyway. In my experience sadly I have found that to be largely true. But I agree as farmers it is partly our own fault for allowing this situation to develop unchecked.

orm0nd

Dawggone wrote: »

Someone from Fonterra agrees with you.,.

and more than 1

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/what-average-price-can-dairy-farmers-expect-over-the-next-five-years/

I got lacerated on here last year for preaching "doom and gloom" :rolleyes:

there are none so blind as those who will not see.

jaymla627

orm0nd wrote: »

and more than 1

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/what-average-price-can-dairy-farmers-expect-over-the-next-five-years/

I got lacerated on here last year for preaching "doom and gloom" :rolleyes:

there are none so blind as those who will not see.

5 years is a ludicrous time frame to be fair, it seems all these commentators are basing their predictions that dairy farms worldwide will keep on producing milk at a loss our barely break-even out of some kind of twisted loyalty/stubbornness to their cows....
Worldwide theirs going to be a serious contraction/loss of confidence among commodity dairy producers and a really sharp drop of in supply just a matter of when it will happen

kevthegaff

jaymla627 wrote: »

5 years is a ludicrous time frame to be fair, it seems all these commentators are basing their predictions that dairy farms worldwide will keep on producing milk at a loss our barely break-even out of some kind of twisted loyalty/stubbornness to their cows....
Worldwide theirs going to be a serious contraction/loss of confidence among commodity dairy producers and a really sharp drop of in supply just a matter of when it will happen

Weather will be a big factor, need a serious drought over in the states. Possibility 25c is the new 30 c for the next decade imo. Honestly could see a max exodus from dairying in this country if that is the new norm, we just don't have the scale, cheep labour or cheep feed

yosemitesam1

jaymla627 wrote: »

5 years is a ludicrous time frame to be fair, it seems all these commentators are basing their predictions that dairy farms worldwide will keep on producing milk at a loss our barely break-even out of some kind of twisted loyalty/stubbornness to their cows....
Worldwide theirs going to be a serious contraction/loss of confidence among commodity dairy producers and a really sharp drop of in supply just a matter of when it will happen

Look at grain prices, into 4th year of low prices but yet everyone keeps planting and no sign of it improving. The idea that a recovery is on the way will keep the majority of lads milking for a few years yet

Milked out

I reckon it will depend on the us, that Insurance scheme or whatever it is they have i assume will look less attractive in a year or two as they will be buying in at lower prices however the oil and grain has totally lowered their cop. I dunno there is too much political interference that can happen as well as weather etc to predict what will happen

Farmer Ed

Anyone have any thoughts on how the latest news about hydrogen cars will play out on oil and milk price, long term?

alps

We're going back over old ground here, as the messages and predictions of the past play out...

Whatever the experts predict, you can take it that that will not happen. Just 6 months ago these experts were predicting price rises into Q3 and the long term fundementals etc looking good....It's all a game for them. They will stand up in Q3 and present with just the same authority as before that the new predictions are xyz...no mention of how wrong the predictions of the past were...

The price of commodity milk products can only improve if less milk is produced worldwide, or the world population is prepared to pay more for and consume more dairy products.

There is mention in the commentary above that as confidence falls so too will production. We have been spun this by the industry over the last 5 years in the build up to quota removal, basing our ability to thrive in a no quota environment on COPs that avoided land, labour and repayment costs, and thinking our little bit of expansion would have absolutely no effect on world market excesses.

The truth is, that we are one of the only milk producing nations on earth that pay down debt. This is a significant cash cost in a downturn. The Irish farming model is one of the most exposed in the world. Maybe the Irish farmer is not the most exposed, but the milk production from his farm is. Irish farms and farmers have options. Many farmers are nearing retirement age. Old age pension delivering €420 a week for a retired couple who can also rent out, or do a bit of hobby farming is a significant cushion. Many farmers who have not taken on debt will find it easy to remove themselves from dairying, but the higher leveraged operator with significant drawings requirements, will find things very uncomfortable.
Our competitors overseas are largely borrowed to levels we could never dream about. Lack of confidence plays no part on whether these farms continue to produce milk. They just have to. They cannot decide to stop. If the decision is made by a finance company or otherwise, the farm will have to continue producing milk, unless there is a more profitable outlet for the land. This is backed up best by the example of the "glasshouse syndrome" in the Netherlands where the banks effectively control the industry.

