I've just caught up on John Roche's ADHB presentation on marginal litres. I also saw him give a similar one at Positive Farmers a few yrs ago.
To anyone that's not seen it, the gist is that in spring calving grazing systems, feeding concentrates (or other bought feed) brings significantly more cost than just the cost of the feed itself. It's roughly 1.6 times the cost of feed.
What wasn't clear was what these costs are likely to be, particularly if you've had to put up infrastructure e.g. cubicles due to needing them for winter anyway and you've already got feeders in the parlour. What are the extra costs likely to be to take it up to the amount the many studies put the figure at? Is it a bit lower labour, meds etc for cows under more stress?
Similarly, I found it difficult to put the advice in our position as new entrants, needing cash to service loans. I know that he said some of the extra litres were potentially costing me, but difficult to reconcile.
Very interesting stuff and certainly made me think (and confuse myself!).
To anyone that's not seen it, the gist is that in spring calving grazing systems, feeding concentrates (or other bought feed) brings significantly more cost than just the cost of the feed itself. It's roughly 1.6 times the cost of feed.
What wasn't clear was what these costs are likely to be, particularly if you've had to put up infrastructure e.g. cubicles due to needing them for winter anyway and you've already got feeders in the parlour. What are the extra costs likely to be to take it up to the amount the many studies put the figure at? Is it a bit lower labour, meds etc for cows under more stress?
Similarly, I found it difficult to put the advice in our position as new entrants, needing cash to service loans. I know that he said some of the extra litres were potentially costing me, but difficult to reconcile.
Very interesting stuff and certainly made me think (and confuse myself!).