Dairy Chitchat 3

oxjkqg

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

As Dar said before, was there a particular time that the most of these girls were in their last heat?

And vaccinations as well, what do you vaccinate for and is it done at the right time? Did you give a late Lepto vaccine this year after it came back in stock? IBR?

I know we have some peculiar cows this year, cows not in calf not showing heat at all and cows well in calf showing heat every 3 weeks.

Fond of the meal here as we have a cow which produces the goods, lowest amount of meal fed is 3.5kg.
Don't vaccinate. Might be worth looking into it.
Acidosis could be a very good point. have had some cows which were very loose/scoury at times. A lot of things to consider.

whelan2

Grueller wrote: »

What make of tank again?

Packo

Grueller

whelan2 wrote: »

Packo

I take it you wouldn't recommend them?

whelan2

Grueller wrote: »

I take it you wouldn't recommend them?

Was just talking to the service man and he said I am very unlucky with my tank. Some lads he never heard from year in year out. This must be his 6th visit this year alone.

Buford T. Justice XIX

oxjkqg wrote: »

Fond of the meal here as we have a cow which produces the goods, lowest amount of meal fed is 3.5kg.
Don't vaccinate. Might be worth looking into it.
Acidosis could be a very good point. have had some cows which were very loose/scoury at times. A lot of things to consider.

Do you milk record? There's a herd health option with the recording which can show up exposures to different diseases in the herd. It showed up a few problems in my herd that I wasn't picking up on earlier.

I'm not wholly convinced about its accuracy though, I was getting a Neospora problem flagged but only one cow showed up positive and she was suckling?

kevthegaff

whelan2 wrote: »

Grueller wrote: »

I take it you wouldn't recommend them?

Was just talking to the service man and he said I am very unlucky with my tank. Some lads he never heard from year in year out. This must be his 6th visit this year alone.

My dairy cool gave trouble 2 years ago but has been good for awhile now and trouble free first 4 years

kevthegaff

If their high yielders you would expect more empty, I have a smaller type cow had 11%empty of the cows from the milk recording, pulled the bull two weeks early but still a bit dissappointed as had only 5-6%last year.

alps

oxjkqg wrote: »

Scanning yesterday
21/22 heifers in calf - good
18/99 cows not in calf - bad.
very disappointed with cows, a few good 2nd and 3rd calvers didnt go in calf.
4 weeks AI and bull with them for 6 weeks after, bull in good health and bulled majority of heifers.
Good records kept of calving issues and any problem cows looked after.
What other issues to look out for?

10 weeks breeding is too short. It's fine to aspire to a 10 week calving, and you can still do so, but it's just too short a time for breeding. There is no allowance for a blip in conception rates, and the result is always a high culling rate. Breed for 12 to 15 weeks, and if pregnancy rates are good, only keep the cows calving in the first 10 weeks... When you have a bull anyway, there no cost (Maybe inconvenience) with letting him run on...

2nd golden rule is "Never rely on one bull", no ,matter how many cows they have to serve. Even if you have only 1 cow to serve, you need 2 bulls...dont compromise on this, unless you are going to AI against the bull every time...

During bullying time, you will always hit a suboptimal period for conception rates, caused by weather, feed, virus, or even unusually high output, so cover yourself by extending the breeding period.

visatorro

kevthegaff wrote: »

If their high yielders you would expect more empty, I have a smaller type cow had 11%empty of the cows from the milk recording, pulled the bull two weeks early but still a bit dissappointed as had only 5-6%last year.

Same as that here

kevthegaff

Ya you only really here 12 weeks minimum, I'm finished 25th April calving. Had enough of straglers. I was Ai myself this year so probably didn't help, hopefully getting better

Mooooo

I'll have more calving in .April than March by the looks of things, whatever the cause, so if I had of shortened mine from 13 to 10 weeks my empty rate wouldn't be pretty. At least with them in calf I could sell and perhaps by earlier calving cow's if they are around. More options than cull value anyway

visatorro

50% held to AI here. Only served 2.

whelan2

What do ye do with spring calvers that are giving very little milk. Is it too long to have them dry or dry off to fook?

whelan2

Eldest lad went on a trip with college today. They went to kilkenny mart, which he was well impressed with and on a grassland walk on Bill o Keeffes farm. Very interesting day

visatorro

whelan2 wrote: »

What do ye do with spring calvers that are giving very little milk. Is it too long to have them dry or dry off to fook?

Id dry off. Realistically they are costing you money. Unless you need litres for contract?
They'll hardly get too fat

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

What do ye do with spring calvers that are giving very little milk. Is it too long to have them dry or dry off to fook?

