Dairy Chitchat 3

Gawddawggonnit

Lely astronaut 4, 2016 for sale.
All options;
Weigh scales.
Scc analysis.
Bf and Pr analysis.
Rumination analysis.
Heat monitor.

Steam flush cluster system.
69 collars.
Two auger feed system with a facility for liquid feed/supplementation.
Drafting system included.
Power surge control.

Gawddawggonnit

.

Gawddawggonnit

For more photos and details please pm.

Timmaay

You talked to Tim Gibson, chap from the UK who buys and sells 2nd hand robots.

cosatron

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

For more photos and details please pm.

some nice looking cows. fairplay.

Gawddawggonnit

Timmaay wrote: »

You talked to Tim Gibson, chap from the UK who buys and sells 2nd hand robots.

Don’t know him.
Would you have contact details Tim?
Thanks.


Spoke to him there now. Thanks Tim.

Gawddawggonnit

cosatron wrote: »

some nice looking cows. fairplay.

Not mine Cosatron.
The farm is sold. Vacant possession mid Feb.
Bought the pick of the herd alright.

Snowfire

Does 96 hrs post calving milk withdrawal on cepravin DC tubes mean 8 milking, or would 4-5 milking be ok if cow was at least 96 hrs calves.... ??
I’ve snap tests ordered

Never wrestle with pigs

Anyone have a preference for a chin ball harness type? A few different ones online from 30 to 200. Paint seems like a mad price from 50/60 L. Thanks

whelan2

Snowfire wrote: »

Does 96 hrs post calving milk withdrawal on cepravin DC tubes mean 8 milking, or would 4-5 milking be ok if cow was at least 96 hrs calves.... ??
I’ve snap tests ordered

Hearing a few problems with cepravin, send a sample with the milkman if in doubt until you get the tests

Mooooo

Wouldn't chance anything with cepravin. I'm sure it says 96 hrs or 8 milking if twice a day milking

straight

Mike brady loves talking about highly profitable dairy farmers. He even has an anachronym for it. HPDF. I've yet to meet one myself. Surely they must be on 80 to 100 euro per hour worked to be highly profitable on top of a land and facilities charge.

alps

straight wrote: »

Mike brady loves talking about highly profitable dairy farmers. He even has an anachronym for it. HPDF. I've yet to meet one myself. Surely they must be on 80 to 100 euro per hour worked to be highly profitable on top of a land and facilities charge.

Love that " land and facilities" charge

straight

alps wrote: »

Love that " land and facilities" charge

What other business gives them for free. Over 500k invested in facilities here

mf240

straight wrote: »

Mike brady loves talking about highly profitable dairy farmers. He even has an anachronym for it. HPDF. I've yet to meet one myself. Surely they must be on 80 to 100 euro per hour worked to be highly profitable on top of a land and facilities charge.

Who's Mike Brady

charolais0153

straight wrote: »

What other business gives them for free. Over 500k invested in facilities here

In what way do business' charge for them?

mahoney_j

straight wrote: »

Mike brady loves talking about highly profitable dairy farmers. He even has an anachronym for it. HPDF. I've yet to meet one myself. Surely they must be on 80 to 100 euro per hour worked to be highly profitable on top of a land and facilities charge.

I’ll be honest himself and that down to earth john lad had me and many others bambozeled for last few weeks with conference season

straight

charolais0153 wrote: »

In what way do business' charge for them?

Through setting the price of their products/ service to cover the inputs and pay themselves a fair wage.

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

I’ll be honest himself and that down to earth john lad had me and many others bambozeled for last few weeks with conference season

Its hard to phantom the 2500 ha profit figure on all ha farmed Brady does go on about his clients achieve, that would leave profits per ha on the milking block up around 3500 plus ha, it’s fantasy island stuff

straight

mf240 wrote: »

Who's Mike Brady

He's a clown that has a farm advisory business called the brady group and he gets paid for an opinion piece in the farming independent. I think he resides on a different planet.

visatorro

mahoney_j wrote: »

.

I’ll be honest himself and that down to earth john lad had me and many others bambozeled for last few weeks with conference season[/quote]

Not an ordinary gob****e if he had you confused!

visatorro

straight wrote: »

mf240 wrote: »

Who's Mike Brady

He's a clown that has a farm advisory business called the brady group and he gets paid for an opinion piece in the farming independent. I think he resides on a different planet.

