Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

straight

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Anyone on here ever deal with Grass-Tec when buying or selling stock: https://www.grasstecgroup.com/livestock-services/livestock-for-sale/

What are they like to deal with? I'd appreciate any experiences of them. Send a DM if preferred.

Thanks.

I tried selling heifer calves with them the last 2 years. Got tired of waiting both times and put them on done deal and they were gone. They might make it easier for buyers but they're just another middle man like David Clarke or the like. They're a bit vague about commission in my experience. As I haven't completed a deal with them I still don't know what they charge.

Castlekeeper

visatorro wrote: »

Anyone run heifers with the cows during breeding?

Yep, being doing it on and off for years, super job if it's possible. It need only be for a 10 - 15 days and they can be pulled out as their bred, so it's not as big a grass issue as one might think.
They just stand at the back of the collecting yard.
I'd say most people have them on outside blocks nowadays though.

On a related subject, I sometimes hear fellow farmers equating breeding to calving for workload, and it baffles me.
I do 3 weeks DIY, one man herd. For me that means tail paint cows 4-5 times, put patches on heifers once, then watch them coming in at morning milking and ai them for 10 -20mins after. Simple manual drafting gate set up.
I couldn't compare it to watching cows for calving and looking after newborns.
Maybe I'm missing something, or else it's a big numbers issue?

Castlekeeper

Timmaay wrote: »

Does 3 phase make any difference to my existing setup? Ie vacuum pump, bulk tank compressor, scrapers, well pump etc all are single phase? In fairness the low voltage isn't the end of the world once it doesn't get any worse, 2 or 3 capacitors a year, and one 600e vacuum pump motor in the 5yrs the parlour has been in. I certainly think some sort of voltage monitor and actually see how frequently it drops would be a useful 1st step.

2-3 capacitors a year is hard going. I used to have that problem to a lesser extent, eventually after a few yearsthe motor burned out, and I haven't had a problem since with the new motor. My fitter said that the other motor supplied by a well known company was a piece of kit, or something like that.

Castlekeeper

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Anyone on here ever deal with Grass-Tec when buying or selling stock: https://www.grasstecgroup.com/livestock-services/livestock-for-sale/

What are they like to deal with? I'd appreciate any experiences of them. Send a DM if preferred.

Thanks.

Sold a bunch of maidens through them once, no issues, they brought in a buyer, we agreed a price, and they organised the rest, (they were going to Britain). €25/head they got.

Gillespy

Don't see how it's anywhere close myself either. Calving is hard work when everything goes right. That time of year is busy anyway with all the winter jobs along with getting fertilizer and slurry out as well as tidying up fencing for turnout. Run a chinballed vasectomised, no fancy drafting just sort with a few gates, AI man comes at 10am and whitehead bull will go out then in mid June.

Mooooo

Agree calving is much busier time, I guess it's more the element of things going wrong at breeding effects everything for the following year so can raise stress levels a bit

mahoney_j

visatorro wrote: »

You'd imagine you'd be able to get a transformer type thing to go back to single phase.

I’ve 3 phase ,no issue having some stuff in single phase ,a good electrician a must tho as you just split phases going to some stuff .best thing I ever put in was 3 phase ,have 50 kiva transformer all to myself can run everything in place together without issue

A bit of cheer from the Farming Independent

Global dairy demand will continue to outstrip milk supply growth this year, the latest market projections have indicated.

The British research body AHDB has predicted that global milk supplies will increase by just 1pc in 2021.

However, strong Chinese buying since the start of the year means that demand growth is continuing to outstrip available supplies and drive product prices.

These factors confirm Irish industry projections that milk prices will remain high for the remainder of the year.

The positive news for dairy farmers comes as most processors confirmed that base prices for April milk supplies have held at 34-35c/l, with up to 37-38c/l being returned when milk solids are included.

The AHDB analysis has forecast limited growth in milk production across the Southern Hemisphere.

The bulk of the 1pc growth globally is forecast to come from the US and EU, but rising feed costs are putting farmer margins in both regions under increased pressure and this could further restrict supplies.

Irish industry sources say supply growth has stalled in France, Germany and Holland, due to the dismal grass growth this spring.

However, New Zealand dairy farmers are reported to be in a good position going into the new season, with a profitable price forecast.

