The head of the Dairy Knowledge Transfer Department at Teagasc has said that the persistently wet weather over the last several months is potentially costing farmers in the dairy sector a combined €30 million nationally every week.
Dr. Joe Patton said that problems caused by the weather are increasing costs for farmers in a number of ways, while also reducing profitability from milk production in the dairy sector.
According to Dr. Patton, the combined effect of these weather-induced higher costs and the lower profitability is seeing the sector as a whole make significant losses on a weekly basis.
Speaking to Agriland, he said: “Every cow in the country at this stage is affected, so it’s an industry level problem at the moment.
“There’s definitely farms that are maybe back 0.15% or 0.2% in protein terms and yield terms relative to where they should be another year. That’s a loss in revenue.
“Most people are feeding 3kg to 4kg additional concentrate to balance the diet, and for a lot of people too their silage reserves are getting tight and they’re possibly out buying forage,” he added.
“Depending on the situation, it’s at least a couple of euro a day per cow of a difference, and then if you’re buying silage it’s more on top of that again,” Dr. Patton added.
The Teagasc scientist said that the various weather-related issues don’t come without a cost, even if you “mightn’t be signing a check for it today”.
“Your cattle are still in, and they’re eating the silage you’ve already paid for, but that will all have to be replaced too.
“Feed budget costs, the cost of the silage budget, the loss of performance in the animals [at the point that animals should be at their peak], that is all accumulating. That’s the point,” Dr. Patton said.
On top of the cost, the labour issue for the individual farmers is also an issue of concern.
“A lot of farmers will tell you that when [the animals] are in, they’re in, and when they’re out, they’re out, and at least you know what you’re doing,” Dr. Patton said.
“At the moment, particularly on dairy farms, they’re in and out, they’re out by day and in by night, and that’s a good thing, but some people are putting them out and bringing them back in again, and you have to still feed, milking is slower, [and] you still have all your grazing work to do.
“You have most of your winter work still to do and you still have to get your field work done or your grazing work done as well. That wears people down,” he said.
Dr. Patton said that farmers should be aiming to look at ways to ease their workload, even if only by small changes.
“We’re trying to tell people [to look at] whatever they can do to carve out some bit of structure on their day to try and keep the thing somewhat manageable. Even if it’s grass for a day, and trying to get set up for the evening, [or] milk a bit earlier in the evening so you can get your jobs finished up at a reasonable time,” he said.