Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119735121#Comment_119735121

That's human beings for you. No harm in calling out the choir boys on their BS though

Siamsa Sessions

The danger is non-farmers see one good/bad thing and assume we’re all like that then

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119736058#Comment_119736058

I agree. I subscribe to the theory that every farm and farmyard is like a shop front for our industry.

1373

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732743#Comment_119732743

What way would you fertiliser this for 3 cuts

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732956#Comment_119732956

This is a free country. Take advice if it suits you and don't if it does not. Nobody is putting a gun to your head. Less of the infantalism.

RightTurnClyde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737134#Comment_119737134

See that's the kind of moronic statement that gives the likes of Teagasc a free pass. Indeed nobody is putting a gun to my head, but if the dairy industry was to follow through with what our advisors would ultimately have us do we'd be putting a gun to alot of bull calves head, we'd have cows fcuked out on OWPs, we'd be stocking at 3 cows/ha, pumping the big lagoon and firing out what ever fert is need to grow the new goal of X tonnes/ha.

The infantalism lies with the droves who followed this unsustainable unresearched short term thinking, thinking they could turn a fast buck. Meanwhile the , what was, a profitable, high skilled, admired and reputable industry gets dumbed down to c/L profit as measure of your skill as a dairy farmer. This, with zero attention paid to the cost to the cow, the reputation, the environment or to the farmer.

The infantalism lies with those that think dairy farming turns on a 12month cycle when in fact it is closer to a 12+ yr cycle.

I think you need to sit down and look at the raft of changes and costs coming for dairy farming, most of which wouldn't be needed if there was a little more long term sustainable thinking. And wonder how did we end up here. Infantalism indeed

Siamsa Sessions

Re 12-year cycle: does it take the bones of nearly 20 years to breed a particular strain of genetics out of a herd?

Talking to a neighbour last week and he said if you had JE blood in the herd and you wanted to breed it out, it’d take 7 generations of calves/heifers.

Before anyone jumps up and down: This isn’t an anti-JE thing. It’s just the example he used. I’m sure it’s the same if you wanted to breed out any other genetics.

1373

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737540#Comment_119737540

I read lots of teagasc articles, some I agree and others I disagree. You have to have enough cop-on to know what suits you .

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737954#Comment_119737954

Most of us do at this stage but Tegasc are meant to be our leading advisory body …take all systems into account …be impartial to one system or another …give unbiased views …be open minded …take views of others with differing views on board …

they quite clearly haven’t for lots of above ….they tried to just copy and paste the kiwi model and force it on us ….we’re short term thinking on dairy expansion (envirnomental and calf issue )…..get the latest fad and just run with it ..we’re hearing so much about clover last while …shoving what it’ll supposedly do in perfect year at a low sr and most of research comes from clonakikty in south west cork which dosnt get as harsh a winter as further north and solohead which is meant to be a wet heavy farm but has a massive budget for drainage reseeding etc every year ….interesting place but not a typical wet farm and do we really know the true picture of losses from bloat ,what they’ve to do to counteract it and how they fill gaps early and late in year …..Moore park few years back someone posted a video of a heap of students going around pulling docks etc before a big open day massive pinch of salt needed if your to take all the advice as given

Foliar nitrogen is another lots of lads doing it now …massive benefits and savings but the silence from them is deafening .twitter here and going to farms are great to see people doing different things and challenging what we see and hear from advisory bodies and ifj etc

RightTurnClyde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737954#Comment_119737954

Absolutely. But my point is there is kneejerk reckless advice being given out over the last 10yrs that has lead us to a situation where we have banding, possible removal of derogation, greater slurry/soiled water capital costs, talks of rewetting land, massive fertiliser controls, etc.

We are tared with the brush of being polluters and having low animal welfare standards.

These are new rules and changes and issues that I and the vast majority of farmers have to deal with now because of poor advice and short term thinking that others followed.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119732956#Comment_119732956

ive followed teagasc advise that was applicable to us here and would say it was very beneficial

dad was crossbreeding long before it was teagasc blueprint, converted a ram down tillage and sheep farm before it was the norm too

yiu just have to look across the pond at the likes of Tom pemberton from YouTube to see what Irish farming would be like with out an advisory like teagasc imo

tom is only now starting to paddock the land the cows graze, silage being fed for most of the year. There’s been lots of good research from teagasc whether it was stuff that could be used on farm or it was research that ended up showing what shouldn’t be done ie the greenfrield project - lots of useful information from that as to not what to do along with what can be possible

we’re not on big acres here and I’ve been able to improve infrastructure on farm massively in a short period aswell as make a living, pay for land and building a house this year with the farm funding a fair bit of it

if we hadn’t an advisory body like teagasc I doubt that it would be the case tbh

awaywithyou

Teagasc give out advice collected from research... its up to each individual to assess advice and see if its applicable to his/her farm... personally i think there grass advice is very good... but there are lots of other areas such as ebi breeding etc the advice is poor imo... the reality is most of them teagasc guys arent the most motivated people in the world and are doing the job cos its a 'handy number'... which is their own choice and best of luck to them..

whos the multi millionaire looking for the herdsperson to run his/her 500 cow herd milked and fed with robots near kilmuckridge in Wexford??