What's very little? If you are feeding them they'll put on condition either way milking or not. Once scc and lactose are ok they could keep going till Nov I guess

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

What's very little? If you are feeding them they'll put on condition either way milking or not. Once scc and lactose are ok they could keep going till Nov I guess

Milk recording tomorrow so will see scc etc

GrasstoMilk

whelan2 wrote: »

Had the milk tank service man out again today. Bearing and seal gone on one of the agitators.

Did ours here 2 months. Expensive job. 300e I think for doing ours. Still wouldn't rate it a bad tank though. Our service guy was putting the bearings gone due to the height of the tank and the agitator having a pull on it at the bottom

Buford T. Justice XIX

whelan2 wrote: »

What do ye do with spring calvers that are giving very little milk. Is it too long to have them dry or dry off to fook?

The lowest of them would be the ones to dry off, I reckon. Put them in on hay/straw and a bit of silage to stop them getting over fat. I've a few to dry off next week and a few recycled spring calvers running with the heifers to bring in at the same time, a bale of silage every 3 or 4 days and ad-lib straw

Water John

I see Gawd is out protesting on the roads in France, again.

Say my name

Water John wrote: »

I see Gawd is out protesting on the roads in France, again.

Don't tell the Christians that!

boggerman1

Haven't posted in a while.locked up again in Tb test.3 more cows again.thought after 8 going in July after doing a blood test on all the cows that maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel.right back to square one now and with housing on the horizon in the next month things are going to get fairly hairy with not enough accommodation to house everything.its very frustrating with it dragging on for over a yr now and all good cows going and killing out with nothing.

Buford T. Justice XIX

boggerman1 wrote: »

Haven't posted in a while.locked up again in Tb test.3 more cows again.thought after 8 going in July after doing a blood test on all the cows that maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel.right back to square one now and with housing on the horizon in the next month things are going to get fairly hairy with not enough accommodation to house everything.its very frustrating with it dragging on for over a yr now and all good cows going and killing out with nothing.

Sorry to hear that, it's very discouraging. It happened a neighbour as well earlier this year after a blood test, took another 5 or 6 so they went in with another different blood test to try to pick up the latent infection in the herd.

Hopefully one of those is the cause of it and she's gone now.

mf240

One with grass Tetney this morning, think she's going to make it. Keep a eye on the cow ls folks

Buford T. Justice XIX

Bit of jigsaw puzzle/rooting going on for the afternoon.

Timmaay

boggerman1 wrote: »

Haven't posted in a while.locked up again in Tb test.3 more cows again.thought after 8 going in July after doing a blood test on all the cows that maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel.right back to square one now and with housing on the horizon in the next month things are going to get fairly hairy with not enough accommodation to house everything.its very frustrating with it dragging on for over a yr now and all good cows going and killing out with nothing.

Send on some of what you don't want to the feedlot anyways. Absolutely no point putting your whole system under pressure, you'll be better off taking the hit now, some feed lots aren't even that much worse of a price.

Mooooo

Agree with timmay, decide on what you need to keep and if you're stuck with fr bulls or beef calves/ yearlings try and find a feedlot for them if you can. It will be a hit but the key is to try and set up so the spring can be as manageable as possible. Try and put the tb test results themselves to one side and focus on the best way forward for yourself. Dwelling on It's effects will do no good in the long term so talk away to the discussion group, advisor whatever and try and stay in the mindset of finding solutions to the current situation 're stock etc. It's not easy went thru 24 months of it myself here and still have to test every 6 months.
If you have maize or beet try and set up something to keep any badgers away from it, temperory gates etc. Clean out water troughs regularly

Buford T. Justice XIX

Thought some might be interested in the booklet from today's calf to beef walk in Kilkenny .

https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2019/teagasc-greenacres-farm-walk---ohanrahan.php

Gman1987

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Thought some might be interested in the booklet from today's calf to beef walk in Kilkenny .

https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2019/teagasc-greenacres-farm-walk---ohanrahan.php

2018 Net margin at €414/ha or €167/ac i.e. below the potential rental income value which is tax free.

whelan2

Was listening to something on local farm news of the profits teagasc made last year , over 100 million euro. Could that be right?

cosatron

whelan2 wrote: »

Was listening to something on local farm news of the profits teagasc made last year , over 100 million euro. Could that be right?

Turnover

atlantic mist

whelan2 wrote: »

Was listening to something on local farm news of the profits teagasc made last year , over 100 million euro. Could that be right?

think that was income

whelan2

atlantic mist wrote: »

think that was income

Ye I didnt get the full story.

Wildsurfer

whelan2 wrote: »

Was listening to something on local farm news of the profits teagasc made last year , over 100 million euro. Could that be right?

Ha I'd doubt it, my advisor says getting money off farmers for advisory fee is next to impossible!

