“The Driehsen’s had installed their own milk vending machine in September to sell raw milk to consumers at the farm gate,” said Kieran McDermott, Newbliss Macra, one of the members on the Macra and Ornua study trip to Germany that visited the farm. “They were charging €1/l and you could bring your own bottle or buy one there for €1/bottle. In the time that we spent sampling the produce at least five or six people came to purchase milk. They are getting an extremely premium price for their product but the total sales from that machine would be a small proportion of total output.”

The farmer placed emphasis on maximising efficiencies, particularly with labour employed on the farm.

“We were expecting to see robots but instead he had a 26 unit rotary milking parlour with just one man operating it, specially designed for that,” said James O’Brien, from O’Brien’s Artisan Cheese in Ballyahill, Co Limerick. “This is the real type of dairy farm we came to see, intensified. The cows were doing 10,000l per year, calving all year round. They had fantastic facilities yet very simple, no real fancy extras, just one main shed with 180 cows. Then there were all the other very good facilities for first calvers and cows calving down fresh. It was just a very simple set up but with a very clean pristine yard, I was very impressed with that.”

Listen to the impressions of Irish visitors to the farm in our podcast below:

The milking cows were on a diet of grass silage, maize silage, carrots combined with straw and molasses as well as a feed to yield system.

“The cows averaging more milk were allowed to be fed more,” said Aoife Ladd, Castletownroche, one of the Macra members on the study trip. “They were giving 30l/day to 39l/day, which is far superior to what cows in Ireland can get off of grass.”

On average, over the whole lactation, the cows peaked at 55l/day to 60l/day.

“The base feed they were on was capable of producing 31l of milk, just from the maize silage and the blend of ration they were on,” said Sean Coughlan, member of Adergoole Macra and 2014 Nuffield Scholar . “The feed-to-yield system complemented that. What was frightening for me was that this farmer was receiving 26c/l. It was quite clear to me that the cost of production was a lot more expensive than what he was getting. Farmers in Germany are really, really hurting. It is a system that can produce an awful lot of milk, but how sustainable it is in the long term is questionable.

“The green grass image is the key selling point for us and it is something we need to protect but do not necessarily think about when we are at home.”

“One think that I will take away from this trip is how important it is to know the target market for the product you are producing,” said McDermott. “You need to put yourself and your business in the position to maximise the quality of that product and produce it at a relatively low cost.”

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