High return on investment

By Jack Kennedy

14 January 2006 : The manufacturers report a buoyant trade in milking equipment, as has been the case for a number of years now.

Dairy farmers are realising the benefit of increasing the number of units and how it can free up so much time for other tasks.

While the 'off farm investment frenzy' continues to grow, farmers are beginning to realise that the return on investment can be much greater by increasing the number of units in the parlour to give them time to look at other possibilities.

In this week's print edition of the Irish Farmers Journal, we profile a number of units in this supplement that have jumped from six and eight units up to 16 plus, meaning these farmers are spending much less time in the parlour.

The return on investment for these farmers will far exceed any investment they will make in apartments in Budapest or flats in the Costa Del Sol.

The message from the specialists on installation is still to keep things as simple as possible to limit what can go wrong in the future.

The increasing water and electricity costs with a lot of these new units have forced many to look at alternative sources of electrical supply.

There are options now in the Irish market and indeed, many energy saving ideas are still not being used by Irish farmers.

For many, reducing energy and water charges are top of the list for the new year resolutions.

The latest Department figures on somatic cell count show a fall off in cell counts compared to 2004 but there is still a lot to be done and far too many suppliers breaching the 400,000-cells/ml barrier.