Dairy Chitchat 3

Timmaay

One reactor ffs. The merry go around continues until at least end of march. Gonna have to get my sh1t together and get ready for a mountain of calves next spring. Probably time to get an autofeeder.

ozil10

What type of lime are people using to bed down cubicles. is there any value in shopping around or are most companies the same price

Thanks

whelan2

I think today is the last day for entering pregnancy test results on icbf to get your calving report

Mooooo

ozil10 wrote: »

What type of lime are people using to bed down cubicles. is there any value in shopping around or are most companies the same price

Thanks

10% hydrated here, mastercal I think it's called get it in tonne bags. Don't have price to hand

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

10% hydrated here, mastercal I think it's called get it in tonne bags. Don't have price to hand

€220...

Bit of shopping around and take a few tonne might get down to €180

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

10% hydrated here, mastercal I think it's called get it in tonne bags. Don't have price to hand

€220...

Bit of shopping around and take a few tonne might get down to €180


Killer is there's VAT at 23% on it...if you could buy it for land spreading there would be no vat in it, and that's what eventually happens it when it goes out with the slurry..

Gawddawggonnit

https://twitter.com/swimsure/status/1189984536987394050?s=21

Anyone care to shed some light on this please?
I was always lead to believe that we produced enough food for 30mln people.
Varadkar reckons 50mln.
The FAO think otherwise...still seems that we do an awful lot of work to produce so little.

yosemitesam1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

https://twitter.com/swimsure/status/1189984536987394050?s=21

Anyone care to shed some light on this please?
I was always lead to believe that we produced enough food for 30mln people.
Varadkar reckons 50mln.
The FAO think otherwise...still seems that we do an awful lot of work to produce so little.

Grain imports high in energy but not really right to compare them to meat and dairy

GrasstoMilk

alps wrote: »

€220...

Bit of shopping around and take a few tonne might get down to €180


Killer is there's VAT at 23% on it...if you could buy it for land spreading there would be no vat in it, and that's what eventually happens it when it goes out with the slurry..

Farming friend got bennetsbrige cubicle lime for 165 for tonne bag. Very happy with he says, cows indoor year round so he has a fair idea wgats good and what's not

mahoney_j

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

https://twitter.com/swimsure/status/1189984536987394050?s=21

Anyone care to shed some light on this please?
I was always lead to believe that we produced enough food for 30mln people.
Varadkar reckons 50mln.
The FAO think otherwise...still seems that we do an awful lot of work to produce so little.

Lots of dodgy calculators knocking about within govt and advisory bodies over these parts ......

Gawddawggonnit

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Grain imports high in energy but not really right to compare them to meat and dairy

Yes it is a bit crude, but the vast majority of the millions of tons of feed imported would be animal feed, wouldn’t it? Artificial fert would surely be 100% used in agriculture?
It’s an interesting metric all the same. I wonder how the rest of the world would fare. I suppose that the Americas would be way more productive than us.
Anyone privy to the full FAO report on other countries?
It’s fair disheartening to see all the same. All those imports do put a perspective on the real productivity of Irish agricultural exports.
I’d love to see the results for the rest of the world.
What I find puzzling is the significant plunge from 2000 to 2013. Any ideas as to why?


http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS

I don’t have enough space on my phone to read this.

Gawddawggonnit

mahoney_j wrote: »

Lots of dodgy calculators knocking about within govt and advisory bodies over these parts ......

Leo/Teagasc etc are trying to water down the figures for emissions etc?

Gawddawggonnit

http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS

yosemitesam1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Yes it is a bit crude, but the vast majority of the millions of tons of feed imported would be animal feed, wouldn’t it? Artificial fert would surely be 100% used in agriculture?
It’s an interesting metric all the same. I wonder how the rest of the world would fare. I suppose that the Americas would be way more productive than us.
Anyone privy to the full FAO report on other countries?
It’s fair disheartening to see all the same. All those imports do put a perspective on the real productivity of Irish agricultural exports.
I’d love to see the results for the rest of the world.
What I find puzzling is the significant plunge from 2000 to 2013. Any ideas as to why?


http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS

I don’t have enough space on my phone to read this.

It's probably more of an indicator of the balance between crops and animals in this part of the world. Would potato area+beet area have dropped quite a bit?

