CORK CONFERENCE: Andy Skidmore, a US-based dairy farm adviser, spoke at an evening conference in Cork this week and it’s amazing the similarities of problems that exist for expanding dairy farmers, irrespective of country or scale of enterprise. Herd size in the US continues to grow – Andy said 75% of the US milk now comes from 12% of the farms. In total, there are now about 40,000 dairy farms in the US. Andy emphasised that it’s people who make expansion work and the two key people issues he suggested are:
As a herd owner you might have to give up what you like doing. You need to have your family or business partners bought into the idea of herd expansion, or else there is guaranteed to be problems for the business.Labour issues: It’s amazing these same issues are as relevant in Ireland as they are in the US. If you do increase herd scale, you may have to contract out machinery work or get someone in to do the milking. Contracting out work may or may not suit your skills, but be sure you understand what changing the scale of your business will do for you. Managing people is another skill that some farmers have to learn. In the recently published Irish Dairy Farmer magazine, we discussed some of these issues with Irish farmers that have already either contracted out stock for rearing, or taken on a full-time labour unit. The message from these Irish farmers is similar – you may have to stop doing something you like to make the bigger business work, and paperwork and organisation are so much more important.
The other point Andy Skidmore made is that in the US it now takes between three and 10 years to work your way out of a serious farm income issue. He said issues such as a very poor milk price year, a serious weather event, such as a drought, or a significant feed shortage, now take time to recover from. He explained that 20 years ago margins were such that a year or two would get you back into positive margins, but now, and especially when scale increases, it takes at least three years and maybe more to get back into positive margins. His point was cashflow budgeting and planning are now as crucial a tool as herd health management, etc.
Over fat cows: On page 30, in the “Dairy Know-How” column this week we go through the basics of body condition scoring and how to go about it for your herd. The potential danger this year down south is that many herds are dried off fully from early November, so that means a March or April-calving cow is four or five months dry. Overfat cows are as much, if not more, of a problem as thin cows. You may have to batch fat cows and either restrict silage, feed poor-quality silage or feed a mix of straw and silage. I’ve been through a few herds that have been on once-a-day milking for the last number of months and already it is hard to pick out thin cows. These cows could be very fat in three months’ time. A lot depends on silage quality and I have heard from some of the silage testing labs that some are not top-quality, which may be a blessing in disguise for some.
CORK CONFERENCE: Andy Skidmore, a US-based dairy farm adviser, spoke at an evening conference in Cork this week and it’s amazing the similarities of problems that exist for expanding dairy farmers, irrespective of country or scale of enterprise. Herd size in the US continues to grow – Andy said 75% of the US milk now comes from 12% of the farms. In total, there are now about 40,000 dairy farms in the US. Andy emphasised that it’s people who make expansion work and the two key people issues he suggested are:
As a herd owner you might have to give up what you like doing. You need to have your family or business partners bought into the idea of herd expansion, or else there is guaranteed to be problems for the business.Labour issues: It’s amazing these same issues are as relevant in Ireland as they are in the US. If you do increase herd scale, you may have to contract out machinery work or get someone in to do the milking. Contracting out work may or may not suit your skills, but be sure you understand what changing the scale of your business will do for you. Managing people is another skill that some farmers have to learn. In the recently published Irish Dairy Farmer magazine, we discussed some of these issues with Irish farmers that have already either contracted out stock for rearing, or taken on a full-time labour unit. The message from these Irish farmers is similar – you may have to stop doing something you like to make the bigger business work, and paperwork and organisation are so much more important.
The other point Andy Skidmore made is that in the US it now takes between three and 10 years to work your way out of a serious farm income issue. He said issues such as a very poor milk price year, a serious weather event, such as a drought, or a significant feed shortage, now take time to recover from. He explained that 20 years ago margins were such that a year or two would get you back into positive margins, but now, and especially when scale increases, it takes at least three years and maybe more to get back into positive margins. His point was cashflow budgeting and planning are now as crucial a tool as herd health management, etc.
Over fat cows: On page 30, in the “Dairy Know-How” column this week we go through the basics of body condition scoring and how to go about it for your herd. The potential danger this year down south is that many herds are dried off fully from early November, so that means a March or April-calving cow is four or five months dry. Overfat cows are as much, if not more, of a problem as thin cows. You may have to batch fat cows and either restrict silage, feed poor-quality silage or feed a mix of straw and silage. I’ve been through a few herds that have been on once-a-day milking for the last number of months and already it is hard to pick out thin cows. These cows could be very fat in three months’ time. A lot depends on silage quality and I have heard from some of the silage testing labs that some are not top-quality, which may be a blessing in disguise for some.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: