Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Thought space for nature was to pay somewhere around 65 to 75 € per ha?

300kgs deadweight each

New schem out lately to plant 2 hectares and you'll get 2k per hectare per year for 20 years, maybe it was just a dream...

But what would 800 euro be worth in 15 to 20 years time. And then you have to replant, etc as you have lost control of your land. Forestry is basically worse than selling your land cheap imo. Better off sell the place if that's what you want and reinvest somewhere else to preserve the wealth.

Ruled out here anyway. I already have alot of hedgerows and dikes.

Park the doubts now and get it done.

Great time to be getting into cows.

Milk will pay well for 2024...

You're obviously in the 250 area😉

Budget for double the slurry storage requirement at present.

The wind is blowing that direction and in a few years lots can change.

IMO if a cow has flesh you are better off going to the factory. All dairy farmers are QA so they angle is covered. Get an agent to have a look at them and get P&O grade prices.

If you can carry them yourself you. An drop.them off in the morning as cows are often slaughtered last you would get away dropping them off at 11am or later. Young tight cows will probably do better at the mart just make sure it's one that has northern buyers.

At your age I think you are crazy to give up a 3 days a week job to go milking cows twice per day -7 days a week .If you have a young lad interested it would be a different story but no young crowd would even look at a milking cow nowadays .

Stick with your drystock and make improvements in that line is my advice

There's a lot to be said being able to take days off from the farm and know it's still ticking away.

With the scale Siamsa would be at is probably similar to myself and yourself CG.

You are a lifetime trying to get things in order on the farm and it still requires full time attention and really all your money has to go back into it to stay current and with the regs. The figures from teagasc are bs. It gets tougher every year. And the way the government are going with tillage. You'll have to grow your own if you want straw. It's bs payments for carbon. As it's cultivated back to the atmosphere. Every farmer is being required to be more self sufficient entirely.

But there's more and more pulling from the dairy farmer every year purposely so. It's grass measuring one year on pasture base. It's increased slurry storage the next. It's deluxe calf rearing facilities the next.

When you are in the thick of it you lose all clarity and continue as is.

You'd really want your eyes open to know if it's really what you want.

I know I'm around the 60 cow figure and I don't have a penny. Bills are paid and I'm accumulating new toys that make the physical work easier. But then you see others where they don't have a farm to spend money on and they're driving the latest electric car and you begin to wonder.