Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

mine is similar …..but after walking in through it today came back disappointed …big tall crop ….2 cobs per plant but cobs are small in comparasion to other years …will have bulk but starch won’t be hectic ….and it’s good 4/5 weeks maby more off maturity

dawg is in a warmer country with a very different climate with different soil. If we all had 100s of acres available to us at small money you wouldn’t be trying to get the same yeild /ac

You can tell driving the roads what crops hasn’t got the nutrients at sowing

the starch is the feeding tho …I’ve consistently got 34/37 starch last few years ….won’t be near that this year going on cobs

Locked up with tb, got caught keeping them for my calf buyer who went down in his own test in April, he pleaded with us to keep them till he got clear, he did in July then i went down on my own test….

Workload is alot easier here when cows are inside, the ground weanlings are on is a 25 minute plus walk .8km to 1.3km walk for cows up-hill to parlour you'd often lose 40 minutes this time of year getting them in on the furthest away blocks….

25 minutes feeding, 20 minutes doing cubicles/pushing in feed and 3 hours a day combined milking is the workload for milkers here in the winter months, grazing setting up wires and getting them in adds hours on to the daily routine here, obviously its the cheapest way of feeding cows but labourwise it isnt in my situation

You have it nearly 100%. Three sons in this place and none want to milk cows. Farmer themselves have an injury. Brother in laws place has a good portion of land set to one of our countys tillage empires. More than likely this farm will go that way too. Easier life.

you sure that’s not the herd of cows he has between me and you he’s selling ? A 600 cow operation at home is a very big deal to be selling? Surely some sort of a partnership could be done with a guy that has the means to take it on

Are ye still on 250kg/n down in your area, arguementsake why would any sane person chance a partnership in the above with the pending threat of having to find another 100 odd hectares of ground if 170 comes in nationwide in 2026

I'd imagine it's a wet dream for the ag college / been to new Zealand gang.

I do laugh you can spot them at open days etc you can the style of operation from the clothing and hairstyles!

There’s very few farms with 2 people drawing from 100 cows now, the majority in my area with successors are 80-150 cow herds with the son/daughter helping when they’re not working off farm, most of them have college degrees on good money and helping the home farm progress. With work from home 2/3 days a week from a lot of the jobs from college degrees now I think these people are far better off than getting stuck into a partnership or leasing farms away from the home farm.

I disagree but that’s personal preference. I have a very good friend who’s involved in a partnership on large farm and he’s doing very well from it. It’s not for everybody and that’s fine

your job is a bit more than your run of the mill ag job straight after an ag science qualification I would reckon ? A lot of the ppl that you would find in collaborative farming arrangements have done an ag science course of some description. They can get a job in the Industry but they’re not going to get a share scheme and salary will only be average, they still have to use up there holidays, evenings and weekends relieving the parents at home or else end up relief milking/ being a part time labour unit to bump up there salary/keep there hand in

The few I know at it have more time off than I would and have better incomes from their own wages and a profit share. Now I have other perks that they don’t but there is plenty ppl out there that are happy with share farming/partnerships/leasing

I didn’t do ag science, know plenty that did it and that’s fairly spot on a lot are relief milking or working on other farms as well as the home farm as salary and benefits is very limited bar maybe a company car and very little opportunity of hybrid working or working remote bar the odd day. The opportunities for college graduates in business/finance or engineering in hybrid working setups are much greater and better progression opportunities. A lot with ag degrees are only biding their time while waiting for parents to wind down, I can see why it might appeal to them to make more money to enter one of the setups above.

You walk into a lot of jobs with a degree in ag science not in the agri sector. Add a masters to it in another dipline down the line and away you go.

One thing I pushed on my children was never have all you eggs in the one basket. Factories in Limerick are paying 50k+ for such qualifications and progression is fast.

You Would need your head screwed on going into a share milking scenario. Most lads with the equity( land stock etc) are not idiots. It's similar to renting pubs or resturants you can be putting a sh!tload of hours in for an ordinary wage.

Those outfits running with them labour unit numbers are contracting in everything and at the 500 cows it's a rotary parlour. That is serious investment and cashflow to manage such an operation. You are trying to keep ten different balls in the air, it's not the top 1% it probably the top 0.1%.

The problem is of the plug is suddenly pulled ( you lose the main lease or are given 12 months notice even) where do you go. Where do you head to with a couple of hundred cows, a tractor, loader, dietfeeder etc.

Youngest lad is gone to London he is flying home to play the last few county championship matches. He is now earning as much as I was at my peak at 25 years of age. He never minds doing farm work or being on a tractor. However I explained to him the reality of being a tractor jockey and farming at 14 years of age.