Dairy Farming General

awaywithyou

No tail paint here either.... Spend 10 mins or so observing them during the day and that's bout it... Look out for cows acting out the ordinary when bringing the, in for milking in the morning and same in the evening.... Working well so far!

Greengrass1

awaywithyou wrote: »

No tail paint here either.... Spend 10 mins or so observing them during the day and that's bout it... Look out for cows acting out the ordinary when bringing the, in for milking in the morning and same in the evening.... Working well so far!

Ye that's what the father always did but only ever looked at at milking and cows were missed. Don't miss one now

Gillespy

That's fine for the cows with strong heats that last all day. Tail paint and a teaser is the only way. Teaser knocks off all the paint even with weak short heats. For what it costs it's a no brainer.

Greengrass1

Gillespy wrote: »

That's fine for the cows with strong heats that last all day. Tail paint and a teaser is the only way. Teaser knocks off all the paint even with weak short heats. For what it costs it's a no brainer.

Yep that's the system here now. But he's getting lazy and picking the cows he bulls

sheebadog

Scanned 114cows today. 33 empty.

Greengrass1

sheebadog wrote: »

Scanned 114cows today. 33 empty.

What's the plan now? Would that be typical?

freedominacup

Gillespy wrote: »

That's fine for the cows with strong heats that last all day. Tail paint and a teaser is the only way. Teaser knocks off all the paint even with weak short heats. For what it costs it's a no brainer.

Put the chin ball on the teaser this evening. He was not a happy bunny going off.

sheebadog

Greengrass1 wrote: »

What's the plan now? Would that be typical?

It's normal. They just milk on. Upside (optimistic me) Holsteins do milk on.....!

EamonKilkenny

There is no way you can catch all heats without tailpainting unless you spend every hour in the field. You still need to watch them but at least it gives you an idea what's been happening during the day and night. We use three different colours, pink (not served) green (served) and blue (repeat). It helps me focus on the cows that need watching.

Gillespy

freedominacup wrote: »

Put the chin ball on the teaser this evening. He was not a happy bunny going off.

I find it's better to put the paint on the cows and let him remove it.

One tail paint colour here, have a chart up in the parlour where it's easy to see what's going on. Keep an eye on the ICBF site too, cows due first service and cows due repeat. Great site really.

Timmaay

sheebadog wrote: »

It's normal. They just milk on. Upside (optimistic me) Holsteins do milk on.....!

How actively are your trying to improve the fertility of your cows? Would you be quite strict in say avoiding breeding replacements from the likes of these empties, or are they just part and parcel of your system? I've started being a lot less tolerance on poor fertility here, I'm finally at the stage where I can be a lot more choosy about what to breed from. However the current batch of HOs I have that knock out the likes of 9k over a 350/400day lactation will still be here till they die out.

sheebadog

Timmaay wrote: »

How actively are your trying to improve the fertility of your cows? Would you be quite strict in say avoiding breeding replacements from the likes of these empties, or are they just part and parcel of your system? I've started being a lot less tolerance on poor fertility here, I'm finally at the stage where I can be a lot more choosy about what to breed from. However the current batch of HOs I have that knock out the likes of 9k over a 350/400day lactation will still be here till they die out.

Different system here. It's more knock out 10k litres at 305 days and feed the shyte outa them!
Really trying hard on fertility for different reasons to yours. You want cows to grass, I just want them to stay producing and not be culled after one lactation.

awaywithyou

EamonKilkenny wrote: »

There is no way you can catch all heats without tailpainting unless you spend every hour in the field. You still need to watch them but at least it gives you an idea what's been happening during the day and night. We use three different colours, pink (not served) green (served) and blue (repeat). It helps me focus on the cows that need watching.

I have a copybook with all cows calved listed in the order they calved since January... As each cow is served I put a tick beside her number... From looking at the copy several times a day everyday I could nearly list off to you by heart what cows I need to be watching to come in heat.....

