Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530964#Comment_119530964

Stocked at 2.2/Ha. Makes a big difference. Calves and heifers are happy in fairly bare paddocks.

Some of the guys boasting about being on the second and third rotation in spring when more of us are stuck in the shed are suffering now. The guys on dry ground usually win so tis grand to see the guys on mixed or wet ground have there day in the sun.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530998#Comment_119530998

It isn’t a competition ….I’ve a block I’m going to z graze next week really heavy sulky ground that most years u wouldn’t consider doing anything with till may and you’d be out of before mid September as one wet night sees it unworkable ….ground on it is like concrete now …..it’s only ground I have that’s growing anything decent but still suffering with gr in high 30s

straight

Plenty rain next weekend. Problem is as we get closer to the day the rain seems to vanish. Anything is better than the mess and poaching.

Something I've noticed over the past few years is I have grass right up to all the gaps and gates now. There was always damage there over the years from traffic in the rain. Summers are definitely getting dryer.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530909#Comment_119530909

There is a chance that there will be no ammonium nitrate next year the way gas prices are going. We could all be on the urea.

alps

Analysis of records of over 250 years by Maynooth University shows that Ireland has been particularly drought prone, and recent years have not been representative of this.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530977#Comment_119530977

Half the ground here is reclaimed Moor, still not worth a crap without adequate rainfall, we are burnt to pieces up here compared to 2018, cows housed at night going out for a pick during the day, it's usually the rain that's screws us here not the opposite, have maize on the dryer parts of the fields self-canibiliazing where the cob sucks out all the moisture from the lower stalks to grow the cob, its mad stuff....

Have often had 6 month housing periods here due to wet conditions but you always got 4-5 months from may to end of September where you had good quality grass in front of cows and hadn't to buffer well over half the diet to keep cows ticking over this year has been a s**tshow in cows never got a sustained period of grazing nice quality covers that's weren't stressed out our gone to strong

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531233#Comment_119531233

3 weeks of phenomenal growth here in May and then, nothing.

I have an out card here that I made enough silage to carry over 30 sucklers for the winter, but it looks like they will get the hook or the auctioneers gavel now in the back end. That should see me OK for fodder barring a disastrous spring. I have been jettisoning cattle as quick as I can this last fortnight. If it ain't putting milk in the tank away it goes.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531233#Comment_119531233

Never thought the maize would suffer like that in this country. Let's hope for a great back end. Once it doesn't get too wet too quick.

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119528805#Comment_119528805

British freisan cross Holstein mostly. Probably can produce more, I rear all the calves for outside farms, but I don't push them, up the hill grazing around rushes, 2kgs of meal. Once they all show up at the gate for milking that's my target. I used to worry about figures but its only the net margin it comes down too. No point in having a huge gross and it all going out the gate

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530909#Comment_119530909

Must be about 10 years ago, an open day in Moorepark, there was a stand with their recomendations on fertilizer application rates and frequency, @ the time I was spraying the dissolved urea with and additive from New Zealand called "N Boost", mentioned it to the Teagasc lady on the stand, was effectively laughed out of it, "it couldnt work". Wasn't in the Teagasc manual. So good luck trying to educate that crowd.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531807#Comment_119531807

Wouldn’t be too worried about convincing Tegasc on things like this …I’m following with huge interest for some time in what day my name is doing and few others on twitter ….I see enough to convince that Foliar applications and improving soil biology work ….on the hunt for a sprayer for next year

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119511239#Comment_119511239

The clover is lazy, if it's getting chemical N it won't do the same level of work. But then not enough clover in the award and it won't be able to fix the nitrogen that's needed

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532116#Comment_119532116

im finding here with sr up near 4 ….doss nothing really to June and after September …cows do like it but won’t do enough for me with ultra low n rates …below 15/18 units ….may fair better with low rates with Foliar applications

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531807#Comment_119531807

I raised it to a teagasc advisor at a derogation farm walk in the last few weeks.

I was told the infrastructure is not on dairy farms. Further questioning they meant there's no sprayers on farms.

