Dairy Chitchat 3

whelan2

Had an autumn calver with tetany this evening

Base price

furandfeather wrote: »

It's always mixed between 35 and 40 degrees and she is always the first getting fed, so she is getting the warmest mix.
This has only started the last 3 days

Any other symptoms or a temperature? Can't figure what it could be otherwise.

Buford T. Justice XIX

This might interest some, topical as well with breeding just around the corner.
https://twitter.com/teagasc/status/1250106604952961032?s=19

straight

alps wrote: »

Cows consume grass at different speeds, and all have different DM requirements. There is no way to determine exactly the requirements of the herd, so let them eat all they can. If there is a restriction, some cows will be underfed. The only way to avoid this is to give them unrestricted access.
However, as Moooo point out, you need to get the residual down to 4cm to ensure quality in the next rotation, and the happy medium seems to be to restrict them 1 grazing in 3....

You put that really well and you got me thinking. I've the whole place paddocked now and I've 2 strip wires a day. One for day and one for night. If I could cut them out it would make life much easier for me. Also much easier for getting relief milkers. I've always aspired to 36/48 hour grazing but I don't really seem to have the confidence in getting it done. I'd be afraid they might eat too much the first day and leave nuts after them in the parlour. Also they would come running back into the yard to me on day 3/4. Still though I'll definitely give it a shot this year at some stage.

Say my name

straight wrote: »

You put that really well and you got me thinking. I've the whole place paddocked now and I've 2 strip wires a day. One for day and one for night. If I could cut them out it would make life much easier for me. Also much easier for getting relief milkers. I've always aspired to 36/48 hour grazing but I don't really seem to have the confidence in getting it done. I'd be afraid they might eat too much the first day and leave nuts after them in the parlour. Also they would come running back into the yard to me on day 3/4. Still though I'll definitely give it a shot this year at some stage.

If you do just leave a little bit fenced off for the last grazing. Just a little corner or such to get them to want to go in for the final grazing.

I've never heard tell of a cow exploding yet from overgrazing.

straight

Say my name wrote: »

If you do just leave a little bit fenced off for the last grazing. Just a little corner or such to get them to want to go in for the final grazing.

Ya, close the wire and run. I've done that before and stubborn bitches stood at the wire all night long.

straight

Say my name wrote: »

If you do just leave a little bit fenced off for the last grazing. Just a little corner or such to get them to want to go in for the final grazing.

I've never heard tell of a cow exploding yet from overgrazing.

Well I had one with bloat the other day. Had to stick a pin in her. She was like a baloon

Say my name

straight wrote: »

Well I had one with bloat the other day. Had to stick a pin in her. She was like a baloon

Too much nitrogen, not enough phosphorus?

straight

Say my name wrote: »

Too much nitrogen, not enough phosphorus?

No. It was a strange one. She shouldn't have got it at all. They were cleaning off silage fields before closing. Fields were not grazed since last autumn so old grass. She must have gorged on a rich patch or something.

furandfeather

Base price wrote: »

Any other symptoms or a temperature? Can't figure what it could be otherwise.

No other symptoms at all. It's strange.

furandfeather

Base price wrote: »

Any other symptoms or a temperature? Can't figure what it could be otherwise.

No other symptoms at all. It's strange.

visatorro

straight wrote:

You put that really well and you got me thinking. I've the whole place paddocked now and I've 2 strip wires a day. One for day and one for night. If I could cut them out it would make life much easier for me. Also much easier for getting relief milkers. I've always aspired to 36/48 hour grazing but I don't really seem to have the confidence in getting it done. I'd be afraid they might eat too much the first day and leave nuts after them in the parlour. Also they would come running back into the yard to me on day 3/4. Still though I'll definitely give it a shot this year at some stage.

They won't leave nuts behind anyway.!! On grazing blocks is the 'advice' to have 24hr blocks moving to fresh grass in the evening because its full of sugar after the sunlight during the day?

The Rabbi

furandfeather wrote: »

It's always mixed between 35 and 40 degrees and she is always the first getting fed, so she is getting the warmest mix.
This has only started the last 3 days

What way are they being fed? If they are drinking from a bucket she could be inhaling some of the milk. If from a teat,could it be letting out the milk too fast. Or if the teat is too high you might get the same problem.

