Dairy Farming General

Cow Porter

Milked out wrote: »

I saw a photo of a system where a farmer put gates that can close across the road and then put cattle grids either side of his own roadway in such a way that the cows can walk across the road but if a car comes they can drive over the cattle grid when no cows are there if you get me. Gates close back out the way after and Cattle grid wasn't in main road so no council issue. Can't remember if it was here or twitter but seemed a good solution don't think it was in Ireland tho

Seen that one too, suppose it's safer alright

Cow Porter

orm0nd wrote: »

visited a guy one evening & he was using electrified sheep wire on top of rubber mats , think he only pulled them across when the cows were crossing & then pulled to to one side

How thick was the mat? Would a roll out cubicle mat do?

frazzledhome

We let the cows off in groups, took a bit of time to train the motorists but they've gotten the hang of it now

Have looked at tunnel but would be under the bed of the river do its a no go

Timmaay

orm0nd wrote: »

visited a guy one evening & he was using electrified sheep wire on top of rubber mats , think he only pulled them across when the cows were crossing & then pulled to to one side

Cow porter have a similar problem here, basically got a private driveway right through my land, except it's very heavily used by walkers accessing the beach this time of the year. What I've been thinking about doing is having likes of a moving barrier system, and put it on a timer switch, basically it would open for say a minute every 5 or 10mins, and let the cows cross then. From an engineer point of view there is very little to it, I'd make it very similar to this http://heneygate.com, but have a small battery/solar powered motor on the timer switch to lift it.

kowtow

Timmaay wrote: »

I'd make it very similar to this http://heneygate.com, but have a small battery/solar powered motor on the timer switch to lift it.

I like that little heneygate - gallagher make a similar thing (like a radio aerial whip which springs back to close) but I think it's a bit more expensive.

I wonder which one works better with the quad? presumably the gate remains live while it swings open so you really want it to get out of the way rather than brush you along its length.

frazzledhome

kowtow wrote: »

I like that little heneygate - gallagher make a similar thing (like a radio aerial whip which springs back to close) but I think it's a bit more expensive.

I wonder which one works better with the quad? presumably the gate remains live while it swings open so you really want it to get out of the way rather than brush you along its length.

Roast you on the quad

Greengrass1

Had lads in today cleaning out the dung to out farm and rest out here. Will spread in after second cut and rest in sept.
drawing with 20ft trailer with high sides.
Only 1 /3 emptied and been here sInce 9 am. And we've spread a good bit our selves already. More dung than we know what to do with

Panch18

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Had lads in today cleaning out the dung to out farm and rest out here. Will spread in after second cut and rest in sept.
drawing with 20ft trailer with high sides.
Only 1 /3 emptied and been here sInce 9 am. And we've spread a good bit our selves already. More dung than we know what to do with

Do ye have yer own sidespreader green grass?? I'd say there's fair spreading in that amount of dung. We used to have 70 cows on straw a couple of winters and the amount of dung was serious

Good for the land though

Greengrass1

Panch18 wrote: »

Do ye have yer own sidespreader green grass?? I'd say there's fair spreading in that amount of dung. We used to have 70 cows on straw a couple of winters and the amount of dung was serious

Good for the land though

We do yeah but we'll get him to cover the silage ground with his rear discharge spreader when we get it cut he'll fly through it.
well plug away at what's left then behind the ciws ourselves with the side spreader
No better feed for grass than well rotted dung.

orm0nd

Cow Porter wrote: »

How thick was the mat? Would a roll out cubicle mat do?

didn't pay too much heed TBH possibly 2 inches thick

think it was 2 foot sheep wire so it was about 3.5 to 4 foot wide & about 10 foot long

WheatenBriar

Was milking this evening with a crick in my neck,it's up there with milking with a bad hangover and a mind to vomit

just do it

GG

A few questions on bedding cows on straw. What m2/cow do you give them? How many weeks build-up of bedding before you'd have to empty it?

Greengrass1

just do it wrote: »

GG

A few questions on bedding cows on straw. What m2/cow do you give them? How many weeks build-up of bedding before you'd have to empty it?

Was 55 dry cows on that from mid Nov to feb till calving got under way.
Was never cleaned out. Between 2-3 bales going in there every day.
The area we bed is 75ft by 32ft

Wildsurfer

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Was 55 dry cows on that from mid Nov to feb till calving got under way.
Was never cleaned out. Between 2-3 bales going in there every day.
The area we bed is 75ft by 32ft

A bit of work in that eh. Manually or straw chopper/blower? Was that just the lie back area, I presume they were stepping onto slats for feeding?

3 the square

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We do yeah but we'll get him to cover the silage ground with his rear discharge spreader when we get it cut he'll fly through it.
well plug away at what's left then behind the ciws ourselves with the side spreader
No better feed for grass than well rotted dung.

do u ever spread it on ground for reseeding and plough it in ?? u could really lash it on.