Greengrass1

Reading JKs interview with a Dutch dairy farmer. Only a load spread 160kgN/ha.
He seems to be growing lots of grass with that rate

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Reading JKs interview with a Dutch dairy farmer. Only a load spread 160kgN/ha.
He seems to be growing lots of grass with that rate

I'd say he buys a lot of fencing equipment or a lot of ahem extra meal!!!!!.interesting article.ge had an array of machinery any cobtractor wod be proud of.borrowings of 17 k per cow is what caught my eye.management and feedibg of cows was very good as he was achieving extremely high yields and solids

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

I'd say he buys a lot of fencing equipment or a lot of ahem extra meal!!!!!.interesting article.ge had an array of machinery any cobtractor wod be proud of.borrowings of 17 k per cow is what caught my eye.management and feedibg of cows was very good as he was achieving extremely high yields and solids

Ye solids were exceptional. Don't know how I'd sleep at night if I needed every bit of that 43c/l to keep going

Timmaay

Yeh read that also. Hmmm 17k per cow. Take the average 100cow dairyfarmer in Ireland with lets call it zero borrowings at the second, he goes to the bank and borrows 1.7million, and buys the 120acre farm next door, 100 extra cows, new parlour, cublicles, slurry storage and whatever else, he'd be considered stone mad and the banks would laugh at him. I know which one I'd take my chances with however!

sheebadog

Land is worth good money there.
Over €75k/ha.

darragh_haven

mahoney_j wrote: »

I'd say he buys a lot of fencing equipment or a lot of ahem extra meal!!!!!.interesting article.ge had an array of machinery any cobtractor wod be proud of.borrowings of 17 k per cow is what caught my eye.management and feedibg of cows was very good as he was achieving extremely high yields and solids

17k a cow...... I want cows to have savage amounts of milk and sh1tting gold to have borrowed that

mahoney_j

sheebadog wrote: »

Land is worth good money there.
Over €75k/ha.

Sheba is it because of high summer temps that more of an emphasis isn't put on grazed grass in sumner.im guessing place must burn up from early to mid June on with frowth practically seizing.in article been discussed above the guy in holland was only z grazing grass to his lowest yielders(sub 25)and seemingly it was like what we would be putting in pit here.his 50/60 litre a day cows get no fresh grass as it's too variable..I think these guys are missing a trick I have a few cows that will peak at 50 to 55 Ltrs on carefully managed grass and parlour feed to yield with no buffer.
I think were really lucky in this country to have our ebi index for breeding our herds.with use of milk records and picking bulls on traits you want to improve you can have a really fertile ,high solids ainmAl that will throw out high volumes of milk or a x bred ainmAl for a different system .level of debt on some continental farms is staggering but ye seem to be surviving pretty well!!

satstheway

Anybody have any good ideas of how to stop a cow sucking herself?



Got a plastic nose thingy on but no good. Tried a tyre over her head 4 nights now stops her sucking but she leaves them lying in the field and I don't know how as they are a bugger on.

Base price

satstheway wrote: »

Anybody have any good ideas of how to stop a cow sucking herself?



Got a plastic nose thingy on but no good. Tried a tyre over her head 4 nights now stops her sucking but she leaves them lying in the field and I don't know how as they are a bugger on.

Sorry, but I got a good laugh from this. Never heard of one sucking themselves :eek:
Tyre sounded like a good idea but obviously she has sussed that out.
Maybe try the old type metal (anti suck) nose thingies.
If that does not work then maybe a "lampshade" contraption like vets use for dogs/cats. You would have to fit a collar to her to attach it too.
Or could you rub something onto her teats that is unpalatable? I presume Stockholm is a no go. Maybe a mix of Epsom salts in vaseline?

Kovu

satstheway wrote: »

Anybody have any good ideas of how to stop a cow sucking herself?



Got a plastic nose thingy on but no good. Tried a tyre over her head 4 nights now stops her sucking but she leaves them lying in the field and I don't know how as they are a bugger on.

Comment of the week

Ever seen a neck cradle for horses?
Something like that would work but it would prob stop her grazing too.

freedominacup

.Kovu. wrote: »

Comment of the week

Ever seen a neck cradle for horses?
Something like that would work but it would prob stop her grazing too.

