Farming Chit Chat

5live

whelan1 wrote: »

we always cut around the bank holiday weekend... quality is usually very good.... we also have alot of bulk on it ... i am only goin to do a small second cut - 20 acres - and then i have 25 acres of the triticale and lupins and 10 acres of grass to go in on top of that

Do you use the triticale/lupins for reseeding or just as a complementary forage?

I'm very nosey today:)

whelan1

5live wrote: »

Do you use the triticale/lupins for reseeding or just as a complementary forage?

I'm very nosey today:)

yes you are:D its instead of maize

5live

Went down the yard while ago for the first time since tuesday evening. I've been off and cant walk too much for a while yet so got FRS in to milk as i had fences set up and fert out till end of next week so milking and looking after a few late calves was all that needed doing.

First thing i heard was the fence shorting out about 40 ft from the parlour after a wire broke since wednesday. The parlour itself is covered in sh**e. The collecting yard has about an inch of muck on it. The calves in the shed got no ration or straw since i was down and the weanlings got no ration despite all the bags being about 5 foot from the calves.

I think my relationship with the FRS is coming to an abrupt end on tuesday evening next. Really pi**ed off now. I could complain but the guy is a neighbour and there arent many young lads around with a small bit of cop on around to come in.

Now i am wondering if no cows were bulling or did he even check. BUCKET ANYWAY:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

jeff greene

Thats bad :mad:last thing you need when you're recovering. Difficult situation, are you giving him too much credit when you say he has a small bit of cop on:rolleyes:

If you're still AIing, let in a stock bull, make the lazy fecker at least keep the parlour itself clean and the calves fed, I'd be dreading the next SCC and TBC if he is that dirty:eek:

Can you get a farmer friend in the supervise?

5live

jeff greene wrote: »

Thats bad :mad:last thing you need when you're recovering. Difficult situation, are you giving him too much credit when you say he has a small bit of cop on:rolleyes:

If you're still AIing, let in a stock bull, make the lazy fecker at least keep the parlour itself clean and the calves fed, I'd be dreading the next SCC and TBC if he is that dirty:eek:

Can you get a farmer friend in the supervise?

No one around. Silage in full swing around here and all the good milkers are filling in for silage cutting. Plus its mostly Dairymasters and a small nest of Delavals around me so operation is different.
The normal guys i get are tied up long term with places where farmers out of action for a few months
Then if i get a guy in to supervise, will it lead to a falling out as this guys father does a few jobs for me during the year.
I think i will graze the cows around the house for the next few days to check bulling at least. I was leaving those paddocks for next week to ease myself back in but needs must i suppose:(

whelan1

5live wrote: »

Went down the yard while ago for the first time since tuesday evening. I've been off and cant walk too much for a while yet so got FRS in to milk as i had fences set up and fert out till end of next week so milking and looking after a few late calves was all that needed doing.

First thing i heard was the fence shorting out about 40 ft from the parlour after a wire broke since wednesday. The parlour itself is covered in sh**e. The collecting yard has about an inch of muck on it. The calves in the shed got no ration or straw since i was down and the weanlings got no ration despite all the bags being about 5 foot from the calves.

I think my relationship with the FRS is coming to an abrupt end on tuesday evening next. Really pi**ed off now. I could complain but the guy is a neighbour and there arent many young lads around with a small bit of cop on around to come in.

Now i am wondering if no cows were bulling or did he even check. BUCKET ANYWAY:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

hate that, my dad always says no one will ever do the job as good as you , but if they do it 50% as good then you'd be happy... seriously this guy is being paid so he should do what you say... did you give him a list- if everything is written down then he cant say he forgot

monmck

whelan1 wrote: »

seriously this guy is being paid so he should do what you say...

