has anyone cattle indoors

vanderbadger

just wondering how badly some lads are affected by the weather, my gang had some damage done this morning when i checked on them, will have to move them this evening but its hard to let them into grass as they are ploughing the place up, wondered if anyone has them housed?

Dozer1

Put in 8 heifers last Saturday, they were just trampling all the grass into the ground, hoping to keep the cows and calves out but they're not happy.

hard to know which ones are happier, but looks like the heifers are enjoying the silage and few nuts

Tipp Man

Cows are on a 12 day cycle at the moment

35 acres aftergrass not back yet - another week at least
30 acres under water - in and out of it for last 3 weeks - its destroyed

Cattle have 30 acres ahead of them which is flooded - weeks before they get near it if it ever clears up. took another 9 acres out for reseeding which is only just coming over ground so that is weeks away yet

About 30% of our land is unusable at the moment - most of it several weeks away and thats when the weather does dry up.

In serious trouble on both farms

reilig

10 cows housed - a week tomorrow.

The rest are struggleing. If the rain doesn't hold off we could be housing more tomorrow.

Thankfully we didn't get as much rain as southern counties last night. Although normally we get a lot more.

We will need a week of drying before we get any silage cut.

vanderbadger

`jeez it would be a heartbreaker to have to put them back in, only just washed the sheds last week

whelan1

vanderbadger wrote: »

`jeez it would be a heartbreaker to have to put them back in, only just washed the sheds last week

i learnt the hard way not to powerwash the sheds til august/september, once is bad enough to be washing them.... my landis very wet but i havealot of ground under the cattle- not highly stocked- very little regrowth from silage ground

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

i learnt the hard way not to powerwash the sheds til august/september, once is bad enough to be washing them.... my landis very wet but i havealot of ground under the cattle- not highly stocked- very little regrowth from silage ground

ya god i hate that job something desperate, i actually wore safety googles this yearto stop getting ****e in my eyes

bob charles

I have a good few animals that never saw outside in the first place. any bulls being bought from now on will stay indoors. Havnt put many cattle back indoors but feeding a heavy TMR at grass often up to 50% of the DMI. Im still on the road to out farm with diet feeder and usually would be finished up in March

lakill Farm

vanderbadger wrote: »

ya god i hate that job something desperate, i actually wore safety googles this yearto stop getting ****e in my eyes

I washed the shed 2 weeks ago and have half of it repainted again.

I always year bolle glasses or bolle eye shields (they have air spaces on them) great for grinder also.

Graces7

Thought our landlord had taken his in last night but in fact the electric fence got struck by lightning and they escaped in panic. Still searching for some of them.

yellow50HX

moving ours around, lucky enough that our spot is on a bit of a slope but the lower feilds are a bit ****e, having to give them more room then normal to stop any poaching.

on a bit of a side i was chatting to a neighbour over the weekend. i remember him sobbing into his pint during th e****e summers in 07, 08 & 09. was having big issues with the cows and trying to balance his well planned grazing rotations and perfect paddocks with the weather. one of the lads joked about getting in a zero grazer like the boys with wet land up north. low and behold he went off and got one last year. didnt use it much last season a week or 2 in november so wasnt sure if he had made the right choice. was asking him about how he was fixed for grass over the weekend. has had the cows in and out a lot over the last 5-6 weeks and has been using the grazer most days. it has meant that he has been able to keep his grazing plan in place with out having to buy in a lot of meal or open the silage. still needs the weather to pick up a bit to get enough regrowth but its working well for him and the cows dont seem too worried as they get to go out every few days (weather permitting)

Pat the lad

30 cows in since early june. calves get out to paddocks/fields near sheds via creep gate. home farm is wet and would cut up big time in this weather. eating last of pit silage, always make more than I need as the way the weather is gone the summers are wet or September/ early October is wet too.
I rather have them in than ploughing it. give serious consideration to keeping cows in when weather is like this in the future. contractor friend came yesterday and today (as he had nothing else on)with mower on front and baler behind, cut and directly picked up 2 bales each day and let it off in front of feed barrier. no net or twine,just straight out of the chamber. I moved it around abit with front loader. no harm done to fields. might be a cheaper option than zero grazer- plenty of cheap balers out there???
anyway thank god the out farms are dry !!!!!!

Birdnuts

Local farmers here have housed alot of stock too on account of this monsoon of a June(Blessington area) - funny thing is that my own few sucklers in North Mayo(I've got great in-laws;)) are still enjoying the fresh air on account of this part of the country missing out on the worst of the weather for once.

yellow50HX

mower on front and baler on back now there is a good idea.

if you already had a tractor with a front likage it would certialy make sense. have actually tinkered with the idea of getting one of those before, was looking at changing the tractor before and there was a 7740 in a local dealer with one, was out of my price range at the time. have seen that system used in germany and holland with a mower mounted before a silage wagon on farms with more stock. the cows usually eat a bale to a bale and a half a day during the winter so taking two cuts a day seems very doable. any issuses with the fresh grass in the baler??