Relief milking

Fullback333

Have many of Ye milked two heards during the week ie done 4 milkings a day, 20 over a 5 day week, was it hard or was it worth it?

Feckthis

Fullback333 wrote: »

Have many of Ye milked two heards during the week ie done 4 milkings a day, 20 over a 5 day week, was it hard or was it worth it?

Do most farmers not milk around the same time ?

WheatenBriar

Its only worth it if the farms are nearby
Add lots of diesel and its not

No all farmers do not milk at the same time
Near me,430,530, and a few 630's and anytime from 5 to 9 in the mornings

Deepsouthwest

WheatenBriar wrote: »

Its only worth it if the farms are nearby
Add lots of diesel and its not

No all farmers do not milk at the same time
Near me,430,530, and a few 630's and anytime from 5 to 9 in the mornings

Definitely the further east u go the earlier they milk, nothing unusual with starting evening milking after 7 here in the summer, have a few neighbours who are a lot later than me as well!

Deepsouthwest

Fullback333 wrote: »

Have many of Ye milked two heards during the week ie done 4 milkings a day, 20 over a 5 day week, was it hard or was it worth it?

Definitely possible to do it, and a v good earner as well, but u must be v disciplined with ur time keeping.

Timmaay

WheatenBriar wrote: »

Its only worth it if the farms are nearby
Add lots of diesel and its not

No all farmers do not milk at the same time
Near me,430,530, and a few 630's and anytime from 5 to 9 in the mornings

Chap near me milks at 12noon and usually after 10pm ha. Another lad 20mins away is supposedly so ad hoc with his milking times the cows often end up on 13 or even 12milkings a week haha.

darragh_haven

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Definitely the further east u go the earlier they milk, nothing unusual with starting evening milking after 7 here in the summer, have a few neighbours who are a lot later than me as well!

Always Milked at 7:20 am and 5:20 pm (clusters on) here when we were milking. And we were considered early for the evening milking at that. Noticed that about the further east you go the earlier start. Is there any reason for that.

Deepsouthwest

darragh_haven wrote: »

Always Milked at 7:20 am and 5:20 pm (clusters on) here when we were milking. And we were considered early for the evening milking at that. Noticed that about the further east you go the earlier start. Is there any reason for that.

Gentlemen farmers, rough fcukers out west!

Willfarman

Protestant influence down the east..

mf240

Used to to a good bit of relief milking. Once did four evening milkings including a bit of travel.

The last herd was our own . Started at 3 and was finished at one am.

Its all grand untill something goes wrong in a place. Two morning and two evening milkings would be grand if near to each other.

mf240

Willfarman wrote: »

Protestant influence down the east..

What breed of cows are they?

joe man utd

Here when cows are out full-time they are milked at 5.30 am and 4.30pm.. crossing a busy main road.. so I guess a relief milker could do 2 herds ...but hey may be wrecked😴😴😴

alps

darragh_haven wrote: »

Always Milked at 7:20 am and 5:20 pm (clusters on) here when we were milking. And we were considered early for the evening milking at that. Noticed that about the further east you go the earlier start. Is there any reason for that.

It gets brighter earlier and darker earlier in the east😁

whelan2

As someone else said its grand when everything goes ok , but most times if a milker was heading somewhere else after here they were rushing and things wouldnt be done right.

frazzledhome

Willfarman wrote: »

Protestant influence down the east..

???

frazzledhome

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Definitely the further east u go the earlier they milk, nothing unusual with starting evening milking after 7 here in the summer, have a few neighbours who are a lot later than me as well!

Jesus that would drive me cracked, I like to start and finish early.

Does that make me a Protestant?

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

Jesus that would drive me cracked, I like to start and finish early.

Does that make me a Protestant?

It'll be 6 am starts and 3 pm starts here next yr if we don't get this job done on parlour.
Must be the protestant coming out in me


Il come to love coffee I'm sure

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

Jesus that would drive me cracked, I like to start and finish early.

Does that make me a Protestant?

+1 gone outbid yard by 6 is my aim or earlier .......ohh and I'm not a Protestant !!!!!

Deepsouthwest

frazzledhome wrote: »

Jesus that would drive me cracked, I like to start and finish early.

Does that make me a Protestant?

We spend all day drawing rock into bogholes with dump trailers, if we had to stop and go for the cows at 5, it would make the day v short. Any machine driver that ever works will drive until 7 as well. The lads building here at the moment finished at 7 yesterday evening and were back at 8 this morning. It's really not unusual around here.
It's a lot better than having unionised guys here always watching the clock!

Deepsouthwest

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

We spend all day drawing rock into bogholes with dump trailers, if we had to stop and go for the cows at 5, it would make the day v short. Any machine driver that ever works will drive until 7 as well. The lads building here at the moment finished at 7 yesterday evening and were back at 8 this morning. It's really not unusual around here.
It's a lot better than having unionised guys here always watching the clock!

Relevance to relief milking = zero!

Willfarman

mahoney_j wrote: »

+1 gone outbid yard by 6 is my aim or earlier .......ohh and I'm not a Protestant !!!!!

