Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Siamsa Sessions

alps wrote: »

Water quality and the **** show that went on between christmas and the 13th of January

A farm meeting I was at Tues night was told Jack Nolan from Dept has claimed that County Councils have never received so many complaints about farmers spreading slurry over Xmas.

Something will have to give or fellas will take it as a green light to spread whenever they like. You would hope people cop on and not take the Michael or god knows what new regulations will be imposed.

And as a farmer at the same meeting said on Tues, maybe the rules we have now are not so bad at all

Reggie.

alps wrote: »

Nothing in it for this part of the world..

Tiny flurries..Temp not falling enough to drop soil temps..Might see heavier falls blowing onto the east coast and through the Midlands..

Thought they were giving countrywide temps to drop into the minus range

alps

Reggie. wrote: »

Thought they were giving countrywide temps to drop into the minus range

2 night time dips to -1 won't drag down soil temperatures....be interesting to watch

Ground drying nicely now, but wind a little on the high side for urea..

We'll know a lot more by tomorrow

mahoney_j

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

A farm meeting I was at Tues night was told Jack Nolan from Dept has claimed that County Councils have never received so many complaints about farmers spreading slurry over Xmas.

Something will have to give or fellas will take it as a green light to spread whenever they like. You would hope people cop on and not take the Michael or god knows what new regulations will be imposed.

And as a farmer at the same meeting said on Tues, maybe the rules we have now are not so bad at all

Remember the mantra here and elsewhere not so long ago and from lots of dairy advisors /Tegasc etc add the cows first then worry about the secondary things like sheds and slurry storage ....

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

Remember the mantra here and elsewhere not so long ago and from lots of dairy advisors /Tegasc etc add the cows first then worry about the secondary things like sheds and slurry storage ....

Their going to have to up their game big time into the future, was a pretty easy blueprint of the same self-repeating mantra the past two decades, I wouldn't be overly confident of them stepping up to the plate to be honest alot of them are institutionalized at this stage

liosnagceann75

Has anybody got the Kurstan cow scratcher supplied by o donovan engineering? Or is the Alfa cow scratcher worth the extra money? Thanks

older by the day

visatorro wrote: »

Be careful with the stuff from the North...

Has it IRA or unionist connections. No I looked it up. I wouldn't use it for pre dipping. In case of the chlorine.

Grueller

liosnagceann75 wrote: »

Has anybody got the Kurstan cow scratcher supplied by o donovan engineering? Or is the Alfa cow scratcher worth the extra money? Thanks

I can't answer that question but I know twenty years ago we had a similar one about scrapers between alfa laval and dairy power. Dairy power were £700 cheaper. We went dairy power and the first fault was with them.this year when they needed a normally closed switch replacement. €50 and sorted.

Timmaay

The floor in 50yr old indoor silage pit that I'm using for drycows at the min has badly broke up right where I have a ring feeder, can't be good for the cows feet, and its a right pain while trying to clean it out twice a week. What's my best bet to tide me over for the next few weeks, needs to be a quick job that lets me put back the feeder fast enough.

GrasstoMilk

Timmaay wrote: »

The floor in 50yr old indoor silage pit that I'm using for drycows at the min has badly broke up right where I have a ring feeder, can't be good for the cows feet, and its a right pain while trying to clean it out twice a week. What's my best bet to tide me over for the next few weeks, needs to be a quick job that lets me put back the feeder fast enough.

A few sheets of steel checker plate bolted down?

Castlekeeper

Timmaay wrote: »

The floor in 50yr old indoor silage pit that I'm using for drycows at the min has badly broke up right where I have a ring feeder, can't be good for the cows feet, and its a right pain while trying to clean it out twice a week. What's my best bet to tide me over for the next few weeks, needs to be a quick job that lets me put back the feeder fast enough.

Dig it out and chuck down a metre or two of good ready mix, it'll be grand in 24 hrs indoors and won't cost much. You could even just powerhouse it aa is, and put it down over it and it'd be grand for the few months. Imho. ..

