Dairy notes April 2009

Cash-flow Management

With feed and fertiliser prices remaining high, the low milk price could create major cash-flow problems for your businesses this year. Given that you are in milk production for the long term, what can you do to ease the financial pressure until the milk price improves? Options available include:

Consideration of the need to increase your overdraft limit. Review your account with the banks agricultural manager. Banks are aware of the cash-flow problems you are going to face but you must discuss your additional loan requirements with them before they are needed. Exceeding current limits would mean cheques being returned, charges placed on the account and higher interest charges being applied – act now! Other areas for discussion may include restructuring of loansor payment of interest only for a period.
Accounts for the financial year just ended are going to show a significant drop in profits from last year, especially if FNMS tanks have just been completed. Averaging of the two year’s profits may mean last year`s tax bill is reduced lowering the payment to be made this July. Discuss your case with your accountant now to see if it will pay to getyour accounts completed quickly
Looking at your annual expenses - where can savings be made? Concentrates are the biggest annual expense so make sure theyare being used efficiently. There may be a case for housing fresh calvers yielding over 35 litres during the early part of the summer but the rest of the herd should be at grass as soon as possible with meal feeding cut back. Full time grazing in April/May can support Maintenance + 25 litres. Target producing a high energy/ high dry matter (>11.5 ME and 30 percent dry matter) silage this May. This quality of silage will produce over Maintenance + 10 litres. Purchase fertiliser as it is required. It is anticipated the price will fall as the season progresses. Allow for the nitrogen available from slurry when sowing fertiliser
Delay non-essential capital investment. Could you do without the automatic calf feeder for another year? Will a good service mean that equipment will work efficiently for another year before having to be replaced? Do not cut back on routine maintenance as an unexpected repair bill could prove more costly.

Take advantage of early grass to get cows out and reduce the meal bill

APHIS Online – New and Improved

Our Information Technology author Ronan Coll has supplied some information on planned changes to the APHIS Online system. The online service has proven very successful in giving producers access to their herd information and allowing them to register births, deaths and movements of animals with DARD without the need to lift a pen or deliver a paper form. There are now over 8,000 registered users with almost one third of new calf registrations carried out online.

Farmer feedback has been extremely positive and suggestions for changes and improvements have been taken on board by the APHIS Online development team at CAFRE. The result of these changes is the new look APHIS Online, designed to be even easier to use with better functionality. Access to the new look APHIS Online and all DARD secure online services (Benchmarking, eSFP, Nutrient Management Calculators, etc) will now be via the Government Gateway with your new Government Gateway access code and password. Existing users can continue to use the existing system and have nothing to do until they receive a letter instructing them in the changeover process. New users and existing users who don’t want to wait for their letter, can register for a government gateway access code by visiting our "Government Gateway Account Registration" page

For more information please contact the APHIS support team at info@ruralni.gov.uk or telephone 028 9052 4420.