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119730296#Comment_119730296

To finish up on this. I was sent out a charger and you have to clip the gps receiver thingamajig onto the handle/platemeter first, take it off and then plug it into the charger. If you try and plug it in to recharge straight out of the box like I did there'll be no lights and probably won't be charging.

So you have to "wake" it up first on the pole.

Farming is getting more complicated..

Siamsa Sessions

This Simpsons clip comes to mind when people say you're free to ignore advice from the Movementarians, sorry, the State Agency: https://youtu.be/DEzC-3mi3y0?t=22

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737953#Comment_119737953

in essence yes. Im 10 years diy ai and now we are starting to see the real benefit of it. Nice medium sized Holstien with a nice drop of milk and nice solids. I think the next 5 years will bring the cows to the level i think we can achieve with our farm layout and feeding pattern.

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119738030#Comment_119738030

take all systems into account …be impartial to one system or another …give unbiased views …be open minded …take views of others with differing views on board …

This isn't what Teagasc are meant to be or claim to be. Their stated goals are to provide education, make scientific information available and to research "to deliver the innovation support necessary to add significant value to Ireland’s agri-food sector."

They will research what they feel is the best course of action, they don't claim to be unbiased

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119738285#Comment_119738285

Bert Allen

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119738466#Comment_119738466

The researching what they feel is best course of action is the problem ….they go hell bent on one thing rather than been open minded and broadening there horizons and seen what an alternative opinion may have

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119738285#Comment_119738285

Bert Allen's son Ivan

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737540#Comment_119737540

I'm sure Trump and Alex Jones would agree with all those observations.

straight

I was milking the few cows this morning. Heard on the radio about the new water quality report out. Estuaries continue to deteriorate especially in the south and east of the country.

This will be more ammunition for Rte to call for a "cull of the national herd" which they think will solve all their problems while they queue up at Dublin airport.

The water quality is going to continue to deteriorate imo as long as teagasc and the likes keep embracing and promoting 5 cows/Ha stocking rates. And their gold standard signpost farmers are all stocked at 3+. No derogation will make alot of small farms like mine unviable but I'll survive

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119742861#Comment_119742861

The EPA seem to have a new report out every month and it's always bad news. Whether they want to or not, the Govt will have to be seen to do something.

And while smoke and mirrors can be used to fudge GHGs emissions and targets (how do you really measure the air without someone questioning your method/assumptions?), there's no getting away from the easy-to-measure particles in water.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119742887#Comment_119742887

Yet, when I lived in the city I email/reported a pipe pumping sewage into the stream beside my house. I pinned it on a map and it was pretty hard to miss. Clean water above it. Grey water below it. The EPA closed the case because they could not find any evidence of a pipe or pollution.

roosterman71

The EPA report that's out is on water quality, not emissions so the airport queues has nothing really to do with it in this case.

I heard the news report this morning and straight away the cause was agriculture. And it's agriculture nitrates going into groundwater and then off into estuaries. Now how they figured this was the path wasn't disclosed. I'd love to know how they anlysed that or did they just sample the water and when they stood up seen cows on the other bank?

It was intersting to see it was the south east being mentioned. Isn't that tillage country? @Say my name does often rant about soil quality and water regarding tillage. He's probably onto something.

In the report, there's an interesting graphic

Over the years more waterways are tested and the "bad" category is going down. Which surely to jaysus is a good thing. 2007-2009 the "bad" waterways was 1.33% of the total. In 2016-2021 it was 0.58%.

I'd like to know which waterways have changed status over each report, then see what has been happening around them that seen thir quality improve. Until then, all suggestions. etc is just speculation. We can see from the report that something is changing for the better, but what is it?

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743008#Comment_119743008

https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/

Whatever data is on this is what their working off I reckon, the river Q values are done periodically every 3 years and are the most up to date real-time picture of the situation in a particular area

straight

My point about the airport was that RTE have convinced to population at large that all of our climate change problems can be solved by culling the national herd as they call it. And they can continue to live their lives as normal as long as they eat a bit less meat and dairy

Say my name

Agriculture is responsible for 63% of the 174% of emissions into waterways.

http://twitter.com/MarkMcC64572225/status/1580857464672882688

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743107#Comment_119743107

Did gibbons do the graph or the epa

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743107#Comment_119743107

These so called experts seem to pull figure out of their a,,e to suit their agenda. The media go along with whatever they say, never questioning their qualifications or agendas.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743317#Comment_119743317

I don't know. I blame the vegan diet.😂