Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

cosatron

alps wrote: »

Your paddocks are too small for 50 cows.

Best results can be got if you size them for 36 hour grazings which will equate to 1Ha in size feeding a cover of 1400kg.

If you redraw tour lines at 1Ha, the shape of you paddocks will square up quiet a bit and will actually look very sweet for on/off grazing on the fringes..

We have our paddocks at 1.5 acres for 50 cows and we seem to be getting on alright with a 28 day rotation.

alps

Sillycave wrote: »

How do you calculate?

Maximum quality or DMD of grass will be achieved by grazing between 1300 and 1500.

During mid season once you hit growth rates of 70, you will be tipping around on a 19/20 day rotation. Earlier and later in the year rotation will be slightly longer but still with the purpose of grazing 1400..

At that cover, 1Ha of ground will supply 1400kg of grass.

1400kg grass divided by 50 cows = 28kg grass per cow, which is enough for 1.5 days or 3 grazings....with a little waste to spare..

Feed 1400 cover on a sub 20 day round and you will maximise the potential of your cows.

Injuryprone

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Hi all,

Still not 100% committed to milking cows here but I was measuring out some new paddocks in a field over the weekend and would appreciate if anyone here might throw their eye on it - see image attached.

Ballpark figures = 50 cows, 1.5 acres per paddock

The parlour/cubicles is the red dot, roadway is the white line, existing fence is red line and new paddocks would be dotted red lines

Do paddocks 1, 2, and 3 seem too long for cows to walk to the back?

Attachment not found.

In that area, I'd go for 4x 3grazing paddocks instead of 6x 2grazing paddocks. That would leave them that bit squarer and you'd have less fencing to do...all good.

Paddock size you should be looking for is 2⅓-2½ac, err on the larger side if possible

Siamsa Sessions

alps wrote: »

Maximum quality or DMD of grass will be achieved by grazing between 1300 and 1500.

During mid season once you hit growth rates of 70, you will be tipping around on a 19/20 day rotation. Earlier and later in the year rotation will be slightly longer but still with the purpose of grazing 1400..

At that cover, 1Ha of ground will supply 1400kg of grass.

1400kg grass divided by 50 cows = 28kg grass per cow, which is enough for 1.5 days or 3 grazings....with a little waste to spare..

Feed 1400 cover on a sub 20 day round and you will maximise the potential of your cows.

I was taking 1500 as pre-grazing cover but factoring in they might be a little higher at times so more kg DM in a smaller area and hence a smaller paddock would mean less shifting of the pig tails and fence. I'd probably be better off though to err on the side of caution and leave them a bit bigger rather than have them too tight, especially when there'd be plenty heifers involved starting off.

I guess the daily demand will be influenced by how much meal would be fed too.

Siamsa Sessions

Injuryprone wrote: »

In that area, I'd go for 4x 3grazing paddocks instead of 6x 2grazing paddocks. That would leave them that bit squarer and you'd have less fencing to do...all good.

Thanks and you're making me smile here again at the memory of how many paddocks were there when my father was milking 50 cows here...

It was 4

You can even see an old fence line for the 4th paddock in the pic where there are two different grass covers.

FFS - it'd be more in my line to put the calculator away and try to remember what was going on around here 20-30 years ago.

alps

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I was taking 1500 as pre-grazing cover but factoring in they might be a little higher at times so more kg DM in a smaller area and hence a smaller paddock would mean less shifting of the pig tails and fence. I'd probably be better off though to err on the side of caution and leave them a bit bigger rather than have them too tight, especially when there'd be plenty heifers involved starting off.

I guess the daily demand will be influenced by how much meal would be fed too.

Yep....feed will influence intake of grass, but remember your feed rate will be higher when less grass is available so the same size paddocks will.work in that situtation.

cosatron

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Hi all,

Still not 100% committed to milking cows here but I was measuring out some new paddocks in a field over the weekend and would appreciate if anyone here might throw their eye on it - see image attached.

Ballpark figures = 50 cows, 1.5 acres per paddock

The parlour/cubicles is the red dot, roadway is the white line, existing fence is red line and new paddocks would be dotted red lines

Do paddocks 1, 2, and 3 seem too long for cows to walk to the back?

