Milk Price- Please read Mod note in post #1

Farmer Ed

I hope I haven't been making people feel uneasy. But I would like to put it on the record inspite of what has been written about me that I have never called anyone a fool. while we might not always agree with everyone else. I don't think it is right to describe someone else's opinion as "spouting ****e". If anyone was to make faulse or misleading allegations about any co op or processer on here I'm sure they would be quick fast in having it removed.

As for what is the solution to the income crisis in dairying? I certainly don't have all the solutions. But I think the first step is recognising we have a problem. The reality is and I'm sorry for repeating myself is that when inflation is taken in to account £1.06 in 1989 is the equivalent of 66c l in today's money.

Should we be asking hard questions? IMO yes we should. It's all very well to look at nz where people can produce milk very cheaply. But inspite of this farmers with hundreds of cows going broke there , that seems to be our only plan as a industry also. Why then is it considered unexceptable to look at the like of French farmers producing milk for Comté cheese and still getting 57 c l? If we just continue to do the same thing over and over again we can hardly evpect different results.

keep going

The 24 hours have been very helpful in giving me time to look back over my decision s and my posts and I must admit there is one decision im unhappy and have regrets over , I should have gone to the euros

fepper

keep going wrote: »

The 24 hours have been very helpful in giving me time to look back over my decision s and my posts and I must admit there is one decision im unhappy and have regrets over , I should have gone to the euros

Ud be embarrassed to be there yesterday against Belgium,very poor

kevthegaff

24hrs I've realized I have a problem, in a sick way I enjoy the doom and gloom

Farmer Ed

kevthegaff wrote: »

24hrs I've realized I have a problem, in a sick way I enjoy the doom and gloom

Who knows every xloud has a silver lining. Maybe lessons can be learnt form this.

greenfield21

Low prices are good for low prices, the quicker milk hits about 10-15c the better.

Farmer Ed

greenfield21 wrote: »

Low prices are good for low prices, the quicker milk hits about 10-15c the better.

The real elephant in the room is that farm incomes have not kept in line with inflation. Even with prices at above 30 cent in real terms we are still well shy of where we were. If prices continue not to keep pace with inflation then maybe we need to have a rethink. That coupled with bfp not being indexed linked. In real terms unless we become at bit more creative I wouldn't be so confident. But who knows? Sometimes the dark is just before the dawn. Maybe some creative mechanism can be found. Not sure many would survive sub 20 c prices. We could be left with very few still milking if it comes to that.

browned

Carbery/Drinagh
Pr 3.81
Bf 4.31
Scc 210
Coop av 25.24
Price 32.21

whelan2

browned wrote: »

Carbery/Drinagh
Pr 3.81
Bf 4.31
Scc 210
Coop av 25.24
Price 32.21

what would your solids and scc have been last year on twice a day milking?

Water John

They are good solids and a good price. Hope you have enough litres from each cow.
OAD on the PG Jersey would drive solids higher. The downside would be having to possibly cull the male calves, writing them off at zero money.
Some of the figures being suggested there for the Jerseys were that the FR would give 9.5Kg cheese from 100Kg milk but the Jerseys would give 12.5Kg cheese.

As people are saying here, all options need to be examined to return a decent profit and lifestyle to the farmer.

whelan2

Water John wrote: »

They are good solids and a good price. Hope you have enough litres from each cow.
OAD on the PG Jersey would drive solids higher. The downside would be having to possibly cull the male calves, writing them off at zero money.
Some of the figures being suggested there for the Jerseys were that the FR would give 9.5Kg cheese from 100Kg milk but the Jerseys would give 12.5Kg cheese.

As people are saying here, all options need to be examined to return a decent profit and lifestyle to the farmer.

But as we are all reducing our costs and looking to increase our price should the processors not be looking at reducing their costs too, not knocking everything on to the farmer the whole time

browned

whelan2 wrote: »

what would your solids and scc have been last year on twice a day milking?

2015
Bf 4.09
Pr 3.49
Scc 143
Coop av 31.06
Price 33.29

4,000 extra litres supplied this may.

browned

Water John wrote: »

They are good solids and a good price. Hope you have enough litres from each cow.
OAD on the PG Jersey would drive solids higher. The downside would be having to possibly cull the male calves, writing them off at zero money.
Some of the figures being suggested there for the Jerseys were that the FR would give 9.5Kg cheese from 100Kg milk but the Jerseys would give 12.5Kg cheese.

