New unit

tinto · Feb 18, 2017

My nephew who's 25 and with a good job with local feed firm is desperate to farm on his own. What he wants is to keep his day job but have 60 milk cows. We are happy to give/lend £150k to help get started and he has about £50k.
On a clean site what would be the costs for setting up a wee dairy with 50 cows milking,was thinking s/h robot and a couple of sheds with flying herd of cows buying most feeding in.
Nephew had milking experience and wants to make a go of it but we're not sure of viability on such a level.
Contract not firmed either.
I farm with my brother with dairy and beef but want nephew to start out on his own.

Any thoughts or idea of costs of new unit

Turboman · Feb 18, 2017

Judging at your location if the setup is to be planned in Scotland you need to see will a milk buyer be in your area and do they want more milk. If they do want milk are they willing to lift a small amount? Then do you want to go indoor or pasturd based.

hol5150 · Feb 18, 2017

I'm currently in a similar position, have a full time job with a local animal feed firm but I am keen to enter the dairy industry. At home we current have about 400 breeding ewes and rear about 40 calves each year. Keen to milk around 70 cows in an existing building. Unsure of certain things like, feed space required, advice on running a flying herd, having a housed herd 365 days per year, level of concentrates in and out of required ( and if necessary outside of the parlour), if good quality baled silage is suffice, accommodation for dry stock and slurry storage. Any advice would be great!

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

Advice
Look at the milk price averagefor the last 3 years. Work budgets on that using this years input costs.

Clay52 · Feb 19, 2017

Sid said:
Advice
Look at the milk price averagefor the last 3 years. Work budgets on that using this years input costs.

Not just average milk price, you have to make sure you have a plan to have the cash flow to survive the worst years. They are going to come and likely more often.

wasted years · Feb 19, 2017

hol5150 said:
I'm currently in a similar position, have a full time job with a local animal feed firm but I am keen to enter the dairy industry. At home we current have about 400 breeding ewes and rear about 40 calves each year. Keen to milk around 70 cows in an existing building. Unsure of certain things like, feed space required, advice on running a flying herd, having a housed herd 365 days per year, level of concentrates in and out of required ( and if necessary outside of the parlour), if good quality baled silage is suffice, accommodation for dry stock and slurry storage. Any advice would be great!

If you work for a feed firm surely you can answer most of your questions from what your customers do?

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

wasted years said:
If you work for a feed firm surely you can answer most of your questions from what your customers do?

Not pay bills?

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

Clay52 said:
Not just average milk price, you have to make sure you have a plan to have the cash flow to survive the worst years. They are going to come and likely more often.

Cash flow is the issue here atm. Waiting on alot of money. That i had budgeted for in February but won't see till mid to late March.

More to life · Feb 19, 2017

hol5150 said:
I'm currently in a similar position, have a full time job with a local animal feed firm but I am keen to enter the dairy industry. At home we current have about 400 breeding ewes and rear about 40 calves each year. Keen to milk around 70 cows in an existing building. Unsure of certain things like, feed space required, advice on running a flying herd, having a housed herd 365 days per year, level of concentrates in and out of required ( and if necessary outside of the parlour), if good quality baled silage is suffice, accommodation for dry stock and slurry storage. Any advice would be great!

Why do you want to house all year

pappuller · Feb 19, 2017

Sid said:
Cash flow is the issue here atm. Waiting on alot of money. That i had budgeted for in February but won't see till mid to late March.

I 've been waiting on alot of money for 46 years

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

Sid said:
Cash flow is the issue here atm. Waiting on alot of money. That i had budgeted for in February but won't see till mid to late March.

That is where you need the backing of an understanding bank. I went to mine to extend overdraft and it was no issue short term.

Rossymons · Feb 19, 2017

If both @tinto nephew and @hol5150 are involved in the animal feed industry have you not seen first hand the damage done over the last 24 months? Why on earth would you want to give up your regular income and other perks for that??

early riser · Feb 19, 2017

Sid said:
Advice
Look at the milk price averagefor the last 3 years. Work budgets on that using this years input costs.

Taking an average of the last 3years would include the unusually high milk price year of 2014.

I would suggest that looking at the ten year average milk price would be more appropriate, which on this farm is about 24ppl. See similar thread that is running at the moment.

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

early riser said:
Taking an average of the last 3years would include the unusually high milk price year of 2014.

I would suggest that looking at the ten year average milk price would be more appropriate, which on this farm is about 24ppl. See similar thread that is running at the moment.

10 years for me personally would be too long.
Don't forget we are going to see more peaks and troughs so 3 years would take both into account. Another issue with 10 years is inputs have increased considerably in that time and are not likey to fall to the levels of 10 years ago. Would you use farmland values of 10 years ago why use any other figures?
Looking forwards 10 years you can allow for inflation but you can never predict issues like brexit or Trump.

Sid · Feb 19, 2017

Of course what ever figures you use do a sensitivity chart with milk price on one heading and feed price per ton on the other.

hol5150 · Feb 19, 2017

More to life said:
Why do you want to house all year

Due to lack of grazing at farm where existing buildings are! All most of the land is split around 2 out farms

hol5150 · Feb 19, 2017

Rossymons said:
If both @tinto nephew and @hol5150 are involved in the animal feed industry have you not seen first hand the damage done over the last 24 months? Why on earth would you want to give up your regular income and other perks for that??

Thinking about keeping my job on a more part time basis, company is flexible and willing to allow extra time off.

tinto · Feb 19, 2017

Nephew knows state of industry and still wants to go a head, I got my chance as did most of you
Milk is to be put through our contract to start with if project goes a head.
What we were wondering what we would need in buildings,milking equipment and cows ,we have an idea but looking for other ideas and views
Ideally we would like the system to be totally bought in feed and a flying herd with us buying his beef calves off him.

Thick Farmer · Feb 19, 2017

Why not keep working at the feed company and don't bother to milk cows. Stick the £200k in an isa or use it as a deposit to purchase 10 buy to let houses.

DocPhil001 · Feb 19, 2017

problem with having 1 robot is if it goes down he will have to go and sort it out. no good waiting a couple of hours until the end of a shift.

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