This is why I have always cautioned against the brovado mentality if the Irish industry, that we will "burn them off".

Irish Farmers may react a lot differently to what the "experts" think. Don't be surprised to see a reduction in Irish milk supply over the next few years.

However, for the time being we will just continue reacting to a consumer that does not want the product that we are currently producing, by producing more and more and more of it...

kowtow

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Look at grain prices, into 4th year of low prices but yet everyone keeps planting and no sign of it improving. The idea that a recovery is on the way will keep the majority of lads milking for a few years yet

The way I see it there were three misjudgements from the industry in Ireland when planning for the end of quotas and Harvest 2020.

1. Volatility is one thing, but nobody observed that the first response to low prices when there is no quota limit is to sweat production from existing assets in order to spread fixed costs - provided a variable margin exists. Where on farm costing is largely a cash system, and land and labour can be hidden, Irish farmers wouldn't have a negative variable margin until the price of milk was hitting 15c I would have thought.

2. In other parts of the world a lower concentrate price is allowing the same defensive production response (a beggar thy neighbour response, if you will). Once the industry in Ireland had convinced itself that "grass was cheaper" everything but grass automatically became expensive and bad - and, typically enough, nobody thought to work out what would happen if nuts became cheaper than grass. Years ago I asked here whether anyone had considered what the price of an Irish acre was in bushels of Chigaco soy...

3. Our fellow European producers have liquid markets and often more intensive systems which might be better at spreading fixed costs than our own - cheap ration means more marginal milk from our competitors, and marginal milk is almost the only thing we produce.

I'm not totally convinced that the industry, certainly Irish politicians, understand what marginal milk is - they talk as if our unwanted production is something which people really want to buy if only [sanctions were lifted / the Chinese had more babies / the Algerians had the money] - and yet I doubt they used powder on their own breakfast cereal this morning.

Dawggone

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Look at grain prices, into 4th year of low prices but yet everyone keeps planting and no sign of it improving. The idea that a recovery is on the way will keep the majority of lads milking for a few years yet

Technology is ahead of consumption. Less acres are producing more tons.
Same goes for dairy.

Kowtow wrote a brilliant post somewhere about Big Ag and the commodification of food. Half the world are obese while the other half starves..,

Sam Kade

kevthegaff wrote: »

Weather will be a big factor, need a serious drought over in the states. Possibility 25c is the new 30 c for the next decade imo. Honestly could see a max exodus from dairying in this country if that is the new norm, we just don't have the scale, cheep labour or cheep feed

I started milking again last year after 10 years out of dairying, fortunately I've an escape plan which I will implement next spring if needs be.

Dawggone

Sam Kade wrote: »

I started milking again last year after 10 years out of dairying, fortunately I've an escape plan which I will implement next spring if needs be.

Gwon tell.

kowtow

kevthegaff wrote: »

Possibility 25c is the new 30 c for the next decade imo.

If I really had to bet on a price outcome that is where my money would be, could just as easily be wrong though. It's also far from clear how big the cycle would be above and below 25.

