Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092733#Comment_122092733

Hasn’t it given all the farmers on traditional dry land a taste of what it’s like to have to contend with 5+ month winters and maybe now they might have an appreciation for the shite heavy land forces you to deal with and adapt for every spring not just one in every five. If we didn’t have at least 5 months silage in the yard here come the 1st of November you’d be selling out every spring, adds significantly to costs but that’s the cards you’re dealt.

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092890#Comment_122092890

No chance of doing the 3 bulling in the eve? Going by the breeding window charts here and what annoys me is scenarios where this morning is deemed too early and tomorrow morning too late, so getting AI man twice a day if necessary.

Another conundrum for me is vet tells me later the better and AI man tells me earlier the better.

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092890#Comment_122092890

I'm not AIing much 2 fellas in DG said the just ai at 10 in the morning whatever shows up in previous 24 hours. Even if she's only just on the app. Both using sexed semen and conventional beef straw. 2 good lads would be no bullshit with them, both said they got on fine

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092863#Comment_122092863

If derogation goes the game is f##ked in West cork and on marginal land.mahoney j was complaining that teagasc weren't giving out advice but they know the ship has sailed except on the farms with large acerages of good land and considerable capital available already to continue the investment rounds.clover and that kind of old rubbish doesn't work on poorer land and tillage crops are not an option

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092966#Comment_122092966

If the choice is either early or late then late is better.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092863#Comment_122092863

Is there anything farmers can do to stop co-ops passing on the costs if they themselves become less efficient?

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092903#Comment_122092903

One thing I noticed is that there wasn't much difference between wet ground and dry ground last autumn or this spring. Might learn to live with my wet fields a bit better.

I have to laugh at the lads blowing about getting to 200 cows. Now they have to drop 20 cows the whole thing is plucked. Not much hope for the rest of us.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092966#Comment_122092966

I could go evening ai but we’ve never done it in 50 years of ai and always got on fine.
Pre collars we would have served everything jumping but it’s just now I have the information showing me she’s not long started bulling and the fact I had a poor incalf rate to first serve last year it has me questioning my protocol

any way we left off the 3 earth cows to ai tomorrow morning, maybe it was the wrong thing to do 🤷🏻‍♂️

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093251#Comment_122093251

On a normal year we’d have all the dry cattle and heifers out for the start of March full time on the out farms that are free draining limestone ground, this was delayed about a month this year. We were lucky we always have a good reserve of silage built up but that was severely ate into this spring and now building it back up will be the challenge.

I saw on twitter one of our main female farming influencers declaring her farm will be unviable if they go from 220kgN/ha to a no derogation scenario and they’re milking between 180/200 cows I would say, what hope is there for us peasants….talk about sensationalism.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093284#Comment_122093284

Give them a 24 hr repeat. AI mens heads will be wrecked with all these collars. My own man wasn't too impressed with them this morning

Gillespy

My ai technician says it's better to be early than late. The semen will survive at body temperature in the cow for up to 24 hours. Any cow caught in no man's land could always be done twice for peace of mind.

GrasstoMilk

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093318#Comment_122093318

yes that’s the other option

But then does that serve go down in ICBF as a repeat and you won’t know what your conception rate to first serve was, that’s my query on that

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092903#Comment_122092903

5 months silage…? jaysus according to ginger we have the best land in our parish yet we make enough silage to do us for 9months…. always make plenty of silage… going filling the diet feeder there shortly for the cows… got 15mm rain here yesterday.. and got 15mm as well on tuesday… if we were to get a bit of heat now there will be savage grass about..

'wet and windy may fills the barns with corn and hay'

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093361#Comment_122093361

im sorry grasstomilk but f**k icbf, once the cows in calf that's the main thing. stats padding has the whole game in heap.

awaywithyou

was talking to a lad not far from you who worked in the Dept. of Ag retired last year.. he told me 300-400 cows are being sold in Kerry each week… between marts dealers going straight to factories etc…

the_blue_oval

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093361#Comment_122093361

Could do the second serve the following morning to a different breed and make a note of it. You won’t know till next spring which they held too but at least you’ll know better for next years breeding if the early or later serve is working better. As said above I wouldn’t be too worried about what’s down on icbf as long as they’re in calf, at least you’d know better for next year.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093314#Comment_122093314

Imagine if they had to survive on 130 cows. It would be some fall back to earth.