As people are saying here, all options need to be examined to return a decent profit and lifestyle to the farmer.

The individual cows doesn't matter on my farm it's all about the collective.
If you had a steady supply of je cows (flying herd) you could Ai all your pb cows to ch or Bb and sell them as high value beef calves

kevthegaff

browned wrote:

The individual cows doesn't matter on my farm it's all about the collective. If you had a steady supply of je cows (flying herd) you could Ai all your pb cows to ch or Bb and sell them as high value beef calves

+1

Water John

Not a fan either of open herd. I'd place a lot of store on a closed herd from a disease point of view.
Maybe buy in replacements from one source as a compromise.
Yes I accept its the total output in litres X solids that counts as long as you are not feeding too many mouths.
No of replacements also drives up costs.

Buford T. Justice XIX

browned wrote: »

The individual cows doesn't matter on my farm it's all about the collective.
If you had a steady supply of je cows (flying herd) you could Ai all your pb cows to ch or Bb and sell them as high value beef calves

Would sexed semen be a runner with you, first 30% to sexed semen and the rest to beef sires?

Does anyone know what happened with the results from sexed semen last year, was it deemed a success?

I assume not as there was no sexed semen offered this year?

mf240

browned wrote: »

The individual cows doesn't matter on my farm it's all about the collective.
If you had a steady supply of je cows (flying herd) you could Ai all your pb cows to ch or Bb and sell them as high value beef calves

You won't get much of a charlaios out of a pb jersey. You certainly won't have repeat customers. A Belgian blue out of a pb jersey will resemble Michael d with a blue rinse.

whelan2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Would sexed semen be a runner with you, first 30% to sexed semen and the rest to beef sires?

Does anyone know what happened with the results from sexed semen last year, was it deemed a success?

I assume not as there was no sexed semen offered this year?

I always used a bit of sexed semen on cows and found it worked well. Didnt use any this year though

browned

Water John wrote: »

Not a fan either of open herd. I'd place a lot of store on a closed herd from a disease point of view.
Maybe buy in replacements from one source as a compromise.
Yes I accept its the total output in litres X solids that counts as long as you are not feeding too many mouths.
No of replacements also drives up costs.

Completely agree about the disease risk of a flying herd but Have an agreement with another farmer for repl. His is a closed herd and has a similar disease vaccination programme. Have an fixed price and will buy after they've calved so he can still breed a potential repl from her. Suits both him and me.

browned

mf240 wrote: »

You won't get much of a charlaios out of a pb jersey. You certainly won't have repeat customers. A Belgian blue out of a pb jersey will resemble Michael d with a blue rinse.

I don't have any pb jerseys or intend having any but that's what I've heard from numerous sources. If you cross a ch or a bb with a pb Jersey cow the calf will resemble the sire.

browned

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Would sexed semen be a runner with you, first 30% to sexed semen and the rest to beef sires?

Does anyone know what happened with the results from sexed semen last year, was it deemed a success?

I assume not as there was no sexed semen offered this year?

Not sure but always a worry the conception rate of sexed. Think it needs more refining.

The farm Im buying off would have a superior herd of cows to mine and has a passion for breeding and rearing bloody good heifers.

Farmer Ed

I have to admit to always being a big holstein fan but having seen someone selling his herd and quota in 2006 and getting back in last year with a flying herd of Jr x. I'm beginning to wonder? He's running an Angus bull with them and getting a good price for the black calves. So I have to admit there are a lot of ways of skinning a cat. Wouldn't rule anything out anymore. Spoke to a man last week milking buffaloes and apparently doing better than any of us. Solids of 8% f and 6%p 2500kg milk worth €1.20 a litre.

einn32

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I have to admit to always being a big holstein fan but having seen someone selling his herd and quota in 2006 and getting back in last year with a flying herd of Jr x. I'm beginning to wonder? He's running an Angus bull with them and getting a good price for the black calves. So I have to admit there are a lot of ways of skinning a cat. Wouldn't rule anything out anymore. Spoke to a man last week milking buffaloes and apparently doing better than any of us. Solids of 8% f and 6%p 2500kg milk worth 1.20 a litre.

I had camel milk yesterday morning in my porridge and coffee in work. Bosses daughter runs a camel farm and processing facility. It returns a good price per litre. Tastes alright too!