It's a p1sstake now. They recommend and make it mandatory spending 50k plus on a slurry tanker yet can't get their heads out to see what others are doing with success now.

I was told by the advisor of a commercial company selling ready made product but I've been at that premises which they gratefully showed me around and it's a different complete solution that me or you would be using.

Useless they are.

Not having a go but there's posters here after spreading 40 units plus in one go because they didn't know any better. It's a waste of money and going to show re water tests. The farmer is being shot every which way.

Anyway I'm after being invited in to a regenerative dairy whatsapp farmer group by their facilitator. So I must have been making the right noises online. 😂

Modern social farmer media and teagasc left behind again..

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532218#Comment_119532218

Well its not very expensive to get started, depends on the size of farm. Here I bought the 5000 liter trailed sprayer in France landed to yard all in 12000 Euros, has all the bells and whistles. 5000 liter mixing tank set up for about 1000 Euros. Takes 20 minutes between mixing and filling the sprayer and can do 50 acres with one fill.

The thing with Teagasc is they are bought and paid for by vested interests sponsoring their trials because they have product to sell to the farmer. No money for commercial companies in what we are doing.

greenfield21

In fairness I think this is fairly new and when hear someone talking about spraying Fulvic, humic, seaweed, molasses, Ash etc. On grassland you'd wonder have they lost the run of themselves.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532673#Comment_119532673

What finished me with Teagasc was the misleading info when gran lime came out first. Figures were done on sites like TFF which told it's story but for Teagasc it was the best thing E.V.E.R. I popped up my head at a discussion meeting and said the truth, didn't last as long as regular lime, was much more expensive. 22 others backed by advisor against me.

Fast forward a few years to KT, "New research from Teagasc now say gran line isn't... blah, blah, blah"

Went through him for a shortcut and was told after the meeting that they knew it at the previous time but farmers weren't to be told.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532721#Comment_119532721

I'd leave the ash out of that mix. 🙂

But probably already depends on soil.

cute geoge

Besides the big 3 on here who are establihed users of spraying foliar fertilisers ,has anyone else experimented on a small scale with spraying urea or seaweed ,molasses etc and what are there results thus far..

K.G.

Thanks for the reference but every fella has to do his own business.sher maybe it's like God.if you believe in God he s always working miracles.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532745#Comment_119532745

are you saying granlime is good?

couidnt quite make it out from your post

Mooooo

Lack of rain is 90% of the issue. Some normal amount of rain without a wind to dry it off straight away and every field in the country will be green as. Whether it'll be enough or in time to turn things re building covers or not is the question really. If the rain stops to use what'll come would be the other side then

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532171#Comment_119532171

3.9 SR here. The growth profile is back ended so you'd expect it lower in March/April. Weather probably has a large amount to do with it, we don't really do drought up here

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119533712#Comment_119533712

I'm not saying it's good or bad. But, the message was put out once upon a time it was a direct replacement for ag lime and would do the same thing over the same time frame, that something like 50kg of gran lime was the same as 2 ton of ag lime per acre over 5 years, which afaik it isn't. As long as the farmer knows this then fine, for example I could spread gran lime on my land but I can't spread ag lime because the land can't take the required machinery. My point was then that it's significantly more expensive than ag lime, which again is grand once you know this and account for it.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534678#Comment_119534678

Yeah 100%

only any good for year to year use on yearly rented land

Tonynewholland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534714#Comment_119534714

I know a few farmers who liked using it on hilly ground yearly. They all said it's a waste of time. All gone back to ground lime.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534766#Comment_119534766

Gran lime is a great job for short term fix …esp on rental ground or ground in for silag or for reseeding small areas …works quick like feetliser but has to be used yearly ..ground lime cheaper and works far longer

Tonynewholland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534839#Comment_119534839

It's hard to see how a bag and half of Gran lime will maintain your PH.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534916#Comment_119534916

2 bags per acre /year is recommended

straight

Didn't do a grass walk in a few weeks. Growing 40 / demand 46.