Investing on your farm doesn’t need to cost you a fortune, but good investments can go a long way to making you one.
Milk price has been relatively high and stable on Irish farms in the last two years, the weather has played ball for the opening months of 2025, and most farmers are in a fairly comfortable place financially.
This has led to a growing interest in making worthwhile investments amongst farmers. Over the next 20 weeks we are going to analyse 20 different types of investments that could be made on or off farm to develop the business.
We’ll be looking at those with a good return on the invested capital and hopefully target those that might be more affordable for farms across the country.
The 20 weeks will culminate in a panel discussion forum at Dairy Day in November, discussing some of the best investments for dairy farms with specialists’ opinions.
The opening investment piece is looking at developing grazing infrastructure on your farm to maximise the return of the cheapest feed we have available to us in the form of grazed grass.
Grazing infrastructure
Developing good infrastructure to improve accessibility and utilisation of grass on farms is a very worthwhile investment. The shoulders of the year in spring and autumn are where most of the gains can be made.
Every extra day at grass is valued at €2.70/cow by Teagasc. On a 100-cow herd that’s an extra €270 when grazing versus having to house cows on silage. The figure for autumn is also substantial at €150/day on a 100-cow herd.
Use a trundle wheel to accurately measure the distance between paddocks when setting up new fences.
We will be using a case study to highlight the potential costings for improving infrastructure in an average sized herd of 100 cows across four different infrastructure types.
1. Paddock size.
2. Water.
3. Fencing.
4. Roadways.
Case study
Take an example of a farmer milking 80 cows in 2022. They had a milking platform of 27ha and were stocked at three cows/ha on the platform with an outside silage block.
An opportunity came up to purchase eight hectares adjoining the milking platform. They purchased the land last year and pushed on cow numbers to 100 cows. This is the most they’re willing to milk and won’t be expanding further.
The paddocks had been set up for 36-hour grazing's (three grazing's per paddock) for 80 cows. The increased numbers have meant the farmers are in no-man’s land now. Cows aren’t finished the paddocks in two grazing’s but there’s not enough grass left for the third grazing.
This has meant using strip-wires all year-round, making the business more labour intensive. There is no permanent infrastructure on the new land, so investment is required in roads, fencing and water. The farmer also wants to improve infrastructure on the home block to handle the extra cows.
Paddock size
The ideal paddock is a 36-hour grazing when cow numbers are consistent in the summer months. For the farmer in the example, he will need to develop a new paddock system to adequately utilise his grass in a labour efficient way.
This plan can be developed by the farmer or by using a private company. For example, Grasstec offer a service of mapping out the farm and developing a re-design of the farm into adequately sized paddocks for €10/acre. For this farm at 35ha the plan will cost about €860.
In terms of paddock sizing, it depends on the type of cow and her intake. If we say for example cows are allocated 18kg DM of grass daily, the ideal paddock size will be the number of cows, in this case 100. This is multiplied by daily intake of 18kg/cow and then multiplied by 1.5 days for three grazing’s.
The total figure of 2,700kg DM is then divided by the ideal pre-grazing yield of 1,400kg DM/ha to get the adequate paddock size of 1.92ha for the sample farmer.
Overall, the farmer will have roughly 18 paddocks in his new design, if each paddock was 1.92ha. Try to have as many access points as possible to the paddock so cows are not in and out of the same gaps in wet weather.
This way you also have the option to split paddocks a lot easier in spring or autumn when cow numbers are changing regularly.
Water
Allow for ten litres/cow at a time. That’s a 1,000 litre (220 gallon) trough required. A mapping service will outline the number and location of troughs required. You’ll need one every 250 metres to ensure cows are drinking enough.
A 220-gallon trough is costing around €350 for concrete troughs and €600 for plastic. Flow rate is more important than the trough itself with large volumes.
For this you need adequate pipe size. For under 150 cows you need pipe with a minimum of one inch (1in) diameter. Heavy gauge 1in pipe typically costs between €1.50 to €2 per metre.
There are a number of companies out there that will look after all the water infrastructure such as mole ploughing pipes, plastic welding of joints and trough fittings etc.
Modern water fittings are easy to use and reliable and many farmers leave them sitting above ground.
Equally, many farmers decide to do the job themselves and leave the pipe sitting overground. Modern pipe fittings are easy to use and very reliable.
Roadways
Ideally, machinery won’t be using the farm roadways, but this is not the case on a lot of farms. In the example above the farmer has adequate roads on the initial block but needs to develop a road through the new block.
For a herd of 100 cows, the farmer will need a roadway a minimum of four metres wide. Roads should be an additional 0.5m wide for every 50 cows after this.
Avoid sharp turns or junctions in the road and ensure the level is higher than the field so water can run off.
Previous articles outline the adequate design of roads. Costs typically come to around €32/m for a four-metre-wide road according to Teagasc depending on the quality of the road. TAMS reference cost is €24.90/m so you would only be paid 40% of this reference cost.