Not fair to call him a clown. Every industry and even every office has a consultant to talk waffle. I'm sure he's making a fine living from it so if you look at it that way he's far from a clown.
The more ****e you talk the better you get on, simples

charolais0153

straight wrote: »

Through setting the price of their products/ service to cover the inputs and pay themselves a fair wage.

Farmers never set the price of their products though and has nothing to do with a made up 'charge'

K.G.

the most profitible dairy lads are the lads that get most milk at lower costs,spend wisely and appropiately, minds the land and has good stockman skills.and shuts up about it

simx

K.G. wrote: »

the most profitible dairy lads are the lads that get most milk at lower costs,spend wisely and appropiately, minds the land and has good stockman skills.and shuts up about it

Very true especially the last part imo

Snowfire

Finally get to the scratcher for a little while. #nightcalvings...

straight

charolais0153 wrote: »

Farmers never set the price of their products though and has nothing to do with a made up 'charge'

Exactly. Pricetakers. Farmers are left with whatever is left over at the end. My point was that dairy farming is not highly profitable.

kevthegaff

Seen a heading the other day on the independent with one man system milking 220 cows, inappropriate heading as the man had part time labour. No other mention of labour, contractors etc. He was even doing a diploma also while finished at 6 pm. Some of these headlines really belittle farmers

dar31

kevthegaff wrote: »

Seen a heading the other day on the independent with one man system milking 220 cows, inappropriate heading as the man had part time labour. No other mention of labour, contractors etc. He was even doing a diploma also while finished at 6 pm. Some of these headlines really belittle farmers

Yea, that one annoyed me. One man show, but had part time in, was it 2 or 3 days a week. Then he had relief milkers as well.
From what I gathered there was help on the farm at least 4 1/2 days a week.
On top of that there were 3 teenage daughters as well, I'm sure at least one of them gave a helping hand at the weekends during calving.
Joke of an article.

whelan2

dar31 wrote: »

Yea, that one annoyed me. One man show, but had part time in, was it 2 or 3 days a week. Then he had relief milkers as well.
From what I gathered there was help on the farm at least 4 1/2 days a week.
On top of that there were 3 teenage daughters as well, I'm sure at least one of them gave a helping hand at the weekends during calving.
Joke of an article.

Glad I didn't read that now.

Keep Sluicing

straight wrote: »

Exactly. Pricetakers. Farmers are left with whatever is left over at the end. My point was that dairy farming is not highly profitable.

If there are very little capital investment repayments, a dairy farm can be very profitable. A neighbour who i do about 20 milkings a years for is milking 110 cows since he took over from his father 15 years ago. Housing and 12 unit milking were in place. He doesn'trent any land and has 53 hectares in the farm block and 9 hectares 2 miles away.

Hes spent money on a new bulk tank, extending the parlour to 16 unit, converting a loose shed to cubicles, 15 loads of concrete on cleaning up dirty yards and a new claves house with auto calf feeder. Thats his only investmentin his 15 years and done on cashflow to reduce tax bill.

Hes been very honest with me when i would be asking him about going back into dairy. On a 5 year average he saidhe has cattle and 70k + profit . A guy that works for the county council, milks for him 3 mornings a week at that.

Before anyone looses the plot with me, i know this is the exception rather than the rule.

jaymla627

kevthegaff wrote: »

Seen a heading the other day on the independent with one man system milking 220 cows, inappropriate heading as the man had part time labour. No other mention of labour, contractors etc. He was even doing a diploma also while finished at 6 pm. Some of these headlines really belittle farmers

The contractor thing is something that is hard to get a handle on, you’ll see this quoted that all machinery work bar feeding is contracted out in these stories, but then you look at contractor costs in their pm and it’s ridiculously low, all slurry/mowing/fert spreading was been contracted out but have upgraded all the machinery to do it all in-house for 18
If I hadn’t I’d be looking at an extra 20k of a bill/extra two cent a litre on 18’s contracting bill, which already came to 3 cent a litre for 18, but these lads will have costs under two cent a litre published

stretch film

jaymla627 wrote: »

The contractor thing is something that is hard to get a handle on, you’ll see this quoted that all machinery work bar feeding is contracted out in these stories, but then you look at contractor costs in their pm and it’s ridiculously low, all slurry/mowing/fert spreading was been contracted out but have upgraded all the machinery to do it all in-house for 18
If I hadn’t I’d be looking at an extra 20k of a bill/extra two cent a litre on 18’s contracting bill, which already came to 3 cent a litre for 18, but these lads will have costs under two cent a litre published

that sounds like your not putting a value on your time

farisfat

Theirs one thing I've learned about group meetings, pm and alot of media.
Believe half of what you hear and quarter of what you see.

mf240

straight wrote: »

He's a clown that has a farm advisory business called the brady group and he gets paid for an opinion piece in the farming independent. I think he resides on a different planet.

