Dairy Chitchat 3

GrasstoMilk

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156805455376218&id=179995481217

Noval idea but a niche market too

stretch film

Still waiting on icbf notebook here. Anyone else the same.??

GrasstoMilk

stretch film wrote: »

Still waiting on icbf notebook here. Anyone else the same.??

Yeah waiting here too. We usually always get ut in jan

Buford T. Justice XIX

I have it since before Christmas, 2 weeks at least.

whelan2

stretch film wrote: »

Still waiting on icbf notebook here. Anyone else the same.??

I think you can print off the calving list online. Is there also an option to say if you want the notebook or not?

alps

IIR we replied to a text a few months ago to confirm that we wanted the notebook...

Cant find text...might be mistaken

GrasstoMilk

alps wrote: »

IIR we replied to a text a few months ago to confirm that we wanted the notebook...

Cant find text...might be mistaken

You replied if you didnt want it.
That book is brilliant, not just for the calving list but recording births and any problem cows

Farney Farmer

stretch film wrote: »

Still waiting on icbf notebook here. Anyone else the same.??

Got mine a few weeks ago. Great little notebook. Always have mine in my pocket.

stretch film

Farney Farmer wrote: »

Got mine a few weeks ago. Great little notebook. Always have mine in my pocket.

Same here.
There was a text about it being a bit bigger than last year and the option to text back if you didn't want it.
They might send me on a special issue hardback version when they get around to it.

awaywithyou

anyone know anything about Sexed Ultra 4M A.I. straws??? cant find any independent reviews about them...... just wondering are they actually any good??

trixi2011

awaywithyou wrote: »

anyone know anything about Sexed Ultra 4M A.I. straws??? cant find any independent reviews about them...... just wondering are they actually any good??

Used 4m from cogent UK last few years on heifers to good success there lab is sexting alot of the Irish bulls . 70% conception on cider sync but over half the seaman used was fresh

Mortelaro

Should glanbia extend its fund equip yoke to diet feeders,tractors,spinners,and farm jeeps?
Probably logical
Currently it's not actually fully restricted to stuff they sell as it covers solar panels

visatorro

Mortelaro wrote: »

Should glanbia extend its fund equip yoke to diet feeders,tractors,spinners,and farm jeeps?
Probably logical
Currently it's not actually fully restricted to stuff they sell as it covers solar panels

Jaysus do you want us all to go broke!!

Water John

Glanbia have a solar panel deal/package with Active8.

mahoney_j

Anyone do any deals for Fertliser yet ,namely yarra Amidas (urea pmts s)and straight p

mengele

Interesting question.
Which field is going to grow more silage to be cut mid may. Both fields get 4.5 bags of cut award and not grazed.

Field 1... reseeded last year but only index 1 in p and k.

Field 2... 30 year old grass but index 4 in p and k.

Water John

PH is critical.
I would expect old grass to be more mid and late season.

Say my name

mengele wrote: »

Interesting question.
Which field is going to grow more silage to be cut mid may. Both fields get 4.5 bags of cut award and not grazed.

Field 1... reseeded last year but only index 1 in p and k.

Field 2... 30 year old grass but index 4 in p and k.

Field 2. Everytime.

Field 1 would probably have been a failed reseed.

GrasstoMilk

Say my name wrote: »

Field 2. Everytime.

Field 1 would probably have been a failed reseed.

Field 2 because of indexes but it wont have the quality.
Get field 1 up and it will have quality and yield

Say my name

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Field 2 because of indexes but it wont have the quality.
Get field 1 up and it will have quality and yield

Yea but that wasn't the question and comparison they asked about.

older by the day

While on that topic. I must reseed a silage field. Two cuts, and gets lots of slurry and lime. Tempted to go straight Italian?

GrasstoMilk

older by the day wrote: »

While on that topic. I must reseed a silage field. Two cuts, and gets lots of slurry and lime. Tempted to go straight Italian?

No dont. It's too hard to get it right. It can go wrong in a few days and you end up with ****e.
PRG is much more forgiving and doesn't head out as quick and has alot more leaf

Castlekeeper

older by the day wrote: »

While on that topic. I must reseed a silage field. Two cuts, and gets lots of slurry and lime. Tempted to go straight Italian?

You'll have the two cuts taken by the 1st of July with Italian and you'll have to graze an open sward every two weeks then. The greatest pain of a grass to manage. You wouldn't see much of it around now.