Timmaay

kevthegaff wrote: »

jaymla627 wrote: »

5 years is a ludicrous time frame to be fair, it seems all these commentators are basing their predictions that dairy farms worldwide will keep on producing milk at a loss our barely break-even out of some kind of twisted loyalty/stubbornness to their cows....
Worldwide theirs going to be a serious contraction/loss of confidence among commodity dairy producers and a really sharp drop of in supply just a matter of when it will happen

Weather will be a big factor, need a serious drought over in the states. Possibility 25c is the new 30 c for the next decade imo. Honestly could see a max exodus from dairying in this country if that is the new norm, we just don't have the scale, cheep labour or cheep feed

For the likes of the single labour unit farmer with say 120/150 spring cows who make it out to grass feb most years, everything contracted out, bit of hired labour in the spring, and most importantly of all relatively lowly borrowed (say 1000/cow), what average milk price can they tolerate over the next say 5years? 25c might be just about doable if you can force your cost of production down to 20c/l, but is 20c/l anyway realistic for investment in the farm, or any sort of weather events?, very unlikely.

Waffletraktor

Timmaay wrote: »

For the likes of the single labour unit farmer with say 120/150 spring cows who make it out to grass feb most years, everything contracted out, bit of hired labour in the spring, and most importantly of all relatively lowly borrowed (say 1000/cow), what average milk price can they tolerate over the next say 5years? 25c might be just about doable if you can force your cost of production down to 20c/l, but is 20c/l anyway realistic for investment in the farm, or any sort of weather events?, very unlikely.

There's your lowest cost and there's what I term your sustainable lowest cost. 5-10 years time all the niggly neglected things like shed painting/fencing needing more than sticky plaster patching/replacing gates does catch up. Same with renting out land really, all theses things will come full circle.

Sam Kade

Dawggone wrote: »

Gwon tell.

No secret, I had the parlour and sheds in place and only borrowed a bit less than what the cows were worth and half paid back at the end of this year.

WheatenBriar

Timmaay wrote: »

For the likes of the single labour unit farmer with say 120/150 spring cows who make it out to grass feb most years, everything contracted out, bit of hired labour in the spring, and most importantly of all relatively lowly borrowed (say 1000/cow), what average milk price can they tolerate over the next say 5years? 25c might be just about doable if you can force your cost of production down to 20c/l, but is 20c/l anyway realistic for investment in the farm, or any sort of weather events?, very unlikely.

Unless slavery is your thing,at that level,a relief Milker every 2nd Sunday at least is vital at a cost of about 3000 euro's?
If your profit before paying yourself at say 700k litres is only going to be €35000 with no capacity for unforeseen expenditures except out of that 35k,then it's a damn poor return especially if you have to pay 7 or 8 k of it in tax
There'd be no room for a home loan,a car,or anything much lifestyle related really

rangler1

orm0nd wrote: »

and more than 1

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/what-average-price-can-dairy-farmers-expect-over-the-next-five-years/

I got lacerated on here last year for preaching "doom and gloom" :rolleyes:

there are none so blind as those who will not see.

Very true, you'd want to be blind to think the present scenario is the same as the last price slump, even the fact that farmers didn't increase supply the last time would've helped to steady the price on it's own

Farmer Ed

How on earth could harvest 2020 have been presented to us as something that was going to make us all rich. All the talk of white gold and all the over investment in over priced stainless steel. All the contracts to get farmers to secure the loans for the stainless steel.
A lot of you may not like ming
But as every day goes by, increasingly his prediction of this being Coveneys property bubble looks like pretty fair comment.

Sam Kade

All this nonsense about overpopulation and not being able to feed them is some baloney. Amazing how they must always have some imminent danger.

Sam Kade

Farmer Ed wrote: »

How on earth could harvest 2020 have been presented to us as something that was going to make us all rich. All the talk of white gold and all the over investment in over priced stainless steel. All the contracts to get farmers to secure the loans for the stainless steel.
A lot of you may not like ming
But as every day goes by, increasingly his prediction of this being Coveneys property bubble looks like pretty fair comment.

White gold is right and a bottle of water selling for more than a bottle of milk.

Waffletraktor

Sam Kade wrote: »

All this nonsense about overpopulation and not being able to feed them is some baloney. Amazing how they must always have some imminent danger.

