Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

cjpm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122359614#Comment_122359614

Every dairy farmer in the country should be a member to be honest. The IFA are trying to keep everyone happy and are only falling between 2 stools.

TinyMuffin

good crop of winter barley here and the spring barleys not as bad as I’d have thought it would be. Most around here are chopping as the shite that goes on over straw is annoying. Like pulling teeth. But it’s hard to work without straw bedding. And with silage back there’ll be lots fed. Beet will probably be back up to €80 a tonne too.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122359758#Comment_122359758

Ya, I just thought it's unfair to expect my fellow dairy farmers to be carrying me and to be fair I should contribute.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122359758#Comment_122359758

You go to my local ifa meeting and it's five minutes is given to dairy and that's just on the commodity report. The rest is beef and tillage. Mostly tillage. But that's the area and the national reps there and they feel pressure from the Grain growers group to try and fill out the meeting.

Those icmsa bulletins are striking a chord. Must be new brooms. It's like they are taking a chord now from the Grain growers group which is no bad thing. Dairy representation has been especially lacking these past few years from our union groups and government. More of the same required from the icmsa and well done on their new tone.

cjpm

Well the strength of the ICMSA is directly proportional to the number of members. It’s our closest thing to a Union.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122359911#Comment_122359911

The gap is widening too in IFA between ordinary members who attend the monthly meetings and the "executives" in Bluebell. That seems to be across all sectors, be it dairy, tillage, beef, sheep, etc.

What's the craic with ICMSA then? Do they have regular meetings in each county?

dmakc

I went to IFA and ICMSA with an issue recently. IFA gave me a 5 minute call saying nothing they can do. ICMSA gave me 1h30min of good instruction.

Base price

I was chatting to a local dairy farmer over the weekend and he told me that the guy who collects his milk said that there was seven farmers who are quitting this Autumn. He said that five were retiring and the other two was due to ill health. He said that two would be milking around 100 cows, the rest would milk 40-80 cows.

Saddening to see the demise of family farms but I suppose the same thing has happened around EU and the US years ago.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360240#Comment_122360240

There's a group on FB for dairy farmers under 250 cows. It was set up stateside for the reasons you outlined. Mostly US quitting or being forced through regulation out. The Europeans are more smaller than ourselves still and whatever local supports or regulation or milk selling arrangements they are still going.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PGFo3jRhZgY

Ireland is extremely poor in trying to keep smaller dairy farmers going. There's absolutely no interest there from council or national government.

straight

It's a nice article Thanks to the ICMSA. Looks like they tried to get it out before teagasc release the results of their survey and the industry try to manipulate the results in order to recruit more victims. Like the "highly profitable dairy farming" headlines we kept seeing. They did serious damage to dairy farmers imo.

This one of my many favourite lines.

"Drennan said that the “wipeout” of dairy farmer income had been presided over by the government and “cheered-on by a blissfully ignorant and insulated class of commentators."

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/average-dairy-farmer-income-well-below-minimum-wage-icmsa/

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360240#Comment_122360240

Factories are full with cull cows already, two weeks waiting to get a few in here, conservatively 5% plus of dairy herds probably wont be milking cows in 25, probably talking 70k plus less dairy cows in the country next year and another couple of hundred million litres of milk for co-ops

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360534#Comment_122360534

heard of another 2 local herds quitting and two more going from winter to spring milk

future for winter milk is looking like a serious opportunity for anyone who can grow grass and knows how to feed and breed cows- when tirlan reps are ringing to see your expected winter volume and saying that there might be more bonuses available to suppliers with surpluses it shows how bad the situation is- years ago the endless growth in spring milk production meant nearly all year round supply of liquid milk- now the mass exit from both has lead to a serious problem where contracts won’t be filled— nitrates loss of derogation- reduced growth rates between June to August all have shown how vulnerable the spring milk system is

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360240#Comment_122360240

Ya but I really don't think the bigger lads will be getting any bigger

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360534#Comment_122360534

I remember years ago Denis Brosnan saying that Ireland was only big enough for two to three dairy co-op's/processors. That was probably up on forty years ago now. I wonder did he see the demise of the smaller dairy farmer when he said that.

As an aside, we are busy drawing both fleshed and ex dairy cull cows for the past two to three months to the factory. The EURO finals and the fact that the Olympics are in France has added to the demand for cheap processed beef.

green daries

It's a great article but we need so much more of these and we really need a rebuttal of the narrative by the few people he's referring to

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360284#Comment_122360284

Is that video from Switzerland?

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360598#Comment_122360598

Was fobbed of here last year when i looked for a winter milk contract, was sending a nice drop too, circa 500k litres from october to february…

Would it be worth bending the milk advisors ear again are they actually that stuck?

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360622#Comment_122360622

Or Austria.

Not sure which.

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360635#Comment_122360635

definitely

stanflt

maize has done well

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360716#Comment_122360716

it has bombed it last few weeks …in west cork atm and crops down here usually bit ahead of back home ..2 years ago was starting to tassel ….this year mine is better …hopefully next 2 months are kind to it and should be a serious crop …..I’m heading into this winter with a serious bank of grub ….I’ve 4 bales per cow of top quality bales both red clover and normal grass silage ….third cut growing strong ….some second cut sold as standing crop and 12 acres maize .only stock on farm are cows …young stock contract reared and no beef calves kept …sold bunch of limo and ch heifer calves out of shed reared on auto feeder last week for tidy sum

Finally taking plunge and buying a second hand feeder and loader ….plan to drive on milk and solids sold with spring calving predominately …will milk for full 12 months with calving starting around 12 janurafy ….I’ll have a few April may calvers but so be it ….they will milk thru winter nicely ….cull cows will be milked on and sold out of parlour …this worked v well last 2 years …..

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360860#Comment_122360860

I’m dropping heifer numbers from 100 1 yo olds and 100 2 yo back to 70

20 of each are moving to (contract rearer different herd number

Milking cow numbers jumping from 160 to 220 with no spring calving cows being bred to Fresian

aiming to fed more native low protein meal and double output

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122359598#Comment_122359598

Small acreage of it in though. A load of it around here wasn't able to be sown down in the fall due to ground conditions.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360881#Comment_122360881

I’ll have 20 heifers with rearer (20 calves and 20 1/2 year old ….they will all get sexed semen and I’ll do 2 rounds of sexed on my 20 best cows ….everything else will go to beef ….I normally get on very well selling maidens but nitrates restrictions are now catching lads ….ideally I’d need to keep them to calved or point of calving but I’d be screwed for nitrates …..and I’ve no ambition of joining the rat race giving 4/5/600 an acre to rent land …..there’s a serious rethink needed now on lots of farms ….the model been pushed for years now has a heap of holes in it

Grueller

FFiRst thing lads need to do is stop paying for land for investors.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360860#Comment_122360860

If your planning on mixing bales in tub feeder, go twin tub, its a painful process with a single auger one

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360860#Comment_122360860

that’s the problem with this reduced stocking rates. Pile of feed generated even in a poor year for growth, what will happen with a good years growth.
we used to generate surplus feed stocked at 2.8 lu/ha a few years back

While there will be sale for it all in a year like this it’s hard to see it being there at the same demand going forward unless this current weather pattern is here to stay

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122360884#Comment_122360884

OH was chatting to the some of the tillage farmers that we always buy straw from in Meath/NCD/SCD/Kildare and their was feck all winter barley sown due to ground conditions.

IMO there will be a strong demand for any type of feeding straw due to the wet weather let alone the additional demand for bedding straw from the organic sector. Hopefully the harvest weather is good for everyone.