Wildsurfer

What about if you filled it with 804 and give it a few runs with a whacker plate

Siamsa Sessions

For anyone rearing weanling heifers as replacements: do you cut back on meal at this time of year?

I saw Angus Woods writing in the Journal last week about stopping meal now to encourage "compensatory growth" but was wondering what others thought?

I'm giving them 2kg of barley/nuts at the moment. They're out-wintered on rape and 20 of them are getting thru a bale of silage every 2.5-3 days. I'd like to cut back the meal to save labour as much as the cost of it.

I plan on giving them some shake of meal until AI time to make it a bit easier to get them to a trough and out a gap to the yard.

Any thoughts?

jd_12345

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

For anyone rearing weanling heifers as replacements: do you cut back on meal at this time of year?

I saw Angus Woods writing in the Journal last week about stopping meal now to encourage "compensatory growth" but was wondering what others thought?

I'm giving them 2kg of barley/nuts at the moment. They're out-wintered on rape and 20 of them are getting thru a bale of silage every 2.5-3 days. I'd like to cut back the meal to save labour as much as the cost of it.

I plan on giving them some shake of meal until AI time to make it a bit easier to get them to a trough and out a gap to the yard.

Any thoughts?

As a famous nutritionist on twitter says “it’s easy for them to thrive if they’ve been shrinking for a month before hand “. Scientific evidence would suggest Compensatory growth is real and substantial but I don’t believe in it. Fair enough on average it’ll even out, it’s your weaker animals that will suffer. And when you’re dealing with replacement heifers you can’t afford any slip ups.
We keep going feeding them even after they go out. Get a load soon enough before they go out and feed Maybe 0.4/0.5kg till whatever’s in the bin is used up. It keeps them thriving and you get a good look at every animal every day

timple23

Which ear does the bvd tag go into? I've forgotten, or does it even matter?

whelan2

timple23 wrote: »

Which ear does the bvd tag go into? I've forgotten, or does it even matter?

Doesn't matter

Wildsurfer

timple23 wrote: »

Which ear does the bvd tag go into? I've forgotten, or does it even matter?

No difference unless you need an EID tag on a certain side for reader boards

Say my name

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

A farm meeting I was at Tues night was told Jack Nolan from Dept has claimed that County Councils have never received so many complaints about farmers spreading slurry over Xmas.

Something will have to give or fellas will take it as a green light to spread whenever they like. You would hope people cop on and not take the Michael or god knows what new regulations will be imposed.

And as a farmer at the same meeting said on Tues, maybe the rules we have now are not so bad at all

I heard Jacks piece on that just a few minutes ago.
I'll watch the rest tonight.

But he mentioned getting the micronutrients right in a grassland setting.
The purpose of my message is years ago you'd be laughed out of it if you mentioned a micro nutrient for grass. Thankfully as a species we're improving our learning every year.
I'm not saying I'm great but it's how I started on the road to lowering nitrogen use here. My fert supplier knew the problem of low soil Boron in this area and included it in the mix for grassland fert for anyone that requested It.
It was that that started me on the road to lower N use.
Then I went down the rabbit hole deeper in reducing K use and increasing P use based on soil test results. Touch wood these last few years the calving Jack is redundant with fertility improved.
Down in my eyes to a balanced silage. By balanced I mean minerals. I've dropped mineral supplements on silage. Used to use buckets first very hit and miss and then moved to boluses which were very good but as I foliar fed the growing silage sward with a broad mineral feed I've dropped the boluses for 19/20 and 20/21.
Last year was a bit of a worry but they calved ok cleaned and went back in calf. Same touch wood this year but I just added Rock salt and by observation they needed it.
Now that slurry and fym will be balanced too and should allow N use to be kept where it is or lower.
Anyway further down the rabbit hole I've gone onto biological soil applications.
Looks positive in my eyes again to hopefully reducing N use more.

But anyway I suppose what I'm saying is every year there'll be something new and you'll be refining your trade which for me these past few years has been reducing N use and understanding what goes on in soil.

I wouldn't be as afraid of a reduction in artificial N limits now as I would have been five years ago. All you need to do is what I call fooling around.

