Dairy Farming General

whelan2

does the recorder just take the sample or do you send in sample, took 10 days to get last recording results here, scanning is cheaper and they will tell you if theres any problems etc

Buford T. Justice XIX

whelan2 wrote: »

does the recorder just take the sample or do you send in sample, took 10 days to get last recording results here, scanning is cheaper and they will tell you if theres any problems etc

It's the sample from the recording for fat/protein that's used.

Brown Podzol

keep going wrote: »

Does running a higher stocking rate (over 3per hectare)lower the workload instead of increasing it

Increase on the shoulders, buffer feeding, but decrease during the main growing season, less bales.

visatorro

I find scanning to be total guess work over 100 days. three months or seven months are the same. have tried four different scanner's and they were all the same. doing through the records definitely less stressful on man and beast. also I'm tight for time this weather so just suited this year. two of the cows not incalf have been round since. will handle any suspect cows later on. if there not incalf there gone. no time for treating cows and keeping weak links around any more. too highly stocked and extra milk isn't more money this year anyway

Buford T. Justice XIX

visatorro wrote: »

I find scanning to be total guess work over 100 days. three months or seven months are the same. have tried four different scanner's and they were all the same. doing through the records definitely less stressful on man and beast. also I'm tight for time this weather so just suited this year. two of the cows not incalf have been round since. will handle any suspect cows later on. if there not incalf there gone. no time for treating cows and keeping weak links around any more. too highly stocked and extra milk isn't more money this year anyway

I find the Frs scanner down here excellent for giving weeks in calf for friesians though I have to add 2 weeks for jerseys. Handy also for showing twins and empty cows for culling.

Timmaay

Someone worked out last year with the price of beef on the floor, the income from suckling was the equivalent of getting 23cent/l of milk. Anyone hazard a guess how that has changed now ha, will it cross over with the way the current milk price is heading ha??

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

Someone worked out last year with the price of beef on the floor, the income from suckling was the equivalent of getting 23cent/l of milk. Anyone hazard a guess how that has changed now ha, will it cross over with the way the current milk price is heading ha??

Your mistaken. Best beef price was equal to 23c/l

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Your mistaken. Best beef price was equal to 23c/l

Beef at 5 euro kg equivelant to milk at 23 cent

Buford T. Justice XIX

Timmaay wrote: »

Someone worked out last year with the price of beef on the floor, the income from suckling was the equivalent of getting 23cent/l of milk. Anyone hazard a guess how that has changed now ha, will it cross over with the way the current milk price is heading ha??

I remember that in the Journal.

He was after converting to dairy and said once the price of milk stays above 23c, he would be better off in dairying.

whelan2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I remember that in the Journal.

He was after converting to dairy and said once the price of milk stays above 23c, he would be better off in dairying.

hopefully it does

leg wax

i can tell you its great to be back at it .

Buford T. Justice XIX

leg wax wrote: »

i can tell you its great to be back at it .

Good to hear:)

freedominacup

leg wax wrote: »

i can tell you its great to be back at it .

Amen to that.

Sacrolyte

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I find the Frs scanner down here excellent for giving weeks in calf for friesians though I have to add 2 weeks for jerseys. Handy also for showing twins and empty cows for culling.

Big +1 on that. Serious operator. Wouldn't leave any one else at em. And a gentleman.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Sacrolyte wrote: »

Big +1 on that. Serious operator. Wouldn't leave any one else at em. And a gentleman.

Milks some serious cows as well.

Sacrolyte

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Milks some serious cows as well.

Smashers

Greengrass1

Going to add up the cows in the morning during milking if cows I'd get rid off if we had optimum cow numbers.
Be they 3 teaters, slow cows, cows with odd bags after a mastitis infection,old cows and kickers.
See how many there are and maybe we might no bull these in next yr and have nicer herd.

Might not be many 10 I reckon

Deepsouthwest

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Going to add up the cows in the morning during milking if cows I'd get rid off if we had optimum cow numbers.
Be they 3 teaters, slow cows, cows with odd bags after a mastitis infection,old cows and kickers.
See how many there are and maybe we might no bull these in next yr and have nicer herd.

If ever there was a yr to do it then this is it, poor milk price and super dry cow price. I'd probably wait til after scanning to make any final decisions though, scanning always throws up a few surprises.

