The dairy boom.Can we officially say its over

Re the production flat-lining in 22/23 their was more cows than ever calved down and like you said production is decreasing coupled with increased meal going in think it's at 5% this year to date over 22, we where told when herds matured and ebi's increased their would be a fair lift nationally from this alone but it hasn't taken place....

Weather patterns are probably to blame, we need goldilocks type weather here for our grass-based system to deliver not to wet/not to dry just the right amount of rain and good calm February/March months to get cows out, it's just not happening like the above the past few years and it's really showing

same amount of heifers just less bulls

Conception rates with sexed semen on heifers moderate from what I hear this year. Lot of heifers being scanned around now. 50% or over is a good result.

Never had a problem dry weather, bring it on. Weather like this last couple of weeks is bad for us, nothing to do with stocking rate. Heavy land .

My thinking is normally when cows go out in the spring they shouldn't be back getting silage until they're rehoused in the autumn. This normally works out OK, except in a year like this.

6 Oat Milks to 4 Cows milk Cartons in the Fridge at work. It's amazing how quickly the Dairy alternatives have gotten hold

Thats it. How often are the cartons replaced or dumped

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Woman in front of me in aldi today buying 7 x 3litres of milk.

Using 24 litres a week here every week and that's in a reasonable size family milk alternatives are dying on there feet.......going the same way as the fake meat .....false advertising and zealots pushing only get you so far before the facts and pass poor nutrional values of the alternatives catches up ......not to mention the fact that its far more environmentally unsustainable than just good old-fashioned milk.

Taking the helicopter view of industry, I see the biggest concerns to profitability at the moment are

1. Margin erosion. Falling milk price coupled with rising and stubbornly high input prices

2. Rising interest rates. Making servicing debt for some operations more tricky

3. Nitrates. With dero possibility going an banding, this will reduce the numbers that many herds can carry

4. Labour. Skilled and reliable labour is hard to get and even trickier to retain. This is of the biggest concern to herds once they pass 100 cows.

5. Calf issue. Discussed to death here.

Think back to the gold rush it was the suppliers that made the fortune, mining the miners. As the chap in the knackery lorry said this spring, when asked why they were so busy, the reply was short and snappy - " Teagasc and Concrete"

Long term there is a future for many that can get over the next few tough years. Finding the sweet spot will be key to success.

Dairy boom probably ended in the 80s and is in steady decline since. There will be bigger farms and less of them. The price is just too low to justify the whole thing as there are so many better opportunities for young people now.

My father recommended part time farming with a nice job to me. That was grand until he had a spare dairy farm he was trying to offload.

Dairying will do me fine until I hit my 60's and I'll probably leave it at that. Will be educating the young lads and recommending hobby farming just to feed the habit.

I am not sure if bigger farms are the answer. Labour will be the major limiting factor. At present minimum wage is 11.3/hour and we will probably see it hit 12 hour next year as it targets the living wage rate

Anybody working on a dairy farm milking will want 10-20% minimum above that. 80-120 cows is a sweet spot for a lone operator with minimal casual labour other than contractors for larger jobs.

Larger farms as well are often based on rented land. This will impact return.

The wife is the same here with her skim sh1t. Pure water. Lactose intolerance is another thing.

Not sure is it lactose intolerance but for the last 10 years would have a big bowl of porridge made with milk. I the last 6 months can't tolerate it giving me indigestion for the day. It started by not being able to use strathroy milk and now it seems to be all milk except for raw milk. So whatever the processors are doing to it, I'll stick to raw organic milk for now.