In my opinion the best speaker at the Positive Farmers conference was chief executive of Dairy Holdings Colin Glass. He talked about de-risking the dairy business during his second presentation at the conference.
Dairy Holdings is a group of 60 dairy farms with over 45,000 cows, but some of the ways this business de-risks itself hold true for Ireland. Some of the messages are just standard good management, but they show dairy farming can be simple, repeatable and profitable if managed properly.
One of the main ways Dairy Holdings de-risks its business is by involving a lot of its workers in share-milking or, in other words, part-owning some of the cows on the farm.
Performance
Colin said: “We see performance ramping up year after year when we get a good share milking arrangement on a farm. It’s the ultimate win-win for both parties. It de-risks our business because we don’t have as much staff turnover and can attract good people with good opportunities. We have staff that change from one farm to another as they want to grow the number of cows they want to milk.”
Share-milking could be a real option for some Irish dairy farms as elderly owners with no successors want to step back from the business.
Some of the other ways Dairy Holdings de-risks are:
1. Weekly application of nitrogen to maximise growth at all times.
2. Creating a grass wedge weekly to monitor deficits and surpluses which allows staff to make decisions and control using measurement which leads to better decisions.
3. Monitoring somatic cell count (SCC) so that any peaks can be dealt with quickly and milk output value maximised.
Colin said: “SCC is critically important to us and across 56 farms our average SCC was 133,000 cells/ml last year with many less than 50,000 cells/ml.
“However, we do get individual farms jumping up and down in SCC through the year for staff management reasons. Some staff come and go from farms or some may have personal problems so that means they take the eye of the ball and do not react quick enough when there is a problem.”
Colin listed the key drivers that maximise grass utilisation on farms in New Zealand as:
Optimum soil fertility – front-loaded on all farms to get phosphorus and potassium up to optimum levels to maximise growth.High comparative stocking rate. Utilisation goes up as stocking rate goes up but not necessarily profit – “there’s a sweet spot but Dairy Holdings made a call to stock farms aggressively”. Grazing off residuals in spring are important – “you need to clean paddocks out properly to maintain quality right through the main grazing season”.Spring rotation planner should be the bible for spring grazing – “you need to keep checking grass covers because the planner on its own is not enough”.Tight calving spreads are key to harvest the grass as it becomes available – “have the grazing pressure rather than closing paddocks for silage”.High fertility genetics and good fertility management are important – “good genetics have delivered not-in-calf rates consistently under 9% for Dairy Holdings”.Colin said: “We ensure all farms can see how other farms are performing and this is a sort of peer pressure on each farm. We use the weekly measurements that come together as annual figures to drive reseeding policies and weekly management.”
One of the conference organisers Con Hurley also spoke about de-risking the dairy business. Con made the point that people are different and what works for one might not work for someone else.
He said: “You are the biggest risk to everyone but you are also the biggest asset. Some people can handle large debt but also some prefer not to handle debt.
“The human costs of expansion and dairy farming can be huge. Family drawings can be reduced, work rate can go up and some can head for 85 hours per week. Be prepared to manage stress.”
Irish farmers would be well served reading this column over and over again and soaking up the simplicity of the messages.
In my opinion the best speaker at the Positive Farmers conference was chief executive of Dairy Holdings Colin Glass. He talked about de-risking the dairy business during his second presentation at the conference.
Dairy Holdings is a group of 60 dairy farms with over 45,000 cows, but some of the ways this business de-risks itself hold true for Ireland. Some of the messages are just standard good management, but they show dairy farming can be simple, repeatable and profitable if managed properly.
One of the main ways Dairy Holdings de-risks its business is by involving a lot of its workers in share-milking or, in other words, part-owning some of the cows on the farm.
Performance
Colin said: “We see performance ramping up year after year when we get a good share milking arrangement on a farm. It’s the ultimate win-win for both parties. It de-risks our business because we don’t have as much staff turnover and can attract good people with good opportunities. We have staff that change from one farm to another as they want to grow the number of cows they want to milk.”
Share-milking could be a real option for some Irish dairy farms as elderly owners with no successors want to step back from the business.
Some of the other ways Dairy Holdings de-risks are:
1. Weekly application of nitrogen to maximise growth at all times.
2. Creating a grass wedge weekly to monitor deficits and surpluses which allows staff to make decisions and control using measurement which leads to better decisions.
3. Monitoring somatic cell count (SCC) so that any peaks can be dealt with quickly and milk output value maximised.
Colin said: “SCC is critically important to us and across 56 farms our average SCC was 133,000 cells/ml last year with many less than 50,000 cells/ml.
“However, we do get individual farms jumping up and down in SCC through the year for staff management reasons. Some staff come and go from farms or some may have personal problems so that means they take the eye of the ball and do not react quick enough when there is a problem.”
Colin listed the key drivers that maximise grass utilisation on farms in New Zealand as:
Optimum soil fertility – front-loaded on all farms to get phosphorus and potassium up to optimum levels to maximise growth.High comparative stocking rate. Utilisation goes up as stocking rate goes up but not necessarily profit – “there’s a sweet spot but Dairy Holdings made a call to stock farms aggressively”. Grazing off residuals in spring are important – “you need to clean paddocks out properly to maintain quality right through the main grazing season”.Spring rotation planner should be the bible for spring grazing – “you need to keep checking grass covers because the planner on its own is not enough”.Tight calving spreads are key to harvest the grass as it becomes available – “have the grazing pressure rather than closing paddocks for silage”.High fertility genetics and good fertility management are important – “good genetics have delivered not-in-calf rates consistently under 9% for Dairy Holdings”.Colin said: “We ensure all farms can see how other farms are performing and this is a sort of peer pressure on each farm. We use the weekly measurements that come together as annual figures to drive reseeding policies and weekly management.”
One of the conference organisers Con Hurley also spoke about de-risking the dairy business. Con made the point that people are different and what works for one might not work for someone else.
He said: “You are the biggest risk to everyone but you are also the biggest asset. Some people can handle large debt but also some prefer not to handle debt.
“The human costs of expansion and dairy farming can be huge. Family drawings can be reduced, work rate can go up and some can head for 85 hours per week. Be prepared to manage stress.”
Irish farmers would be well served reading this column over and over again and soaking up the simplicity of the messages.
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