Robert Jacob entered dairy farming at age 40. What can he teach anyone thinking of following in his footsteps?

There are very few 40-year-olds who decide that they’ll get involved in dairy for the first time, but that’s exactly what Carlow-based Robert Jacob did five years ago.

“I was working in beef part-time, with a full-time job in machinery, but the truth was that I couldn’t see a viable future for my children in beef, and I wanted to build something that they might one day be interested in taking up.”

In December of 2019, he put down a deposit on a parlour, commencing milking in spring of 2021. Robert has approximately 90 cows at present, on 100 acres of his own and a further 50 acres leased. But what advice has he to offer other prospective dairy farmers – and what are the things he might change?

The first thing he mentions is that he should have started sooner. The second thing is the importance of budgeting and planning. “ifac helped hugely with putting things down on paper, and without that, I don’t think I would ever have been able to see things working out.”

“I borrowed for a 14-unit milking parlour, and I believe that buying new was a huge boost, providing the reliability that I needed. I also bought high-quality heifer calves. It’s a false economy to do anything else, in my opinion. I added twenty older cows as I needed to have a guaranteed yield of milk, but I didn’t breed from them.”

“I had trouble with grass my first year and hadn’t reseeded. If doing it all over again, I’d definitely look to borrow to reseed.

I’d also like to have milked more before starting out on my own – maybe on the relief milking scheme. Some more experience would definitely have been a good thing.”

“I built the parlour first and added cubicles two years later. Going without cubicles added a lot of work and is something I might re-consider. Cashflow was very tight in the early days, but the lessons I learned are standing to me today. There was certainly no such thing as a family holiday or eating out. We were very disciplined as a family and my wife Avril, who is part of a farm partnership with me, was a huge help in that regard.”

In Robert’s first breeding season, he acknowledges that he didn’t breed long enough, and looking to force things led to higher-than-normal empty rate. The experience for year 1 breeding was learned quickly with subsequent breeding cycles being much more successful. He left the bulls in for longer post AI in year 2 & 3. This year, after an investment in collars he’s moved to AI for everything, with an empty rate of around 8%-9%. Robert has cost per litre down to around 35 cents, so he’s trending well above average.

“The bottom line is that I’d now happily encourage my kids to follow me on the farm – not something I would ever have said back in the beef days. I’m my own boss again, and though I’m not a cockeyed optimist regarding prices, ifac will help me stress-test all my projections for next year and I’m confident that we’ll continue to make it work.”