Farmer Ed

einn32 wrote: »

I had camel milk yesterday morning in my porridge and coffee in work. Bosses daughter runs a camel farm and processing facility. It returns a good price per litre. Tastes alright too!

Any idea how much they milk? Where are you based?

Farmer Ed

https://desertfarms.com/pages/frequently-asked-questions just found this. Makes cows look easy.

Water John

Its interesting how much little diversity we have in milk production.
Less than 50 doing OAD.
Less than 50 doing organic.
About 5 doing goats, I think.
Not sure of sheep, but very few.
About 2/3 doing buffalo.
No one doing A2 milk.

Most all diversity are small brands. A bit of ice cream, youghurt, cheeses.

Because we are all going the one direction, it makes us easily lead.

kowtow

Water John wrote:

Its interesting how much little diversity we have in milk production. Less than 50 doing OAD. Less than 50 doing organic. About 5 doing goats, I think. Not sure of sheep, but very few. About 2/3 doing buffalo. No one doing A2 milk.

We generally have about 50 farmhouse cheesemakers as well.

Water John

The whole number is very small out of a total of about 17,500 dairy farms.

May be it is us that should diversify and not waste our time and capital asking the processors to do it.

alps

Water John wrote: »

The whole number is very small out of a total of about 17,500 dairy farms.

May be it is us that should diversify and not waste our time and capital asking the processors to do it.

I like producing....

I can do selling......

But I detest trying to collect money.......


It's absolute bliss to see a milk truck connect up to the bulk tank and a few weeks later you open up an envelope and see big rosy figure that has been lodged to your bank account...

Timmaay

alps wrote: »

I like producing....

I can do selling......

But I detest trying to collect money.......


It's absolute bliss to see a milk truck connect up to the bulk tank and a few weeks later you open up an envelope and see big rosy figure that has been lodged to your bank account...

Back in the day We use to sell the odd few mobile tankers of milk to a local yogurt manufacturer, thankfully we never had issues with payment but we only heard afterwards another local farmer had got stung badly with bounced cheques etc from them. There is certainly something to be said for the cheque into your account every month.

mahoney_j

alps wrote: »

I like producing....

I can do selling......

But I detest trying to collect money.......


It's absolute bliss to see a milk truck connect up to the bulk tank and a few weeks later you open up an envelope and see big rosy figure that has been lodged to your bank account...

A big Rosey figure just lodged to your account .......not this year anyway !!!!.25.2 cpl here for May milk at 3.63 fat 3.42 p includes 0.2 cent bonus for scc 19800 ltrs more than same month last year .if only I had may 15 price !!!!!

Farmer Ed

http://www.thatsfarming.com/news/ifa-drinagh-holds-milk-prices# even Ifa can no longer ignore the performance difference between west cork and the big guns.

rangler1

mahoney_j wrote: »

A big Rosey figure just lodged to your account .......not this year anyway !!!!.25.2 cpl here for May milk at 3.63 fat 3.42 p includes 0.2 cent bonus for scc 19800 ltrs more than same month last year .if only I had may 15 price !!!!!

Doh !!!!!!!!think that could have something to do with the cause of drop in price :rolleyes:

whelan2

rangler1 wrote: »

Doh !!!!!!!!think that could have something to do with the cause of drop in price :rolleyes:

Read Aidan Brennan's article inside the back page of the journal. Why have you cashflow problems. FFS were has he been milk price is on the floor.

Buford T. Justice XIX

whelan2 wrote: »

Read Aidan Brennan's article inside the back page of the journal. Why have you cashflow problems. FFS were has he been milk price is on the floor.

But his money is there every month, same sum, same day.

If he was worried about this months cheque, not to mind next months cheque, would be be as blase, I wonder?

Do as I say, not as I do....:rolleyes:

browned

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

But his money is there every month, same sum, same day.

If he was worried about this months cheque, not to mind next months cheque, would be be as blase, I wonder?

Do as I say, not as I do....:rolleyes:

To be fair he was highly regarded as a farm manager at curtins prior to joining the journal and there is a homefarm. Unlike a lot of other journalists he has experience of running a farm and skin in the game.

RightTurnClyde

browned wrote: »

To be fair he was highly regarded as a farm manager at curtinse.

Hmmmmmmm. By some anyway
And that's all I'm saying.