With global markets bouncing back from the Covid-19 crisis, and food service demand returning, the World Bank has predicted that overall growth will reach 4pc this year, having contracted by 4.3pc in 2020.

The AHDB noted that the "robust import demand” in China has been underpinned by strong government messaging around the health benefits of milk. But it warned that Far East sales could weaken in the latter part of the year, should stocks build too high.

However, pointing out that dairy product prices are "at or above the five-year average”, the AHDB said current stock and supply levels mean that market returns are likely to hold.

This analysis tallies with the views of Irish dairy sector sources.

"The outlook looks fairly solid for the rest of the year, in terms of milk prices,” one well-placed dairy industry official told the Farming Independent.

Mf310

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Anyone on here ever deal with Grass-Tec when buying or selling stock: https://www.grasstecgroup.com/livestock-services/livestock-for-sale/

What are they like to deal with? I'd appreciate any experiences of them. Send a DM if preferred.

Thanks.

Dealt with them buying cows this year well run system , i was about a 2 hour drive away from the farmer selling the cows and so would have found it hard to get up to view them. Grasstec agent went took a video of them one by one and wrote down a note on any issues of the cows 1 cow thin another with a long claw like looking at everhthing as if he was buying them. 3.5% commision either side its a fair money spinner for them and very little labour only being the middle man

Mooooo

Any of ye that synchronized the heifers how are ye looking? Day 22 from serving today and 26% have repeated. A couple more missing stickers but not seen in heat so hoping there aren't any I missed. Could be more tomorrow or Sun but hopefully not.

jaymla627

cows will be getting sold here next week by the look of things, had a failure for clorates due to using a certain teat-dip and we found a cracked pipe on tank for peracetic pump, need 3 clear tests of zero clorates before they will consider taking milk, last test was 3 which is perfectly acceptable for manufacturing milk not destined for baby formula, entire parlour was dismantled today and all rubberware replaced to hopefully solve the problem....
A lad wouldn't want to be suffering from mental health issues after the week im having

Mooooo

Sorry to hear of your trouble. When you mean a test result of 3, what is that? Last chlorate test I got said 0.00199 mg/kg.
I assume teat dip has been changed, have you an auto washer, can you set it to do an extra rinse or do one yerselves to make sure machine is rinsed off correctly, same for tank.
Have ye tested the water supply?

whelan2

jaymla627 wrote: »

cows will be getting sold here next week by the look of things, had a failure for clorates due to using a certain teat-dip and we found a cracked pipe on tank for peracetic pump, need 3 clear tests of zero clorates before they will consider taking milk, last test was 3 which is perfectly acceptable for manufacturing milk not destined for baby formula, entire parlour was dismantled today and all rubberware replaced to hopefully solve the problem....
A lad wouldn't want to be suffering from mental health issues after the week im having

Jaysus, how long dies it take to get a result of a test? What are you doing with the milk?

jaymla627

whelan2 wrote: »

Jaysus, how long dies it take to get a result of a test? What are you doing with the milk?

24-36 hour's, into the slatted tank, 3 days collections dumped so far, with the last 2 days been perfect for processing came back at 3 ppb, thresehold for other co-ops is 15ppb

whelan2

Are glanbia farm services helping out or just leaving you to it?

jaymla627

whelan2 wrote: »

Are glanbia farm services helping out or just leaving you to it?

no is the honest answer few words of advice from lad taking samples

straight

jaymla627 wrote: »

cows will be getting sold here next week by the look of things, had a failure for clorates due to using a certain teat-dip and we found a cracked pipe on tank for peracetic pump, need 3 clear tests of zero clorates before they will consider taking milk, last test was 3 which is perfectly acceptable for manufacturing milk not destined for baby formula, entire parlour was dismantled today and all rubberware replaced to hopefully solve the problem....
A lad wouldn't want to be suffering from mental health issues after the week im having

Best of luck lad. Mind yourself. We all have our own coping mechanisms and supports. If I was going through that I'd be like **** it, could be worse. Then someone would say boo to me and all the bottled up temper would come out on the poor creature.

blackdog1

jaymla627 wrote: »

24-36 hour's, into the slatted tank, 3 days collections dumped so far, with the last 2 days been perfect for processing came back at 3 ppb, thresehold for other co-ops is 15ppb

