Around 400 farmers attended the Teagasc event on resilient dairy farming at Shinagh Farm in what was another murky day in west Cork.

At the first stand, Teagasc's Laurence Shalloo said that "there are two things you can do to reduce your breakeven price. cost of production and increase the value of what you're selling". The results of this methodology were plain to see.

John McNamara of Teagasc was straight to the point as usual in saying: "What is driving the system here from day one are high EBI, high-fertility cows. They do the business; they do what they say on paper. EBI isn't perfect for every single cow, but it is right for a herd of cows. What these cows have done from the word go is they have lifted milk price. We're up over the co-op average price every year."

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From 425kg of milk solids/cow sold in 2015, the likely target this year is 400kg milk solid/cow. John put this down to a period of 12 days in April where they were tight on grass. This was because he felt they were sticking too rigidly to grazing percentages according to the spring rotation planner. As a result, calving date is being pushed back by about three days for next year.

See more in print next week.

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€100/cow 2016 profit for west Cork farm