Should of called it the brady bunch. :pac:

Buford T. Justice XIX

I just had the vet out to put down a calf. Her back legs were all messed up, probably Schmallenberg the vet said. First AI heifer as well. Balls!

blackdog1

kevthegaff wrote:

Seen a heading the other day on the independent with one man system milking 220 cows, inappropriate heading as the man had part time labour. No other mention of labour, contractors etc. He was even doing a diploma also while finished at 6 pm. Some of these headlines really belittle farmers

Yea I love the heading of the article and then just before it finishes... He farms with his wife and 3 daughter's....

oxjkqg

The profit monitors have turned into a joke in our discussion group anyway, the lies are unreal. Honesty has gone out the window.
They are only fooling themselves anyway.
There are a lot of exceptions and a lot of things which are not comparing like with like.
1 man - his 2 sons are large contractors, the man has unbelievably low contractor costs and machinery costs
another man is milking a 50 cow herd and does a lot of baling - his PM isn't reflecting it.
At the end of the day your profit monitor can look as well as u want it to but its yourself your fooling.
ourselves 102 cow herd - spring calving, high input (1.7 tonne meal 2018), highly stocked 3.1 cow/ha on the milking block - 2265 / ha profit before tax on all owned land, 33 milking block 8 outfarm. Rent ground for silage exclusively . Including outright purchase of new jeep in 2018 24k.

GrasstoMilk

stretch film wrote: »

that sounds like your not putting a value on your time

Have you someone employed fulltime along with your self to run all this machinery?
We used to do all our own work, do less than half it now and over double the cows. Don't have the time nor the interest. Biggest waste of money imo.
We did alot of building work here last year and stock got neglected as a result, reminded me of the time we used to be at all our silage and do silage for lads.
You add up your repayments for the new machines, your time, diesel, repairs etc.
You'll be at alot more than 20k for the year

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Have you someone employed fulltime along with your self to run all this machinery?
We used to do all our own work, do less than half it now and over double the cows. Don't have the time nor the interest. Biggest waste of money imo.
We did alot of building work here last year and stock got neglected as a result, reminded me of the time we used to be at all our silage and do silage for lads.
You add up your repayments for the new machines, your time, diesel, repairs etc.
You'll be at alot more than 20k for the year

If you have scope for more cows then thats the way but if you don't what can you do instead?

straight

Keep Sluicing wrote: »

If there are very little capital investment repayments, a dairy farm can be very profitable. A neighbour who i do about 20 milkings a years for is milking 110 cows since he took over from his father 15 years ago. Housing and 12 unit milking were in place. He doesn'trent any land and has 53 hectares in the farm block and 9 hectares 2 miles away.

Hes spent money on a new bulk tank, extending the parlour to 16 unit, converting a loose shed to cubicles, 15 loads of concrete on cleaning up dirty yards and a new claves house with auto calf feeder. Thats his only investmentin his 15 years and done on cashflow to reduce tax bill.

Hes been very honest with me when i would be asking him about going back into dairy. On a 5 year average he saidhe has cattle and 70k + profit . A guy that works for the county council, milks for him 3 mornings a week at that.

Before anyone looses the plot with me, i know this is the exception rather than the rule.

Hardly highly profitable. I've earned not for off that in a 39 hour week. The guy that works in the council and milks his cows 3 mornings a week is probably earning as much as him when you take pension, etc into account. It doesn't matter if there's payments to be made for investment. The investment and the assets are still in place and his father paid for them if he didn't himself.

GrasstoMilk

charolais0153 wrote: »

If you have scope for more does then thats the way but if you don't what can you do instead?