Whenever some supposedly educated person with a few letters before their name mentions food shortage etc, my mind tends to wander to Up or the Simpsons when homer goes to college and see's a squirrel outside. There is few shortages just terrible food waste and distribution.

Dawggone

Waffletraktor wrote: »

There's your lowest cost and there's what I term your sustainable lowest cost. 5-10 years time all the niggly neglected things like shed painting/fencing needing more than sticky plaster patching/replacing gates does catch up. Same with renting out land really, all theses things will come full circle.

+1.
Surviving and persevering for long prolonged periods is not really sustainable because constant investment is needed or the land and facilities will run down.
Someone posted here lately about having to invest and build during quota years, and I'll pretty much guarantee that the Xbox generation won't slave like that. Why should they?

jaymla627

Dawggone wrote: »

+1.
Surviving and persevering for long prolonged periods is not really sustainable because constant investment is needed or the land and facilities will run down.
Someone posted here lately about having to invest and build during quota years, and I'll pretty much guarantee that the Xbox generation won't slave like that. Why should they?

It's a scary prospect at the minute that if a farmer is being 100% honest with his children he'll tell them to forget about this farming lark get yourself a 9-5 job and please don't look back....
If as predicted we have a long cycle of low commodity prices throughout farming for the next couple of years with all confidence and hope drained from farmers where is the next generation to take the reins going to come from all well and good saying technology/increased productivity will make up for the labour shortfall but all this costs money and who in their right mind will invest/borrow big to plough it into a loss making enterprise

pedigree 6

Sam Kade wrote: »

White gold is right and a bottle of water selling for more than a bottle of milk.

Bottle your water. Problem solved.
Isn't there some company even bottling mains water.
Who knows this time next year the country could be drinking Sam's spring water.

Dawggone

jaymla627 wrote: »

It's a scary prospect at the minute that if a farmer is being 100% honest with his children he'll tell them to forget about this farming lark get yourself a 9-5 job and please don't look back....
If as predicted we have a long cycle of low commodity prices throughout farming for the next couple of years with all confidence and hope drained from farmers where is the next generation to take the reins going to come from all well and good saying technology/increased productivity will make up for the labour shortfall but all this costs money and who in their right mind will invest/borrow big to plough it into a loss making enterprise

I wouldn't allow any son or daughter to farm. No way.
They can sell it and divide the spoils...if I don't have it blown on coke and hookers!

pedigree 6

Plenty doom and gloom on here and rightly so but everyone knows their own situation and how they can survive this.
Whether that be what bps their getting, cost cutting, off farm income or additional enterprises on the farm.
This turning of milk into a commodity has happened because of WTO talks and free trade. Maybe the loonies protesting were right all along. How Ireland could manage being an exporting country without who knows. It saddens me of the work/talk that Bord Bia do of our green image and cows at grass and i hasten to add saying of our small farms when at trade expos and of our stringent regulations as best in the world and then when it comes to the price I receive that I should get the base world price or 3 cents more.

What we have atm is a race to the bottom now with milk price around the world with the U.S. still insulated and nz/aus waiting for production to drop in Europe can't see it happening and the big hope of Ireland China are producing their own food from abroad using money made with the click of a mouse. (China will/are big players in the world's agri food/business all things agri and rights passing out the U.S. )
What does it mean for us here and our commodity pricing? Who knows we'll tough it out till we get get a few more crumbs.

Maybe kowtow is right. There's a company near me Killowen yoghurt that is expanding and sells for a premium all done in house from milking the cow to making the product and now sells in Dubai. Maybe for some people like myself that's the way forward or maybe I'll get a few thoroughbred horses.

kowtow

Sam Kade wrote: »

All this nonsense about overpopulation and not being able to feed them is some baloney. Amazing how they must always have some imminent danger.

It's a bit hypocritical of me to pick holes in the big global free markets thing, but why food? Why can't Ireland take on some some other consequence of global population growth... the increase in worldwide bowel movements, for example, or the expanding need for funerals? Why aren't we getting rich handling the world's ever expanding s**tpile, or growing the wood for coffins?

