Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

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.

60 cow 600 euro average profit 36 k.Plus all the investment But whatever ur happy at lifes too short.I know people working in highly pai jobs and they hate it.Like imagine working for me wouldnt it be someoneds dream

Bord bia won't accept a bucket plant nor will the processor.

And cull cows you'd have to allow 60% are culled with high cell count.

Not sure if the post was tongue in cheek..

Is there a Mrs Siamsa? And if so what does she make of the plan?……

cull cows are not for the faint hearted ,cull cow men paid big money for cows earlier in the year expecting 5 euro/kg in June when in fact cows only peaked at 4.40 .You might see grand cows selling for handy money around the ring but dare you bid ,they will leave you buy plenty of canners but there is someone on every good cow and they take their turn

The cowsi c in mart are usually weather beaten and would not be hard dried off.Seen alot of cows last year in an awful state

I would not stop him going milking. But I'm a safe type of guy and if it was me I would be finding a second hand parlor. Not just machine all the iron work, feeders ect. Bring the builder with you and put the pit in and drop the parlor around it. Build it on to an existing tank .

You should be milking for 30000.

There is no way I would be spending 200k to be milk cows.

You don't need a lot of comfort or all mod cons to milk 60 cows. Once you pass the tests

Ya I agree 👍. I Don't think he will regret it. On another note lots to do alright but......how do you eat an elephant 🐘 😉 . On the parlour side of things put in a minimum 10 unit's second hand and straight forward leave room for a couple more unit's if possible but if your going working as well you deffo want to be done milking in MAX 6 lines never cow more. Jobs in the evening for the morning such as changing fences etc can be a family event even if kids aren't really interested they still will enjoy being out and about . That's my 2 cent anyway

This accelerated cap ex is only for slurry storage so would be for the tank, slats and associated concrete around the tank. Carefully and clever planning could leave it in a way that the shed could be put easily over it. For example setting shortened stanchions or having pads set under some insulation and capped off with 3 inches of concrete which could be kangoed out easily at a later date.

Its worse your improving