God i know you want to avoid a difficult situation but he is being paid by the FRS so you should get on to them and tell them you are not happy. There not much point in you paying someone and then having to do all the work yourself and worrying about what they are doing.

whelan1

was thinking about this earlier, maybe drop a comment like i expect to get the yard back the way i left it... also ring frs on monday and let them know you are not happy... i got a guy from frs a few years ago , i was 9 months pregnant and this guy watched me milking , he was a total joke , they sent him out to me and he was only used to a tie up parlour... idiots.. then after 3 days he was no better... they wanted me to pay him... that ended my realtionship with the frs.... never ever again ....you will be paying top dollar ... so annoying

Tora Bora

As they say around here, "why pay a dog, and bark yourself"?:D

5live

Tora Bora wrote: »

As they say around here, "why pay a dog, and bark yourself"?:D

Woof woof. Woof woof WOOFFFF:)

whelan1

hows everyone doing for grass?

johngalway

OK at the minute. I messed up the start of my rotation, then didn't allow enough time for the first part to recover before letting the sheep in again. Putting this year down to learning what I'm at :pac: Need more fences to have more paddocks to do it right in fairness. Weather is not helping.

stanflt

whelan1 wrote: »

hows everyone doing for grass?

surplus of grass here- farm cover of 166/lu at stocking rate of 4.05lu/ha
demand is at 1562/day-grazing covers of 1400 today but that is steadily rising-come the weekend will have to start taking paddocks out-last surplus taken out 10 days ago

cows are avg 28.17 at 3.68bf and 3.48prot scc slightly higher this week at 177

cows are on avg 2.8kilo 16%dairy nut with 1.5mg
45%of herd are winter milkers calving from late august

linebacker52

whelan1 wrote: »

hows everyone doing for grass?

getting tight now hopefully todays rain will help. cover per lu is down to 130 and total farm cover is 546. cows been getting 6 kg of meal of last 3 weeks hoping to take it out if we get more rain this week

snowman707

cold ground temperatures slowing growth,

cows miking 26.1 ltr @ 3.94 BF and 3.38 P , getting 2.5 kg meal

drafting more lambs this week will free up more area,
silage regrowth is slow

funny man

Grass growth very slow here, wind still coming from North-West, warm one minute cold the next, no wonder i have so much pnemonia in the calves. cows grazing out very tight and after grass is still 3 weeks away, with the rain and warm spell next week it should improve. cows are going in on covers of 1400 but there is a fair bit of stem in it.

blue5000

Bit tight here too on grass, reseeded a paddock last week that had kale last winter, so wet weather is helping that. V cold here some nights, re-growths are slow. Still have to cut silage, any chance of two dry sunny days I wonder?

reilig

Very tight on grass here with 40 of the 60 sucklers housed for the last 10 days - some of them are in for the last 20 days. Anything that was eaten is so slow to regrow. No silage cut either - we haven't had more than 24 hours without rain for the last month. What is fit to cut has been ready to cut for the last 2 weeks. Heavy rain yesterday beat it into the ground. It will have to be cut this week regardless!! ground is very wet, cattle that are out are poaching.

It would want to change soon!!!

blue5000

Hey relig ya must be on v heavy land. Are you stocked v tight?

whelan1

blue5000 wrote: »

Bit tight here too on grass, reseeded a paddock last week that had kale last winter, so wet weather is helping that. V cold here some nights, re-growths are slow. Still have to cut silage, any chance of two dry sunny days I wonder?

ya missed the 2 good days last week:D

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

Very tight on grass here with 40 of the 60 sucklers housed for the last 10 days - some of them are in for the last 20 days. Anything that was eaten is so slow to regrow. No silage cut either - we haven't had more than 24 hours without rain for the last month. What is fit to cut has been ready to cut for the last 2 weeks. Heavy rain yesterday beat it into the ground. It will have to be cut this week regardless!! ground is very wet, cattle that are out are poaching.

It would want to change soon!!!

ya grass very scarce down my way, i really dont want to buy more fertilizer but ground that was grazed ages ago isnt coming back around, have slurry spread on silage ground and wont need hardly any 2nd cut so im hoping that might ease the burden but its shaping up to be a bad summer, ground is still reasably dry though. fire still on every night :eek:

5live

reilig wrote: »

Very tight on grass here with 40 of the 60 sucklers housed for the last 10 days - some of them are in for the last 20 days. Anything that was eaten is so slow to regrow. No silage cut either - we haven't had more than 24 hours without rain for the last month. What is fit to cut has been ready to cut for the last 2 weeks. Heavy rain yesterday beat it into the ground. It will have to be cut this week regardless!! ground is very wet, cattle that are out are poaching.

