Milk collection Galway

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
I do think that for your project to be successfull you should be looking at adding value to the milk Bottled milk, vending machine, Ice cream etc
Did you know when making ice cream less than £100 of milk & cream turns into over £1000 finished product.

Selling small quantities milk bulk will not make a big margin IMO
Did you ask arrabawn what price they are paying collecting small volumes ?
 

BA38

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have thought about the vending machine system but will the costs of setting up blow me out the water
 

richy

Member
Why don't venders work with spring block milk? Too creamy? 🙄
If the cows are dry for 3 months what are you going to put in the vending machine.
The only way imho the idea to milk a small number of cow’s would work is to make some sort of a artisan product with the milk ie Organic cheese etc
 

Tim G

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have thought about the vending machine system but will the costs of setting up blow me out the water
The cost of putting up a building, concrete, installing a second hand parlour, bulk tank, cooling, connecting water and electric, dealing with the dirty water, putting in tanker access, planning permission and a million other things not yet mentioned would blow me out of the water a long time before the vending machine did!
 
I've rang arrabawn they are willing to take my milk if I thought I could have more than 20 cows I'd do it no problem which I intend too 20 is just a starting point
You have a good idea who the biggest processor in the area is so they would be a good starting point. Aurivo might be in the area as well and worth having a chat with as well.

You're saying the housing is a mile away from the parlour? If I picked that up correctly, you're going to be under a wee bit of pressure in the spring or autumn if the weather is bad. We would have dry land here and use on/off grazing when the weather turns bad. It's a bit time consuming but I'd not fancy adding a mile walk to and from the parlour onto my days work.

Ideally, the parlour and housing would be close as you can run a fresh calver into the parlour to milk and feed the calf. An electric milking unit can be bought for around 700-800 euro new to milk those at the housing if needed.

All I'll say is do your costings well, you'll need to be very tight with spending for the first 3 or 4 years because there's a lot of unseen expenses that you won't see coming. Go second hand all the way, buy a good number of calves to rear to calve down the first year and a few more replacements for the following year as well. Have a chat with Teagasc or have a gander at their website, loads of info for new entrants. They'll tell you fairly quickly if your costings are feasible or not.

And take some heed of those telling you not to go down this road but, at the same time, not a whole lot either. It's your decision and the going or not will be yours and yours alone.
 

BA38

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have looked at the idea of outdoor cubicles instead of using winter housing a mile away I do agree with you in that I'll be slow to get a return on my investment after we start up my investment won't be anywhere near some of the guys who have gone huge straight away and their gran kids will still be paying for it but I do think it's a good idea, instead of pumping money into beef farming or sucklers and getting zero in return, infarct I'd loose money like all other farmers, if I have 40 acres and milk 20/30 cows I can make money off it , yes the return will be slow but at least I'll be getting something back instead of loosing money , I know I won't be millionaire but I'll be getting something and be able to put my kids through college or give them something later in life
 
I have looked at the idea of outdoor cubicles instead of using winter housing a mile away I do agree with you in that I'll be slow to get a return on my investment after we start up my investment won't be anywhere near some of the guys who have gone huge straight away and their gran kids will still be paying for it but I do think it's a good idea, instead of pumping money into beef farming or sucklers and getting zero in return, infarct I'd loose money like all other farmers, if I have 40 acres and milk 20/30 cows I can make money off it , yes the return will be slow but at least I'll be getting something back instead of loosing money , I know I won't be millionaire but I'll be getting something and be able to put my kids through college or give them something later in life
30 cows will not pay to put kids through college.
If they will, please let us all know how.
 

BA38

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'll be working off farm aswell I have a 9.30 to 4.30 job already, no intention of giving that up for a LONG time, but if necessary will go part time
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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