‘It’s insane what some farmers are putting into dairy expansion — I can’t see any logic in it’
Wicklow farmer Neil Short believes the dairy sector should look at increasing production from existing herds rather than pushing for more expansion at a time of soaring costs, reports Martin Ryan
Neil Short has strong and considered views on the scale of spending some farmers have invested in dairy expansion.
With an established herd of over 100 cows himself, the Co Wicklow farmer questions the economic benefits for farmers exposed to the current costs of leased land and dairy stock prices in addition to high borrowings for dairy infrastructure.
“I can’t believe that it makes any sense at all,” he says.
“I consider that it is absolutely insane what some farmers are putting into expansion in dairying at the present. I can’t see any logic in it.”
To back up his point, he cites leased land costing in excess of €300/ac, commercial type dairy cows selling for up to €3,600 and dairy type heifer calves fetching €600 as unsustainable costs for a margin from herd expansion.
He’s aiming to increase production from his own high performing herd — some cows are yielding up to 3,000 gallons — but he is adamant that it can be best achieved by gains within existing herd numbers.
Neil is one of the latest Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA) recruits to Registered Pedigree status, following an upgrade of the Ballycoog Herd which he farms in partnership with his parents Eddie and Maura.
The family have been in dairy farming beside the village of Ballycoog in east Wicklow for decades, but Neil says “you’d want to win the lotto if you planned to expand a farm around here at the costs involved.
“My focus is to extract the most that I can from the farm with what I have without taking a wager on further borrowings or additional debt. Essentially the farm is landlocked. I don’t envisage access to additional acres opening up. The key to unlocking progress for me is to derive improvements in efficiencies from within, from what is on my doorstep.
“It’s mental what farmers are prepared to pay for expansion,” he says.
“Leasing land is costing at least €300/ac/year. Unless I could walk cows to the land it would not be a viable proposiphoning tion, and even at that it would be very questionable. I don’t see how to make money at that and I don’t want to become just another busy fool for the sector.
“Additional land to increase the herd by 30 cows would cost me at least €15,000/year for the lease, and I would be taking on another labour unit, and probably finish up worse overall when all the costs are taken into account.
Commitments
“Some farmers are making huge commitments [on dairy expansion]. They seem to be working on the basis of having more cows and making more money, but it is not just as simple as that. I think that a lot of farmers are not seeing what is involved.
“I had autumn-born heifer calves to sell and I didn’t even advertise them, I only mentioned it to a few people, and I had farmers from as far down as Kerry and up to Tyrone looking for them.
“One farmer from Kerry offered me €600 for threeweek-old heifer calves and I couldn’t give them to him because they were already sold. That is the level of interest in dairy heifer calves and the price that some farmers are now prepared to pay for them. I just couldn’t believe it” he said.
Neil is calving down 108 cows between 60pc spring and 40pc autumn calving for liquid milk supply to Glanbia.
And with the top cow in the herd yielding 13,500kg milk in her fifth lactation, there was a herd average of over 8,700kg milk in 2020 and a solids average of 712kg.
Thirty-six mature cows of fourth lactation and older — making up 40pc of the herd — averaged 9,492kgs milk, 781kg milk solids, 4.76pc Fat, 3.47 pc Protein.
He attributes the notable longevity within the herd to a number of factors.
These include the powerful influence of strong cow families, a focus on breeding for functionality traits, and the AI sire selection criteria used by his father over the years.
Eddie placed the emphasis on breeding quality by buying in quality animals and listening to the advice of a good AI man on bull selection. The results are reflected in the herd classification.
Six cows scored Excellent (EX) with 39 Very Good (VG) and a further 39 Good Plus
“I have had farmers from as far down as Kerry and up to Tyrone looking for calves One farmer from Kerry offered me €600 for three-week-old heifer calves.”
(GP), while 50pc of the heifers scored GP.
There are 12 cows of sixth lactation or older in the herd of which 11 were scored VG or EX.
“We knew we were fairly good, but we were not thinking that there was anything exceptional about them until they were classified and then we realised that they are better than we had probably thought,” says Neil.
“It gave us the satisfaction of realising that we are doing something right. When the cow families are put in place you can see exactly what you have in the herd and that is a great advantage.”
The oldest cow in the herd is Ballycoog BBJ Grainne 813 VG89. She is currently in her eighth lactation with a lifetime production of 75,575kg milk to date with 5,942kg milk solids, and she is on track for IHFA Gold Award status
There are two seventh lactation cows both scored VG — Ballycoog AWB Shauna 1012
VG86 and Ballycoog CGH Pearl 935 VG88, the latter having surpassed over 5pc Fat in all seven lactations to date.
The Short farm is located at high altitude and meal feeding averages 1.6t with the diet feeder usually in use from October to early April.
Neil plans to keep concentrates fed at the current level if possible, and focus on a gradual increase in breeding and herd management gains to achieve higher solids.
His target is to increase the herd’s milk solids average to 800kg.
“If I want to drive on the volumes more I am going to have to use the diet feeder for a longer season in the spring and the autumn and it is hard to know if the additional cost of concentrate would be recovered from yield,” he says, “but I think that the solids can be improved further.
“The other side is the question of whether we are going to be allowed to drive more volume as a Glanbia supplier?
“I can’t understand how Glanbia can decide to put a limit on what an existing supplier produces and yet they are willing to take in new suppliers with 100 cows.
“I don’t know what they are thinking. The day that they let in a farmer who never produced milk before while placing a limit on existing suppliers just beggars belief,” he says.
On the possible threat to herd numbers from environmental measures, he strongly defends the dairy farmer position.
“Some of the headlines that farmers are getting are scaremongering and there is no evidence behind it to back it up,” he maintains.
“We are so environmentally better than so many other countries so why should we be restricted to allow them to increase production which will have greater effect on the environment?
“Farmers are carrying the blamed for too much. It seems that everything is being put on to the farm and the consumer is carrying no load,” he adds.