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093398#Comment_122093398

5 months minimum from November, not accounting for the silage the Milkers would have eaten in the backend. We’d always have a big surplus of silage around the yards come April cows would usually be out full time before the end of March and you need a good stock of silage as ground can change very quickly here, under 200 bales left here now and that’s after buying 50 or so bales at the start of the year as well, wouldn’t want anymore weather disasters.
Put silage out for Milkers yesterday evening after they had gone out after milking, went out to check a cow at 10pm near calving and only a handful had came in, all in the shed early this morning hoping that’s the last silage fed out to them for a good bit now, weather is looking up thank god.

Kerry2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093489#Comment_122093489

I was talking to someone in teagasc this week. I found him very informative and helpful. A nice man to be fair to him. He told me though that he reckons long term the nitrates will be cut from 170kg to 150kg. Sure at 150kg they’ll be putting an awful lot of people just out of business. Don’t think it would personally affect me but it’ll have massive ramifications for the co-op’s here in Ireland as regards their milk pool

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093530#Comment_122093530

Hes assuming the current shower of politicains both here and in Brussels will be in power to ram through their green agenda, the european elections could be very intresting, and the above shower could be in the minority instead of the majority

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093414#Comment_122093414

it was more for myself to know than ICBF figures tbh

I’ll just have to go back to recording in the ai book and see how many have repeated that way

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093489#Comment_122093489

tbf now I think the person jack is referring too has bought 70 acres in recent years. There would be good amount of money needed for that never mind what other infrastructure has been built

Say my name

Took a drive with an oap to the post office and took a different road home for the scenery.

There's an awful amount of land gone to tillage that was in grassland last year. I might be lambasted. But the whinging and begging to the minister has worked with the increased subsidies. I even see a dairy farmer with 20 acres on the home block accessible to cows by roadway gone into barley with tramlines. Another former dairy farmer a few hundred metres on. The dairy herd went and they are all completely organic tillage this year.

Whatever of timoleague and watching nitrates in waterways. All this will ensure more nitrates in waterways in this area now.

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093593#Comment_122093593

Don’t know any farmers buying 70 acres off the back of farming alone these days, I’m sure they had their research done and stress tested the loan repayment capacity at various stocking levels and scenarios before jumping into that commitment.

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093584#Comment_122093584

If in doubt do her a second time.

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093489#Comment_122093489

Imagine if you had to start with 40 Acres of rock And rushes I wonder would you survive.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093671#Comment_122093671

it could be 4 or 5 year ago it was bought when land wasn’t at crazy prices and it was doable for a farmer to buy. There was also no mention of dero being at risk a couple of years ago, teagasc had promoted for years to aim for 2.5-2.7 lu/ha and that’s what ppl did

If you own all your land and are happy to sit at what numbers it can carry that’s fine but for ppl that wanted to make it bigger for what ever reason are going to be left very exposed. Not fair to be mocking them imo. It’s kind of like saying “I couldn’t /didn’t want to expand and now you have to cut back numbers after building them up and now you’re worse off than me after it all, haha”

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093318#Comment_122093318

why would there heads be wrecked …they get paid for a service …farmers going to expense of monitoring systems and investing in sexed semen should make full use of the technology and serve at optimal time …if this means serving am pm so be it it’s only for short few weeks

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093744#Comment_122093744

I’m not advocating for them to be ‘thought a lesson’ or any of the like, half the ground we now own was bought and have only two payments made on the latest block that was bought. My father never over extended himself and is now milking 3 times the amount of cows when he left school at 16 to go farming full time without the help of shares or off farm income etc. My point was that if you can’t survive at 140 cows what hope have you got, it’s easy have that new parlour, new shed or that new piece of land but if you haven’t planned for the worst before making them plunges who’s to blame?

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093709#Comment_122093709

Yep

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093820#Comment_122093820

Are you doing any AI yourself? Always thinking of doing the course here, getting monitoring system and dumping the bulls.

straight

The very definition of derogation meant that it was temporary. It's only a minority of farmers that blindly follow teagasc.

In business you have to adapt and not just blame other people.

Of course I myself are plenty guilty of whinging and Moaning but in the background I am not going to get myself into an unsustainable position and blame others for my decisions.

farmertipp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092863#Comment_122092863

the big 3 need to be run well too though. I can see trouble down the road in dg if wrong guy appointed ceo. we need a fresh pair of hands. not someone who has been at dg coalface for yrs. someone with energy drive and vision. sadly lacking in dg atm

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093848#Comment_122093848

my folks started with nothing, dads dad died when he was 15 , had to buy 40 ac off my fathers mother to start out

They took every chance possible and pushed it hard all the time, doubt I’d be farming at all if they didn’t do all that tbh

whelan2

I think the last 18 months would test the sustainability of any enterprise. Looks like we need to plan for 9 month winters from now on

Say my name

And nitrates of 110kg and a tax on cows.

