OAD milking for dairy entrant

[Swaley]

Fair enough that's pretty good for your age. I'd think experience with someone else's stock is ideal as you will of made all the mistakes you can with them not your own Dolphenby at Eden Hall would be one of the best spots to learn off the owners.

Very minimal very switched on. Johnny's a top geez. I'd interview him if you could.

Thankyou, yes Im always trying to get as much experience behind me as possible but no matter if I get abit stuck with something I ask my grandfather or someone with the experience behind them.

 

[delilah]

Great thread. Not been near a pit for many years, fascinating to read how perspectives change. Just to put a spanner in the works, if I was 20 again with boundless energy but not much land i'd be looking at 3x a day and getting an oldie to put a shift in.

 

[Beef farmer]

Great thread. Not been near a pit for many years, fascinating to read how perspectives change. Just to put a spanner in the works, if I was 20 again with boundless energy but not much land i'd be looking at 3x a day and getting an oldie to put a shift in.

If your gonna house a small number of cows and milk 3x day. Get lely to put the shift in

 

[delilah]

If your gonna house a small number of cows and milk 3x day. Get lely to put the shift in

Guess that's the way to go, though if the OP has the parlour and family members already in place there's alot to be said for spending nowt.

 

[coomoo]

Thankyou, yes Im always trying to get as much experience behind me as possible but no matter if I get abit stuck with something I ask my grandfather or someone with the experience behind them.

What does your grandfather think about you going back into milk oad?

 

[Swaley]

What does your grandfather think about you going back into milk oad?

He was put off after him and my grandmother completely knackering themselves with milking twice a day 11 year ago, so we seemed to think OAD wouldnt knacker me like they did to themselves. But after working it out very basic, if i was to be milking through the herringbone and not the byre like they where it would make sense to milk TAD instead of OAD.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

He was put off after him and my grandmother completely knackering themselves with milking twice a day 11 year ago, so we seemed to think OAD wouldnt knacker me like they did to themselves. But after working it out very basic, if i was to be milking through the herringbone and not the byre like they where it would make sense to milk TAD instead of OAD.

Tbh, I'm a bit puzzled about going OAD when starting off. As you said there, your grandparents were knackered from TAD but it wasn't the milking itself that knackered them, it was the ancillary work from milking in a byre that knackered them.

With a simple herringbone parlour and an in parlour feed system, 90% of the donkey work is gone. We've had milkers from 16 to 66 milking for us because there's little work other than putting on clusters on once you get to cluster removers down the line.

Keep the system simple, milk TAD at least until loans are paid off, sell off high cell count cows and you shouldn't have much difficulty finding relief milkers for days you want off.

 

[Swaley]

Tbh, I'm a bit puzzled about going OAD when starting off. As you said there, your grandparents were knackered from TAD but it wasn't the milking itself that knackered them, it was the ancillary work from milking in a byre that knackered them.

With a simple herringbone parlour and an in parlour feed system, 90% of the donkey work is gone. We've had milkers from 16 to 66 milking for us because there's little work other than putting on clusters on once you get to cluster removers down the line.

Keep the system simple, milk TAD at least until loans are paid off, sell off high cell count cows and you shouldn't have much difficulty finding relief milkers for days you want off.

Thanks for the opinion sounds more like the system I am thinking of starting.

 

[coomoo]

He was put off after him and my grandmother completely knackering themselves with milking twice a day 11 year ago, so we seemed to think OAD wouldnt knacker me like they did to themselves. But after working it out very basic, if i was to be milking through the herringbone and not the byre like they where it would make sense to milk TAD instead of OAD.

It’s ok to knacker yourself in your prime to move your family forward. Think you know yourself TAD is the way to go when the time come’s, however you getting experience up and down all aspects of life the now is a gift from the older generation.

 

[Jdunn55]

I Work 4 to 5 days off farm now at dairy farms also other sheep farms on top of working at home have done for quite a few year now, been ast to half manage an estate in the last few years but don't won't to commit myself to someone else's stock to that extent.

Do a stint this summer with @Beef farmer when he's calving for a month or two if you, it's one thing I wish I could have done before starting up myself.

Don't rush it either, get as much experience as you can elsewhere, grazing systems are fine but it may be well worth you doing some time on high input, high output herds to see if you don't actually prefer that. If I had my time again, I would have gone to Canada for a year and probably new zealand and possibly somewhere in Europe like the Netherlands or Denmark when straight out of college.

Unfortunately an opportunity presented itself and I thought it too good to be true, in hindsight I didn't have enough experience and it's caused me countless problems, I'm sort of clawing it back now but shutting stable doors once horses have bolted (or gates once the cows are on the silage clamp in my case) gets to be fairly draining.

I was only 20 when I started making plans too, it was out of complete desperation to start milking my own cows.
If you ever want any advice on what not to do feel free to send me a message.

