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| I don't understand the sexed semen argument. Been using it here along with beef semen. Do you really want holstein bull calves that worthless? I can really dial my replacements in and increase my income on the dairy bull by almost eliminating the holstein bulls. Tariffs are a large part of the issue I believe. If we didn't have them I think our price would rise to breakeven at least. What do I know? The mega dairies, I believe are just way more efficient than our smaller operations. Even more efficient than a 1000 cow dairy. For example we have 8 that milk, feed, and care for 300 cows and all of the young stock. I know this is an over simplified way to look at it. But 15x would be 4500 cows so 15x8 i would need 120 employees(theoretically that I would need). If what these farms are telling me is accurate as far as labor goes. I have visited some at a smaller scale(2000 cows). They are milking, feeding, and caring for 4500 cows with 40-50 employees. So now scale that back to my operation. That tells me to be conservative, I could get by with 4 employees. Don't know it makes sense to keep beating your head against the wall just so we can say we milk cows. I believe the next 5 years there will be major changes to the dairy industry. Right now it's doom and gloom all over the place. | |
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