Improving Dairy Profits – Teagasc Ballyhaise Open Day

Dairy farmers attending a Teagasc Open Day at Ballyhaise Agricultural College today heard that increasing the role of grazed grass, breeding from high EBI bulls and addressing machinery costs will help reduce the higher production costs faced by producers in the Border region.

The Teagasc Moorepark Dairy Production research project on the Ballyhaise dairy herd and 16 farms in the region has shown that it costs, on average, 1.0c/l more to produce milk in these border counties than on the average Irish dairy farm.

At the Ballyhaise open day, today, data from the first year of this research project showed wide variation in costs and profit on these dairy herds. There was a difference of 10.4 c/l of milk between the farms with the lowest and highest production costs. Based on this variation in costs, Teagasc see potential for developing production systems to improve dairy profits in these Border counties.

The objective of this project is to establish region-specific physical and financial targets for efficient milk production in the area.

Project Leader, Dr Brendan Horan, said, “Milk production in the border region is a higher cost business than in other parts of the country. This reduces the income of the region’s dairy producers. Our aim is to put more money in the pockets of dairy farmers in this area, by replacing silage and concentrates with grazed grass, by using higher EBI bulls and by helping dairy farmers to tackle their machinery costs” .

Dr. Horan continued saying, “Opportunities to improve the reproductive performance on these farms were identified with the calving interval running at 404 days on average. No farm achieved a 365 day calving interval.Research shows that dairy farmers with high EBI herds can expect to maintain and increase their gross output. Teagasc is actively encouraging the use of high EBI sires”.