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Eastern Ontario, Canada | Remember this biggest thing with robots is the 3+ milkings they do. we don't have robots but several years ago we went to 3x milking to make more money. fill the quota we were being given. It's just dad and I and with just the two of us we did it for 8 months and it was too much when things were busy. went back to 2x. back down went the milk. so we had the chance to hire a good man to do the afternoon and night milking. every other weekend off. so back to 3x. been going for 6 years like that and probably would be in tough financial state without the 3x. So with smaller farms that is where the robots work out. They milk 3x without the added labor. need to become a robot mechanic and do all that stuff in house to be efficient.
On the quota end. we did the math and while I don't agree the farm has to grow constantly to stay in business, it does have to stay with modern practices and efficiencies to stay in business. We run around 50-55 cents to make 1$ of milk. the rest goes to debt and wages. anyways, with all that, with COP and all that all in, Even with the purchase of the quota, financing the quota for 10 years, feeding the cows paying wages etc, there was still something like $200-300 extra cashflow monthly per KG of quota. So any way you cut it whether you get more out of each cow or make sure stalls are full it always pays to buy more quota. Unless of course like me and now have the production and efficiency in place but need to pay down debt for a good 10 years so i can build a new barn to milk more buy more quota etc. .
Edited by EastOnfarmer 3/2/2021 09:32
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New milking parlour questions