Sorry to disagree with a mod but it wouldn't. Seen it here twice over the years and only one way to stop it and it involves a journey in a trailer and some men with knives. Oul boy made up a contraption not unlike your neck cradle and the last bitch (FB 920, made her the 20th heifer freeze branded in 1989 which will tell you the impression she made) and she had worked out a way to maneouvre around it in a few hours. They're like junkies with it.

sheebadog

mahoney_j wrote: »

Sheba is it because of high summer temps that more of an emphasis isn't put on grazed grass in sumner.im guessing place must burn up from early to mid June on with frowth practically seizing.in article been discussed above the guy in holland was only z grazing grass to his lowest yielders(sub 25)and seemingly it was like what we would be putting in pit here.his 50/60 litre a day cows get no fresh grass as it's too variable..I think these guys are missing a trick I have a few cows that will peak at 50 to 55 Ltrs on carefully managed grass and parlour feed to yield with no buffer.
I think were really lucky in this country to have our ebi index for breeding our herds.with use of milk records and picking bulls on traits you want to improve you can have a really fertile ,high solids ainmAl that will throw out high volumes of milk or a x bred ainmAl for a different system .level of debt on some continental farms is staggering but ye seem to be surviving pretty well!!

Well Mahony, grass just isn't reliable here with me but I still use as much as I can. Soya at €440 is our grass replacement. Problem is that we have been suffering from water deficits since March. This the one year in ten that grass is bad. Saying that cows are out here since early February. When you are pushing yields to the max it's hard to beat maize with protein balancer. An Irish HOL that will do 8k will do 10k+ on top diets.

You guys seem to forget when soya was £150/ton continental farmers were way more competitive than Irish.
Tbh I think ebi is overrated on most Irish 5k litre herds (runs for cover!). I just can't understand why ye are so taken up with it. Definitely has it's place in the 9k+ litre herds though!
As for borrowings... I'm not at all heavily borrowed considering the scale of things....farms purchased etc. the Dutch and Germans would scare you with their borrowings. It's a good time to borrow though because money is almost "free" with the last few years.

Dutch guy 30km away started here same time as me. I was interested in his farm and met him a few times. He had 28ha in holland and now has 298ha in France. One man operation. He put in 5 robots and cows never see the fields. Milking 250 cows all year round. I have 200ha cereal ground rented from him and he buys maize etc from me. Works well.
French farmers are fairly prudent when it comes to borrowing (with the exception of robots!) and wouldn't be quarter as borrowed as the Dutch.
Hard for me to spec out borrowing on a per cow basis as dairy is a secondary enterprise but if I sold the herd I would have no borrowings. I only borrow for land acquisition which is long term. Machinery money is also borrowed.

To finish as I'm blabbing on. I've 1.4 million litre quota being produced on very little bought in products ( minerals etc) so it's mostly in house. I'm using cows to add value to cereals grown on farm but if that becomes a sustained loss maker cows will go. End of.

Kovu

freedominacup wrote: »

Sorry to disagree with a mod but it wouldn't. Seen it here twice over the years and only one way to stop it and it involves a journey in a trailer and some men with knives. Oul boy made up a contraption not unlike your neck cradle and the last bitch (FB 920, made her the 20th heifer freeze branded in 1989 which will tell you the impression she made) and she had worked out a way to maneouvre around it in a few hours. They're like junkies with it.

No worries! I assumed it would as I seen them in action on horses but cows are a little rougher.

whelan2

milk recording this morning and last night, cows are milking well.Wet ground no affecting their yield, best cow-spring calver- giving 42 litres and her twin who is an autumn calver gave 31 litres

td5man

satstheway wrote: »

Anybody have any good ideas of how to stop a cow sucking herself?



Got a plastic nose thingy on but no good. Tried a tyre over her head 4 nights now stops her sucking but she leaves them lying in the field and I don't know how as they are a bugger on.

Longe strap I think might be used for dressage (used on horses )she will be able to move her Head from side to side and will not be able to bring it back to self suck, you can Goole it or factory

Greengrass1

AI man telling me thus morning as we did our oldest cow here. 12 yrs old. That he did a brass tagged cow for a new entrant the other day. That's an old cow

td5man

Greengrass1 wrote: »

AI man telling me thus morning as we did our oldest cow here. 12 yrs old. That he did a brass tagged cow for a new entrant the other day. That's an old cow

Thought our one that calved yesterday was old.