Dairy farmers have been exposed to two thought-provoking and indeed challenging conferences over the past week – the Irish Grassland conference and the Positive Farmers conference. The message was simple: growing milk production profitably will only be delivered if we can grow and utilise more grass.

Those who are striving to increase production on the basis of bought-in feed were given little in the way of comfort. Yes, top-class farmers can operate high-input systems profitably. However, these systems have been shown to be decision-intensive, difficult to scale up and heavily exposed to price volatility. In short, they bring a lot more risk to the enterprise.

As a national approach, driving milk production from increasing inputs is simply not an option. A profitable business is one that exploits its competitive advantage. Ireland has no competitive advantage when it comes to high-input systems.

We are a high-cost region in which to farm, heavily dependent on imports that tend to be controlled by a concentrated network of suppliers. We do not have access to many of the technologies available to our global competitors, our regulatory system increases the burden of costs, we have high energy and labour costs, and the family farm model prevents the benefits of scale.

Allied to all this is our product mix. Despite all the potential for value added products, the bulk of our dairy products are firmly in the commodity basket and exported out of Ireland. Our processors don’t require a large volume of shoulder milk to meet current demand for fresh products and there are no indications this will change in the medium term. Nevertheless, despite these challenges, we have some of the most competitive dairy farmers in the world. What sets them apart? Research clearly shows it to be their ability to fully exploit the potential of grazed grass in the diet. New Zealand dairy consultant Dr John Roche has crunched the figures. He told Irish farmers that every extra tonne of grass dry matter (DM) utilised per hectare increases operating profit by €268/ha.

When we consider that average grass utilisation on Irish farms is 7/t DM per annum, compared to the top operators who are consistently utilising between 12-14/t, the potential to increase production from a grass-based system is clear.

So, what sets these top operators apart from the average? It is not the typical excuse of land type. Instead, it is simple principles around soil nutrition, correct grazing infrastructure, reseeding and grassland management. Land type is only a reason to adjust management practices around these principles – not an excuse to ignore them.

If we are to look at where the low-lying fruit is in relation to increasing output profitability, then growing and utilising more grass should take top priority. Worryingly, some argue that it has slipped down the Teagasc research agenda in recent years. Given the inability of the industry to commercialise the grass message, Teagasc must continue to champion this area. Increased stocking rate has to be aligned to a farm’s ability to grow and utilise more grass. The primary focus of research should be to continually develop new technologies, breeding programmes and grazing systems that deliver this.

Ireland cannot fall into the trap of simply purchasing more feed to milk more cows. New Zealand farmers have shown this to be a false economy.