Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

What would you do with the milk though...

Most tanks now are very modern, just push a button to start wash. A good few farmers dont live on farm so if wash cycle takes 40 minutes it can hold up milking. Up to a few weeks ago milk man was collecting milk at 4am here,grand tank washed for me when I'd go out. Now he's here just after 8am, suits me as I dont have to pay for fully cooling the milk. He puts it on wash.. . He has also rang me at 4am to say there was a cow in difficulty calving.

your not grasping my issue re leaving the chiller on, he hasnt put the wash on the last 5 collections i genuinely didnt care i put it on, but now he's trying to damage my equipment, but you cant seem to wrap your head around that, you have another agenda anyway i think ranting about dairy farmers been precious and soft, in any other industry where your providing circa 1 months work for a tanker and driver yearly youd be able to call the shots, why should i be beholden to the above driver

Nobody is asking the lorry driver to get into a milk tank with a brush and marigold gloves. Its just a case of turning off cooler ( one switch) and turning on washer (another switch) .

I'd say he'd just drive off, they're supposed to have access

The whole problem with milk collection is farmers milking times most farmers dont want lorry at all same time.i always work with driver to help him out it may mean milking an hour later in evening but farmers need to understand that these 50 euro notes and the likes dont help much at all

Our drivers have no problem replacing the cover on the outlet and pressing wash. We're blessed with very helpful drivers in fairness -tough job with long hours. They're coming to me every two days now because my tank is too small. Not a word of complaint out of them. They're going to other lads every day at peak.

Don't know. There's a red marker line on the gauge and it sits just to the right of it as usual. Must clean the regulator when I get a chance

Have milked many three crosses but not in that order, I've montys of Norwegian red and jex cows. I would say a great cross for you system, the NRs are a super breed, seem to be able to adapt to high or low input while maintaining health and fertility . You should have enough size from the first cross.

Ya, I can do that. Loads of vacuum. 3 heifers last year had the machine falling off and are still not great. 2 or 3 more this year and same story. If they even take a step it falls off. I use kick bars to hold up the milk line for about 4 cows/heifers. I don't mind but disaster for relief milkers

When did you last change the liners? New liners are that bit less able to fall off.

Edit: it could even be a liner brand issue.

I'd pick my battles. A few early mornings the milkman here was in the yard for ages, 1 morning he was playing a game on his phone, Another he was waiting to get word back as to where he'd be offloading . Another morning the lorry was broke down. You're only concerned about your tank and milk not his pump on his lorry. Afaik the gps tracker thing will say how long he was in your yard

Who does it serve that there’s an exemption from driver hours regulation?

It certainly doesn’t put any money into farmers pockets..but it allows Coops to sub the transport to unscrupulous operators that hire the cheapest drivers and squeeze the last out of them. Maybe bring the haulage up to 2024, proper hours, proper pay..and make the Coops take responsibility for an important part of their part in processing?

camera in dairy, putting one at covering the yard/dairy door in this week, just waiting on cctv lad to get it wired in

thats what i have in dairy, have the floodlight one in calving shed with full 360 motion their a brilliant job

What did u find wrong with the norwegian red mine had bad teat placement.My cow of choice is nz friesian and british friesian

Apart from colouring or if there was a large size difference such as with a Jersey, I'm not sure what issues would be with a 3 way cross that there wouldn't be with a pure bred, apart from notional. Most traits are universal and varied across dairy cattle. A pure bred can take after any particular ancestor just as easy as a cross bred.

They weren’t ‘milky’…bad feet, poor mobility etc.

The purpose of a three way cross is to keep hybrid vigor within the breeding. If your breed is 50/50 and you breed back with one of the orginall breed you lose hybrid vigor. To keep it you have to use a third breed.

To keep hybrid vigor you are trying to keep any one breed used as near to or below 50% if possible.

Have the light weight pearson clusters here. I think once a cluster has fallen off in the 5 months we've been using them. Used to have a pain in my shoulder from old parlour. That's gone