Low-cost, grass-based milk production key to dairy survival

LOW-COST, grass-based milk production is key to survival, the Teagasc national dairy conference was told in Mullingar yesterday.

“My expenses are someone else’s profit, so I choose wisely what I spend,” was the advice from New Zealand dairy farmer Louis Kuriger.

He noted that profits of dairy farmers in Ireland have declined sharply over the last 18 months due to low milk prices, with only the low-cost milk producers generating any profit.

Mr Kuriger advised 500 farmers at the conference not to spend money with the sole aim of saving tax.

“If you don’t need the product in the production system, don’t purchase it. Measure and monitor everything, but most importantly measure pasture output. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” he said.

Laurence Shalloo said dairy farmers will have to place a greater emphasis on business planning, grass budgeting, animal breeding and the adoption of low-cost labour-efficient systems to counter the fluctuating milk price.

The conference was told a group of 16 farmers are working with Teagasc in the Fanesiders dairy discussion group to achieve this aim. This group of farmers outlined how they have cut the common cost of producing a litre of milk from 17.9c/litre in 2008, to 15.3c/l in 2009.

The target for the group is to lower this to 13.0c/l for each member by 2014.

The key to achieving this is to increase the amount of grazed grass in the diet.

Dairy farmers at the conference also heard about a new Teagasc/Germinal Seeds initiative, called the Grass Roots project, which provides a specialist grass budgeting service to 17 host farmers located across 11 counties.

Teagasc dairy adviser Abigail Ryan outlined how cows are being kept out longer through better management of grass, leading to a reduction in feed costs, increased production of milk solids per hectare and higher profits.

Cows on farms participating in the Grass Roots project will spend 310 days at grass in 2009, compared with the national average of 220 days.

A trial measuring Green House Gas emissions (GHG) from dairy cows at Teagasc Moorepark showed that a herd fed 100% grazed grass produced less methane emissions than a herd fed indoors on a total mixed ration.