Investments to improve the bottom line

[Clay52]

You need to read my post before you lecture me, I simply asked what investment would improve the bottom line with the impending price drop we hear of. My investment is a borehole which guarantees to pay for itself in 2 or 3 years, I consider that to be an excellent return on capital of circa 33%. Will your heap of cash return you 33 %???? I know mine wont but maybe if you ran a tighter ship and focused on keeping your costs lower you wouldnt need as big a heap ? I dont any people who have replied have mentioned new tractors or shiny metal.

Not lecturing you. Not even giving you specific advise. Just what I would do. You were asking people opinions.

Cash buffer isn’t there to generate a big return. If it generated a good return why would you ever milk cows. Sell the cows and just allow the cash to make you good money while you have a few beers.

The cash is there to allow you to pay your bills, and stop you going broke in a downturn.

As for telling me to run a tighter ship. Our milk prices haven’t managed to come up yet from the last few years of lows.

 

[supercow]

What price are you getting

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I'd be buying one of those "farm management handbooks" that we were discussing on the other thread

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Granted, they feed generally feed less silage than most of us in the UK, but how much shiny equipment does your average Kiwi farmer have?

Assets tend to make better investment than liabilities.
Possibly if we got those compulsory asset purchase cheques for christmas that would change!

 

[Irish NZ]

Lime is probably gives the best return on half the farms out there... that and capital fert. People often forget the basics

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Lime is probably gives the best return on half the farms out there... that and capital fert. People often forget the basics

Yes and getting those old paddocks performing like they should/could
Amazing the money that seeds can make for a business.

Some things that I'd suggest:
*2 wheeler bikes for running around, following cows etc, drastically cheaper than big quads to run over 5 years.
*More fence reels - limit pugging damage and grow more feed behind the cows
*Breed more replacements
*Cull the cows you second-chance
*Laneway maintenance
*Get a good basic direct drill and a cover for it
*Sexed semen
*Breed beef off late calving cows
*Tighter calving pattern (if spring calving)
*More legumes/species diversity
*Effluent storage capacity

These are some of the basics that can make a huge difference to a dairy business.. not trying to say how to suck an egg, but worth listing them out (in no particular order)

 

[awkward]

We cllect our roof water purely for washing down,we couldnt collect enough to supply anything else, our water bill is around £1k a mnth so I was thinking if we could 1/2 this it would pay for itself in 2 years. Re tracks I think they are the most important investment for grazing cows and I think @lazyfarmer project concrete is an excellent investment for his system. My only track investment has increased in value by 600%, we bought 2000 sleepers for £1 each 10 yrs ago now nudging £7 each.

it should cost less than that per month to run well and cover any pump replacement costs in future

 

[vantage]

Yes and getting those old paddocks performing like they should/could
Amazing the money that seeds can make for a business.

Some things that I'd suggest:
*2 wheeler bikes for running around, following cows etc, drastically cheaper than big quads to run over 5 years.
*More fence reels - limit pugging damage and grow more feed behind the cows
*Breed more replacements
*Cull the cows you second-chance
*Laneway maintenance
*Get a good basic direct drill and a cover for it
*Sexed semen
*Breed beef off late calving cows
*Tighter calving pattern (if spring calving)
*More legumes/species diversity
*Effluent storage capacity

These are some of the basics that can make a huge difference to a dairy business.. not trying to say how to suck an egg, but worth listing them out (in no particular order)

Agree with every thing here bar the two wheeler. Mate's worker fell of his two wheeler and broke his leg.ended up with a blame / claim.Not saying quad is perfect , but less chance of falling off IF ridden sensibly.

 

[Ducati899]

Even better idea,go round on 1 wheel and save even more money [emoji1303]

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Even better idea,go round on 1 wheel and save even more money [emoji1303] View attachment 592586

It's those JD overalls that make you silly (Get orf my land)
Must admit there's a bit of that goes on on my farm too, (the wheel-walks I mean, not the ramming of antis )

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Agree with every thing here bar the two wheeler. Mate's worker fell of his two wheeler and broke his leg.ended up with a blame / claim.Not saying quad is perfect , but less chance of falling off IF ridden sensibly.