Mooooo

straight wrote: »

Ya, close the wire and run. I've done that before and stubborn bitches stood at the wire all night long.

Once the fencer is good you could put a gap further up the field for going in the last time that way if they look to come put they'll be going to a closed gap. Tend to use the wires all the time but in a 36 hr paddock I'd give half for the first grazing and then split what's left by 2/3 and 1/ 3 for final grazing. A lot of heifers the last few years can be a pain in the ass sometimes coming back out otherwise. Doesn't take long to move the wire I find anyway cow's walk in on their own pace

Mooooo

Knocked the first 24 acres for bales today. Stuff that wasn't grazed on outfarm and heifer ground. Should be good enough quality hopefully. Have 18 acres of wet ground I may do next week instead of leaving it bulk up. Have a full pit of poor stuff so must try and make this year's silage as good as possible. Means more bales but fcuk it no other option at the moment won't be a slab put in this year anyway

Timmaay

100ftx37ft slab going in right now, after 600+ bales this past winter, never again! Working out handy with the lads building it, all got jobs cancelled with corona.

Mooooo

Timmaay wrote: »

100ftx37ft slab going in right now, after 600+ bales this past winter, never again! Working out handy with the lads building it, all got jobs cancelled with corona.

Tis the paying for it part is the reason I won't be at it this year, not so much getting anyone to do it. Just slab no walls?

Timmaay

Mooooo wrote: »

Tis the paying for it part is the reason I won't be at it this year, not so much getting anyone to do it. Just slab no walls?

Yeh just a slab, up against the existing silage pit so that will help big time to hold the silage. And yep paying for it is the tricky part, I have the March milk cheque fully spent as is 😅. But after a wet 15bales/ac cut of drycow silage last June that I worked out cost me about 230e/ac, never again, pit silage in them cases will save 2k/year min so absolutely no point me putting it off anymore.

charolais0153

Mooooo wrote: »

Knocked the first 24 acres for bales today. Stuff that wasn't grazed on outfarm and heifer ground. Should be good enough quality hopefully. Have 18 acres of wet ground I may do next week instead of leaving it bulk up. Have a full pit of poor stuff so must try and make this year's silage as good as possible. Means more bales but fcuk it no other option at the moment won't be a slab put in this year anyway

Will there b enough sugars in them?

Castlekeeper

charolais0153 wrote: »

Will there b enough sugars in them?

Should be the finest once there isn't much N gone out, I've made some of my best bales this time of year in the last few.

mahoney_j

Timmaay wrote: »

100ftx37ft slab going in right now, after 600+ bales this past winter, never again! Working out handy with the lads building it, all got jobs cancelled with corona.

90*60 going in here atm ,bale count going to drop dramatically here this year

3 the square

Any one still spreading urea on grazeing ground is it getting too dry for a uptake ??

K.G.

Timmaay wrote: »

Yeh just a slab, up against the existing silage pit so that will help big time to hold the silage. And yep paying for it is the tricky part, I have the March milk cheque fully spent as is 😅. But after a wet 15bales/ac cut of drycow silage last June that I worked out cost me about 230e/ac, never again, pit silage in them cases will save 2k/year min so absolutely no point me putting it off anymore.

Slab going in here next week. Made 650 bales last year and never again.concrete slab and whatever digger cost,-2 k would go along way.bales took 129 hours to draw and feed plus 800 euro contractor drawing last winter. Roughly 30 hours drawing and stacking on out farm +diesel and ware and tare when they were made.add 1900 for plastic and 4800 for baling.heap of plastic to be shifted now aswell.will need to make some for outwintering

mahoney_j

3 the square wrote: »

Any one still spreading urea on grazeing ground is it getting too dry for a uptake ??

Spread some yesterday ,normal urea plus s working fine

Wildsurfer

mahoney_j wrote: »

90*60 going in here atm ,bale count going to drop dramatically here this year

Is that a single pit? 60' very wide for a silage face maybe?

Mooooo

40 ft wide pits here and I'd nearly go longer and narrower as well if I could.