Only the fittest will adapt.

Phunk the rest.

farmertipp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094545#Comment_122094545

i think we seem to get a serious long winter every 5 r 6 yrs but this one took the biscuit. I would hope its not the norm. we have that el nino phenomenon at the moment which has affected weather for months but I think is to ease off . fingers crossed

Say my name

Round up is a derogation measure too in the EU.

It won't be dropped because Bayer a German company have their suits well placed in the meeting rooms with a list of farmers to call on for the sob stories.

Yet we have organic farmers also in the EU that don't use Roundup already.

It was put under derogation so as to one day have it's use stopped in agriculture in the EU.

Tillage farmers whinged to the EU when the derogation was near up. They were successful and it was granted another 10/12 years. Whinging pays.

We have grassland farmers in Ireland being blamed for every bit going. From methane to nitrates that can come from tillage it's all on grassland. We have rates being reduced every year and no whinging. Phosphorus down now. Meal pr % down now. Milk quantity is back now because of this. But no whinging. We have soil testers on farms taking samples and if there's peat found you'll have very low limits of livestock allowed and be forced to block drains. But no whinging.

Whinging pays lads. You've forgotten how to and who to and to do it with enough numbers behind you. If you don't you'll be continually walked on till you have to pay for the pleasure of being walked on.

mf240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093709#Comment_122093709

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094516#Comment_122094516

Was a lad found in a phone box and raised in an orphanage and he survived.

yosemitesam1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092747#Comment_122092747

Fingers crossed the good weather forecast comes this week and puts a bit of power back in the grass

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094767#Comment_122094767

Then he murdered the priests who abused him.

*ah we've all heard the story…

mf240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095092#Comment_122095092

He had to buy all his own milk quota aswell😃🙃

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095098#Comment_122095098

From the stolen church collection box. 😂

Kerry2021

A man tried to tell me today that dairy farming will shift entirely to the good land and it’ll all be gigantic herds, big teams of staff doing shift work running the farms, big rotary parlours… I told him what he said was stupid because there’s no margin of profit left in farming for staff to run a dairy farm. A smaller farmer can work for nothing himself and run his own farm for nothing but you’re not gonna get staff to work for nothing. What do ye think, how’s the future gonna look for dairy farming in Ireland?

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095210#Comment_122095210

Well things change, but land prices, and inputs are too dear, at the moment plus the labor shortage. But if work permits were relaxed and land prices went down if a lot of the older folks give in there might be a change.

To be honest I would not like to see any of my children tied to the milking parlour. A one man band is a tough way of dairy farming. So either way I don't worry about it

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095249#Comment_122095249

From what I m hearing foreign staff are a disaster. Its not the money that's the problem it's the living out in the country ,working on your own,away from family and not speaking the language so it's difficult to interact with people that's the problem.they get lonely and fed up and just feck off home one day and let things high and dry

Jack98

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095249#Comment_122095249

With all the talk of people getting out this spring there was little to no difference in the volume of land entering the market either for sale or rent from what I have heard and seen. Add to that land has not got any cheaper. I can’t see land getting any cheaper in the next few years and all the talk is that land will become available but I just don’t see it happening anyone I know of that got out this spring held onto the land and went into rearing cattle and maximizing payments.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095338#Comment_122095338

Until youve had the pleasure of having to work with these lads like i have when i was out in australia, its hard to fathom how useless/disintrested and lazy they are in 90% of cases you do come accross the odd good one but the majority arent even worth feeding as the ole chap would say

Castlekeeper

It's been a late spring but nothing exceptional in my book. This is tough enoigcountry and we haven't had a whole bad 12 months around here in over a decade and if it straightens out soon it could be a grand year yet. In fact for the last 5 years we were blaming climate change we were so overdue a bad one based on the previous 30 years. The first half of last year filled barns with good fodder so no real grievance with 2023 here either.

It's a higher stakes game now though.

I wouldn't be bothered with the 9 months silage either, it's a big investment in infrastructure and stock There's always a load of silage or other feed to be gotten at cheaper than it costs to make it the odd time things would be running tight.

Wildsurfer

I know a farmer with a Kenyan lad who lives in a cottage on an outfarm. Good worker but only has pigeon English, knows nobody, only person he meets is the farmer. I'd be worried a lad like that would just snap someday!