Producing winter milk is high-cost whether you have a high- or low-yielding herd. Once you take account of labour, facilities, machinery, etc, you have a lot more tied up in the business.

Feed is a large proportion of the additional cost structure so it is crucial you try to lock in high-quality forage.

As Brian Garry argues in this supplement, you simply can’t make up a high quality total diet if you are feeding poor-quality forage.

At the liquid milk conference, ICOS boss TJ Flanagan took the opportunity to relay the message he got from processors that there isn’t extra milk required in the south during the winter months, because the processors argue there isn’t the demand from buyers to pay the additional margin for milk when they can get it at no extra margin elsewhere and where product range is not delivering higher margins.

Pigs

In the pig business, Teagasc’s Michael McKeon outlines the changes that are happening in China on relocating the pig herd closer to the tillage fields where the grain is produced, and also where slurry can be recycled.

However, it is the increasing export trade of pigmeat to China that is preoccupying Irish pig farmers.

In 2016, exports of pigmeat to China doubled as European pig production was the product of choice for the Chinese as US pigmeat contained growth hormones.

Since then, the Chinese sow numbers have declined, but more significantly the US has stopped feeding the hormone in question so in 2017 it was back exporting into China.

However, like other commodity products a lot depends on currency, regulation and health issues in various countries.

While European exports of pigmeat are back in 2017, given the Chinese appetite for pigmeat, Irish eyes will remain firmly focused on China.

Follow this week's Focus on winter milk and pigs this weekend on www.farmersjournal.ie.