Panch18

jaysus - we have no pit silage - all bales. anything up to a couple of thousand!!

cute geoge

Panch18 wrote: »

jaysus - we have no pit silage - all bales. anything up to a couple of thousand!!

You will get sense yet!!!:):)

mahoney_j

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Is that a single pit? 60' very wide for a silage face maybe?

Yes single pit will be circa 63 acres in total going in beteween 2 cuts

Buford T. Justice XIX

Vet just gone from a cow that calved last night. Chewing the cud in the morning, calved around 10 last night, small calf so no pressure and when I checked her at 5 she had gone downhill.

Probably foreign body so she got magnets but I'm not hopeful of her atm.

Panch18

cute geoge wrote: »

You will get sense yet!!!:):)

Doing it at least 10 years now - although bale numbers have been going up

Can't see us doing pit in a hurry - or even ever again

Gillespy

Even an apocalypse won't stop Irish dairy farmers complaining about silage bales.:D

It's all bales here. 1400 made last year. Done by ourselves with well paid for machinery. With milk price heading for the floor, my stress levels are eased knowing a big contractor bill isn't coming. Only the price of the plastic is my issue. Other than that very happy to continue.

Mooooo

Panch18 wrote: »

jaysus - we have no pit silage - all bales. anything up to a couple of thousand!!

I always thought you were a bit mad! Feeding passage the main issue here. Only 11ft wide. If I had a bigger passage would invest in a proper yoke for feeding them out

mahoney_j

Panch18 wrote: »

Doing it at least 10 years now - although bale numbers have been going up

Can't see us doing pit in a hurry - or even ever again

Great feeding in bales and stock do like longer chop but the cost at big no’s and work involved is huge only thing I’ll be baling from here on is surpluses and lighter cuts .

Grueller

Grueller wrote: »

Lactose 5.17, urea 30. My genetics would not lead to massive protein. I am a new entrant so just remember reading that if prottein to butterfat ratio is above 1 : 1.15 the cows may be using too much body fat reserves.
SCC was 233. Solids of 76.

SCC back down at 131. Stripped the teats and 1 quarter with early stage clinical mastitis. Treated her am and pm and out of the tank for 8 milkings.

Panch18

Mooooo wrote: »

I always thought you were a bit mad! Feeding passage the main issue here. Only 11ft wide. If I had a bigger passage would invest in a proper yoke for feeding them out

haha

Yeah we made changes 10 years ago so that it's all front feeding now which makes it a hell of a lot easier. Unless you have a huge passage they don't really suit a passageway

Panch18

Gillespy wrote: »

Even an apocalypse won't stop Irish dairy farmers complaining about silage bales.:D

It's all bales here. 1400 made last year. Done by ourselves with well paid for machinery. With milk price heading for the floor, my stress levels are eased knowing a big contractor bill isn't coming. Only the price of the plastic is my issue. Other than that very happy to continue.

Lovely - I'm not the only headcase!!!

I think some people just like bales and others just hate them

Edit: I should add that we are doing them ourselves as well - don't know if that makes us bigger headcases or not!!

whelan2

Scanned autumn calvers this .morning. 4 not in calf. Will cull 2 and serve the other 2 when breeding starts. Was a heifer calving while we were scanning and when I got to her the calf was smothered by the cleanings. Not having a good run this week

Panch18

Grueller wrote: »

SCC back down at 131. Stripped the teats and 1 quarter with early stage clinical mastitis. Treated her am and pm and out of the tank for 8 milkings.

You're flying so

How you finding the dairying so far?

cosatron

We make all bales aswell. Bales left in the yard for €23 a vale that includes fertiliser, wrap, haulage and contractor paid. To make good quality bales you would get about 7 or 8 to the acre so that's 184 per acre all done in the yard. Maybe the pit lads can give the costings for comparison. In terms of workload, this winter we put 3 bales a day in 30mins, scattered with the loader and tidy it in, in the morning, no waste, no messing with covers, no getting drowned wet throwing back tyres, no forking off 6 inches of dung as the covers wasnt sealed properly.

moneyheer

All bales here for last 10 years ,approx 1200 - 1400 a year, all done in house.

