Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Yes.Ye have all the gossip. It makes for interesting reading

I was talking to the owner of the dairy farm that was being leased in Athlone over the weekend. There was great demand for it, the tenant has taken everything, stock land and all'

They must've got some handfull of money for the whole lot.

Unfortunately the owner isn't well, the son is working on the farm for the moment, don't know if it's signed over to him.

Very easily managed 🤔 💭 🤔

He has a valid point. Most systems can be simplified by use of contractors. It frees up time, machinery and capital. However a lot of farmers have a cross between machinery disease and the want to do everything themselves.

Slightest hiccup a d the system can become unsustainable. The never ending drudgery turns a lot of young lads away from farming. But the real trouble is the need for constant labour. Not saying in this case the farm could continued to be run, but if a contractor was doing the slurry and zero grazing all along continuing milking for a 6-12 month window might be possible.

And there are a diminishing number.ber of contractors around these parts anyhow.

Even 90% of the FRS milkers wouldn’t manage a busy day during calving , not to mind being around for night time calving. The man in question did the right thing by selling the cows and look after his health instead of the continuing hassle of trying to find a good person to run the farm. Getting contractors in sounds fine but unrealistic in a lot of cases

The greens are a great scapegoat for everything alright.

Then you have the fact that the bigger guys can't pay their bills. Every contractor or supplier will tell you that.

Zurich have a very good accident insurance policy, in the event of the above, you can take out cover for a 1000 euro a week to cover wages for hired labour in the event you are seriously injured/unable to work, it has a partial capacity benefit too, if you broke your arm for instance so couldn't milk, you get a half rate of the above

There's some cover too from ifa membership

I was watching a bit of the action from tralee mart last night a sight of calves sold for a fiver each hard to figure the place out

It's the eNGOs in the civil service that the fingers should be pointed at. Politicians come and go. Parties in government change, but the civil service is relatively static. It's been anti agriculture for many years now but seems to have accelerated the last few with every trick in the book being rolled out from nitrates, to methane, to banding, to storage, to N contents, etc, etc. Death by a thousand cuts, with the cuts coming via machete to speed up the process.

Giving away beef calves for a fiver is one thing. Giving away Fr heifers is another level again.

Well in fairness the fr bulls weren't going great there either, musn't be shipping and shure the angus and hereford, unless you had a good strong one they were a disaster as well.