Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Say my name

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Can't see the attraction in pumping out nitrogen to create a surplus that has to be baled.
Anyone could see the way growth rates are going the last few weeks and adjust accordingly, skip every second field or shut the spreader down to 12-14 units and a lot of money and hassle would be spared at what should be one of the cushiest times of year for a dairy farmer.

Why not the whole hog?
Conditions are perfect for biology and biological organic inputs.

whelan2

Say my name wrote: »

The vet can change which is which at their discretion.

As long as they do the whole herd that way and know what they're doing of course.

Never heard of that tbh. Was always the same on any farm I was on in the UK and here

Base price

whelan2 wrote: »

Never heard of that tbh. Was always the same on any farm I was on in the UK and here

+1
I would have thought that there are strict rules to ensure conformity.

Say my name

whelan2 wrote: »

Never heard of that tbh. Was always the same on any farm I was on in the UK and here

Our vet won't tell you which is which and swaps it to suit himself.

Maybe it's just him.
Reasoning is with him if people knew which was which it leaves it open to tampering with.

whelan2

Say my name wrote: »

Our vet won't tell you which is which and swaps it to suit himself.

Maybe it's just him.
Reasoning is with him if people knew which was which it leaves it open to tampering with.

What happens if the department come out to inspect at reading?

Say my name

whelan2 wrote: »

What happens if the department come out to inspect at reading?

I presume he tells them which is which?

trixi2011

Have seen both in Ireland and UK in resent times were vet has put the injections the wrong way round by mistake he would make a note of these animals . Had a cow with a big bottom lump at test 3 weeks ago ended up she had avain In that lump and a note had been on the system so passed the test no bother

tismesoitis

Lumps on the top...ok. bottom lumps...not ok!!
Up for heaven down for hell.

visatorro

Reggie. wrote:

1000kg in a bale would be madness

Doubt any chamber would be able for 1000 kg bales . 800-850 kg seems to be the run of it

Reggie.

cosatron wrote: »

Says the contractor

Try moving that sort of weight on the front of a tractor constantly and you'll some harm being done

FarmerDougal

Weighed fusion 2 bales fewe years ago light crop which tested at 35dm and they Weighed 970-1030kg

cosatron

whelan2 wrote: »

Top lumps are avian tb, bottom lumps are panic stations around here

Your correct, another instance where I wasn’t paying attention in school.

RightTurnClyde

tismesoitis wrote: »

Lumps on the top...ok. bottom lumps...not ok!!
Up for heaven down for hell.

Big Blue Bottom Bad

Simples!!!

K.G.

Winter wont be long coming so i m giving some thought to trying to keep the cubicles cleaner.what changes have ye made that have improved cibicle cleanliness in terms of head rail distance to cubicle end or brisket boards or what ever.now is the time to change stuff that might help

Wildsurfer

K.G. wrote: »

Winter wont be long coming so i m giving some thought to trying to keep the cubicles cleaner.what changes have ye made that have improved cibicle cleanliness in terms of head rail distance to cubicle end or brisket boards or what ever.now is the time to change stuff that might help

Ah Jaysus you're depressing me with talk like that, thinking about being back to cleaning cubicles!

Buford T. Justice XIX

I thought this was an interesting idea on cleaning out paddocks in the next rotation.
https://twitter.com/TeagascGrass10/status/1288415101075304449?s=19

Castlekeeper

Say my name wrote: »

Why not the whole hog?
Conditions are perfect for biology and biological organic inputs.

Why not indeed!
Except that soils under conventional industrial management protocols really struggle to function when the "heroin" is withdrawn.
I'm only talking about optimum rates, cost, efficiency, and work /life balance.
Successfully biologically functioning soils are a bit down the road for most both theoretically and practically.

Castlekeeper

mahoney_j wrote: »

Cows have to be fed on ****ty days from October on ,u can never have enough good feed in yard .been spreading 20 units behind cows since April and last 2.5 weeks back to 17!ish grass still growing strong but of my rotation was 25 days plus farm would go hungry v quick

I was writing in the context of people here complaining of having too many bales, and the difficulty on getting a window of baling (unnecessary) surplus grass in this weather.

Mooooo

Castlekeeper wrote: »

I was writing in the context of people here complaining of having too many bales, and the difficulty on getting a window of baling (unnecessary) surplus grass in this weather.