When we talk about food security, whose security are we talking about? We'd have to knock a fair dent in dairy industry for Cork to run short of emergency milk powder....

The reality is that we have all, ever so gently, allowed ourselves to become small cogs in a massively over-complicated machine which in order to survive and grow - must constantly re-invent, re-distribute, repackage something as basic and fundamental to our own nature as the food we put in our mouths.

The only thing we are really feeding is the food industry, and we're getting poor and losing our self-respect doing it.

Farmer Ed

kowtow wrote: »

It's a bit hypocritical of me to pick holes in the big global free markets thing, but why food? Why can't Ireland take on some some other consequence of global population growth... the increase in worldwide bowel movements, for example, or the expanding need for funerals? Why aren't we getting rich handling the world's ever expanding s**tpile, or growing the wood for coffins?

When we talk about food security, whose security are we talking about? We'd have to knock a fair dent in dairy industry for Cork to run short of emergency milk powder....

The reality is that we have all, ever so gently, allowed ourselves to become small cogs in a massively over-complicated machine which in order to survive and grow - must constantly re-invent, re-distribute, repackage something as basic and fundamental to our own nature as the food we put in our mouths.

The only thing we are really feeding is the food industry, and we're getting poor and losing our self-respect doing it.

Well said.

Dawggone

kowtow wrote: »

It's a bit hypocritical of me to pick holes in the big global free markets thing, but why food? Why can't Ireland take on some some other consequence of global population growth... the increase in worldwide bowel movements, for example, or the expanding need for funerals? Why aren't we getting rich handling the world's ever expanding s**tpile, or growing the wood for coffins?

When we talk about food security, whose security are we talking about? We'd have to knock a fair dent in dairy industry for Cork to run short of emergency milk powder....

The reality is that we have all, ever so gently, allowed ourselves to become small cogs in a massively over-complicated machine which in order to survive and grow - must constantly re-invent, re-distribute, repackage something as basic and fundamental to our own nature as the food we put in our mouths.

The only thing we are really feeding is the food industry, and we're getting poor and losing our self-respect doing it.

Lol.
Top class!

Timmaay

kowtow wrote: »

Sam Kade wrote: »

All this nonsense about overpopulation and not being able to feed them is some baloney. Amazing how they must always have some imminent danger.

It's a bit hypocritical of me to pick holes in the big global free markets thing, but why food? Why can't Ireland take on some some other consequence of global population growth... the increase in worldwide bowel movements, for example, or the expanding need for funerals? Why aren't we getting rich handling the world's ever expanding s**tpile, or growing the wood for coffins?

When we talk about food security, whose security are we talking about? We'd have to knock a fair dent in dairy industry for Cork to run short of emergency milk powder....

The reality is that we have all, ever so gently, allowed ourselves to become small cogs in a massively over-complicated machine which in order to survive and grow - must constantly re-invent, re-distribute, repackage something as basic and fundamental to our own nature as the food we put in our mouths.

The only thing we are really feeding is the food industry, and we're getting poor and losing our self-respect doing it.

This video sums up where the global food industry is heading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enwU5jIXSlU

Buford T. Justice XIX

kowtow wrote: »

It's a bit hypocritical of me to pick holes in the big global free markets thing, but why food? Why can't Ireland take on some some other consequence of global population growth... the increase in worldwide bowel movements, for example, or the expanding need for funerals? Why aren't we getting rich handling the world's ever expanding s**tpile, or growing the wood for coffins?

When we talk about food security, whose security are we talking about? We'd have to knock a fair dent in dairy industry for Cork to run short of emergency milk powder....

The reality is that we have all, ever so gently, allowed ourselves to become small cogs in a massively over-complicated machine which in order to survive and grow - must constantly re-invent, re-distribute, repackage something as basic and fundamental to our own nature as the food we put in our mouths.

