Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

The problem with northern herds is that. They are housed and never grazed- I’ve no problems with Bord Bia- my cows are more effecient and produce less emisssions than a purely grass based cow

How will you manage when we are back to 170kg and not allowed to export slurry

I’m up on output this year- no extra feeding- less Irish genetics

That's my point more banding levels would likely leave those as they are and add more, not sure on exact figure but I think the highest is 117kgs/ N for highest yielding bracket in other countries.

Would the best way around the whole thing is rent ground and grow some corn and maize. Reduce meal and extra acres for derogation

Il give them a buzz in the morning thanks

60 ha farm all cows, assume contract reared young stock, and in high band could milk 124 cows at 220kgs thats a sr of just over 2/ ha.

Would have to back to 96cows at 170 or have to find another 17ha or 42 acres just to stay at 124. Say 250/ acre in rent plus the cost of growing whatever is on it. Can be done but no 2 ways about it earning potential is being hit hard

The current system is based on the calculation of N for the middle of the band. So Band 2 is set for 5400 kg roughly, meaning all herds from 5401 to 6499 are getting away with producing more milk than the N figure is calculated for. If you increase the 6500 then the mid-point of Band 2 will increase and that will have the effect of increasing calculated N per cow overall

Similarly, if you bring in a 4th or 5th band, it would mean a higher N rating for any herd in this range because the median N for the band would increase. At the upper end Band 3, the N rating is for a cow yielding at 7155kg i.e. 106kg . Any herd doing above this level is getting away with producing whatever they want for no penalty on N rate. A 4th or 5th band would mean something like a 120kg N rate for 7800kg plus- a disaster for the high output herds.

In the current system, the herds somewhat negatively affected by having 3 bands are those that sit between 6500 and 7154kg , which is about 9% of herds, and of these about 5% could drop into band 2 quite readily. It is possible 90 to 96% of herds are better off with 3 bands rather than 4+. Nothing simple here but definitely I'd say 3 bands is better overall.

Youd be better going to 80 cows forget about contract rearer

Most southern farmers wouldn have the skill to operate an indoor system.Controlled starvation is all alot know its beyond me how teagasc boys can have a 35 day rotation in september when growth has slowed and its been 21 all year

Naghhhh be better off finding a big dairy farmer and the woman and lease the lot to him for 500 an acre

Took a long spin up to the Winter Fair in Belfast with the brother in law today, just to see how the other half of the other half lives. Its really nice show in a lovely part of the world and impressive trade stands too (I nearly was tempted to buy a calf feeder).

But man oh man, the high input Northern dairy man is squealing!

High costs of nearly 38p a litre, meal bills out their arses (feeding over 3.5 tonnes for about 8000 litres now) and getting less than 32p a litre in return. Where is the skill in that? Working all the hours that their God has given them as well.

They have a totally different method of paying for milk too which I found interesting, volume all the way. The farmer is on a hamster wheel as a result- all extra milk value must come with an input cost. Its not working out too well for them. Another thing is they get 100% tax relief on machinery in a single year, which explains all the kit. As for profit and technical progress, forget it by the looks of it.

I had a chat with a big lump of a man from co Tyrone and he said he would swap any day with the Southern system. Grass is always greener I suppose, even if it is on a long September rotation.

Methane really is only something environmental activists have grabbed onto and made it a huge issue for livestock farmers...... there was a report about all the Methane leakage from fossil fuel producers there a few days ago .......by god it died a death in the media after a day or so

Come election time FF/FG will give the usual aul guff and farmers will again fall for it hook,line and sinker .I am hoping we will see 3 healy rae on the ticket for Kerry in the next election that might leave ff/fg with 1 td in Kerry .Unless Fitzmaurice gets strong backing I am fearfull for farmer alliance with local elections in 6 months and not a dicky bird from farmer alliance in the news .You aint going rock up in 6 months time and expect to walk into a job