Hmm yes. They do that.
Then again, being squashed by a quad is also Darwin's way off saying to learn how!!
But steeper around here probably, 2 wheeler is definitely the ticket for rounding up cows on hillsides - flat farms have those horrible little Suzuki road riceburner bikes with a knobbly tyre but much better for the pocket if you have staff with funny ideas of efficiency
My old FW would drive 3km just to get another fence standard or to open a gate he forgot
I sure miss it, I really do
Another saver I forgot is the batt-latch thing for opening the gate for cows, so they loaf in the dark and get less lameness.
Lameness is a huge cost here, OAD, loss of production, time, treatments...
Rubber matting is a good investment in that case. Oh, and biotin.

 

[Devon lad]

Be careful spending money on so called investments now, all dealers etc now know milk is well priced, and know they can put extra margin on products/service. It was very different a year ago when costs were good value. A mobile mechanic friend said no one asks for an estimate now the milk has gone up, but it was different a year ago especially guys with 2 handler. The most profitable dairy farmers in nz were buying brand new tractors in 2015 because A: they had the cash saved to do it from good times. B: brand new tractors were cheap because no one had the money to buy them C: 2nd hand ones were over priced because demand was high because most had not saved there cash in good times.

 

[lazy farmer]

pair of weigh scales to be used to for all ages would be probably top of my tiny list.

 

[upnortheast]

Tighten your ring Pap ........... I think you may need to double your budget (at least) as you really need to get down deep to ensure a constant supply - 70m should do it. Then you need at least 50mm pipe from hole plus electric all dug in. More than likely will need some treatment such as filtration, chlorination, potentially pulling out stuff such as manganese and the use of a UV lamp (bulb changed annually) plus pumps & tanks.
Yep £15k should cover it.
But you should get your money back within 18-24 months

Yep ours was £15k 3 years ago 70m deep. Running costs £700 / year for a couple of palllets salt for the water softener & £100 leccy to run the pump. Mains water used to be £8000 / year

 

[Crusty]

While watching the rain yesterday I thought of a couple of investments one of which I consider to be a no brainer and with having a little spare cash about will look further into it.
A borehole/well should have a payback within 3 years, cubicle mattress upgrades some what longer.
What investments do other people consider would improve the bottom line and reduce the costs for any belt tightening in the next few mnths ????

Genomic testing
Robotic feed pusher
LED lighting

 

[pappuller]

U

Genomic testing
Robotic feed pusher
LED lighting

Weigh loader for the merlo
You'll have text me, my phone got squished last week.

 

[Crusty]

U
Weigh loader for the merlo
You'll have text me, my phone got squished last week.

no mither, will do

 

[Irish NZ]

Even better idea,go round on 1 wheel and save even more money [emoji1303] View attachment 592586

Nervous left leg?

 

[Horn&corn]

We did borehole eventually. Pay back in 9 months. Suggest you put it as near to existing pipework and Elec as poss to save cost
Proper feed storage to stop rodent and damp damage. Also allow bigger loads and cheaper rate.
Reseeding as mentioned
Do some benchmarking so you know where costs are high against others and focus on that.
Also fixing the stuff that irritates daily has to be sorted.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Yes and getting those old paddocks performing like they should/could
Amazing the money that seeds can make for a business.

Some things that I'd suggest:
*2 wheeler bikes for running around, following cows etc, drastically cheaper than big quads to run over 5 years.
*More fence reels - limit pugging damage and grow more feed behind the cows
*Breed more replacements
*Cull the cows you second-chance
*Laneway maintenance
*Get a good basic direct drill and a cover for it
*Sexed semen
*Breed beef off late calving cows
*Tighter calving pattern (if spring calving)
*More legumes/species diversity
*Effluent storage capacity

These are some of the basics that can make a huge difference to a dairy business.. not trying to say how to suck an egg, but worth listing them out (in no particular order)

A two wheeler to save on costs? Tut tut Pete, going soft. Shanks mare and a bicycle.!

I think about this stuff quite often. So many who operate a farm don't seem to have the time to sit/think/ reflect. So maybe the best investment many farmers could make is a little more time for thinking, and slightly less time doing. ?