Stick to what your at. We milked 60 cows for a long time I'd have no issue staying at that but we bought land and there wouldn't be a living for 2 of us from 60 cows along with pay for that. I've friends who are milking around that number, very few loans, one tractor well set up yard and all land owned making a nice living out of it and has alot more free time than me any way

whelan2

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Stick to what your at. We milked 60 cows for a long time I'd have no issue staying at that but we bought land and there wouldn't be a living for 2 of us from 60 cows along with pay for that. I've friends who are milking around that number, very few loans, one tractor well set up yard and all land owned making a nice living out of it and has alot more free time than me any way

That's the main point. When is it too much work. Too late to realise when kids have grown up. 6pm is shut down here. Unless there's calving or an emergency.

wrangler

straight wrote: »

Hardly highly profitable. I've earned not for off that in a 39 hour week. The guy that works in the council and milks his cows 3 mornings a week is probably earning as much as him when you take pension, etc into account. It doesn't matter if there's payments to be made for investment. The investment and the assets are still in place and his father paid for them if he didn't himself.

Public service ?????
That's why I keep stressing that there's huge opprtunities out there for young people and not to be stuck into the rut of farming

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Stick to what your at. We milked 60 cows for a long time I'd have no issue staying at that but we bought land and there wouldn't be a living for 2 of us from 60 cows along with pay for that. I've friends who are milking around that number, very few loans, one tractor well set up yard and all land owned making a nice living out of it and has alot more free time than me any way

Yep, 60 - 70 cows here, making a living and get to spend some time with young family. I get annoyed with how people are pushing more cows and more work down people's throat and i worry for people over stretching themselves for nothing extra at the end of the day.

wrangler

straight wrote: »

Yep, 60 - 70 cows here, making a living and get to spend some time with young family. I get annoyed with how people are pushing more cows and more work down people's throat and i worry for people over stretching themselves for nothing extra at the end of the day.

WOW, I thought you meant you had a 39hr week job, very good, I've a friend at something similar, lovely lifestyle, wife not working, and has bought land but can't expand the milking block.....not that he'd want to

straight

wrangler wrote: »

Public service ?????
That's why I keep stressing that there's huge opprtunities out there for young people and not to be stuck into the rut of farming

Hi tech industry. Working off farm opens your eyes to what a weeks work is. Farming now because that's what I'm happy at. I don't get the same hourly rate though.

wrangler

straight wrote: »

Hi tech industry. Working off farm opens your eyes to what a weeks work is. Farming now because that's what I'm happy at. I don't get the same hourly rate though.

Agreed, even having the OH working revealed the waste of time farming is, no family here so no pressure, had it been different I would've had to get out of farming. Last twenty years have been good but the previous twenty were a bitch

Timmaay

jaymla627 wrote: »

The contractor thing is something that is hard to get a handle on, you’ll see this quoted that all machinery work bar feeding is contracted out in these stories, but then you look at contractor costs in their pm and it’s ridiculously low, all slurry/mowing/fert spreading was been contracted out but have upgraded all the machinery to do it all in-house for 18
If I hadn’t I’d be looking at an extra 20k of a bill/extra two cent a litre on 18’s contracting bill, which already came to 3 cent a litre for 18, but these lads will have costs under two cent a litre published

Just looking at my 2018 pm, contracting comes in at 17k, or 2.85c/l. That's all silage, slurry, maize and dung. 2.50c is a realistic target, as we increase output to dilute many of these costs.

jaymla627

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Have you someone employed fulltime along with your self to run all this machinery?
We used to do all our own work, do less than half it now and over double the cows. Don't have the time nor the interest. Biggest waste of money imo.
We did alot of building work here last year and stock got neglected as a result, reminded me of the time we used to be at all our silage and do silage for lads.
You add up your repayments for the new machines, your time, diesel, repairs etc.
You'll be at alot more than 20k for the year

Big problem in this area here is contractors are running self-propelled and balers but haven’t the mowing power to cover all their ground our labour to have both outfits out at full tilt , so once the June push comes you’ll be waiting up to a week to get ground mowed, absolutely screws up your rotation if excess paddocks need to come out and silage quality, zero issues now as contractor is rang 3 days before planned cutting day and if he comes back with I can’t get to you that day, no bother I’ll ring another lad and he suddenly accommodates me no hassle....
On the cost side only one tractor is ran here, makes a lot more sense to trade up every 3-4 years and have a touchwood reliable machine then running a older yoke that could become a money pit very quickly if it starts to need a lot of repairs, and of course if your contracting out all your work bar feeding it’s very hard to Justify upgrading a tractor....
I love the machinery side of farming too so don’t mind the extra work