Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Fitzmaurice and Gibbons- equal and opposite

If any one looked at Gibbions twitter timeline for 10 minutes and look at his replies to other users. They get insulting personal slurs and childish put downs. No engagement what so ever. He is not to be taken seriously and will soon get his comeuppance.

Blocked me a while back for nothing …..didn’t loose sleep over it ….he acts like a little petulant child anybody who disagrees or questions him or call him out on things gets blocked

Like a water melon. Green on the outside, red on the inside.

No. But your breakfast would be an hour late.

Loads of good systems out there …you pay for what u get .all of them have pluses and minuses but good in general …I have smaXtec ….very very happy with it on heat and health ….main thing that sold it for me was an internal bolus …in my mind and after looking at others it had to be more accurate than collars or tags …no regrets on buying it …far cheaper than others …yes a monthly charge ..yes if cow dies or you sell a cow bolus is gone but info back and how accurate it is negates it for me

The 13 milkings a week works for some lads

Much perfer to milk same time Sunday morning and head back to bed afterwards or head round to herself place for a good sleep !

Heifers 💯….cows not scanned but telling me 85/93 cows served are over 40 days since last serve and deemed in calf ….will only scan about 20 cows ….scanned everything last year and v what smaXtec was telling me empty no difference …..had 2 bulls with cows since I finished Ai on June 6 ….

Was going really well. But I see the bull serving a few after 60 days recently. Embryo loss I guess or else just the bull being bored. Hopefully the latter because there was no cow bothering to rise on them. Also I'd say the bull took a week off about 5 weeks ago. Alot of cows (about 10%) were served here about 2 weeks ago. Things seem to have settled down now again. Leaving the bull in a week longer as I intend milking a few extra next year.

I go back to bed - alone- for an hour or 2 on a sunday if no football on. I also get up for 40 minutes peace before I go out to milk each morning. Dishwasher, washing machine on. Do bank payments etc with a cup of tea before I go out. Leave breakfast stuff ready for kids.

Once cows are down to 16 litres. They'll take a hit on yield otherwise. Non scientific research😃

Yeah used ecosyl liquid on it

15 years OAD experience, 5 years full time now, I don't know anyone but who milks first thing in the morning so I don't know that one. On grazing , they might eat 5% less, but generally meal levels are 1-2 kgs less so it works out the same.

You can change frome once to twice a day at will, even in mid season, but, to use an analogy I read once, you have a strong brake and a weak accelerator!

Most breeds of cows will do, there's more difference within them between breeds.

Alot of the present OAD info came from NZ and into that cohort of farmers so there's plenty info on the jersey X, which have much the same pros and cons as on TAD. They're a bit more prone to mastitis and SCC due to low udders and milk leakage, like a lot of NZ stock, if milked inside in the spring.

Be a little careful of low litres and high % as it can result in SCC issues at lactation end simply due to concentration. That said it will only magnify what's already there rather than cause a problem.

Current breed index evaluations count for little as you will see yourself once you start, if you divide your cows between high, middle, and low, they could all change a rank and OAD indexes aren't based on milk recording OAD cows afaik.

Personally I've found British Friesians had the lowest adaption rate, and have had poorish results with Kiwi Xs, and high solids high EBI Fr. I'm very happy with some NR x and MOx but you've a bit of working our yourself as you go, you'll learn a lot from your own cows.

In general I look for a low maintenance high health herd to keep costs down to compensate for the reduced income but I know a man who milked 40+l Hols cows for a year before he retired and was very happy when they were milking 30+l on OAD, I'm not sure how long they'd last though.

Best of luck.