Milk production has being improving exponentially over the last number of decades, with efficiency being driven by a number of factors, such as advanced genetics.

The average age of farmers is still in the mid to late fifties by stepping back and looking at the figures from their childhood era we can see just how far milk production has come.

In 1973, the average milk yield was 2,190L with milk fat coming in at 3.49% and milk protein at 3.18%.

At the time, there was approximately 83,800 Irish dairy farmers suppling milk co-ops across the island, milking an average of 15 cows.

They were simpler times, with the majority of these farmer spending the morning and evening perched on the three-legged stool, milking by hand into buckets.

Fast-forward 50 years, production has rocketed, but at the expense of more than 60,000 dairy farms.

In 2022, average milk yield had grown by 157% to 5,625L while the average fat had reached 4.28% and protein had climbed to 3.5%.

With the average herd size reaching 93 cows in 2022, the three-legged stool had been well and truly swapped for large scale milking machines, while 100hp machines had replaced the trusty work horse or mule which once ruled the fields.

This rapid expansion was a matter of resilience, with inflating costs leading to increasing herd numbers in a bid to merely cover expenditure.

Despite farmers being more efficient than ever in terms of producing high quality milk from pasture, further advancements in efficiency are still required to ensure resilience during global turmoil, as well as other challenges such as global and national regulations.

Targets

Teagasc has laid out a number of targets to ensure farms maintain that resilience during periods of volatility while dealing with any additional challenges.

One of the figures that jumps out straight away is a net margin target of €2/kg milk solids (MS) or €2,467/ha, when producing at a base price of 35c/l.

This figure automatically catches the eye as that actual average net margin achieved between 2022 and 2024 was €-0.02/kg MS or €-24/ha, relative to that 35c/l base price.

Labour input was also recorded at an average of 35 hours/cow/year, while the target is set at 16 hours/cow/year.

The average herd economic breeding index was €112 during that time, halfway towards the €222 target in place.

The number of lactations per cow sat at 4.7 with a 5.5 lactation target in place.

Six-week calving rate was at 67% and sexed semen usage was 34%, with the targets for those KPIs respectively sitting at 90% and 95%.

There is an 11.4t DM/ha pasture utilisation target in place over a 290-day grazing year, but between 2022 and 2024, 7.8t DM/ha was utilised during a 256-day average grazing season.

1.27t of feed at 16.6% crude protein (CP) was fed during that period, but the target is to get concentrates below 600kg at 13% CP.

When it comes to the environmental targets, we are a ways off the 0.64kg carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of fat and protein corrected milk (CO₂e/kg FPCM) target, with 0.88 recorded between 2022 and 2024.

Only 35% of nitrogen applied was in the form of protected urea, with a 100% target in place.

83% of slurry applied was done so via low emission slurry spreading (LESS) techniques, with a 100% target also in place.