The only thing we are really feeding is the food industry, and we're getting poor and losing our self-respect doing it.

It's job security that we are protecting but not ours.

I was at a seminar last year and one of the speakers said that each farmer was keeping close to two other people employed, between lorry drivers, mart employees, meat and milk factory employees, quality control, vets, dept officials, delivery drivers etc, etc, etc.

If meat and milk supplies dropped tomorrow morning, what would happen all those underemployed people in the system?

Paddy and Mary Farmer will have to pay their severence packages before they themselves get a rise in what they're selling.

It's the system that's fcuked and there's nobody going to fix it.

kowtow

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

It's the system that's fcuked and there's nobody going to fix it.

I don't think it's all bad though. The reconnection with real food, and in particular with local food, is not a mirage. Most trends swing like a pendulum - and maybe we've reached peak processed food.

My Mother makes bread daily, and cakes - but I didn't expect my teenage daughter to be more interested in baking than she is in boys (this won't last)... and which one of us expected them to dust off Mary Berry for another trip round the lighthouse? It might be a small move to begin with, but I reckon the customer is beginning to care again about what they put in their mouths.

Will farmers be agile enough to respond or will we be caught behind the times and taken advantage of? - look at the news channels this week.

Sky News is running a loop about nutritionists & newly engaged consumers crying out for full fat, real food produced on real farms.

While every farming news outlet is copying and pasting press releases from quangos to persuade us to merge all the processors into one and make cheaper "value added" powder.

Farmer Ed

Timmaay wrote: »

This video sums up where the global food industry is heading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enwU5jIXSlU

It has become a race to the bottom

Buford T. Justice XIX

kowtow wrote: »

I don't think it's all bad though. The reconnection with real food, and in particular with local food, is not a mirage. Most trends swing like a pendulum - and maybe we've reached peak processed food.

My Mother makes bread daily, and cakes - but I didn't expect my teenage daughter to be more interested in baking than she is in boys (this won't last)... and which one of us expected them to dust off Mary Berry for another trip round the lighthouse? It might be a small move to begin with, but I reckon the customer is beginning to care again about what they put in their mouths.

Will farmers be agile enough to respond or will we be caught behind the times and taken advantage of? - look at the news channels this week.

Sky News is running a loop about nutritionists & newly engaged consumers crying out for full fat, real food produced on real farms.

While every farming news outlet is copying and pasting press releases from quangos to persuade us to merge all the processors into one and make cheaper "value added" powder.

I hope you're right, kowtow, but from my experience, the vast majority of consumers only care if something is on the news because of a scare and, as soon as the scare is gone, revert to their usual pattern of consumption.

The funny thing is that the vast majority of food scares are caused outside the farm gate but the only one to take a long term hit on price is the farmer.

Ah, look, I'm pretty pi$$ed off with the whole sector atm so ignore my ranting:(

atlantic mist

research in australia is after coming up with something to preserve liquid milk for 100 days

australian consumers now boycotting supermarket branded milk to support local farmers, would be a start for our coops to refuse to supply supermarket branded product

arla encouraging suppliers to go gmo free, french encouraging to go organic, were being encouraged to consolidate and milk more...lets keep things the same and do them bigger

uth out on continent is now seen as another commodity, it was value added a few years ago

can we not process the milk out of our milk and bottle it as the most filtered water one can buy??

these nutritionists these days seem to have completely different views, funny how we have the nutrition of animals to a tee across the world but we cant figure out how to get it right in us humans

considereing were over producing everything its probable a good thing gmo isnt widespread across eu

Dawggone

atlantic mist wrote: »

research in australia is after coming up with something to preserve liquid milk for 100 days

australian consumers now boycotting supermarket branded milk to support local farmers, would be a start for our coops to refuse to supply supermarket branded product

arla encouraging suppliers to go gmo free, french encouraging to go organic, were being encouraged to consolidate and milk more...lets keep things the same and do them bigger

uth out on continent is now seen as another commodity, it was value added a few years ago

can we not process the milk out of our milk and bottle it as the most filtered water one can buy??

these nutritionists these days seem to have completely different views, funny how we have the nutrition of animals to a tee across the world but we cant figure out how to get it right in us humans

considereing were over producing everything its probable a good thing gmo isnt widespread across eu

+1...
"...can we not process the milk out of our milk..."

