"This win was achieved from what I learned from other milk quality award winners farm walks over the years," said Michael Crowley as he humbly greeted the attendance at the beginning of the 2016 Carbery milk quality winners farm walk at Bauravilla, Skibbereen on Friday.
Crowley painted in clear financial terms what a focus on solids and maintaining low cell counts was worth to the business.
"By keeping the cell count right and getting all the bonuses here it's worth about €4,600 (€35/cow). Because of higher milk solids I' m nearly 3 cent ahead of the co-op average that's worth about €17,000 (€130/cow). That's almost €22,000 extra for just keeping TBC and SCC low, and having high fat and protein content. That's what Carbery want. If we can get €21,000 more than the co-op average then I think that's the future. Producing high quality stuff and getting paid for it," said Crowley.
John McNamara of Teagasc went into detail of how Michael Crowley and his wife Marguerite manage farm finances and said that the farm is looking at a break even situation this year after labour was taken into account.
Driver
"We'll probably be 29c/l average this year. We came down to 35c/l last year and it was 40c/l the year before. I'm a driver of fat and protein and getting the best value milk to Ballineen," said Crowley.
When questioned on how he would deal with difficult milk price years he had a simple answer. "Make hay when the good years come and put the money in the bank and be prepared for years like this again," he said.
The local interest in the O’Donovan brothers rowing exploits saw the event brought forward by an hour and those interested in the race were catered for with big screens in the cubicle shed. There must be something in the air out west as Michael Crowley’s philosophy bore resemblance to the local rowers.
Here was a farmer comfortable with his dairy system, with a clear focus on profit while at the same time not losing sight of having a life outside the farm gate.
"I try to do the best I can inside our farmgate, I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm making a good enough living out of it and I'm not killed. It's a very simple system really. I'm gone out of the yard at half six with a piece of chalk and a bowl in my hand every evening. There's a lot of evenings I should have stayed milking and forget about the bowling but I enjoy what I'm doing," finished Crowley.
Simple system
The farm consists of 74ha (183ac) in total with 44ha (109ac) available on the milking platform. The herd is a compact spring calving one with 130 cows milked in 2015 producing 467kgs of milk solids each. Current EBI is €184. In 2015 the stocking rate on the milking platform was 2.95 cows/ha and this has since increased to 3.36 cows/ha this year. When asked where he thought stocking rate would go, Crowley said that 3.5 cows/ha was probably as high as he would go as it was getting challenging at the shoulders of the year. Overall, farm stocking rate is 2.46 LU/ha. Total cost including labour for 2015 was 29.15/c with variables costs of 14.27c/l.
Milk quality 2015
TBC 9,000SCC 94,000Butterfat 4.41%Protein 3.70%
"This win was achieved from what I learned from other milk quality award winners farm walks over the years," said Michael Crowley as he humbly greeted the attendance at the beginning of the 2016 Carbery milk quality winners farm walk at Bauravilla, Skibbereen on Friday.
Crowley painted in clear financial terms what a focus on solids and maintaining low cell counts was worth to the business.
"By keeping the cell count right and getting all the bonuses here it's worth about €4,600 (€35/cow). Because of higher milk solids I' m nearly 3 cent ahead of the co-op average that's worth about €17,000 (€130/cow). That's almost €22,000 extra for just keeping TBC and SCC low, and having high fat and protein content. That's what Carbery want. If we can get €21,000 more than the co-op average then I think that's the future. Producing high quality stuff and getting paid for it," said Crowley.
John McNamara of Teagasc went into detail of how Michael Crowley and his wife Marguerite manage farm finances and said that the farm is looking at a break even situation this year after labour was taken into account.
Driver
"We'll probably be 29c/l average this year. We came down to 35c/l last year and it was 40c/l the year before. I'm a driver of fat and protein and getting the best value milk to Ballineen," said Crowley.
When questioned on how he would deal with difficult milk price years he had a simple answer. "Make hay when the good years come and put the money in the bank and be prepared for years like this again," he said.
The local interest in the O’Donovan brothers rowing exploits saw the event brought forward by an hour and those interested in the race were catered for with big screens in the cubicle shed. There must be something in the air out west as Michael Crowley’s philosophy bore resemblance to the local rowers.
Here was a farmer comfortable with his dairy system, with a clear focus on profit while at the same time not losing sight of having a life outside the farm gate.
"I try to do the best I can inside our farmgate, I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm making a good enough living out of it and I'm not killed. It's a very simple system really. I'm gone out of the yard at half six with a piece of chalk and a bowl in my hand every evening. There's a lot of evenings I should have stayed milking and forget about the bowling but I enjoy what I'm doing," finished Crowley.
Simple system
The farm consists of 74ha (183ac) in total with 44ha (109ac) available on the milking platform. The herd is a compact spring calving one with 130 cows milked in 2015 producing 467kgs of milk solids each. Current EBI is €184. In 2015 the stocking rate on the milking platform was 2.95 cows/ha and this has since increased to 3.36 cows/ha this year. When asked where he thought stocking rate would go, Crowley said that 3.5 cows/ha was probably as high as he would go as it was getting challenging at the shoulders of the year. Overall, farm stocking rate is 2.46 LU/ha. Total cost including labour for 2015 was 29.15/c with variables costs of 14.27c/l.
Milk quality 2015
TBC 9,000SCC 94,000Butterfat 4.41%Protein 3.70% 
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