A large number of dairy farmers in Ireland now operate a system of seasonal milk supply, otherwise known as a spring-calving milk production.
Compact calving season usually begins in early February to match peak milk production with peak grass growth.
This production system offers many benefits to Irish dairy farmers including a lower cost of production, and allowing for a dry period over Christmas.
Several weeks ago, Glanbia Ireland announced that it would be introducing a temporary mechanism to manage the rate of growth in peak milk supply.
This measure will not only affect herds that were/are considering expanding, but herds that are improving production through genetic gain and are seeing increased production year-on-year because of this.
Many of these farms are now looking at options to reduce ‘peak supply’, and avoid the penalties associated with exceeding their allocated supply, without reducing cow numbers.
Seasonal milk supply
On the most recent episode of the Dairy Edge podcast, Emma-Louise Coffey was joined by Laurence Shalloo, a researcher with Teagasc to give his insights into a report investigating the merits of the seasonal milk supply curve that exists in Ireland.
The move by farmers away from a seasonal milk supply system has many positive benefits for milk processors, but that is not the case for the milk producer, according to Shalloo.
“The seasonal milk production system represents the predominant system type in Ireland and exploits the comparative competitive advantage of growing and utilising of grazed grass,” he said.
”From a processing efficiency perspective, this means Ireland is running an average efficiency of 62% compared with 90%+ in countries with less seasonally focused/all-year calving type systems.
”Despite this, additional costs for capacity required to process peak milk production outweigh the lower processing efficiency.
”If all farmers moved from a spring-calving model to a 50/50 spring/autumn calving model, processing efficiency would increase to 70% but would also lead to financial losses that would amount to €130 million at farm level annually.”
Shalloo concluded by urging farmers who are facing restricted processing during the peak months over the next few years to ”complete a cash flow budget” to understand their farm’s financial position.
”Options to reduce milk production at peak without changing your system of production include lowering concentrate fed during peak months and considering once-a-day (OAD) milking for a certain proportion of the herd.”