Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Last meeting I was at they said - they are thinking of running 3 week calving reports because compact calving is going so well for farmers. One size fits all. Take the loss on the calves they said and if you only get a fiver it's your own fault for not looking after the calf better.

I wouldn’t deem any one a failure if that was the case

but the whole point of the thing is if you are going to be spring calving and want to dry off over Christmas you need to calve compactly to get days in milk

if you don’t mind milking year round then belt away and calve them how it suits you.

Used to calve year round here not so long ago and in the autumn after that and now we calve all in 10 weeks. Wouldn’t go back, much more profitable system

There used to be a lad(beef operator) on here a neighbour complained him( another farmer), the neighbour was complaining that his sheds were polluting his well. The council came out, checked all his tanks and building for planning nothing serious o/o/o. However he had drawn no grant for a few sheds. They went looking for engineer reports. They wanted all tanks emptied, power washed and an engineers report for them. Not sure how it ended up as he left boards.

The new fertlizer register is the real catch when they get it up and running properly. Computers and data catch you in the end. Local lad has 20ish acres cuts two cuts of silage/hay off it every year. Dose most of the work himself except the baling. He has to get a herd/flock/tillage number this year to buy fertiliser.

I am not sure if they have it linked to your Area Aid application yet. But I think you have to fill a fertlizer use report at year end. At a discussion group meeting the Teagasc Advisor made the point that lads needed soil tests buying fertlizer this year as at year end you need a fertlizer plan in place. Not sure if buying ⁸from NI solves that one.

Then there is Bord Bia inspection one small little change in the rules( similar to calf slaughter) and you could be caught offside.

The days of farming off grid are virtually gone. You probably manage get 1-2 years before the sh!t storm hits you

It's simple market forces. Traditionally a substantial number of dairy farmers used to have beef operations whether to weanling, store or to finish, but the white gold seemed more profitable. Many assumed that all calves would have a positive value over feed/rearing costs. As Teagasc admitted they forgot about the calf.

It exactly the same as the lads that sell weanlings or stores in the mart in the autumn or the lads selling finished cattle then. You are at the mercy of the market. It was always the Irish beef farmer that created a floor under calf prices competing against each other for the limited supply.

Now they can buy as many as they want. A young lad not too far away dose a bit of contracting and rears a few calves as well. He goes to NZ for the silage season every year, really good tractor mechanic as well. He was on machinery maintenance out there the last few years. He decided to skip the calf buying this year. He was rearing 70ish a year. There is a couple of sad dairy farmers near him at present.

I do not have an angst against them. It's just simple economic facts. There are beef farmers going out now paying 3+/kg for stores, they be whinging and crying from October on when the beef base price is probably in the 4.5-4.7/kg base price. Same thing with lads buying yearlings and trying to turn them in 6-8 months.

In beef we all learned the hard way, you have to know your costs and control them. If your costs are wrong you will lose money. Sympathy is not really in my forte either. It's up to everyone to look after there own business. If calves were 2-3 times the price dairy farmers would take the profit( as they be entitled to) and they would not worry if the beef farmer was losing his shirt.

It's all about supply and demand. Most of the issue's with calves were predicted 5+ years ago on the farming forum. When you have too many cows calving in too short a time frame and too few lads to buy and rear them then the simple fact is you will have pressure on price. When you add an issue with calf quality then it fairly obvious what will happen.

Why did that lad decide to stay in NZ for an extra months or so. Last year he was getting calves virtually free with 20L of milk that could not go into the tank. Because he reckoned it was worth more to him I imagine⁹. He be back in a month or so for the silage season.

The most important lad in the farming game at present is the calf rearer.....and there seems to be less of them every year.

And as for the Fr bullocks it was good while it lasted, but the DW's have dropped 30kgs in 2-3 years. So I am moving on.

Business is business

You only need a herd number this year. But be under no illusion within two years you will need to submit a nutrient plan. As well cross referencing will happen. The department will cross reference your nitrates to your fertlizer purchases.

No AA application will trigger an inspection fairy fast I imagine when the register is up and running. Cross referencing using data collection is fairly easy. Within 1-2 years an AI bot could be used to do this.

All trying to bypass regulations ever dose in Ireland is for a government or LA department to tighten the rules to force compliance. I am not saying you will not get away with it for 1,2 or even 3 years, but the rules will be enforced.

The minister gives you permission to buy fertiliser through the register. They can withdraw that permissable any stage. If they want to target a situation like you propose, no AA application to permission to buy fertiliser it a simple fix

Not a hope. Been there got the t shirt. Our cow does far better on grass than silage. We might be feeding the milking cows hard now but hopefully soon enough they’ll be in full grass and go full tilt.

just over 180calved now and not much bother with it being a shite spring