..." nutrition of animals down to a tee...and can't figure it out how to get it right with humans..."



There maybe something in the 'terroir, provenance, and local *food*' that Kowtow speaks of.
I posted somewhere on French white meat. The Italians are also very 'close' to their food also.

The video 'Food Inc' that Tim posted is worth a watch.

Hopefully the pendulum will swing and allow me (as a hamster) to get off the wheel.

Food as nourishment........imagine that.

kowtow

Dawggone wrote:

The video 'Food Inc' that Tim posted is worth a watch.

Also worth reading Pollan? "The omnivores dilemma"... part of which is set on Joel salatins farm which I think appears in food Inc... it's the one with the open air chicken slaughterhouse.

Sam Kade

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Bottle your water. Problem solved.
Isn't there some company even bottling mains water.
Who knows this time next year the country could be drinking Sam's spring water.

The water from Sam's well tastes way better than that bottled sh1te in the shops

Milked out

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Sam Kade

When white gold turned to fools gold.

kowtow

So what do we make of these liquidity loans they are droning on about - from agriland's latest article it seems that:

1. If you are reducing production or freezing it, the €15,000 could be turned into a grant

or

2. If you aren't, it's a loan or more probably a guarantee (most likely in favour of the co-op?). Maybe an interest payment.

The cynic in me observes that if the only thing keeping Irish farms afloat is the relatively low debt level, adding loans (whether milkflex or this one) seems a bit like the RNLI turning up and shooting the liferaft - but leaving that aside isn't option (1) actually just a payment to hold / reduce production? Will the terms be easy to get around? Miss a milking on a Sunday and cash the cheque on Monday?

It's a pity I don't supply a co-op because at this stage if I qualified as an actual dairy farmer I'd be way ahead already.

whelan2

George Lee was on the news at one on rte. The average dairy farmer only has loans of 60k. Can't remember the exact figure but a sizeable amount have no loans. They were talking about the Teagasc Figure for different farming enterprises for 2015. He also kept emphasising that the 2016 dairy figure will be crap

pedigree 6

whelan2 wrote: »

George Lee was on the news at one on rte. The average dairy farmer only has loans of 60k. Can't remember the exact figure but a sizeable amount have no loans. They were talking about the Teagasc Figure for different farming enterprises for 2015. He also kept emphasising that the 2016 dairy figure will be crap

If the average farmer has loans of 60k and others have none.
I wonder what the top amount that some farmers have borrowed.
Averages hide a lot.
Also I wonder does teagasc average dairy income include the total income on a 300 cow herd and say 3 people get a wage from it. But if teagasc do it on a per farm basis thus skewing the figures to an average dairy farmer.

pedigree 6

Since when are pig farmers milking cows.

Maybe they are I don't know.
Truly Irish are a pig farmer co-op set up to sell their own produce.
Truly Irish is now selling Truly Irish butter and cheese.
Where's it coming from?

browned

whelan2 wrote: »

George Lee was on the news at one on rte. The average dairy farmer only has loans of 60k. Can't remember the exact figure but a sizeable amount have no loans. They were talking about the Teagasc Figure for different farming enterprises for 2015. He also kept emphasising that the 2016 dairy figure will be crap

Think it was 2/3 have no loans while 1/3 have an average of €60,000

whelan2

browned wrote: »

Think it was 2/3 have no loans while 1/3 have an average of €60,000

Thanks. Will probably be on 6 o clock news again