If we take that there’s an additional 250 metres of a road required through the new ground. That’s a cost of about €8,000 in total for the new section before TAMS.
Alternatively spur roads of two metre width can be built to access paddocks at a cost of about €12/m. This is usually only done in long paddocks that are difficult to access in the shoulders of the year if weather conditions are challenging.
Fencing
In the case study farm, new fencing is required on the new block. There are different options out there with metal posts like Clipex posts or the more common treated wooden posts.
Clipex posts offer a 25-year guarantee and are capable of lasting forty years, if they don’t bend. In comparison wooden treated posts will last about 15 years.
For this example, we’ll be assuming it’s a standard treated post and one row of high tensile wire.
Say the new block is relatively square. It’s 250 wide and 250m long with an area of 8ha. If we divide the area into four even paddocks and subtract the four-metre-wide road we have just under 2ha per paddock which is the perfect size for our earlier allocation calculation.
All in we’ll need roughly 2,000m of high tensile wire, 22 strainers and 190 posts if we go every ten metres.
Reference costs for TAMS are €2.77/metre + VAT. As with most things in TAMS, the actual costs are typically higher than the reference cost. This figure of €2.77/m + VAT is the maximum you will be paid on. To be considered for TAMS you’ll need to use TAMS spec posts and strainers.
This reference cost isn’t too far away from reality for this basic fence when labour is included. For the 2,000m that’s a total investment of €5,540 before TAMS.
Return on investment
All in, for mapping the whole farm and developing infrastructure on the new platform, it’s a rough cost of about €16,000 or €160/cow across the 100 cows. TAMS is available on roads and fencing. If we account for 40% TAMS, the new cost is closer to €10,500.
If the farm doesn’t expand any further, this farmer is setup for the next 20 years and beyond.
If we take rough estimates of five days of extra grazing in the spring and five days extra in the autumn, the farm will earn an extra €2,100 in extra grazing alone.
This is without factoring in the earnings of better grass utilisation on the original block, with new paddock sizes. The improved cow flow and reduced labour are also major savings.
Based on the €10,500 cost divided by the €2,100 in extra income, the investment will pay for itself in five years.
My rating – 4/5
Overall, this is a very solid investment. I’d give an investment in your grazing infrastructure a four out of five rating.
In the case study farm the improved infrastructure will reduce labour, improved cow-flow and generate more profit through extra grazed grass.
The return is very quick with the additional income covering the cost of the investment in a small number of years depending on the level of spend and farm setup.
Investing on your farm doesn’t need to cost you a fortune, but good investments can go a long way to making you one.
Milk price has been relatively high and stable on Irish farms in the last two years, the weather has played ball for the opening months of 2025, and most farmers are in a fairly comfortable place financially.
This has led to a growing interest in making worthwhile investments amongst farmers. Over the next 20 weeks we are going to analyse 20 different types of investments that could be made on or off farm to develop the business.
We’ll be looking at those with a good return on the invested capital and hopefully target those that might be more affordable for farms across the country.
The 20 weeks will culminate in a panel discussion forum at Dairy Day in November, discussing some of the best investments for dairy farms with specialists’ opinions.
The opening investment piece is looking at developing grazing infrastructure on your farm to maximise the return of the cheapest feed we have available to us in the form of grazed grass.
Grazing infrastructure
Developing good infrastructure to improve accessibility and utilisation of grass on farms is a very worthwhile investment. The shoulders of the year in spring and autumn are where most of the gains can be made.
Every extra day at grass is valued at €2.70/cow by Teagasc. On a 100-cow herd that’s an extra €270 when grazing versus having to house cows on silage. The figure for autumn is also substantial at €150/day on a 100-cow herd.
Use a trundle wheel to accurately measure the distance between paddocks when setting up new fences.
We will be using a case study to highlight the potential costings for improving infrastructure in an average sized herd of 100 cows across four different infrastructure types.
1. Paddock size.
2. Water.
3. Fencing.
4. Roadways.
Case study
Take an example of a farmer milking 80 cows in 2022. They had a milking platform of 27ha and were stocked at three cows/ha on the platform with an outside silage block.
An opportunity came up to purchase eight hectares adjoining the milking platform. They purchased the land last year and pushed on cow numbers to 100 cows. This is the most they’re willing to milk and won’t be expanding further.
The paddocks had been set up for 36-hour grazing's (three grazing's per paddock) for 80 cows. The increased numbers have meant the farmers are in no-man’s land now. Cows aren’t finished the paddocks in two grazing’s but there’s not enough grass left for the third grazing.
This has meant using strip-wires all year-round, making the business more labour intensive. There is no permanent infrastructure on the new land, so investment is required in roads, fencing and water. The farmer also wants to improve infrastructure on the home block to handle the extra cows.
Paddock size
The ideal paddock is a 36-hour grazing when cow numbers are consistent in the summer months. For the farmer in the example, he will need to develop a new paddock system to adequately utilise his grass in a labour efficient way.
