This week is decision time on the latest Glanbia fixed milk price scheme and the linked, but more controversial, feed rebate scheme. The feed scheme is a bit of a Catch 22.

Most people don’t like the idea of committing to buying all their feed from one supplier for the next five years.

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that if you don’t sign up for it, someone else might get your share of this rebate fund.

It’s not entirely clear where this rebate fund will be drawn from.

Agribusiness profits will be the first port of call to create the fund but if there’s a shortfall, the plc dividend and milk sales may be siphoned in this direction as well.

If this is the case then anyone not signed up for the rebate may see some of their share of the spoils going to someone else.

The other bone of contention with this scheme is that it rewards farmers who feed heavily over those who try to produce more milk from grazed grass. It seems counterproductive to create a sustainability scheme for all our suppliers, to market our product internationally as grass-fed and low carbon footprint, only to then turn around and pay out a bonus to loyal customers based on how much meal they feed to their cows.

We effectively own 60% of the agribusiness in Glanbia now, so a loyalty scheme that rewards milk suppliers who do business in-house is to be applauded. In my opinion, the scheme should reward suppliers that do business across all products and not just feed. It should also pay the rebate based on litres of milk supplied rather than tonnes of feed purchased.

The scheme is a starting point for loyalty schemes with Glanbia but hopefully the next scheme will have a bit more thought put into it.

The fixed milk price part of the scheme on the other hand is like a spoonful of foul-tasting medicine that is very hard to swallow at the moment with the market where it is, but you know from past experience that it will be good for you and your business in the long run.

It would have been nicer to receive 1c/l more but stability for expanding farms is the most important thing and hopefully the next scheme will be in a strong position to avail of the strengthening market.

On a side note, with inflation on the rise again we can’t keep taking the same fixed price for 10 years.

On the home farm, we are getting out the last of the slurry this week with the slurry tanker going to the out-farm and a dribble bar umbilical system helping to empty the last of the tanks on the milking platform.

We will have everything sorted by the closing date at the weekend hopefully.

Maize silage for buffer feeding in the spring is being harvested this week as well so the farm is a busy enough place while all these jobs are going on.

We sold our cull cows on the hoof last week as well. There are still a few empty cows that are milking well in the herd. These will be milked on for a bit longer before being pulled out.

We have a very good cover of grass on the milking platform still so we will milk everything on now to the end of October before going once a day and starting to dry off a few.