Attachment not found.

One thing to take into consideration is ground type. we have heavy ground so we have the paddocks laid out 24 hours to avoid poaching and making a messy gap. looking at your layout, it looks like you will only have 1 entrance and exit so if you have heavy ground with 36 hours paddock the gap will be messy enough if you get a spell of bad weather.

Timmaay

cosatron wrote: »

One thing to take into consideration is ground type. we have heavy ground so we have the paddocks laid out 24 hours to avoid poaching and making a messy gap. looking at your layout, it looks like you will only have 1 entrance and exit so if you have heavy ground with 36 hours paddock the gap will be messy enough if you get a spell of bad weather.

Even if your on exceptionally dry ground, then still no excuse not to put in multiple gaps along paddocks wherever you can,and very easy to do here along that lane way, every 100ft at least. On dry ground here but I still need every single trick in the book during most springs. My vote goes with don't split up the paddocks for now, instead just use pigtails.

Siamsa Sessions

cosatron wrote: »

One thing to take into consideration is ground type. we have heavy ground so we have the paddocks laid out 24 hours to avoid poaching and making a messy gap. looking at your layout, it looks like you will only have 1 entrance and exit so if you have heavy ground with 36 hours paddock the gap will be messy enough if you get a spell of bad weather.

Timmaay wrote: »

Even if your on exceptionally dry ground, then still no excuse not to put in multiple gaps along paddocks wherever you can,and very easy to do here along that lane way, every 100ft at least. On dry ground here but I still need every single trick in the book during most springs. My vote goes with don't split up the paddocks for now, instead just use pigtails.

Thanks again.

The ground is fairly dry here but as you say it's not a big job to drive an extra stake and connect in another handle on the other end of a paddock so I will be doing that. Easier again when there's mostly likely to be 4 rather than 6 paddocks now.

trixi2011

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks again.

The ground is fairly dry here but as you say it's not a big job to drive an extra stake and connect in another handle on the other end of a paddock so I will be doing that. Easier again when there's mostly likely to be 4 rather than 6 paddocks now.

How many paddock s are you going to have in total ?

Siamsa Sessions

trixi2011 wrote: »

How many paddock s are you going to have in total ?

Off the top of my head, I think there'll be 17 to start off. And then I'll use pig tails to sub-divide further as need be. I should have a better idea after the first 12 months what way to set things up more permanently.

Buford T. Justice XIX

We were talking about Q fever last week and there's an article in the Examiner about it.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-40060568.html

GrasstoMilk

Got done silage results back today
Milkers pit is
77.2% dmd
28%dm
4.1 ph
13.6% protein
11 ME

dry cow pit is
76 dmd
22% dm
4 ph
13.6% protein
10.4 ME

Can any one tell me where the ph and ME should be for good quality silage?

trixi2011

Milking silage would be trying to get as close to 12me as possible . Very hard to achieve 12me in pit but high 11s should be achievable . pH should be between 3,7 and 4.5 afaik . Would like milking cow silage to have protien above 15 for first cut .

Mf310

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Off the top of my head, I think there'll be 17 to start off. And then I'll use pig tails to sub-divide further as need be. I should have a better idea after the first 12 months what way to set things up more permanently.

Started in dairy here 2 years ago and only after setting up permanent paddocks this summer. Had about 15 paddocks ranging from 1.5 acres to 10 acres and between taking down fences and putting down a roadway I now have 18 paddocks from 2.7 acres to 4 acres the majority being 3.6 had lads telling me to stay using pig tails but you cant beat the handiness of paddocks... during the summer we hadn't put up a reel for a few weeks no need when they are going into the right cover and right size paddock

Gillespy

Two things that always seem to happen this time of year, rats in the parlour and milk lorry driver calling at all different times looking for milk to fill a load. That was this morning.

Feel I have no choice but to house the cows tonight, it has made so much rain here in the last few days.

whelan2

Gillespy wrote: »

Two things that always seem to happen this time of year, rats in the parlour and milk lorry driver calling at all different times looking for milk to fill a load. That was this morning.

Feel I have no choice but to house the cows tonight, it has made so much rain here in the last few days.