Mooooo

Icbf have given me 2 extra cow's on paper the last few months, wherever they got em. At 400kg solids to the end of Sept, will probably get to 480 delivered for the year with slightly early drying and no milk sent in Jan. Dumped a lot of milk in the spring due to scc so maybe would have hit the 500 if it wasn't for that. Still ok for a youngish herd I think. Litres per cow were back a good bit on last year for Sep and August but was feeding 2 kg more per head last year and grass was starting to grow on again as well I think

Timmaay

Moo check your icbf stock reconciliation report, you should be able to pull up a list of milk cows month by month somewhere, I'd assume 2 other beef animals or something are in with the milkers somehow? That's if your very pedantic and all that lol, I had a good few extra cows on the report due to culls being stuck here with tb, easy enough to just subtract them and work out the actual figures. Should end up at 455kg/cow, or 5450l here, from looking at the milk recording I got a few 3rd and 4th lac cows only doing 300-350kgms/yr, I need to be alot more ruthless culling them, and I'd be hitting 500kg/cow without too much effort. Tb at the minute absolutely won't give me the luxury of culling them this year though.

Mooooo

I found them one was a heifer that calved and never milked, have her ticked off as dry on icbf as well, the extra one seems to be a maiden they stuck in a calving date in for some reason in June. The recordings are all there with 112 milking so dunno why they added em in

Buford T. Justice XIX

Timmaay wrote: »

Moo check your icbf stock reconciliation report, you should be able to pull up a list of milk cows month by month somewhere, I'd assume 2 other beef animals or something are in with the milkers somehow? That's if your very pedantic and all that lol, I had a good few extra cows on the report due to culls being stuck here with tb, easy enough to just subtract them and work out the actual figures. Should end up at 455kg/cow, or 5450l here, from looking at the milk recording I got a few 3rd and 4th lac cows only doing 300-350kgms/yr, I need to be alot more ruthless culling them, and I'd be hitting 500kg/cow without too much effort. Tb at the minute absolutely won't give me the luxury of culling them this year though.

I think there's some rule saying that only the top 10% of a herd can be culled for TB.

That's how it feels anyway:(

Gawddawggonnit

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

It's probably more of an indicator of the balance between crops and animals in this part of the world. Would potato area+beet area have dropped quite a bit?

From the 70’s to the noughties we were doing fine, then things went downhill fast. The beet factories didn’t close until ‘04/‘05?
Maybe it was the availability of cheap imported gmo maize?

Say my name

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

From the 70’s to the noughties we were doing fine, then things went downhill fast. The beet factories didn’t close until ‘04/‘05?
Maybe it was the availability of cheap imported gmo maize?

Closure of fertilizer factory in arklow.

yosemitesam1

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

From the 70’s to the noughties we were doing fine, then things went downhill fast. The beet factories didn’t close until ‘04/‘05?
Maybe it was the availability of cheap imported gmo maize?

Oil imports seem to make up a lot, look at the changes in palm oil, sunflower and rapeseed oil imports.
Soymeal doesn't seem to counted in the figures but pal kernel is and presumably distillers grains is included under maize

Buford T. Justice XIX

Happy out with the cleanout, going to get stickier from now on.

Mooooo

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Happy out with the cleanout, going to get stickier from now on.

Feck off. Lost my welly moving the calves on today

Injuryprone

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

https://twitter.com/swimsure/status/1189984536987394050?s=21

Anyone care to shed some light on this please?.

Trying to think of changes that happened around 2000.

Celtic tiger consumption increase? The Irish diet was a lot different in the 90's. Much more highly processed foods now, much of which is being imported.

The grocery market being taken over by the large multinational companies?

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

Feck off. Lost my welly moving the calves on today

:P

That's an exceptional field, it's a high knob of sand with a good cover of soil on top. It's almost impossible to damage it, tbh, even though I've tried once or twice.

The bottom 6 acres are a mixture of sand and peat so that could be interesting to graze with high covers on it, about 2400 there to be taken off. I won't be posting pictures of that:D

alps

Always blown away with the number of cows in Kerry

.where the hell do they keep 'em

cute geoge

alps wrote: »

Always blown away with the number of cows in Kerry

.where the hell do they keep 'em

Inside most of the year!!!

Timmaay

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

:P

That's an exceptional field, it's a high knob of sand with a good cover of soil on top. It's almost impossible to damage it, tbh, even though I've tried once or twice.