Timmaay

K.G. wrote: »

Slab going in here next week. Made 650 bales last year and never again.concrete slab and whatever digger cost,-2 k would go along way.bales took 129 hours to draw and feed plus 800 euro contractor drawing last winter. Roughly 30 hours drawing and stacking on out farm +diesel and ware and tare when they were made.add 1900 for plastic and 4800 for baling.heap of plastic to be shifted now aswell.will need to make some for outwintering

Roughly gonna cost me 10k for the slab (after the vat back), that included over 2k in stone to build up the area (if I had been better prepared I'd of been taking free rubble over the last year), but anyways will be at most 5yrs payback over bales.

And contractor costs are something around 3 or4 c/l here, even if the price of milk hit 22c/l I'd never dream of buying machinery and making my own silage, I'm alot more likely to push numbers on up instead towards 140/150 milking and dilute my costs instead. In terms of our wintering actually, another feed trailer would be how I'd work around that, fill one with pit silage and bring it down and bring the other one back empty.

cute geoge

cosatron wrote: »

We make all bales aswell. Bales left in the yard for €23 a vale that includes fertiliser, wrap, haulage and contractor paid. To make good quality bales you would get about 7 or 8 to the acre so that's 184 per acre all done in the yard. Maybe the pit lads can give the costings for comparison. In terms of workload, this winter we put 3 bales a day in 30mins, scattered with the loader and tidy it in, in the morning, no waste, no messing with covers, no getting drowned wet throwing back tyres, no forking off 6 inches of dung as the covers wasnt sealed properly.

7/8 bales per acre is the optimum amount but it is when you get caught with rain it is then when it is dear expensive shlt you are making!!!
For big acres surely a farmer tipping away himself if the draw was close would be the finest ,the one job every one hates though is covering the pit

Mooooo

Sending effluent to existing tank? Would precast tank for effluent work alright I wonder?
@Timmay

Sacrolyte

whelan2 wrote: »

Had an autumn calver with tetany this evening

What you give her?
Was she ok?

cosatron

cute geoge wrote: »

7/8 bales per acre is the optimum amount but it is when you get caught with rain it is then when it is dear expensive shlt you are making!!!
For big acres surely a farmer tipping away himself if the draw was close would be the finest ,the one job every one hates though is covering the pit

agreed, we made great round bale silage last year at 7 per acre after 6 weeks growth with a days welt on reseeded ground. cows milked a sight on them. our contractor is fairly well kitted out for bringing in bales so we let him at them. When we were younger we had a pit and we had to cover it with dung, god looking back it was pure slavery.

older by the day

cosatron wrote: »

agreed, we made great round bale silage last year at 7 per acre after 6 weeks growth with a days welt on reseeded ground. cows milked a sight on them. our contractor is fairly well kitted out for bringing in bales so we let him at them. When we were younger we had a pit and we had to cover it with dung, god looking back it was pure slavery.

Ya most fellows don't like covering silage pits. Tho I would actually rather a day covering a pit than a day drawing bales on my own. I often just seal around the sides and finish a couple of days later. Plastic, birds, rats, cost , the bales are a pain sometimes.

Panch18

cosatron wrote: »

agreed, we made great round bale silage last year at 7 per acre after 6 weeks growth with a days welt on reseeded ground. cows milked a sight on them. our contractor is fairly well kitted out for bringing in bales so we let him at them. When we were younger we had a pit and we had to cover it with dung, god looking back it was pure slavery.

How's your contractor bringing them in? Keltec?

Timmaay

Mooooo wrote: »

Sending effluent to existing tank? Would precast tank for effluent work alright I wonder?
@Timmay

In my case it's linking straight up with the existing silage pit effluent system, that goes into the main tank here. My concrete lad was telling me he sometimes puts in a barrel with a sump pump to push the effluent into a slatted tank if they can't get the levels right, in my case that would of been a much cheaper option than drawing in the stone, however I'd be making a bollox of the slab to the the old silage pit and having an unnecessary ramp.

cosatron

Panch18 wrote: »

How's your contractor bringing them in? Keltec?

He has 2 trailers that can bring 15 bales each, a lad with a loader in the field and a lad in the yard with another loader to stack. In all fairness he has savage gear.