Tbh I just hate bales, viewed as a necessary evil. Also I don't really consider anything a surplus until cow's are out full time next year, a bad autumn here and with half the farm heavier in nature and cow's could well be in a month early.
Can see your point but the last number of years have shown whether due to wet or dry weather a stock of forage will generally be needed in the yard. Managing that from year to year cost effectively obv debatable

Waffletraktor

Start a fund to sponsor a trip with a load of each over the weigh bridge.

straight

Mooooo wrote: »

Tbh I just hate bales, viewed as a necessary evil. Also I don't really consider anything a surplus until cow's are out full time next year, a bad autumn here and with half the farm heavier in nature and cow's could well be in a month early.
Can see your point but the last number of years have shown whether due to wet or dry weather a stock of forage will generally be needed in the yard. Managing that from year to year cost effectively obv debatable

Hate bales here too but a necessary evil. I often think when I was growing up there was no vacuum tanks or bales and no need for big tractors, trailers, etc. Our costs are gone way out of control and the same price for our outputs or less in the case of calves, etc.

K.G.

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Ah Jaysus you're depressing me with talk like that, thinking about being back to cleaning cubicles!

Ah i know but i have to figure out what i ll do 1 month
Maybe order stuff an other month
A month or 2 to get it done.......oh feck cows have to come in tomorrow and i still havent that finishedim dead pleased with myself that i started doung a bit of maintenance on the scrapers this afternoon.hasnt happened with a couple of years

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

Tbh I just hate bales, viewed as a necessary evil. Also I don't really consider anything a surplus until cow's are out full time next year, a bad autumn here and with half the farm heavier in nature and cow's could well be in a month early.
Can see your point but the last number of years have shown whether due to wet or dry weather a stock of forage will generally be needed in the yard. Managing that from year to year cost effectively obv debatable

Can you ever have too much silage, though? I have about 200 bales more than I need and going baling the second cut next week. I'll use most of the bales before I open the pit and hopefully cut earlier next year for better quality.

Tbh, I want a good reserve of silage here for the bad year. I'm not anxious to be looking for silage in a bad year ever again.

Timmaay

I spent over 5k on June buying in an extra 18 ac 1st cut, that on hindsight I could easily of got from 2nd and 3rd cuts given how the last 6wks went, however I had no idea back in June, everything pointed towards a possible repeat of summer 2018, where I had to spent about 30k on extra feed, plus the stress of running short all winter, so that 5k was simply insurance, that at worst case I don't get to cash in until the winter after next year.

mahoney_j

A reserve of top quality feed in yard 12 months of year is a must now and I look on it like an insurance policy when drought hits or wet spring/backend it’s one less thing to dress about and u don’t have to pay over the odds for average quality stuff even if u could find it

orm0nd

mahoney_j wrote: »

A reserve of top quality feed in yard 12 months of year is a must now and I look on it like an insurance policy when drought hits or wet spring/backend it’s one less thing to dress about and u don’t have to pay over the odds for average quality stuff even if u could find it

a mate of mine started dairying on very dry upland farm in the '70s , he always maintained you should have 1.5 years winter fodder on hand

he sold up and moved to a much larger low lying farm with heavy soils, he now reckons you should have 2 years fodder on hand

straight

orm0nd wrote: »

a mate of mine started dairying on very dry upland farm in the '70s , he always maintained you should have 1.5 years winter fodder on hand

he sold up and moved to a much larger low lying farm with heavy soils, he now reckons you should have 2 years fodder on hand

There's great comfort in having it. I'm buying in bales delivered here for 25 euro and I think it's a great job. Enough to be doing in the spring besides searching and begging for bales.

Castlekeeper

straight wrote: »

There's great comfort in having it. I'm buying in bales delivered here for 25 euro and I think it's a great job. Enough to be doing in the spring besides searching and begging for bales.

Any reasonably good quality bale in the yard fr cheaper than 30 is easier than making it yourself from rented land, and also I would find, from excessive amounts of surplus grass. Closing ground in an organised fashion is a different story to making 20-40 wet bales every week or 2.



We always need about 3 months extra in hand here on heavy ground.

jaymla627

The self-help group been set up by robot owners is interesting, Lely really poked the hornets nest a few weeks ago with their its not the robot it’s the farmers fault stance, was glancing through the class action been taken against them by a large group of American dairy farmers and it would open your eyes to the amount of things that exists to go wrong with them...
Whenever that case is decided if the verdict goes against Lely could leave them wide open here for similar

Reggie.

jaymla627 wrote: »

The self-help group been set up by robot owners is interesting, Lely really poked the hornets nest a few weeks ago with their its not the robot it’s the farmers fault stance, was glancing through the class action been taken against them by a large group of American dairy farmers and it would open your eyes to the amount of things that exists to go wrong with them...
Whenever that case is decided if the verdict goes against Lely could leave them wide open here for similar

Lely put all its eggs in the robots when it sold its grass machinery rights