Buford T. Justice XIX

awaywithyou wrote: »

anyone know anything about Sexed Ultra 4M A.I. straws??? cant find any independent reviews about them...... just wondering are they actually any good??

A bit from Progressive Genetics about the results.
https://twitter.com/progressivegen/status/1213187272130093056?s=19

alps

The farm pays us expenses for the use of the car. There is no farm car/jeep.

We keep track of every farm related movement even down to someone driving 1 mile to stand while cows are crossing the road before and after milking.

We put up 21, 609 farm related Km's in the 12 months..

It's a lot..

Mooooo

Those of ye with the 40/ 50 teat mobile feeders, how do ye get on with them? Most of replacements should be born in Feb, but with it prob 40 replacements in total is it worth getting something like that as there would be 3/ 4 weeks between youngest and oldest. Reason I'm considering is to improve the transition from milk to grass

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

Those of ye with the 40/ 50 teat mobile feeders, how do ye get on with them? Most of replacements should be born in Feb, but with it prob 40 replacements in total is it worth getting something like that as there would be 3/ 4 weeks between youngest and oldest. Reason I'm considering is to improve the transition from milk to grass

Only of benefit for convenience if you are carrying the milk a distance. With that spread in the ages of calves on the feeder, I would still be inclined to separate into 2 or 3 groups where they can compete with each other for volume consumed.

We would have had 2 or 3 groups that you could leave the group out to a common area for their portion of the feed...then return and let out the next group...

You would still have individuals within each group that could not cope, but would not become noticable for a few weeks and they would have to be put back to a younger group.

Putting calves out early is being questioned a bit of late. A new(ish) problem of calves dying a number of weeks after early turnout is being pieced together. Calves deteriorate over a number of weeks, but once the deterioration starts it is almost impossible to reverse...

Some vets believe that calves, as selective grazers only eat the tops of the leaves thereby increasing hugely the loading of nitrogen the intake, as it is thought that the tops of the plant are much higher in N...

Older animals dont manifest with the problem as they tent yo eat the whole of the plant.

This advise I've seen is to turn out to stemmier or overgrown pasture, but of course this is not really available in March and April.

However if you do rear calves on the mobile feeder, you will be able to get the calves to follow it anywhere for the rest of the year and it is a gift when moving, dosing etc. They would follow you for a few miles on an open road iits so good...

Henwin

I'll be disinfecting the calf pens in the coming week and o was wondering if anyone used a former attachment on the power washer. I normally just powerwash all pens and equipment then disinfect with kenocox but I have seen some video where a guy attaches a foaming bottle to the nozzle and foams it first,let's it soak in , then powerwashes and isinfects, it supposedly breaks down the dirt quicker and then is easier to powerwash. Are they worth buying?

Keepgrowing

Mooooo wrote: »

Those of ye with the 40/ 50 teat mobile feeders, how do ye get on with them? Most of replacements should be born in Feb, but with it prob 40 replacements in total is it worth getting something like that as there would be 3/ 4 weeks between youngest and oldest. Reason I'm considering is to improve the transition from milk to grass

This exact topic is being covered at IGA Dairy conference next Wednesday.

Mooooo

Keepgrowing wrote: »

This exact topic is being covered at IGA Dairy conference next Wednesday.

Had hoped to go to that but won't be able to unfortunately

K.G.

When we had the housing i kept them until weaning last year.if you have the room its nearly less hasselenand.easier to watch them than drawing milk to out farms

mahoney_j

No calves turned out till a week or 10 days after weaning ,don’t like idea of small young calves outside on wet/cold February March days

Base price

I got a call earlier from one of the dairy farmers that we buy calves from with a heads up that he had a two bull calves born last night.

It looks like calving 2020 has started so best of luck to all ye dairy farmers.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Just went down to check a sheep lambing and said I'd give a quick look at cows while I was up.
The scraper control box was on fire when I went in.
Had a fire extinguisher close by so out quickly but I don't think I'll be running scrapers on auto anymore.

Wide awake now.

whelan2

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Just went down to check a sheep lambing and said I'd give a quick look at cows while I was up.
The scraper control box was on fire when I went in.
Had a fire extinguisher close by so out quickly but I don't think I'll be running scrapers on auto anymore.

Wide awake now.