Farmer Ed

Don't worry yet another quango to the rescue. Apparently as long as we can keep borrowings money to keep going we will all be grand. http://www.thatsfarming.com/news/minister-creed-first-meeting-food-wise

atlantic mist

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/new-laws-in-china-to-significant-implications-for-infant-formula-suppliers/

cant beat the Chinese ......of course they wouldnt replicate formula, they only want to know ingredients to promote consumer confidence

saw a protein bar in the shop, made in uk and on ingredients it has produced from irish cows

yewtree

browned wrote: »

To be fair he was highly regarded as a farm manager at curtins prior to joining the journal and there is a homefarm. Unlike a lot of other journalists he has experience of running a farm and skin in the game.

I met him once in Curtins a few years ago with our DG and I thought he was very good on grazing systems . On here he seems to get slated for anything he says, like the bit on the cashflow seemed fair enough to me, refinance if you did cap ex out of cashflow & look at your cost structure,

whelan2

yewtree wrote: »

I met him once in Curtins a few years ago with our DG and I thought he was very good on grazing systems . On here he seems to get slated for anything he says, like the bit on the cashflow seemed fair enough to me, refinance if you did cap ex out of cashflow & look at your cost structure,

He was also saying to go for the Glanbia scheme for finance, from reading here and other forums the glanbia schemes would be the last place to go if under pressure

rangler1

yewtree wrote: »

I met him once in Curtins a few years ago with our DG and I thought he was very good on grazing systems . On here he seems to get slated for anything he says, like the bit on the cashflow seemed fair enough to me, refinance if you did cap ex out of cashflow & look at your cost structure,

Wouldn't have got a job in the journal if curtins gave him a poor reference. some here are just anti IFJ

yewtree

whelan2 wrote: »

He was also saying to go for the Glanbia scheme for finance, from reading here and other forums the glanbia schemes would be the last place to go if under pressure

I don't know enough about Glanbia scheme to have any comment on it. For most milk suppliers their coops not offering it so will have to refinance (if necessary) in traditional ways. in 09 we turned an overdraft into a term loan paid off over 18 months, we under estimated building work and we were short cash due to milk price/weather.

browned

yewtree wrote: »

I met him once in Curtins a few years ago with our DG and I thought he was very good on grazing systems . On here he seems to get slated for anything he says, like the bit on the cashflow seemed fair enough to me, refinance if you did cap ex out of cashflow & look at your cost structure,

Met him a few times at Moorepark open days. Was well able to answer any sticky question put his way. He must have been managing curtins in his early 20's so he must know his stuff.

Farmer Ed

rangler1 wrote: »

Wouldn't have got a job in the journal if curtins gave him a poor reference. some here are just anti IFJ

I don't know the man but I'd be very surprised if he got a job in the journal if had showed and tendencies to fly too far from the nest.

Remind me again how much I'm saving by not buying it every week? I agree all costs need to be looked at starting with that.

rangler1

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I don't know the man but I'd be very surprised if he got a job in the journal if had showed and tendencies to fly too far from the nest.

Remind me again how much I'm saving by not buying it every week? I agree all costs need to be looked at starting with that.

don't worry about it.....you seem to claim everyone's incompetent...

Farmer Ed

rangler1 wrote: »

don't worry about it.....you seem to claim everyone's incompetent...

I don't think I've ever used the word incompetent? Must be confusing me with someone else. I do like to see people question things and not take everything at face value. And I do think there are some who have been allowed to pull the wool over farmers eyes for far too long. But in fairness I don't think I ever used the word incompetent. Far from it. IMO the biggest threat to farmers is from people who are very compedent at looking after themselves.

rangler1

Farmer Ed wrote: »

I don't think I've ever used the word incompetent? Must be confusing me with someone else. I do like to see people question things and not take everything at face value. And I do think there are some who have been allowed to pull the wool over farmers eyes for far too long. But in fairness I don't think I ever used the word incompetent. Far from it. IMO the biggest threat to farmers is from people who are very compedent at looking after themselves.

And more power to them, look after number one, no thanks now for doing anything else these days.....

Water John

That has a bitter taste to it, Rangler.
Then may be I'm very niaive. I think Rosseau was the philospher who promoted that ideal of human behaviour.

Dawggone

Water John wrote: »

That has a bitter taste to it, Rangler.
Then may be I'm very niaive. I think Rosseau was the philospher who promoted that ideal of human behaviour.

Nihilism. Nietzsche...

Any chance of some constructive vision from this thread?



Edit. Nawwww.