Siamsa Sessions

Prices from dairy sale in New Ross yesterday

JeffKenna

Having a look at the weather forum it's amazing the amount of people wishing for a Beast from the East 2 next week. I still have nightmares about the last one.

DukeCaboom

I don't wanna start an EBI debate,but people on here who are into it I wanna know if they will be using more/less or the same amount of young genomic bulls as previous years on the the back of the changes made in the October proofs.

DukeCaboom

JeffKenna wrote: »

Having a look at the weather forum it's amazing the amount of people wishing for a Beast from the East 2 next week. I still have nightmares about the last one.

Lost alot of cattle back then. I'm on the coast high up over the sea. Putting on your boots & facing out to that was the worst experience of my life.

Say my name

JeffKenna wrote: »

Having a look at the weather forum it's amazing the amount of people wishing for a Beast from the East 2 next week. I still have nightmares about the last one.

It's the equivalent of a GAA follower hoping for Clare to win the All Ireland.
Or a traveller hoping a coloured pacing filly foal.
Or a suckler farmer for a lim x bb roan heifer calf born in the northwest.

Easy know they're not livestock farmers!

kevthegaff

Did anyone see the WhatsApp vid, with all the bales lined up for a heap of cows

richie123

kevthegaff wrote: »

Did anyone see the WhatsApp vid, with all the bales lined up for a heap of cows

Yes was it a 100 bales or more ? All outdoor cubicles too

Say my name

DukeCaboom wrote: »

Lost alot of cattle back then. I'm on the coast high up over the sea. Putting on your boots & facing out to that was the worst experience of my life.

I'd be taking some preliminary precautions this time.
You're in Cork I believe. With the wind direction coming off the sea and the forecasted hPa 850 air temperature you could be in for a share of snow again.
You'll see showers or longer spells build up from the temperature difference between air and sea and blow in over land.

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/gem.aspx

If you can look at the 850 hPa air temp forecast and the wind direction to get some idea of the potential.
Anything under -5 is snow temperature and the longer the draw over sea at that temperature the more precipitation/snow builds up. Wind direction forecast will show you that.

mahoney_j

DukeCaboom wrote: »

I don't wanna start an EBI debate,but people on here who are into it I wanna know if they will be using more/less or the same amount of young genomic bulls as previous years on the the back of the changes made in the October proofs.

Just 2 Irish high ebi bulls which have back pedigrees to back it up Albert and conti .after that Yamasaka ,praser,b52,Wikitionary and perception.lost faith in ebi ,served me well for years but way too much variability for last 3 years size ,milk and type has regressed

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

Just 2 Irish high ebi bulls which have back pedigrees to back it up Albert and conti .after that Yamasaka ,praser,b52,Wikitionary and perception.lost faith in ebi ,served me well for years but way too much variability for last 3 years size ,milk and type has regressed

Cant understand the pushing of yamasaka and his ebi score he's a very average bull for fertility on his daughter proven American dpr and I have 6 of them to calf down this year plus maiden heifers, boldi armour is hands down alot better bull and his American daughter proofs verify this especially regards fertility, if the ebi index was actually working armour would be plus 100 for fert and yamasaka around 10.. ..

DukeCaboom

mahoney_j wrote: »

Just 2 Irish high ebi bulls which have back pedigrees to back it up Albert and conti .after that Yamasaka ,praser,b52,Wikitionary and perception.lost faith in ebi ,served me well for years but way too much variability for last 3 years size ,milk and type has regressed

Cousin is a huge fan of praser also loves twist. He'd have an 8k litre cow & good feeder obviously.

GrasstoMilk

DukeCaboom wrote: »

I don't wanna start an EBI debate,but people on here who are into it I wanna know if they will be using more/less or the same amount of young genomic bulls as previous years on the the back of the changes made in the October proofs.

Might have a look at some proven Irish bulls but will still use majority genomic, happy enough with what it's doing for us
547kgs last year at 3.81 pr abd 4.61 bf herd av lactation is 3.1 so plenty milk still to come from them