Feck

GrasstoMilk

Does anyone have the dimensions of an ibc off hand

mr.stonewall

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Does anyone have the dimensions of an ibc off hand

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=dimensions+of+an+ibc+tank

awaywithyou

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Just went down to check a sheep lambing and said I'd give a quick look at cows while I was up.
The scraper control box was on fire when I went in.
Had a fire extinguisher close by so out quickly but I don't think I'll be running scrapers on auto anymore.

Wide awake now.

Are u serious???

whelan2

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Just went down to check a sheep lambing and said I'd give a quick look at cows while I was up.
The scraper control box was on fire when I went in.
Had a fire extinguisher close by so out quickly but I don't think I'll be running scrapers on auto anymore.

Wide awake now.

How old are the scrapers? Having a few problems with my new ones atm

Buford T. Justice XIX

awaywithyou wrote: »

Are u serious???

Yeah, dead serious.

whelan2 wrote: »

How old are the scrapers? Having a few problems with my new ones atm

The scrapers are in 17 years, a new one added last year.

Castlekeeper

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Yeah, dead serious.

The scrapers are in 17 years, a new one added last year.

That's shocking, depending on the cause there could be a case for a recall.
Keep it quiet though in case our farm insurance premiums go up...

1373

whelan2 wrote: »

How old are the scrapers? Having a few problems with my new ones atm

We put in new dm scrapers , if yours are anything like ours you can get use to plenty of problems . We have had seals leak at 13 months, not covered under 12 months warranty. Pipes leak at joiners , grub screws loose and leaking . Fixed the small problems ourself as call outs were shockingly expensive . €400 to replace a ram seal

visatorro

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Yeah, dead serious.

The scrapers are in 17 years, a new one added last year.

You haven't great luck with scrapers lately!

kevthegaff

Alfco ones with the ram inside djob, have alfcos with the ram outside. Always water get into then

whelan2

1373 wrote: »

We put in new dm scrapers , if yours are anything like ours you can get use to plenty of problems . We have had seals leak at 13 months, not covered under 12 months warranty. Pipes leak at joiners , grub screws loose and leaking . Fixed the small problems ourself as call outs were shockingly expensive . €400 to replace a ram seal

These are dairy power. Think the pressure valve is faulty. My back is broke lifting the scraper. There's some weight in them

awaywithyou

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Yeah, dead serious.

The scrapers are in 17 years, a new one added last year.

did ya buy local?

Buford T. Justice XIX

visatorro wrote: »

You haven't great luck with scrapers lately!

Tell me about it!

awaywithyou wrote: »

did ya buy local?

Yeah, local ones. I had a look before the service van arrived, there's a rubber covered electrical panel on top of the motor next to the oil filter, that seems to have gone up in flames. Scrapers still worked with half the cover melted so I'll have to take that as a plus.

Good job I decided to get up to look at that ewe, good job that I had an extinguisher close by and bad luck that I'll be switching over to manual from now on. I'd normally switch over later in the month anyway in case I missed a cow calving in the cubicles.

I'm not in the better of that, tbh.

Buford T. Justice XIX

1373 wrote: »

We put in new dm scrapers , if yours are anything like ours you can get use to plenty of problems . We have had seals leak at 13 months, not covered under 12 months warranty. Pipes leak at joiners , grub screws loose and leaking . Fixed the small problems ourself as call outs were shockingly expensive . €400 to replace a ram seal

You get quite good at repairing their stuff after a while, the only thing I wouldn't go near is the electrics.

A neighbour had new scrapers put in 30 years ago but it was too close to Christmas to get an electrician out so they ran an extension cable out to power the scrapers till after Christmas. There was some fault somewhere along the line and he ended up electrocuting a good number of cows.

I stay away from electrics altogether.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Castlekeeper wrote: »

That's shocking, depending on the cause there could be a case for a recall.
Keep it quiet though in case our farm insurance premiums go up...

It shouldn't be bad enough to justify a claim, I hope, just a replacing of a board. Will still come in at a couple of hundred euro, though.

straight

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Tell me about it!


Yeah, local ones. I had a look before the service van arrived, there's a rubber covered electrical panel on top of the motor next to the oil filter, that seems to have gone up in flames. Scrapers still worked with half the cover melted so I'll have to take that as a plus.

Good job I decided to get up to look at that ewe, good job that I had an extinguisher close by and bad luck that I'll be switching over to manual from now on. I'd normally switch over later in the month anyway in case I missed a cow calving in the cubicles.

I'm not in the better of that, tbh.

You need a good stiff drink.