Just failed mine first time in 6 months. No pre spray and all chlorine free wash products . Only culprit must be expensive post dip im using. Will descale the machine a bit more often and see if that does it, I really don't want to change my post dip. All these extra costs and zero bonuses for it.

blackdog1

jaymla627 wrote: »

no is the honest answer few words of advice from lad taking samples

Are you using well water or council mains? A few people I know were getting problems from the mains water

straight

blackdog1 wrote: »

Just failed mine first time in 6 months. No pre spray and all chlorine free wash products . Only culprit must be expensive post dip im using. Will descale the machine a bit more often and see if that does it, I really don't want to change my post dip. All these extra costs and zero bonuses for it.

All these extra costs is right. I was at several farm walks, etc when they were telling us about cf. I was the only person to question the cost of all the extra hot washes. All the other farmers just seemed to accept it. My co-op rang me one day to tell me how to wash the machine. I was cognisant of the fact that he was just doing his job but let's just say he hung up on me.

K.G.

While in no way comparable to jays problem i cant figure out why we dont get zero for chlorine considering we use chlorine free and private well water.

GrasstoMilk

Whats in the teat dip thats bringing the chlorine into the milk?
Would chlorohexidine dip be chlorine based?

Hope you get your issue sorted Jay

whelan2

jaymla627 wrote: »

no is the honest answer few words of advice from lad taking samples

All these lads getting paid to do feck all. Time was they'd come out and couldn't help you enough

jaymla627

K.G. wrote: »

While in no way comparable to jays problem i cant figure out why we dont get zero for chlorine considering we use chlorine free and private well water.

clorates dont just occur due to using non-chlorine free if you used out of date detergent our a drum that was exposed to sunlight for a extended period of time they will show up in test...

Morris Moss

jaymla627 wrote: »

clorates dont just occur due to using non-chlorine free if you used out of date detergent our a drum that was exposed to sunlight for a extended period of time they will show up in test...

Sorry for your troubles jay, did you talk to the crowd that you got the teat dip off?

K.G.

jaymla627 wrote: »

clorates dont just occur due to using non-chlorine free if you used out of date detergent our a drum that was exposed to sunlight for a extended period of time they will show up in test...

Do you mean the caustic breaks down to chlorine.after a bit of a struggle we kinda got on top of chlorine free washing but the key seems to be more regular descaling.back to your problem,can you timeline the breakdown to any seemingly unrelated issue that occurred on the farm,esb outage/water problem or something.i remember we put in a water filter thing that used to clean itself during the night.problem was if water was used while it was washing it would sent brine into the waterline instead.we were making up bottles for babies at the time and got a couple nasty frights before we disconnected it

jaymla627

Morris Moss wrote: »

Sorry for your troubles jay, did you talk to the crowd that you got the teat dip off?

They had been flagged before that their was issues with it, as its chloride dioxide but moorepark tested it and it didnt show up any chlorides in, was only using it after a 6 month stint of steph uberis mastitis and a rolling cell count of over 300k with fines running into a few k, it had got it down to sub 150k and zero mastitis cases the past 3 months was having 3-4 a week previously

cjpm

jaymla627 wrote: »

They had been flagged before that their was issues with it, as its chloride dioxide but moorepark tested it and it didnt show up any chlorides in, was only using it after a 6 month stint of steph uberis mastitis and a rolling cell count of over 300k with fines running into a few k, it had got it down to sub 150k and zero mastitis cases the past 3 months was having 3-4 a week previously

Jeez you’re after a rough run of it Jay. Hope you get sorted soon. Best of luck.

cjpm

I've a query regarding Milking parlour exit layout.... Normally the cows would exit to the left through the drafting gate and then out to the paddocks. Crush etc would be on the left.



However it would suit better to leave them out to the right if they are housed and heading straight back to the shed.



Would there be any issue with this??


They could get back to the shed if they went to the left, it just means that they would have to cross the back of the holding yard. Not ideal i know.....

Grueller

Quick query lads on an automatic scraper. I have a control box with the capacity to run 3 scrapers but I only have 2 scrapers on it. I am thinking of putting in a 3rd one but it will be 30 metres from the electronic control panel and hydraulic power pack to the scraper. Is there any issue with going that far?