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

If ever there was a yr to do it then this is it, poor milk price and super dry cow price. I'd probably wait til after scanning to make any final decisions though, scanning always throws up a few surprises.

Ah want to push on more next yr.
If we were a yr further ahead no problem doing it.
more than likely incalf too I bet

Pacoa

Anyone thinking of selling up for twelve months and then getting back in again?

Brown Podzol

Pacoa wrote: »

Anyone thinking of selling up for twelve months and then getting back in again?

Sure way to go broke. Selling at the bottom and buying at the top of the market.

frogloch

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Ah want to push on more next yr.
If we were a yr further ahead no problem doing it.
more than likely incalf too I bet

It's been some year to get cows incalf. U can tell me where to go but what type minerals do you use if any. I use osmonds boluses myself.

Greengrass1

frogloch wrote: »

It's been some year to get cows incalf. U can tell me where to go but what type minerals do you use if any. I use osmonds boluses myself.

Horse mins into all stock here.
Using trace elements through water and a high phos seaweed based min block in field from grassland agro

whelan2

frogloch wrote: »

It's been some year to get cows incalf. U can tell me where to go but what type minerals do you use if any. I use osmonds boluses myself.

Have you scanned yet?

frogloch

whelan2 wrote: »

Have you scanned yet?

Not milking a big number, just from observations. I never scan. There was a Friesian bull running with them (llk,rdu) and seems to have done his job. I know u'll always get one or two that'll slip calf after months incalf. But it looks like I'll be very busy next spring.

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Horse mins into all stock here.
Using trace elements through water and a high phos seaweed based min block in field from grassland agro

At what point do you just start making expensive pi$$? There are plenty of mins/vitamins that cattle can't store and any excess is literally pi$$ed away.

Greengrass1

freedominacup wrote: »

At what point do you just start making expensive pi$$? There are plenty of mins/vitamins that cattle can't store and any excess is literally pi$$ed away.

Couldn't get cowsincalf till we went this route. No problems like that any more. Other option is give them none and that wasn't working.
Blood tests last autumn still showed phos defiency and we had stopped with blocks for about 6 wks
our opinion if they are getting excess is it'll go into the soil.
maybe were wrong?

kevthegaff

Pacoa wrote: »

Anyone thinking of selling up for twelve months and then getting back in again?

Give them to me for a year, ill drop them back afterwards:-D

Pacoa

Give them to me for a year, ill drop them back afterwards:-D

You mean lease them to ya im not father christmas you know.

Pacoa

What do yee make of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjfXllSVBo

Timmaay

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Sure way to go broke. Selling at the bottom and buying at the top of the market.

And for double fun, get bend over a barrel by Mr taxman when he sees the lumpsum you made the previous year! I'm thinking the opposite 2bh, if I come across 15 nice well bred xbreeds for low money over the winter I might snap them up, I could keep on growing organically, but have the land, parlour and housing to push on now, slurry storage the only issue but straw bedding in the calving house will get me over the line. They might earn me small money next year but if I was getting them for a good few hundred cheaper than market value then it would be worth it to have them nearly up to full yield the following year.

Pacoa

Well if you did early in the year you'd have no milk check so lump sum would replace your milk output. You'd have to live of the lump sum of course so that'd reduce your purchasing power the following year. You could always buy maidens and get off farm job so there would be ways of managing the tax issue.

Greengrass1

Pacoa wrote: »

What do yee make of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjfXllSVBo

32l peak
still doing 24l in sept herd av of 5900l something not adding up there.
Serious intakes

ted_182

Greengrass1 wrote:

32l peak still doing 24l in sept herd av of 5900l something not adding up there. Serious intakes

Seen the vid the other day, massive intakes alright but would be thinking he would have a lower stocking rate bcause higher demand but then that is offset by better performance per cow , if could guys here could get the same output from less cows thru higher grass intakes would ye do it?

Greengrass1

ted_182 wrote: »

Seen the vid the other day, massive intakes alright but would be thinking he would have a lower stocking rate bcause higher demand but then that is offset by better performance per cow , if could guys here could get the same output from less cows thru higher grass intakes would ye do it?