Ah but your following the Protestant farmers rule book!
Ah changed times now but my fathers generation it was shameful not to have your work done by 6 o'clock. Bar hay making calving lambing and the like.

stantheman1979

cows milked at 4pm here all year round.

MFdaveIreland

mf240 wrote: »

What breed of cows are they?

They would be Londondairy cows my friend. haha

some folks near me milk at 2.30/3 am and 2.30/3pm. most half 6 half 4 rule of thumb.
hashing about til near 7pm before milking is a balls. no need to be messing about the yard til 9-10 every night

Fullback333

What time do you think you should be starting the first herd in the morning and what time in the evening?

J DEERE

Done this for a while sometimes had 5 milkings a day. Just let the farmer know you might get held up but u will def milk. Oftentimes they are so happy to have someone reliable to milk for them they don't mind. Used be on the road at 4.15 some mornings, milking intervals of 8-9 hrs if possible between morning and evening

Feckthis

Are you planning on doing it with the FRS? Or solo?
If your going solo what are you planning on charging per milking?

Fullback333

Through Frs most likely, get around 35e per milking from them, wouldn't have the contacts to do it solo

wclarke20

Did it plenty of times in the farm relief years ago. Its fine until something goes wrong and you get delayed in one place. Had a farmer pretty annoyed I was only bringing in the cows at 9am!

WheatenBriar

Fullback333 wrote: »

Through Frs most likely, get around 35e per milking from them, wouldn't have the contacts to do it solo

You'll probably need to do a training day with them before they give you milkings
There's a charge for that I think,try and get them to pay for it because after all they will be getting a margin of maybe 15%+ on what you get for just a few phone calls

Fullback333

Im starting this Friday relief milking, hopefully ill be practised enough by summer so I can make some real money (college student)

whelan2

Fullback333 wrote: »

Im starting this Friday relief milking, hopefully ill be practised enough by summer so I can make some real money (college student)

what part of the country are you in?

Fullback333

North Carlow

Deepsouthwest

Fullback333 wrote: »

Im starting this Friday relief milking, hopefully ill be practised enough by summer so I can make some real money (college student)

Have u much experience in milking cows?

Fullback333

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Have u much experience in milking cows?

A small bit, im from a suckler background, I did the milking course with FRS

Deepsouthwest

Fullback333 wrote: »

A small bit, im from a suckler background, I did the milking course with FRS

U better learn to walk before u run.
I admire ur enthusiasm, but it's not as easy as throwing clusters at cows and collecting ur money, u need to have ur wits about u.
See how u get on with ur first few milkings, u might be sick of it by nxt wk!

Fullback333

Ive always liked the cows, only time will tell though, I know a lad that went straight into doing 4 milkings a day, when he left college, he had no real experience before he started

Timmaay

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

U better learn to walk before u run.
I admire ur enthusiasm, but it's not as easy as throwing clusters at cows and collecting ur money, u need to have ur wits about u.
See how u get on with ur first few milkings, u might be sick of it by nxt wk!

We had a FRS milker here back when I was only a young teenager, my god they were utterly useless, supposedly had milked before, but had zero confidence in themselves to get the job done, was definitely the 1st time they were in our make of a parlour anyways. I had to basically hold their hand all week, my dad would have been better off just paying me instead haha. That alongside one or 2 other incidents with Frs milkers has turned us right off using the FRS 2bh.

Do the FRS give training to people usually before they send them out? Or at least even verify that they have the experience that they say they do? Anyways, to the OP, if I were you I'd find any local dairy farmer, and tell him you want to learn how to milk, ask him if he'd be willing to let you help out milk for a few days for free, it would be very useful training for you, and will give you a good idea of if you like it or not. From the farmers point of view, unless he already has a few relief milkers, he should have no real issue doing this, as he would know there is a decent chance of getting a local relief milker out of it.

Fullback333

That's I actually what I did I worked with a couple of farmers for nothing to gain experience, I was talking to the farmer im going to start with and I told him that id do of extra milkings to get used to his system

keep going

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

We spend all day drawing rock into bogholes with dump trailers, if we had to stop and go for the cows at 5, it would make the day v short. Any machine driver that ever works will drive until 7 as well. The lads building here at the moment finished at 7 yesterday evening and were back at 8 this morning. It's really not unusual around here.
It's a lot better than having unionised guys here always watching the clock!

your late because youre all day opening bales:D.seven would be my time too but trying to pull it earlier.our cows would be unusuall in that the day gap is longer than the night gap

Deepsouthwest

keep going wrote: »

your late because youre all day opening bales:D.seven would be my time too but trying to pull it earlier.our cows would be unusuall in that the day gap is longer than the night gap

Totally agree, often feel that cows will eat 2/3's in the day, and 1/3 in the night of their 24hr allowance of grass.

PLW17

Going rates for milking 470 cows through a rotary parlour followed by 600 cubicles. Other thing On during the week so mainly weekend work. Well capable. Help feed calves also at times. Milking is about three and a half hours at the minute

kowtow

Deepsouthwest wrote:

Gentlemen farmers, rough fcukers out west!

It's the poetic streak in us.

Robert Frost used to milk his cows at mid night or later.