RightTurnClyde

There you go Gg, get the cheque book, job done. Great Parlour
http://www.donedeal.ie/milkingparlours-for-sale/fullwood-16-unit-parlour/8848354

Greengrass1

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

There you go Gg, get the cheque book, job done. Great Parlour
http://www.donedeal.ie/milkingparlours-for-sale/fullwood-16-unit-parlour/8848354

Wonder could it be joined, ideal if so.
Have number of crowd in Tyrone who deal in newish s/h basic parlours. Had an 18 unit there the other day but were not ready for it atm. Be no problem getting similat one off them just let them know few wks before hand

jaymla627

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

There you go Gg, get the cheque book, job done. Great Parlour
http://www.donedeal.ie/milkingparlours-for-sale/fullwood-16-unit-parlour/8848354

Wouldnt say it's worth the colour of 25 grand, with Tams grants and the hassle of ripping it out and putting it back together I'd say 17 grand is all its worth, was a expensive parlour the first day though

Greengrass1

Wildsurfer wrote: »

A bit of work in that eh. Manually or straw chopper/blower? Was that just the lie back area, I presume they were stepping onto slats for feeding?

Roll em out. Used to shake out with loader but find bales go further when rolling and last longer. Easier to bed too when rolling out.
yeah onto a scrapped feeding passage. Have had plans to do cubicles every yr but still haven't got to do them yet.

Yep 3 the square if we're ploughing we horse it on its great stuff

C0N0R

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Wonder could it be joined, ideal if so.
Have number of crowd in Tyrone who deal in newish s/h basic parlours. Had an 18 unit there the other day but were not ready for it atm. Be no problem getting similat one off them just let them know few wks before hand

Can you get the grant on a second hand parlour? Surely 60% grant is better than the savings off a second hand parlour?

Greengrass1

jaymla627 wrote: »

Wouldnt say it's worth the colour of 25 grand, with Tams grants and the hassle of ripping it out and putting it back together I'd say 17 grand is all its worth, was a expensive parlour the first day though

Would think the same myself too. New 12 unit was costing 27

Greengrass1

C0N0R wrote: »

Can you get the grant on a second hand parlour? Surely 60% grant is better than the savings off a second hand parlour?

Nope.
Effort of trying to get the thing.
If we put aside the sfp we could buy a new enough v basic s/h parlour for half the price.
Could end up still buying new but if a decent s/h crops up well buy

jaymla627

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Would think the same myself too. New 12 unit was costing 27

The fact it's a double up too dosent help your taking another 4,000 for troughs/stall work along with 5 grand for feeders/augurs to make it into a 16 unit, that's leaving it at 36,000 would be costing 40,000 by the time you have it installed...

Greengrass1

jaymla627 wrote: »

The fact it's a double up too dosent help your taking another 4,000 for troughs/stall work along with 5 grand for feeders/augurs to make it into a 16 unit, that's leaving it at 36,000 would be costing 40,000 by the time you have it installed...

We have parlour built for 12 atm but milking in it with our old 6 and can go to 20 units if we want that's why I'm thinking S/H could get likes of 18 unit cheap enough it would be a better job.
And just have repayments on cubicles and milk tank

jaymla627

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We have parlour built for 12 atm but milking in it with our old 6 and can go to 20 units if we want that's why I'm thinking S/H could get likes of 18 unit cheap enough it would be a better job.
And just have repayments on cubicles and milk tank

Keep a eye out on donedeal for the old type 2×2 Delaval claw pieces if you picked up these, you can get interplus pulsators for 150 a unit that do two units....
14 clusters here/new rubber ware plus new pulsators only cost 3,000 grand installed back in 2012

Buford T. Justice XIX

Dutch farmers under pressure also and not covering the costs of production

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/netherlands-milk-market-in-disastrous-situation/

Greengrass1

jaymla627 wrote: »

Keep a eye out on donedeal for the old type 2×2 Delaval claw pieces if you picked up these, you can get interplus pulsators for 150 a unit that do two units....
14 clusters here/new rubber ware plus new pulsators only cost 3,000 grand installed back in 2012

Where did you get the milk line etc and motors and vaccum pumps

Timmaay

That 8unit double up definitely worth nothing like 25k. By the time you try converts it into a 16unit swingover you'll have sank another 10k easy into it, that would well pay for a brand new 18/20unit after the grant.

Timmaay

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Dutch farmers under pressure also and not covering the costs of production

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/netherlands-milk-market-in-disastrous-situation/

High input/low margin system combined with extremely high borrowings, is it any surprise? Right at the minute I'd guess most farmers around the world aren't covering the cost of production, but when you can't do it during a year of record high prices, the mind baffles why they bother.

mahoney_j

Timmaay wrote: »

High input/low margin system combined with extremely high borrowings, is it any surprise? Right at the minute I'd guess most farmers around the world aren't covering the cost of production, but when you can't do it during a year of record high prices, the mind baffles why they bother.

Lads here are considered highly borrowed at 4/5 k per cow ,over there 35/40 k plus per cow is common place on most farms.like me high production cows but no way in hell if follow that model .def pick bits off it out though