Mine going in tonight. Will still be out during the day. If it improves they can go back out at night

Wildsurfer

I made bales of arable silage this year(grass/barley) in good dry weather. I'm getting mixed views on the quality of such bales so any advice here would you use them to buffer grass now, feed when indoors fulltime with silage or keep until the spring?

Mooooo

Wildsurfer wrote: »

I made bales of arable silage this year(grass/barley) in good dry weather. I'm getting mixed views on the quality of such bales so any advice here would you use them to buffer grass now, feed when indoors fulltime with silage or keep until the spring?

Open a few up if you are feeding now anyway and take a few samples to see what youbare dealing with

trixi2011

Wildsurfer wrote: »

I made bales of arable silage this year(grass/barley) in good dry weather. I'm getting mixed views on the quality of such bales so any advice here would you use them to buffer grass now, feed when indoors fulltime with silage or keep until the spring?

Should be grand for buffing with grass still in the diet , should be great for cow condition . If no grass in the diet protien in the diet would be 2 low in protien

Buford T. Justice XIX

A bit of hope for an increased export capacity.
https://twitter.com/farmersjournal/status/1314541374663004162?s=19

Mooooo

https://twitter.com/InsiderFood/status/1313986536791302144?s=19

Looks nice anyway. There aren't many around who would take a taste of butter on its own

straight

Mooooo wrote: »

https://twitter.com/InsiderFood/status/1313986536791302144?s=19

Looks nice anyway. There aren't many around who would take a taste of butter on its own

Pale white butter. Inferior stuff.

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

https://twitter.com/InsiderFood/status/1313986536791302144?s=19

Looks nice anyway. There aren't many around who would take a taste of butter on its own

Wouldn't ya love to go at something like it besides sending the milk off for nought..

So many specialities in the country around milk products, but only a handful doing it around butter..

Mooooo

straight wrote: »

Pale white butter. Inferior stuff.

He says as much for this time of year. Brittany would be similar to parts of England or southeast here I assume?, would have the drop of rain this time of year

straight

alps wrote: »

Wouldn't ya love to go at something like it besides sending the milk off for nought..

So many specialities in the country around milk products, but only a handful doing it around butter..

Remember the bog butter found a few years ago it was thousands of years old.

straight

Cows are flying here. They're making up for a poor September. Doing around 1.7kg a day. 4.08 pr, 4.33 fat. 20ish litres. Grass is getting a bit thin on the ground so I think I'll be moving to a 20 - 25 day rotation just to clean up what is left. Going into 1200kg covers tomorrow. I'll gladly buffer them with bales after that.

mahoney_j

straight wrote: »

Cows are flying here. They're making up for a poor September. Doing around 1.7kg a day. 4.08 pr, 4.33 fat. 20ish litres. Grass is getting a bit thin on the ground so I think I'll be moving to a 20 - 25 day rotation just to clean up what is left. Going into 1200kg covers tomorrow. I'll gladly buffer them with bales after that.

In at night here from tomorrow on z grass out by day for guts of month have been getting silage pre pm milking for last 2 weeks will still leave in a bale in 2 columns of shed daily along with the z grass .4 kg meal 20.5 Ltrs 4.58!fat 4.11 p grazing 1400 covers .cows very content ,licking paddocks good regrowths and no ground damage

Timmaay

Shaking out 2 bales in the paddock the cows are grazing at night here, working well so far while weather is good , cows not leaving much behind them. I do have enough feed space in the shed if needs but alot more hassle having to hold cows back, then they don't want to go back to the paddock etc. Final round starting today, hopefully get to mid Nov before cows are finished up, if the weather gets poor I'll let the r1s finish up grazing whenever ground conditions allow across the winter.

degetme

mahoney_j wrote: »

In at night here from tomorrow on z grass out by day for guts of month have been getting silage pre pm milking for last 2 weeks will still leave in a bale in 2 columns of shed daily along with the z grass .4 kg meal 20.5 Ltrs 4.58!fat 4.11 p grazing 1400 covers .cows very content ,licking paddocks good regrowths and no ground damage

How do some lads get away with zero grazing and others get neospora out of it then. Do you know your herd profile for neospora