A key part of any business strategy is to invest in new infrastructure and machinery that will make you money. It is hardly surprising that dairy farmers are looking to new machinery, technology and systems that will increase productivity and reduce feed bills and labour.
Putting more money in your pocket at the end of the month!
Irish farmer Seamus Curran is one such farmer. Seamus installed Dairymaster’s In Parlour Feeding System in 2017. According to Seamus the savings he is making using his new Milk Management system is paying for his new Dairymaster milking parlour on a month by month basis. That’s an impressive investment strategy which yields more profits for young farmers like Seamus, putting more money in their pocket at the end of the month.
Previous to using the Dairymaster feeding system, Curran was overfeeding some cows and underfeeding others because the feed that was allocated was not based on the needs of that particular cow and the milk she was giving. The new Dairymaster system allows him to tailor his cow’s rations to the amount of milk she gives. If a particular cow has an increased milk yield, she is automatically allocated more feed to support her production. If she produces less milk the system ensures she is not overfed thus maximising a cow’s performance while saving money.
A no-brainer for the tech savvy young farmer
According to Seamus, he is getting “another 1000 litres from my cows” by using a combination of new technologies from Dairymaster. This is a no-brainer for the tech-savvy young farmer who is using technology to make the business more profitable and ensure that he doesn’t have to spend every moment he has in the parlour milking and watching cows.
Father and son team, Michael and Alan Farrell, installed a Dairymaster Swiftflo Fast Exit 24 unit parlour with In-Parlour Feeding in early 2017. According to Alan, their yield per cow is up three litres and milking now takes over an hour less time than it previously did. Alan’s father Michael has seen a lot of changes in his time as a farmer but has definitely noticed a massive change in not only the yield, but also the cow’s body condition. He describes the new parlour as “easy on the man” which in one sense means that Michael and Alan have less need to hire expensive relief staff. That saves them hard earned money and gives them more free time to spend with family or work on other areas of the farm.
Are you spending too much money on feed?
Increasingly the role of the farmer is one of business manager as well as the worker. Most farmers are starting to realise that making large-scale investments in new farm technology can be expensive but can pay for itself with higher yields and a more profitable farm. This is particularly true when it comes to saving money on expensive feeds. In the US, the Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service found that the largest farm production expenditure is on feed. Europe isn’t much different and farmers are turning to technology that can cut the amount of feed used based on the output of the cow, leading to not only reduced feed costs but more productive cows. That’s a business model that works in any language!
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