Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Not criticising you at all, just pointing out that if you took the logic re houses in isolation to its conclusion, you'd sell the cows, the machinery, and the land - and buy houses.

What would be going into the cows re forage, would a figure of half the year so 180 days of a fully indoor diet be right so circa 1600 ton freshweight to feed the milkers with the rest grazed grass, so say 100k forage costs/brewers excluding rent, and 100k meal plus circa 10k for fertilizer on grazing block, plus 10k for miscellaneous minerals/machinery costs re fertilising/topping grazing block etc,

So 200k to feed your cows, so a range of 17-23 cent per litre of milk produced depending on fertilizer costs/meal etc, if you take the 250k for drawings/rent, your up on our over 40 cent a litre cost of production obviously you've savage income re beef/dairy sales plus sfp which would add well over 15 cent a litre to your income, in fairness ye are making money

I couldn't think of a worse thing to be listening to them 2 apes for a day

Scraping down cubicles is pure hardship.🤔

But depending on renting ground for survival, buying spun out culls for 200 euro and running a second yard to keep them, all the buffering and feeding is simple.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I'd prefer to scrap the cubicles manually myself while checking the cows but sure I was always fond of hardship.

There's people on here that think farming is all about profit and money and being the "best". That was never how I looked at farming or life myself.

Find something you love and you’ll never work another day in your life- the renting isn’t for survival it’s for enjoyment and as for buying spun out cows- these weren’t spun out cows they were empty spring calving cows that a spring farmer had to get rid of because he was stuck under derogation and stuck for money

buying them and making money on them might be a bit of extra work but to be able to gloat about it to you is actually priceless

happy Christmas from the profitable winter milk farmer- btw you never disclose Any prices or rebuttal any of my comments or prices with factual ones of your own- anyway I’m off to enjoy a few drinks now- enjoy your st stevens day

Some of the reasons for the man buying land rather than houses are similar.

There's a notion too if you're not spring calving you're calving all year around. 2 distinct calving blocks. As in everything it's as easy or as hard as you make it. Milking is half an hour atm here, feeding, milking, scrapers all done and back in bed for a hour before 8am this last few mornings.

Work life balance ….I get lots of time away from farm with family etc milking twice a day by having a structured day with milking first and last job and gone from yard by 5.30/6 majority of year …..seriously question why lads go 10/7 July august …..are the cows there breeding just not milking ….I know one lad doing it …in September he was averaging under 12 litres at it ….best thing ever ….imo he’d be better off oad rather than milking at 5.30 am or 11 am etc

You still have to put in the effort whether in a PAYE job or in business to earn a decent living. The BS about the death bed is still BS

In an operation like @stanflt where there is 2-3 operating the system there is plenty of downtime. Not sure if 10/7 is much of a labour saver compared to turnover loss. Dairying is a 7 day week business. Ya maybe skipping a milking on Sunday is a viable proposition but dropping yield has costs.

So I did 10 in 7 here this year, I have a young family and live off farm. It won't work if you can't feed cows properly with grass. I finished up with 468 ms delivered. I changed on the 10th of July. At that point I predicted I would finish around 475 kg had I stayed on tad all thru. I'm a lazy bastard tho by my own admission. Once I caught up with a few bits in July I was clocking 35 hrs a week from August on. One change I did make from traditional 10 in 7 was I did oad every second day regardless so either Sat or Sun was tad every second weekend. I felt 2 days oad in a row was too much. Milking times were 6.30 am and 3.30 pm and then 8.30 am on oad days. Not for everyone but I really enjoyed the last few months farming and with my family. I feel so much fresher for it.

All that depends on your current situation and set up. I am sure that there are many lads (especially on the dairy thread) who wouldn't be able to scale down too easily because they'd already have high fixed costs they'd be looking to spread across more output..............I'd say the cost of renting land in plenty of areas gives an indication of that as it is.

Still have all my culls here. You are sticking me a into a box of poor spring calving dairy farmer stuck with nitrates. I kinda understand what you are on about but that is not me.

55 owned hectares, 78 cows and followers. Expanding next year and after from my own replacements. Every cent from the farm is my own. Just back from pub. Dinner and the Munster match. Happy new year. Am flying out for 2 weeks on new years eve

The choice between renting and buy often comes down to what is available.

If suitable land isnt for sale you cant buy it.

Id be all for buying if possible though. Very rarely anyone regrets it.

Painfull .