It would want to change soon!!!

I was wondering where all our rain has gone:mad:. Even people with heavy land round me are looking for a sup of rain as the grass has stopped growing. We only got rain this past week and the silage aftergrass only just starting to come and start greening up. I cut bales on heavy land last week and there was half inch cracks in the ground. If you are finished with it would you mind sending a wee sup down:D

ihatetractors

reilig wrote: »

Very tight on grass here with 40 of the 60 sucklers housed for the last 10 days - some of them are in for the last 20 days. Anything that was eaten is so slow to regrow. No silage cut either - we haven't had more than 24 hours without rain for the last month. What is fit to cut has been ready to cut for the last 2 weeks. Heavy rain yesterday beat it into the ground. It will have to be cut this week regardless!! ground is very wet, cattle that are out are poaching.

It would want to change soon!!!

:eek::eek::eek:
Down here there's been little rain for 6 weeks until Tuesday last week!! :eek:, was talkin to a lad near the coast and his barley wont do 1 ton/acre due to drought!

5live

I was looking at the weather forecast in the journal a few weeks ago and they had kerry down for 200% of normal rainfall:rolleyes:. I was opening up silage ground due to drought. And the barely crops round here wont get to 3 t which is fantastic compared to your neighbour. Glad i'm out of tillage now:).

But they are suffering badly in some parts down here like killarney where they measure the rainfall from so we are all flooded:rolleyes:

johngalway

Well, it appears I am now finished lambing. Another ram lamb appeared today :pac:

BeeDI

ihatetractors wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:
Down here there's been little rain for 6 weeks until Tuesday last week!! :eek:, was talkin to a lad near the coast and his barley wont do 1 ton/acre due to drought!

You know, I have noticed the very same phenomonen. I live 1 mile as crow flies from the coast. I work 25 miles as crow flies from coast.

Rainfall where I work, over past 6 months, and past 2 months in particular, is three times what it is at home:)

Now, of course when I cut a bit of hay, this phenomina will reverse itself with avengance. No rain inland ............... two flakers of showers per day right down on my hay:(:( Seen that before as well:rolleyes:

5live

johngalway wrote: »

Well, it appears I am now finished lambing. Another ram lamb appeared today :pac:

So BBQ in connemara in Jan?:D

Username John

blue5000 wrote: »

reseeded a paddock last week that had kale last winter, so wet weather is helping that.

Is it not taking a big chance to reseed in June? Or am I wrong to say that?

As for weather in West Cork - we didnt get much rain the last few weeks, got a good bit on Saturday night for a few hours and we were in need of it. Some nights are still fierce cold...

reilig

We're on heavy enough land, but it wouldn't be the worst. If you went further North ion leitrim you would see much heavier land. Its just been the volume of rain in the last month that has seen the land so wet. It seems to rain every day - some days for the whole day. The ground is wet from the rain, the grass is leeched from the rain and is just a yellow colour.

I spread another 2 ton of fertilizer last week to try to bring the grass on a bit. It greened up the ground but the grass is still short. I'm understocked this year if anything. Nobody has silage cut around us and very few have silage cut within 20 miles of us. I'm sure a few more will tackle it today or tomorrow, but ours will need a day or 2 for the ground to dry out before we cut anything!!

sea12

have absolut no grass for sheep at momentThey are in there last paddock. Had to throw the ewes and lambs hay at the weekend. Hay in June. :eek:
Spread some nitrogen on ground i reseeded last autumn but will be 3 weeks for this.
reseeded ground on the may bank hoiday weekend and it is only starting to grow over the weekend.
Yesterday was the first day we had any decent amount of rain in months.

blue5000

Username John wrote: »

Is it not taking a big chance to reseed in June? Or am I wrong to say that?

