Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

I don't really care whether it's cheaper to buy silage or make your own, I don't care whether a contractor is cheaper or more expensive. It's the stress and uncertainty I want to cut out especially with wet ground and sh1t weather. Relying on contractors is not ideal. I put out 2 or 3 tanks of parlour washings every day for the past week an it rained Sunday. Job done and no need to be entertaining the contractor with his diseased owl tank and wellies around the place.

Alot of cross contamination from the contractors mouth too. They're great for spreading other people's business around. It's not something that bothers me personally but also I have no interest in hearing about other people's issues either.

Begged for a bill for 4 years from my slurry contractor before I got sick of it. Dropped him off a cheque last spring for a couple of thousand and that's the last I heard of it.

Most lads that buy silage all the time get the pick of it. Know a couple of lads that buy a good percentage of it and they have the pick of it especially if you pay regularly and always take it.

Know of one regular buy went back to his supplier the year before last and as he was not taking his full quota paid the supplier and got him to store it for the following autumn. The last thing a lad that sells it wants is being left with half a yard of it in April

The getting someone in to feed stock is one I can’t fathom ….if an operation with few hundred cows can’t afford a tractor with a loader and few attachments at a minimum it’s all a matter …..see these types of operation and the man/woman that owns it see themselves as a manager and they don’t want to get there hands dirty

The only plus for him with the fertilizer spreading is the contractor probably has a GPS controlled spreader and this gaurantees him the eco worth over 6k per year to him.

However I think that fertilizer spreading and feeding should always be in-house. Neither are capital intensive investments. You would feed and spread fertilizer on any size of farm with a sub 100hp 20+ year old tractor. His is in one block which makes it easier again.

Good few small light jex type cows went through local mart 380/450’kg made 60/70 cent a kg

It's the bad years like now where trying to find 30-40k to pay the contractor is what kills a farm solely relying on them, its only from late 2020 on that machinery went mental pricewise, upgraded the fert spinner/tank/mowers/ and tractor that year between slurry/mowing/ fert spreading, if Contracting it all out id be looking at a 30k yearly bill, all the above gear is payed for after next year and all is still in great condition, should be some good savings with a few euro left aside for repairs/maintanice when theirs no hp payments to be made

Or maybe the wife wants her own career and not to be giving that up to support her husband's?

100%

And that is probably the largest contractor bill. Slurry would be about 50-60% of that at a guess

The advantage with doing your own is it is a form of income averaging, in that in a bad year it will only cost the diesel to do the work and in a good year you can upgrade some of the gear. We wouldn't have had the massive tax bill to pay from last year because of large capital allowances carried forward. Also in a bad year like this one you can do it when the weather is on your side. We would have made all excellent silage this year, just hit the good but limited weather windows.

Of course your wife having a good off farm job is going to be better. You're diversifying your income but the suggestion was that he needed his wife's income to keep the farm on the road. I doubt very much if that's the case, no one in their right mind would make a business plan based on a third party income

Their has to be a back-story re getting the funds for the rotary on a fully rented block, some serious voodoo accounting going on to get that loan approved

Without pissing on anyone’s grace your bang on …..and at same time maby back story is none of our business but the story has gaps and all is not as rosey as it is portrayed

Why when someone questions something it's immediately shouted down as bitterness? Im milking over 220, we do our own silage, feed our stock, fertiliser, slurry etc. Only hedgecutting and reseeding is contracted out. Own 300 acres and lease in 80.

I must be doing something wrong as I don't see how I'd have much left over after paying contractors to do everything, pay the lease on the majority of the land if i didn't own it and pay relief milkers as well as meeting any repayments.

Personally I wouldnt be investing on the strength of land I didn't own. All figures done here and cubicle spaces etc are based on owned land only.

Are there actually figures or accounts put forward by these farms through teagasc?