Now is a good time to take stock of what is happening on the farm. From a profitability perspective, are you getting an adequate return for your efforts?
January 11, 2021 4:04 pm
The benefits of completing profit monitors regularly has been underlined in a new study – which has shown that farmers who do so are “more profitable and have increased the profit of their operations more” than their peers.
Teagasc dairy specialist George Ramsbottom outlined the benefits and process of the profit monitor, noting that the current time of year – early January – is a great time to prepare on and “reflect on the year gone by”.
Noting that Teagasc advisors are trained to complete profit monitor reports for their clients, Ramsbottom highlighted that: “Completing it early allows you time to put a plan in place to improve your farm business in 2021.
Having experienced the joy of Wexford winning the All-Ireland in 1996, I can safely say that being married to a Waterford woman and living in the heart of the Déise, I understand how keenly felt the All Ireland hurling final loss to Limerick was.
Looking at the back-room staff of the county teams nowadays - performance coaches, psychologists, data analysts, statisticians - it becomes very clear what success requires. The same can be said for dairy farming and now is the time of year to analyse all those figures, records and measurements from the year just gone.
I’ve learned the value of this review period year in, year out. As you try new things on the farm it is vital to see what is working. The three big ticket areas to assess are cashflow, production and fertility performances as these drive the entire system.
SHARING OPTIONS:
Hill ewes are not housed, except in unusual circumstances and are generally not fed silage/hay but are offered feed blocks and concentrates at times during the winter and in the lead up to lambing.
A major component of the McLaughlin’s farm plan was designing a breeding policy to allow the hill flock to produce sufficient replacement ewe lambs for both the hill and lowland flocks. \ Clive Wasson Previous Next
David and Linda McLaughlin farm just outside Greencastle in Co Donegal and have been participating in the Teagasc BETTER Farm sheep programme since 2009, running both lowland and hill sheep enterprises alongside a herd of suckler cows. This year marks the end of David and Linda’s time in the programme and is a good chance to look at some of the key elements of their farming system.