Sorry
Leaving the industry
- Thread starter JES
- Start date
Sorry
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
that’s 2 weeks awayHope you're not on here on your honeymoon...
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
Home or away ?that’s 2 weeks away
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
Portugal.
Tarw Coch
Member
- Location
- Bottom of Wats Dyke
So that’s just about every farm that makes use of grazed grass out of the equation and those heavily reliant on both for in feed and quite often hauling fodder and more ck long distances are the future.
Hmmmm, which of those systems is most heavily reliant on fossil fuels?
I smell some crooked manipulation of figures.
It’s not a road I will be going down, the n my mid 50’s with no successor I know dairying isn’t for the long term for me and this sort of thing might just force me out……….which might not be entirely bad although I’m not ready for that just yet.
Mullers should be careful what they wish for and promote though, I wonder which goes down best with the general public, cows out grazing in the fields or cows housed all year around. Their long term future depends on that more than mine
I think Scotland and Northern Ireland maybe a bit different in that our farms are not as flexible as south of the border being predominantly LFA so we can’t just grow maize as an energy crop for example. Milk companies such as First Milk are actively promoting Regenerative agriculture. A couple of herds are getting bigger in this area and are buying farms and investing in new rotary’s but most are in the 150-300 cow bracket. A lot more cows inside than there were 10 years ago on robotic systems but in general still a lot of cows at grass for 5 months of the year. Very few of our farms are dry enough to graze much longer than this although there are exceptions. Labour is becoming a big issue locally and both my children milk on other farms. Definitely a lot of guys in their 50s talking about selling up in the future and retiring. We are the exception having milked 200-250 cows and now milking 80. We are just treading water or trying to so the kids can experience a bit of life. Son did cereals and maize last year near a Peterborough and currently harvesting in Lincolnshire and likely to go to maize later on. Next year he would like to do the Canadian harvest. He is missing his cows which is good. Daughter would like to milk in NZ but we will see. Currently getting very well paid to milk locally and milks at home too. We never had the chance to travel so keen to let ours.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
That's what he said, and he has two lads that are keen as mustard.
Well you're never going to reach Net Zero with that attitude....
frederick
Member
- Location
- south west
Grazing is obviously a wish for customers, however grazing milk is available by Morrisons farmers milk for years and arla branded milk. It's not something that the consumer is actively prepared to choose even if they say they want it.
However if it does become proven that housed cows are more carbon efficient ( though I don't think we are there yet) they will quite happily buy housed milk so that they can keep indulging in some other guilty carbon pleasure.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Housed cows will only be deemed to be more carbon efficient, until such time that they adopt the principle that growing grass (and crops) sequester carbon. It would surely be hard to beat a kiwi grazing system that hardly turns a key, regardless of output, in that scenario.
Will Blackburn
Member
- Location
- Cheshire
When CH4 is properly accounted for, i.e. it’s cyclical nature appreciated, then the whole equation turns around to grazed herds and having less trucks delivering to the farm.
It’s really simple, when at present methane emissions account for 1/3 to 1/2 of a dairy’s footprint, there will be a big swing in calculated outcomes with a change in those calculations.
It’s the same with chicken and beef calculations.
Not sure people even consider milk coming from housed herds, to most people cows live in a field. The marketing tells them so, from kids stories up to Arla's latest video. The sight of a mixer wagon running up a shed and a slurry tanker making its way up the closest dual carriageway is a tough ask for a marketing team.
You do realise housed cows eat grass & crops too…
When the industry agrees and accepts the calculation of a carbon footprint is when the problems begin. Governments will demand a decrease no matter what is achievable and Supermarket contracts will be the first implement a limit on the amount of carbon it takes to produce a litre of milk regardless of method of production.IMO.
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Said it before and I'll say it again
Doesn't matter if your herds housed, grazed or fed at a kitchen table with a knife and fork
Us f**king about with carbon auditing crap isn't going to remotely help the planet, equivalent of sticking a drawing pin in an elephants arse
All we are doing by going along with it is allowing corporate companies use us as the scapegoat for the actual polluters - namely fossil fuels
Doesn't matter if your herds housed, grazed or fed at a kitchen table with a knife and fork
Us f**king about with carbon auditing crap isn't going to remotely help the planet, equivalent of sticking a drawing pin in an elephants arse
All we are doing by going along with it is allowing corporate companies use us as the scapegoat for the actual polluters - namely fossil fuels
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
You do realise housed cows eat grass & crops too…
Strangely, yes. Lots more fossil fuels used in harvesting, carting, feeding back out, then carting/pumping the shite out.
Cowabunga
Member
- Location
- Ceredigion,Wales
Probably more than offset by the reduced number of higher yielding cows kept on fewer acres, the surplus acres being planted with planet saving trees. It’s a brave new world that’s coming Peter, so you better be capitalised for it or get a nice regular job at Tesco’s, shifting imported food on and off shelves.
frederick
Member
- Location
- south west
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Going to an extreme, an organic, Spring calved herd on OAD milking would surely take some beating on carbon footprint, just as soon as sequestration by growing crop is taken into account, and the methane nonsense is thrown out...
Rich_ard
Member
Surley most farm would be carbon negative if it was calculated right. Plants will pull carbon out the air. I think you are hinting at this anyway.