As for weather in West Cork - we didnt get much rain the last few weeks, got a good bit on Saturday night for a few hours and we were in need of it. Some nights are still fierce cold...

I'm a bit of a chancer, had a look at it this evening and clover has germinated, hopefully it will stay going now.

whelan1

fantastic morning here , i'm off with my knapsack to spray weeds:o

johngalway

5live wrote: »

So BBQ in connemara in Jan?:D

Am planning on cornering the post Christmas market if he does well :pac:

5live

First day able to walk in a week and itching to get back to work now
(never thought i would say that:D) so picked one of the lads off school and went for a walk to see how grass doing. Probably need to go in with 3/4 bag of N later in the week but must do a bit of measuring first. Not sure of the cover levels again as it is close to 3 weeks since i walked it. Is there any site with levels there to help eyeballing?

But at least the grass coming again:)

stanflt

stanflt wrote: »

surplus of grass here- farm cover of 166/lu at stocking rate of 4.05lu/ha
demand is at 1562/day-grazing covers of 1400 today but that is steadily rising-come the weekend will have to start taking paddocks out-last surplus taken out 10 days ago

cows are avg 28.17 at 3.68bf and 3.48prot scc slightly higher this week at 177

cows are on avg 2.8kilo 16%dairy nut with 1.5mg
45%of herd are winter milkers calving from late august

butterfat rising dramatically 3.98 this morning and 3.46prot- grass is loking good:)

5live

Was at an IFA meeting last night. They were talking about a voluntary BVD testing scheme with samples taken from calf ears when tagging and sent to enfer for testing. It will be voluntary next year and could be compulsary after that. I didnt get the whloe story as i was a bit late getting in. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

bogman_bass

Great idea if they make it compulsary. Especially if they do it up north too. After 2 years you could have all the PI's in the country identified and have it under control. Haveing BVD free status would make Ireland an even more attractive source of stock.
But do it right or not at all

reilig

5live wrote: »

Was at an IFA meeting last night. They were talking about a voluntary BVD testing scheme with samples taken from calf ears when tagging and sent to enfer for testing. It will be voluntary next year and could be compulsary after that. I didnt get the whloe story as i was a bit late getting in. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

That has been bandied about for a while. A vet spoke about it at one of our suckler group meetings this time last year. It would be a great idea as it would eliminate bvd from herds, but don't you know what will happen if it does go ahead. Enfer will get really busy, it will take months for them to give back test results. They will double their charges and the farmer will be out a pocket for it.

The farmer will end up paying in the end. He/she always does.

5live

reilig wrote: »

The farmer will end up paying in the end. He/she always does.

But isnt there a big cost also in having to vaccinate for BVD and a big cost if you get an unknown PI in the herd?

I think the voluntary side in the first year should iron out most of the problems with delays and they will know from the orders of sampling tags what kind of numbers will be needed to be tested.

I heard there was talks last year but i am delighted something is happening finally. Hopefully in 4 or 5 years it will be eliminated and we can move onto IBR, Johnes etc etc.

Fingers crossed;)

Birdnuts

Moving a suckler herd for a neighbour this morning when disaster struck - the stock bull nailed one of the calves that was trying to mount one of the cows. The calf was down for a while(3 hrs) but has now gingerly risen to its feet - hoping he'll be alright in terms of any broken ribs etc. but he did get one hell of a belt. Those Limousins bulls sure are nasty yolks!!

vanderbadger

Birdnuts wrote: »

Moving a suckler herd for a neighbour this morning when disaster struck - the stock bull nailed one of the calves that was trying to mount one of the cows. The calf was down for a while(3 hrs) but has now gingerly risen to its feet - hoping he'll be alright in terms of any broken ribs etc. but he did get one hell of a belt. Those Limousins bulls sure are nasty yolks!!

last year found a neighbours weanling in a heap in my place, he was a monster, he had crossed a river no less and come in under my fence, I had a cow bulling at the time, I can only assume my bull got him as when I found him he was down and his hip broken, poor old devil

dar31

5live wrote: »