Wildsurfer

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Bit of jigsaw puzzle/rooting going on for the afternoon.

Looks like new concrete you're digging up! Would you be better putting in cantilever cubicles?

Buford T. Justice XIX

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Looks like new concrete you're digging up! Would you be better putting in cantilever cubicles?

20yo concrete there. No, just replacing 6 Newton Riggs I had to cut out to replace a shed a few years back. I just held them on with brackets hoping it would do the job but they didn't. Better in concrete.

oxjkqg

Following on from my scanning results, the 1 heifer that wasnt in calf was an issue animal. Nearly died after being born, held onto her, she has had some sort of stunted growth, vet reckons she wont grow any more, is the size of a strong yearling.
Was happy she wasnt in calf! What are my options for her, apart from the bullet..

whelan2

Got a kick on the neck this morning. Milk recorder was standing beside me and before I put the cluster on the cow I said I hate this cow. I think milk recorder was more shocked than me. The cow is definitely for the factory now. Cnut

Sacrolyte

Maybe she heard you and thought “Karmas a b1tch”






Hope ur ok but.....

whelan2

Cows in tonight. In old shed. Hopefully new shed will be ready in a few weeks

GrasstoMilk

whelan2 wrote: »

Cows in tonight. In old shed. Hopefully new shed will be ready in a few weeks

Our cubicles currently under construction. Scrapers to go in also.
Hopefully 2 weeks will see cows in it

GrasstoMilk

Walls were poured on friday, pans came off yesterday
152 cubicles between inside and outside, feed space for 120.
Feed space will need to be looked at next year, have a few options to get another 100ft, I'll just have to keep plenty of silage Infront if them this year

visatorro

whelan2 wrote: »

Cows in tonight. In old shed. Hopefully new shed will be ready in a few weeks

Gate of the shed is open all week. They'll wobble out for a few hours and come in and sit down then. Tanks emptied on Tuesday but I'll be under pressure in January now I'd imagine.

whelan2

What's the story with loses that happen on a contract rearers farm? Who is liable?

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

What's the story with loses that happen on a contract rearers farm? Who is liable?

Should be in the contract I guess, depending on circumstances?

dar31

whelan2 wrote: »

What's the story with loses that happen on a contract rearers farm? Who is liable?

Usually owner is responsible for normal losses up to a % stated in the contract. Any losses above this must be replaced/compensated for by the rearer

whelan2

dar31 wrote: »

Usually owner is responsible for normal losses up to a % stated in the contract. Any losses above this must be replaced/compensated for by the rearer

Thanks , was told today of a farm who lost 8 out of 30 of this years spring born calves

jaymla627

whelan2 wrote: »

Thanks , was told today of a farm who lost 8 out of 30 of this years spring born calves

Something more wrong their then a bad do, lack of biestings at birth is the root cause of alot of calf mortality, any lad going contract rearing should insist all calves took on farm are vaccinated for ibr/pi3/rsp along with calves been done for coccidious plus all cows from owners farm getting rotavec...
The biestings antibody test would need to be done also to make sure calf actually got adequate biestings at birth, if all the above was stipulated in agreement you could look for a compensation clause in contract if not I'd let the dairy farmer whistle for any compensation for deaths, especially where calves are been took at 6 weeks our younger of age

GrasstoMilk

jaymla627 wrote: »

Something more wrong their then a bad do, lack of biestings at birth is the root cause of alot of calf mortality, any lad going contract rearing should insist all calves took on farm are vaccinated for ibr/pi3/rsp along with calves been done for coccidious plus all cows from owners farm getting rotavec...
The biestings antibody test would need to be done also to make sure calf actually got adequate biestings at birth, if all the above was stipulated in agreement you could look for a compensation clause in contract if not I'd let the dairy farmer whistle for any compensation for deaths, especially where calves are been took at 6 weeks our younger of age

Ours had an awful spring with rota virus. Didnt loose one, and probably the best batch we've ever had.
Vaccinated for ibr and black leg.
We have the calves ourselves this year but next year the contract rearer will have both sets.

Something big going wrong if nearly 30% have died. I'd be doing a few postmortems if it was us

older by the day

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ours had an awful spring with rota virus. Didnt loose one, and probably the best batch we've ever had.
Vaccinated for ibr and black leg.
We have the calves ourselves this year but next year the contract rearer will have both sets.

Something big going wrong if nearly 30% have died. I'd be doing a few postmortems if it was us

Got Rota here too for the first time, I'm some man on the stomach tube now tho. Still slow to vaccinate, as I think the silage was only middling and maybe feed at pre-calving better to improve colostrum. If they got something bad like Rota and wasn't on top of things, you could lose 8 alright