You'll get a lot of good advice on here and elsewhere, listen to it but don't let it confuse you either. Make a plan and try to stick to it, you'll have to adapt to an extent but changing systems after 12 months isn't the best way to do things (don't ask how I know this...) so make sure you're going to be happy with the system you choose (grazing, hiho, tad, oad, 10 in 7, robots, block calving, ayr calving etc) hence the advice to do a stint on several different systems

 

[easy farming]

Ireland is a great shout, lots of very profitable sub 100 cow herds with a total focus on production from grass. Also as a starting point check out the 'Teagasc' website and webinars for lots of articles and videos.

Positive Farmers conference next month, 11th and 12th plenty of contacts to be made there if you can make it. A quarter to a third from the UK.

 

[Swaley]

Do a stint this summer with @Beef farmer when he's calving for a month or two if you, it's one thing I wish I could have done before starting up myself.

Don't rush it either, get as much experience as you can elsewhere, grazing systems are fine but it may be well worth you doing some time on high input, high output herds to see if you don't actually prefer that. If I had my time again, I would have gone to Canada for a year and probably new zealand and possibly somewhere in Europe like the Netherlands or Denmark when straight out of college.

Unfortunately an opportunity presented itself and I thought it too good to be true, in hindsight I didn't have enough experience and it's caused me countless problems, I'm sort of clawing it back now but shutting stable doors once horses have bolted (or gates once the cows are on the silage clamp in my case) gets to be fairly draining.

I was only 20 when I started making plans too, it was out of complete desperation to start milking my own cows.
If you ever want any advice on what not to do feel free to send me a message.

You'll get a lot of good advice on here and elsewhere, listen to it but don't let it confuse you either. Make a plan and try to stick to it, you'll have to adapt to an extent but changing systems after 12 months isn't the best way to do things (don't ask how I know this...) so make sure you're going to be happy with the system you choose (grazing, hiho, tad, oad, 10 in 7, robots, block calving, ayr calving etc) hence the advice to do a stint on several different systems

Can I ask what age you actually started milking your own cows

 

[Jdunn55]

Can I ask what age you actually started milking your own cows

21 - it was all quite rushed, only about 6 months from the start of things until milk in the tank, only about 3 months between signing loans and the tenancy agreement etc
First thing I sorted was the milk contract though

 

[Swaley]

21 - it was all quite rushed, only about 6 months from the start of things until milk in the tank, only about 3 months between signing loans and the tenancy agreement etc
First thing I sorted was the milk contract though

Thanks for the reply

 

[Dead Rabbits]

So milking 250 cows oad and had or could get 7840000 ? I find that hard to understand.

250x450kgmsx10.50?=$1181250

7840000/20years=$392000 per year before interest. It’s also difficult to know how much equity was in the deal but banks won’t 100% finance. Unsure if $10.50 is a realistic price. Assuming farm was 100% owned and a fairly significant down payment on purchase. This is of course assuming no increase in cow numbers to graze new purchase.

A low cost system with limited inputs is fairly insulated from market forces. I’d chance it at the right age.

 

[FarmerWasty]

Not too far from Lazonby myself, Ayr high input/output pedigree holstein herd with bots and parlour. More than welcome to have a look or get more involved in the herdsman side of things.

 

[Jaffa Cakes]

All depends on what your debt levels are too. Farm free from debt that has historically invested into keeping its infrastructures and machinery fresh is a very different position from starting with a debt and only the land.

With next to no debt and a decent setup how much of the income from milk could be retained on a very simple low input system? 40% ?

 

[JohnB3]

250x450kgmsx10.50?=$1181250

7840000/20years=$392000 per year before interest. It’s also difficult to know how much equity was in the deal but banks won’t 100% finance. Unsure if $10.50 is a realistic price. Assuming farm was 100% owned and a fairly significant down payment on purchase. This is of course assuming no increase in cow numbers to graze new purchase.

A low cost system with limited inputs is fairly insulated from market forces. I’d chance it at the right age.

I googled the price of kg milk solid in nz and you might be a $ or 1.5 strong at $10.5 but even at that I wouldn't enjoy the idea of a third of my income before expenses going to serve my loan. There must be half the money ,a 50% down payment in savings for this loan to be granted . As for the extra money that will come from the purchased land , its my experience banks don't care what you might make from your new land only that you can pay for it from what your doing already.
I would love these maths to work but cant see how. Thank you for your answer and if you can educate me how this would work I'd be delighted to be providing wrong.

 

[sidjon]

I googled the price of kg milk solid in nz and you might be a $ or 1.5 strong at $10.5 but even at that I wouldn't enjoy the idea of a third of my income before expenses going to serve my loan. There must be half the money ,a 50% down payment in savings for this loan to be granted . As for the extra money that will come from the purchased land , its my experience banks don't care what you might make from your new land only that you can pay for it from what your doing already.
I would love these maths to work but cant see how. Thank you for your answer and if you can educate me how this would work I'd be delighted to be providing wrong.

Would be interest only loan, Was in 2008 so you'll get 100% mortgage, more common to sell farm to fund retirement

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Would be interest only loan, Was in 2008 so you'll get 100% mortgage, more common to sell farm to fund retirement

Ah, a different era.

I don’t know many kiwi dairy farmers but the ones I do know ain’t scared of debt