We are on the verge of a momentous day in Irish dairy farming with the abolition of quotas on 1 April. There will be huge advantages for dairy farmers ahead, but equally there will be pitfalls to be avoided.

I am a huge advocate for herd health and preventative medicine and I am sure this will be the main stay of managing health and profitability on farms in the years ahead.

We must evolve quickly to this approach to stay relevant and be competitive on world markets by being leaders in innovative dairy production. Our core values should be about maximising the health of our cows and reaping the rewards on a global market.

Guidance

However, I think now that farmers need guidance more than ever. There has never been as much technical information available to farmers.

I recently did some work with Geoff Dooley, a business coach and business development manager. Making reference to the build-up to quota abolition, he said to me it’s like ‘sitting an exam and having all the questions and time to check the answers in advance’.

Why then, with all this technical information available, is there not much preparation on some farms? We know that simple management practices can make huge differences to animal performance, but still we are slow to implement them.

Cost is not the issue as a lot of what I am talking about are basic management practices that only involve time and labour. Yet these can have huge economic and time saving benefits long-term if implemented.

To talk about herd health you could write a book. Instead I’m going to ask the question, how can we get more engagement? Any advisor, vet or nutritionist can only do and say so much.

It is up to the individuals involved to determine what they want from their farms and ultimately how successful their businesses are.

This sounds simple, but most farmers have never been given any formal business training and life has been their main teacher.

Every big business is now engaging with this type of performance management approach: first how to get the best out of yourself and then your business.

This type of forward thinking and training will unlock the unlimited potential in anyone who embraces it. Of course farmers must be supported nationally and the benefits of the highest standards in herd health management must be financially rewarded in the market place.

What would this involve?

You need to set personal goals What do you want from your own life firstly before you even think about your business, how many hours a week you work, what time off you ‘d like to have, how can you follow your other ambitions that can give so much better work/life balance. These are only some examples of life goals that we all need to have to help us have a target that we can strive for.

Business goalsHow many cows, how many acres, what type of cow, what type of earning capacity has your farm got and so forth. What do you actually want from your business? Think big here, people will say we are limited by markets but I say your ambitions and targets should be not limited by markets. We must think outside the box as individuals and as a sector to get the most value from the products we produce.

Set time aside and sit down and set targets and goals for yourself Write them down, talk to other farmers, advisors, vets, nutritionists, family etc. Get their advice and feedback. Then set about taking actions to achieve these goals. Set time frames one year plan, five year plan and so on.

I know this could be seen as aspirational stuff but then why do so many sectors engage in such thinking?

Dairy farmers can equally stop for a minute and evaluate themselves and their businesses and try getting the maximum potential from what lies ahead.

We have an opportunity as a sector to really maximise the dairy brand and business.

It will take brave people not afraid of change to come forward with innovative ways to enhance our sector on farm locally, nationally and internationally.

We can’t waste this chance; we of course must proceed with caution.

This is not about investing huge money but more about changing mindsets and dreaming big. As someone involved in the sector I can only see the potential that is possible from such collaborative and imaginative thinking.

Sitting down with people who have big ideas can inspire us all. In fact to be successful we must think big. I’d like to wish all dairy farmers good luck in this new era for the industry and leave you with something Geoff Dooley said to me ‘you cannot have on the outside what you cannot conceive on the inside’.