And no meal only what is fed during the soring
certainly has me thinking this morning

jaymla627

Greengrass1 wrote: »

And no meal only what is fed during the soring
certainly has me thinking this morning

Id clear the cows out here before having to resort to following them around with a mower every day, you be tied to the tractor and mower aswell as the cows

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

And no meal only what is fed during the soring
certainly has me thinking this morning

Four times per day moving fences goes against the conventional wisdom about heifers doing better on longer breaks. Only got cows back on 36 hour breaks here in the past couple of days and great response. I just couldn't get it right there for a while and had to go to 24 hour. Not discounting what they're doing but would like to see more information about it.

mahoney_j

Anyone cover calves for flys with a pour on etc??.had a good few calves get a touch of pink eye last August which thankfully cleared up after a few days of treatment .off to dose calves now and going to put a dolp of creosote on their heads an an aid .cheaper than spot on etc...

Greengrass1

jaymla627 wrote: »

Id clear the cows out here before having to resort to following them around with a mower every day, you be tied to the tractor and mower aswell as the cows

If you were in a indoor system with full tmr etc it would be less work

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Anyone cover calves for flys with a pour on etc??.had a good few calves get a touch of pink eye last August which thankfully cleared up after a few days of treatment .off to dose calves now and going to put a dolp of creosote on their heads an an aid .cheaper than spot on etc...

Fly repellent not that dear mj.
did all stock last week.
No problem doing them a 2nd time if needs be

We buy the 2.5l ecto spec every yr no problem with flys on autumn calvers


http://www.magentadirect.ie/Animal-Medicines/Lice-Flies

C0N0R

I know a few lads in New Zealand that swear by pre mowing, will do a couple of rounds of it in summer. At that scale when there is plenty of labour about it's not to bad

keep going

leg wax wrote: »

i can tell you its great to be back at it .

A happy man is better off than a wealthy man

orm0nd

mahoney_j wrote: »

Anyone cover calves for flys with a pour on etc??.had a good few calves get a touch of pink eye last August which thankfully cleared up after a few days of treatment .off to dose calves now and going to put a dolp of creosote on their heads an an aid .cheaper than spot on etc...

if cresote gets in their eyes you'll have bigger issues than pink eye

ffs buy a sup of pour on

keep going

C0N0R wrote: »

I know a few lads in New Zealand that swear by pre mowing, will do a couple of rounds of it in summer. At that scale when there is plenty of labour about it's not to bad

Would be a fan of it too but only once a year, coming to the end of doing it here and it is extra work but I re kon it pays for itself.its not something you can apply to all farms and sometimes you just cant do it as in, when weather is wet , when you have excess grass and in drought.if you move up the stocking rate it is tool that would be used instead of baling

C0N0R

keep going wrote: »

Would be a fan of it too but only once a year, coming to the end of doing it here and it is extra work but I re kon it pays for itself.its not something you can apply to all farms and sometimes you just cant do it as in, when weather is wet , when you have excess grass and in drought.if you move up the stocking rate it is tool that would be used instead of baling

The way we used to look at it was do it instead if topping, keeps the mower cleaner and it allow for better intakes than grazing. I remember we tried it at home here about ten years ago and didn't stick at it, allocation is key, give them to much and they will lie and ****e all over it.

mahoney_j

orm0nd wrote: »

if cresote gets in their eyes you'll have bigger issues than pink eye

ffs buy a sup of pour on

Won't be near their eye ormond ,,just going to put small line down the front of their head with paint brush.recomended by neighbour

blackdog1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Won't be near their eye ormond ,,just going to put small line down the front of their head with paint brush.recomended by neighbour

Don't do calves here because I like them to get bit by midges just incase their is any smallenberg around. Better now than when their in calf. I find the crows are the ones carrying pinkeye. Had problems a few months ago when no flies were about.

Timmaay

Got an excess paddock here with 1800 on it to be baled, contractor can cut tomorrow and bale Fri, no tedding etc would be done. Forecast fairly mixed looking. What would this be like for milkers? It would hopefully be high in dmd, but the dm will suffer if it rains.

dar31

Timmaay wrote: »

Got an excess paddock here with 1800 on it to be baled, contractor can cut tomorrow and bale Fri, no tedding etc would be done. Forecast fairly mixed looking. What would this be like for milkers? It would hopefully be high in dmd, but the dm will suffer if it rains.

burst on tim, im half ways through mowing 80ac of second cut. might get an odd shower, but only opportunity to cut as rain again for the weekend.

Timmaay

https://www.donedeal.ie/silagegrabs-for-sale/hydraulic-bale-handler/8811382 looking like the cheapest hydraulic bale handler I can get, anyone know if they are any good or if I can get any better value?