Cavan Dairy Farmer is Positive About the Future

17 November, 2003

“Who would have encouraged me to take on a dairy farm of less then 100,000 litres (20,000 gallons) in 1994? Yet here I am, still positive, still financially sound and still determined to be a successful dairy farmer into the future.”

These were the words of 28-year-old Cavan dairy farmer, Raymond Brady to the Teagasc National Dairy Conference in Cavan.

Raymond, who farms at Kilcogy in south Cavan, has more than doubled milk output to 225,000 litres since 1994. His target for 2008 is to achieve an output of 365,000 litres.

A graduate of the Teagasc certificate in farming training programme, Raymond is an active participant in the intensive advisory programme run jointly by Teagasc and dairy co-operatives in the north-east.

His farm is one of some 100 ‘monitor farms’ established by Teagasc throughout the country and the detailed information collected on physical and financial performance is used as benchmarks for all dairy farmers.

“Before I joined the intensive Teagasc programme, I was purely expansion focused. I have completed the Teagasc Profit Monitor for the past two years and this has really taught me there is more to making money than expansion alone.”

“I have now started to use the Teagasc Cost Control Planner and this has made me much more conscious of costs,” said Raymond.

The key indicator of cost control is cash flow ratio, which so far this year is 46%. This means that for every euro of output, 46 cents have been used to produce the output and 54 cents are retained to fund capital expenditure and personal expenses. My target for the year is to achieve a cash flow ratio of 45% or lower ,” he added.

“With decoupling coming in 2005 and most of my drystock income based on premia payments, I should be able to phase out the drystock enterprise. This will free up land for an expanding dairy enterprise which I see growing from 42 cows to 60 cows.”

“With the need to spend money on increasing my milking facilities, the extra quota that I buy after 2005 will have to cost much less than that I bought before the Fischler changes,” he said.

As well as running a thriving dairy enterprise, Raymond Brady is also active in national farming affairs and is currently vice-president of Macra na Feirme in the north west.

Click here for the proceedings of the 2003 National Dairy Conference.