Bruce I was wondering about how you market you milk in Canada. Here most farmers sells the milk to a Coop of some sort. Then they are paid a base plus a component premium. Some Coops pay additional for low cell counts and such too. The long and short of it there is not much government direct involvement in the marketing. There is a support program but prices really have to be in the dumper for them to actually kick in and even then it is not much.
I know that small grains are marketed through a national grain board in Canada. I was wondering if the dairy products do some thing similar???
Yes tie stall barn additions are rare in this area. It is 85% parlors and free stall barns here these days. Few under 100 head dairies left. 200-300 are more common with a few mega dairies(500-1000 cows) in this country.
There are getting to be a good many robot milking setups here with the smaller dairy guys adopting it faster than the large dairies. I know of 4-5 farms with them with in 10 miles of me. You talking about $500K for two robots that can milk 100-120 cows total. I just do not see how the numbers work but the fellows that have them are pretty good farmers.
I know that small grains are marketed through a national grain board in Canada. I was wondering if the dairy products do some thing similar???
Yes tie stall barn additions are rare in this area. It is 85% parlors and free stall barns here these days. Few under 100 head dairies left. 200-300 are more common with a few mega dairies(500-1000 cows) in this country.
There are getting to be a good many robot milking setups here with the smaller dairy guys adopting it faster than the large dairies. I know of 4-5 farms with them with in 10 miles of me. You talking about $500K for two robots that can milk 100-120 cows total. I just do not see how the numbers work but the fellows that have them are pretty good farmers.