The number of farmers to looking to make the move to dairy is on the rise again after a period of slowing down.
This is according to Aidan Kelly of Agri Design and Planning Services (ADPS), based in Co. Tipperary.
“It’s getting busy again on the dairy side of things,” he said.
“I’d be getting two to three calls a week from farmers looking to make the move to dairy, looking to see what options they have from a design point of view.
“There appears to be no issue getting a milk contract from co-ops down this part of the country anyway.”
Aidan believes that people were deterred from the sector “when they saw what was going on with one of the big suppliers in terms of restrictions on milk production”.
“It may have put them off originally but with that all changed now it seems to have got the idea of moving to dairy for some a real prospect,” he said.
“And despite the cost of building materials, the strong milk price currently is another factor in turning people’s heads towards dairy.
“On the cost of materials, many might say it’s a bad time to get into milk especially if you have a good bit of building work to do but is there ever a good time to get into it?
“At 60c/L for milk and production costs at roughly 45c/L, on a farm with a low level of debt, you have 15c/L left for yourself where other years you would have only been left over with a few cents for yourself as the difference between milk price and cost of production were much tighter.”
Despite the increase in drystock farmers thinking about making the move to dairy, Aidan said there has still been an increase also in the number of farmers looking to build beef sheds.
Aidan added: “Similar to the dairy, the number of enquiries had gone quite but in the last few months there has been an increase in farmers thinking about building beef sheds again.
“Some of [these] would be working off-farm and want to keep the farm going on the side and make life that bit easier for themselves and improve on what existing facilities they have.”