Was at an IFA meeting last night. They were talking about a voluntary BVD testing scheme with samples taken from calf ears when tagging and sent to enfer for testing. It will be voluntary next year and could be compulsary after that. I didnt get the whloe story as i was a bit late getting in. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

they have been scratching at that one this while.
first up it should be compulsory that any animals tested as a positive PI, should have the card confiscated and the dept of ag make it compulsory that that animal be slaughtered/disposed of.
to many lads are dumping PI,s at the mart with no consequences, except for the man buying. its a disgrace what ya hear going on...
at a minimum the dept should record all stock tested as PI's.

some Scandinavian countries are as good as BVD free after 5 years of a BVD eradication program.

reilig

5live wrote: »

But isnt there a big cost also in having to vaccinate for BVD and a big cost if you get an unknown PI in the herd?

I think the voluntary side in the first year should iron out most of the problems with delays and they will know from the orders of sampling tags what kind of numbers will be needed to be tested.

I heard there was talks last year but i am delighted something is happening finally. Hopefully in 4 or 5 years it will be eliminated and we can move onto IBR, Johnes etc etc.

Fingers crossed;)

I definitely agree that identifying and removing the PI's from the herd would save money. I suppose I'm just sceptical about the Dep of Ag appointing a specific company for the testing. After all, the Dep of Ag is responsible for appointing Mullinahone for Animal tags - is there a person in the country that hasn't had a problem with a delay or a mistake on their part??? At the time of appointment, Mullinahone tendered prices for the tags that were equivalent to those across Europe. However, these few years later, we currently pay twice as much for our cattle tags on average than they do in the uk. Have mullinahone ever had to re-tender against other companies for price??? Something tells me that someone in the Dep of Ag gets a nice brown envelope from Mullinahone on an annual basis - and its not a bill for tags that is in the envelope.

BVD testing could turn into the same monopoly if its left in the hands of the Dep of AG. The idea of having 2 or 3 companies providing a product or service is one that will promote lower prices through competition and ultimately less expense on the farmer. While there may not be other labs in ireland to compete with Enfer, there are several in the uk and continental europe.

Atilathehun

Thinking of feeding silage to a few dry cows, and keeping them confined for a few weeks due shortage of grass.
Made silage bales 10 days ago. When would be the soonest I could open one for feeding? Does it matter?

Any ideas?

reilig

Atilathehun wrote: »

Thinking of feeding silage to a few dry cows, and keeping them confined for a few weeks due shortage of grass.
Made silage bales 10 days ago. When would be the soonest I could open one for feeding? Does it matter?

Any ideas?

They should be fine for opening now. The silage process happens fairly quickly once they are sealed (ie. wrapped)

Atilathehun

reilig wrote: »

They should be fine for opening now. The silage process happens fairly quickly once they are sealed (ie. wrapped)

:) Good to hear. I had something in my head, that they should be six weeks before opening. Don't know where I got that piece of wisdom from.

whelan1

anyone go to the derrypatrick open day , i'd say there was plenty up for discussion:D

Tipp Man

Atilathehun wrote: »

:) Good to hear. I had something in my head, that they should be six weeks before opening. Don't know where I got that piece of wisdom from.

I'll be interested to hear how that silage looks after only 10 days wrapped

The usual length of time quoted to feed silage after ensiling is 4-6 weeks to allow fermentation to complete, so you weren't wrong.

Let us know how the 10 days silage works out

reilig

Tipp Man wrote: »

I'll be interested to hear how that silage looks after only 10 days wrapped

The usual length of time quoted to feed silage after ensiling is 4-6 weeks to allow fermentation to complete, so you weren't wrong.

Let us know how the 10 days silage works out

10 day silage will be fine. We have often had to open a bale like this. Its perfectly palatable, looks fine too.

5live

whelan1 wrote: »

anyone go to the derrypatrick open day , i'd say there was plenty up for discussion:D

Looking forward to the questions too. It should be......interesting???;)