This plan can be developed by the farmer or by using a private company. For example, Grasstec offer a service of mapping out the farm and developing a re-design of the farm into adequately sized paddocks for €10/acre. For this farm at 35ha the plan will cost about €860.
In terms of paddock sizing, it depends on the type of cow and her intake. If we say for example cows are allocated 18kg DM of grass daily, the ideal paddock size will be the number of cows, in this case 100. This is multiplied by daily intake of 18kg/cow and then multiplied by 1.5 days for three grazing’s.
The total figure of 2,700kg DM is then divided by the ideal pre-grazing yield of 1,400kg DM/ha to get the adequate paddock size of 1.92ha for the sample farmer.
Overall, the farmer will have roughly 18 paddocks in his new design, if each paddock was 1.92ha. Try to have as many access points as possible to the paddock so cows are not in and out of the same gaps in wet weather.
This way you also have the option to split paddocks a lot easier in spring or autumn when cow numbers are changing regularly.
Water
Allow for ten litres/cow at a time. That’s a 1,000 litre (220 gallon) trough required. A mapping service will outline the number and location of troughs required. You’ll need one every 250 metres to ensure cows are drinking enough.
A 220-gallon trough is costing around €350 for concrete troughs and €600 for plastic. Flow rate is more important than the trough itself with large volumes.
For this you need adequate pipe size. For under 150 cows you need pipe with a minimum of one inch (1in) diameter. Heavy gauge 1in pipe typically costs between €1.50 to €2 per metre.
There are a number of companies out there that will look after all the water infrastructure such as mole ploughing pipes, plastic welding of joints and trough fittings etc.
Modern water fittings are easy to use and reliable and many farmers leave them sitting above ground.
Equally, many farmers decide to do the job themselves and leave the pipe sitting overground. Modern pipe fittings are easy to use and very reliable.
Roadways
Ideally, machinery won’t be using the farm roadways, but this is not the case on a lot of farms. In the example above the farmer has adequate roads on the initial block but needs to develop a road through the new block.
For a herd of 100 cows, the farmer will need a roadway a minimum of four metres wide. Roads should be an additional 0.5m wide for every 50 cows after this.
Avoid sharp turns or junctions in the road and ensure the level is higher than the field so water can run off.
Previous articles outline the adequate design of roads. Costs typically come to around €32/m for a four-metre-wide road according to Teagasc depending on the quality of the road. TAMS reference cost is €24.90/m so you would only be paid 40% of this reference cost.
If we take that there’s an additional 250 metres of a road required through the new ground. That’s a cost of about €8,000 in total for the new section before TAMS.
Alternatively spur roads of two metre width can be built to access paddocks at a cost of about €12/m. This is usually only done in long paddocks that are difficult to access in the shoulders of the year if weather conditions are challenging.
Fencing
In the case study farm, new fencing is required on the new block. There are different options out there with metal posts like Clipex posts or the more common treated wooden posts.
Clipex posts offer a 25-year guarantee and are capable of lasting forty years, if they don’t bend. In comparison wooden treated posts will last about 15 years.
For this example, we’ll be assuming it’s a standard treated post and one row of high tensile wire.
Say the new block is relatively square. It’s 250 wide and 250m long with an area of 8ha. If we divide the area into four even paddocks and subtract the four-metre-wide road we have just under 2ha per paddock which is the perfect size for our earlier allocation calculation.
All in we’ll need roughly 2,000m of high tensile wire, 22 strainers and 190 posts if we go every ten metres.
Reference costs for TAMS are €2.77/metre + VAT. As with most things in TAMS, the actual costs are typically higher than the reference cost. This figure of €2.77/m + VAT is the maximum you will be paid on. To be considered for TAMS you’ll need to use TAMS spec posts and strainers.
This reference cost isn’t too far away from reality for this basic fence when labour is included. For the 2,000m that’s a total investment of €5,540 before TAMS.
Return on investment
All in, for mapping the whole farm and developing infrastructure on the new platform, it’s a rough cost of about €16,000 or €160/cow across the 100 cows. TAMS is available on roads and fencing. If we account for 40% TAMS, the new cost is closer to €10,500.
If the farm doesn’t expand any further, this farmer is setup for the next 20 years and beyond.
If we take rough estimates of five days of extra grazing in the spring and five days extra in the autumn, the farm will earn an extra €2,100 in extra grazing alone.
This is without factoring in the earnings of better grass utilisation on the original block, with new paddock sizes. The improved cow flow and reduced labour are also major savings.
Based on the €10,500 cost divided by the €2,100 in extra income, the investment will pay for itself in five years.
My rating – 4/5
Overall, this is a very solid investment. I’d give an investment in your grazing infrastructure a four out of five rating.
In the case study farm the improved infrastructure will reduce labour, improved cow-flow and generate more profit through extra grazed grass.
The return is very quick with the additional income covering the cost of the investment in a small number of years depending on the level of spend and farm setup.
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