Benefits of collaborative farming shown
The main collaborative arrangements being encouraged in Ireland are milk production partnerships, share farming, and contract rearing of replacement heifer- rearing offers a steady monthly cash flow. That also reducing the business risks associated with drystock production, say Teagasc advisers.
It is also attractive to dairy farmers, because it releases land for milk production, and frees up labour to specialise more on dairying.
To assist farmers, Teagasc recently launched two dairy heifer-rearing agreement templates.
One is based on a flat rate contract where payments are made by the dairy farmer to the contract rearer, based on agreed fixed charges per day for each replacement heifer kept.
The second version, a weight bonus agreement, has provision for a basic charge per replacement heifer per day kept, plus an additional payment based on achieving agreed target weights set out in the agreement.
The templates are part of the collaborative farming arrangements which Teagasc says can help deliver on the ambitious targets in Food Harvest 2020, and overcome Irish challenges in terms of farm size, age profile of the farmer, and skill set.
Collaborative arrangements can offer farmers increased returns through the ability to achieve scale at a lower capital cost; the reduction of costs which are duplicated between farmers; and risk sharing.
