Walterp
Member
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
There seem to be two groups of dairy farmers at the moment:
Those that want to expand as they are making a good profit and those that want to cease production as they are making a loss.
How can there be such huge differences in both attitude to the job and profit margiin?
Mr Alan Boucher, Trehws, used to hold forth about this when doing FAWL inspections. I'll never forget his explanation that it was all about 'balance'. The difference between success and failure is about striking the right balance between:
1. borrowed capital and equity;
2. owned land and not-always-available, rented, silaging or maize ground;
3. family labour and employed labour;
4. the commitment of the older generation and the enthusiasm of the up-and-coming one;
5. the quest for milk yield and the need to reduce costs.
Get the balance right and you can out-farm anyone. If it's not right, it can be tipped over by any combination of poor circumstances.
What would Julie and me do if one of our children wanted to milk cows (which'd be points 3 and 4 answered)? First thing'd be to sell up everything and look to relocate, then do the sums and see what could be afforded, how much could we justify borrowing, then decide whether to go out to New Zealand or the US or stay in the UK. The answers to these questions would determine whether, where and how you'd go about it.