The bottom 6 acres are a mixture of sand and peat so that could be interesting to graze with high covers on it, about 2400 there to be taken off. I won't be posting pictures of that:D

This is my equivalent. These are 2/3wks on it now. Burns up nearly every summer but fantastic on the shoulders with a ring feeder for heifers/drys

Buford T. Justice XIX

The animal welfare guide in the tweet below might be worth a read.
https://twitter.com/FIL_IDF/status/1190569262290743296?s=19

K.G.

alps wrote: »

Always blown away with the number of cows in Kerry

.where the hell do they keep 'em

A few of them could be cork cows,you wouldn't know with them kerry lads

Say my name

Anybody in these parts ever feed diatomaceous earth to cattle?

alps

Can anyone make sense of this article?

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/contract-rearing-male-dairy-calves-with-a-twist/

roosterman71

alps wrote: »

Can anyone make sense of this article?

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/contract-rearing-male-dairy-calves-with-a-twist/

That is very hard to understand (was it written by a child?)
My understanding is that the beef farmer got the calves for free, and was paid X amount by the dairy farmer to raise them. Then they were sold, and the beef farmer got Y. Y is greater than X, so he made a profit which meant he had to pay X back.

That opens a few questions:

• Why was the beef farmer selling the stock and making a profit? Maybe this isn't contract rearing at all
• The beef farmer better have had his costs (wages, etc) included in the figure before a profit was declared

jaymla627

alps wrote: »

Can anyone make sense of this article?

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/contract-rearing-male-dairy-calves-with-a-twist/

Must be a sliding scale, ie 1000 euro contract rearing fees and slaughter price was 1100 dairy farmer gets back his 1000 euro, if slaughter price was 900, dairy farmer gets back 900 and is down 100 euro overall

straight

Is it true that the English have to keep their calves until 8 weeks old now. Preparing here with a new calf house and auto feeder. I think service is a very important factor with them. I've heard about people having feeders down for days.

Castlekeeper

Say my name wrote: »

Anybody in these parts ever feed diatomaceous earth to cattle?

Hears one man say it would help prevent liver fluke, another said hang a bag of it for scratching and it would prevent lice as it is used in poultry. I don't know...
I saw it on Done deal, do you know where else it is available. I might try it for the luce.

Say my name

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Hears one man say it would help prevent liver fluke, another said hang a bag of it for scratching and it would prevent lice as it is used in poultry. I don't know...
I saw it on Done deal, do you know where else it is available. I might try it for the luce.

I'm not sure where it's available. I was only really putting feelers out to hear people's thoughts.

I read an article about increased silica in soil boosting soil carbon and then was reading talk of multi species swards cutting back on worm burdens in cattle, which I'm convinced is because of more silica in those plants and then I've a couple of weanlings starting to cough and that brought me onto looking up about DE which some reports seem favourable online about and then it led to posting a message here.

I've seen some setups online of people using it in a watery solution and spraying it on cattle for lice and fly problems too.

There's other set ups for dealing with internal parasites too.
https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/raise-healthy-livestock/cattle/managing-parasites-livestock/

Castlekeeper

Say my name wrote: »

I'm not sure where it's available. I was only really putting feelers out to hear people's thoughts.

I read an article about increased silica in soil boosting soil carbon and then was reading talk of multi species swards cutting back on worm burdens in cattle, which I'm convinced is because of more silica in those plants and then I've a couple of weanlings starting to cough and that brought me onto looking up about DE which some reports seem favourable online about and then it led to posting a message here.

I've seen some setups online of people using it in a watery solution and spraying it on cattle for lice and fly problems too.

There's other set ups for dealing with internal parasites too.
https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/raise-healthy-livestock/cattle/managing-parasites-livestock/

Listened to a NZ vet with a chair bit of knowledge say that the reason the multispecies pastures have reduced worm burdens is a that the non grass leaves are less amenable to worm movement and inhibit their life cycles.

Buford T. Justice XIX

straight wrote: »

Is it true that the English have to keep their calves until 8 weeks old now. Preparing here with a new calf house and auto feeder. I think service is a very important factor with them. I've heard about people having feeders down for days.

I think that's only one company (Arla?) atm.

GrasstoMilk

What are ppl paying for dry cow tubes and sealer?
Got some tubes of cepravin from coop to try off a few early ones.
1.80 a tube

visatorro

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

What are ppl paying for dry cow tubes and sealer?
Got some tubes of cepravin from coop to try off a few early ones.
1.80 a tube

20 cephaguard 42e . Using it this few years. 34 days milk withdrawal I think. Have one dried off with just sealer. Thats me showing off me wild side!!

