With the festive period kicking off, Agriland has decided to revisit some of the most popular articles from this years ‘Dairy Focus’ series.
In 2023, Agriland travelled the length and breadth of the country to visit dairy farmers and learn about their systems.
The Dairy Throwback series will run from December 23 – January 2, with farmers from counties Antrim, Cork, Kildare and Waterford featuring.
2023 will be a memorable year for dairy farmers, with input cost remaining high, milk price falling, difficult weather conditions and pending changes to regulations.
Due to many of these challenges, dairy farm incomes are predicted to decrease by 72% on 2022 levels – to €859/ha.
This figure is very much an average, with some above, and some below this – it also does not account for taxation, capital repayments and drawings.
Dairy Throwback
Dairy Focus articles will continue in 2024, and Agriland will be obtaining insight into how farmers are dealing with challenges that may arise.
The Dairy Throwback series will contain six revisits – including a visit to a dairy farmer milking 240 cows on four GEA robots, a pedigree Holstein / Friesian breeder in Cork, and a tillage / dairy farmer in Laois.
This is just a taste of what is coming, and should give you a look back at a range of different systems being operated on Irish farms.
The other throwbacks include a young dairy farmer in Sligo farming on a leased farm, a young female farmer continuing the winter milk tradition on her farm, and a farm in Kerry producing pedigree Holstein heifers.
Unfortunately, we could not include all of our 2022 Dairy Focus articles in the series.
Some other notable visits not included are:
- Dairy Focus: Crossbred genetics delivering for Wexford farm;
- Dairy Focus: Pure Friesian ticking all the boxes in Limerick;
- Dairy Focus: 40 years of Ballyclider breeding.
There are many more, all of which can be seen on the Agriland Dairy Focus page, or by clicking here.
Dairy farmers across Ireland who enjoy the Agriland Dairy Focus series and would like to feature in it can contact: [email protected].
And finally, myself, Brian McDonnell, and all the team at Agriland would like to wish all of our readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.