Have sealers left over from last year. So no price.

K.G.

Giving some thought to feeding calves inthe spring and possible higher numbers for longer.i really think the bucket like the silage bale should be banished when it comes to feeding calves.i used pumps before but im coming to the conclusion that its a small ibc type yoke on the loader with a hose off it that we ll use for feeding calves just raise the loader to leave it out by gravity to throughs .the way our houses are theres roughly 40 calves per house so the rough plan is the loader with 4 throughs feed from youngest to oldest.was talking to guy that used to export calves and he used to use 1000 l ibc to feed 200 calves or so at a time.he used ti have the water filling on a ball cock throw your bag of milk replacer and away.you go on the loader.i just think we have to start catering for larger numbers and maybe if trashed out a few ideas ot might helo us this spring

GrasstoMilk

visatorro wrote: »

20 cephaguard 42e . Using it this few years. 34 days milk withdrawal I think. Have one dried off with just sealer. Thats me showing off me wild side!!

Have sealers left over from last year. So no price.

I've 14 picked out with an scc no higher than 50 over 5 recordings. It's my first time doing it.

We're going with cefaman tubes here this year, 35 days active and 24 hr milk withdrawal.
Did a mill culture test and thats what the vet recommended. 7e a cow

whelan2

Had a cow down in my old cubicle shed this morning. In fairness the builder helped me to get her out. While I was muttering if the new shed was ready this mightnt have happened....

dar31

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I've 14 picked out with an scc no higher than 50 over 5 recordings. It's my first time doing it.

We're going with cefaman tubes here this year, 35 days active and 24 hr milk withdrawal.
Did a mill culture test and thats what the vet recommended. 7e a cow

planning on doing 20% of the herd this year.
10% last year and no problems.
big clear out of scc problem cows this year as well.
dry cow audit with vet in the morning
using cephraguard at 7.40 cow

Reggie.

whelan2 wrote: »

Had a cow down in my old cubicle shed this morning. In fairness the builder helped me to get her out. While I was muttering if the new shed was ready this mightnt have happened....

Oh yeah get the dig in anyways

Mooooo

K.G. wrote: »

Giving some thought to feeding calves inthe spring and possible higher numbers for longer.i really think the bucket like the silage bale should be banished when it comes to feeding calves.i used pumps before but im coming to the conclusion that its a small ibc type yoke on the loader with a hose off it that we ll use for feeding calves just raise the loader to leave it out by gravity to throughs .the way our houses are theres roughly 40 calves per house so the rough plan is the loader with 4 throughs feed from youngest to oldest.was talking to guy that used to export calves and he used to use 1000 l ibc to feed 200 calves or so at a time.he used ti have the water filling on a ball cock throw your bag of milk replacer and away.you go on the loader.i just think we have to start catering for larger numbers and maybe if trashed out a few ideas ot might helo us this spring

Have a jfc mixer here, no pump but handy to mix an move around the shed. Neighbour has an old small milk tank that he welded brackets on to it that he can lift it with the forks and takes it from parlour to dairy when fresh milk is being used initially.

whelan2

Last if autumn calvers calved this morning. I actually thought she had calved yesterday As she was mothering a new calf in the shed. But this morning there was just one back leg out. She was forcing alot and I couldn't push the leg back in to straighten the other leg. I rang vet at 6.15am. Roads very bad. She gave her an epidural and got the calf out. Always trouble at the start and end of calving season.

K.G.

Mooooo wrote: »

Have a jfc mixer here, no pump but handy to mix an move around the shed. Neighbour has an old small milk tank that he welded brackets on to it that he can lift it with the forks and takes it from parlour to dairy when fresh milk is being used initially.

How do you fill feeders out of it

Mooooo

K.G. wrote: »

How do you fill feeders out of it

The mixer has a large valve so in to a bucket and into the feeders, again doesn't get rid of your buckets but allows you to take smaller amounts and throw in an extra bucket without extra walking. The pump added not far off a grand to the price as far as I remember. I think the neighbour used a submersible in the tank but do they effect the fat in the milk? If you had space in the shed or outside calf pens a tank on the loader could be lifted up use a hose and gravity.
An auto feeder may be another way to go not so suitable if using different old sheds tho.

Thinking more and more of contract rearing here if something suitable comes up. May be a case of getting heifers contract reared perhaps from a younger age say 3 weeks and if bulls / beef calves need to be kept longer could do that here and make the call as the season goes on when to sell em. Only in my head at the minute