Has anyone their cows in yet

case 956

I have pucks of grass but ground conditions deterioting and was thinking of housing cows by night am I mad ... more the rain now influencing to house by night

simx

case 956 wrote: »

I have pucks of grass but ground conditions deterioting and was thinking of housing cows by night am I mad ... more the rain now influencing to house by night

Have drystock here, all in since wednesday, have grass but in this rain would only walk it to the ground and make s**t of the field be only doing it on myself leaving them out

bob charles

I would think allot of cattle are housed or are heading indoors today. 4" of rain in the last week hasnt helped. nearly have all accommodation full here

ZETOR_IS_BETTER

Bringing in the sucklers for the weekend.

farmerjj

cows are out by day here and in by night but can go out if they like but heavy rain forecast so might leave them in totally at night soon.

vanderbadger

half in , rest going in monday i reckon

reilig

Spring calvers all weined and housed. Weinlings back on grass. Autumn calvers all out still and more than half of them calved. First year ever calving them outside. Lots of grass but some ground getting wet!

Figerty

I find when I put them in they don't want to go out.

1chippy

All bar 5 of the spring Calvers are in. Autumn Calvers are all out and majority of the weanlings. Ground got a good soaking around here today

feartuath

Brought cows off the hill today,all weaned and in one bunch now,they have after grass for 2 weeks to come and then into shed
Weanlings have 2 to 3 weeks grass but moving meal troughs regularly .

lefthooker

If anyone suggested putting in cows to me I'd laugh at them and administer a sharp back hand slap. I pity da fool

1chippy

is it not a bit of a willy waving contest with who has the stock out the longest. i dont know about the rest of you but all my stock are well dosed, yet skittering the grass straight through them at the moment. i have good silage thats probaly going to yield better results than the piss poor grass thats about. is teagasc really on the money harping on about holding cattle out for as long as possable when theres damn all feed value in whats out there now. surely a beast is better off inside now, with the weather turning bad. i even had to pull the wellies back out today and had forgotten how hard it is to rid the smell of silage off myself.

Mulumpy

I think weather was too mild to put stock in up to now. Stock not happy with grass only now so a bit of feed is necessary. Have dry land here but want to have grass for early spring so nearly all will be in by another fortnight.

bob charles

after the last few hours rain here, I would suggest the smart people have there animals inside. 320 day grazers seem to go very quite this side of christmas while come the new year and they will be throwing it about

mahoney_j

Cows still out here and will be barring a monsoon till late November.using all the tricks eg multiple entry and exit points strip grazing,back fencing.agree about grass this tome of year it's value is diminishing but feed parlour ration /nut to balance it.grass is still king .all my weanlibgs and in calf heifers will also be out till late nov early December .at the moment weanlibgs are in 2 bunches bulls and heifers and are been feed 2 kg of a high spec 18% but with grass allocated every 48 hours.no poaching or damage been done and all stock content .ciws will be out more or less full time from calving in early feb but will have access to high dmd wraps if weather is any way iffy.
Grassland management and understanding the true value of grass is where a lot of beef/ suckler men fall down and most dairy men have an advantage

Soaring hawk

Put in yer cattle lads and buy some store lambs to look after the grass

stanflt

Put the cows in on Friday night and added two bales of 82dmd silage bales to the Tmr
Cows lost 1.5 litres of milk and now the protein will be lower so I reckon I will lose a euro per cow per day excluding the extra feed cost
Put them in as cows were huddled at cap every morning and starting to do damage
- they will continue to be out till late nov hopefully as I have serious grass and closed covers nearly have to much on them for my liking
- in fairness cows may have been unsettled by staying in so should respond in a couple of days

onyerbikepat

Most of the stronger sucklers weaned but their cows still in. Weanlings still out, getting meal but grass flowing through them. I'm short a bit of fodder so might move cows back out to land away from th weanlings and drag grass out a bit. Have a good bit of grass left but cows will only walk it into the ground.
Tempted to keep it for an early spring, but that might never happpen.:rolleyes:

delaval

Why is grass running through. Dings here in no way runny and cows out day and night. This grass would be min 35 days growing. This year while the grass is wet the grass itself is good quality. I think the age of the grass has a lot to do with it.

Will house winter cows early Nov but can't yet as we need to get more ground grazed to have enough for Feb

st1979

Milkers stay in at night for the last 2 wks. Gate is left open and lots of grass available. But they dont want to go out at night. They are happier and head off to graze after milking. So am I missing a trick. By not forcing them out to graze. The way I look at it. The grass will last longer and easier on man and beast

Dampintheattic

Everything outside here. Plenty grass, but can't take any more rain.
With the change in time, at least it will be easier to find and see stock at 6.30 am, before going to day job.

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

Why is grass running through. Dings here in no way runny and cows out day and night. This grass would be min 35 days growing. This year while the grass is wet the grass itself is good quality. I think the age of the grass has a lot to do with it.

Will house winter cows early Nov but can't yet as we need to get more ground grazed to have enough for Feb

have you done a test on the grass? cows currently would have to eat well over a 120 kilos of grass to milk and *try* and maintain condition. Its not rocket science. Do you think a cow will have room for such a quantity. Grass test here last week (lovely lush looking reseeded stuff) hadnt the energy to feed a bunny rabbit

mf240

bob charles wrote: »

have you done a test on the grass? cows currently would have to eat well over a 120 kilos of grass to milk and *try* and maintain condition. Its not rocket science. Do you think a cow will have room for such a quantity. Grass test here last week (lovely lush looking reseeded stuff) hadnt the energy to feed a bunny rabbit

This is true, why do you think lactose drops off unless you feed meal. No energy/sugar in the grass this time of year.

Milked out

Everything bar yearling calves will be in here in a week or so. The calves will have to finish out the heavy ground cows would destroy, spring calvers grazing heavy covers that are left on drier ground. and should be finished in 5 days, fresh calvers grazing lighter covers and should be finished in the same time frame. 16 acres of reseed will have to wait till spring for a grazing. Will dry off anything calving in jan and feb and those with high scc/ low yielding and not in calf. Will put freshly dried cows on outfarm to soak up as its relatively dry and sheltered. Is three weeks long enough to keep the maize closed ye reckon?? Will open it once milkers are in and start up the wagon

bob charles

God help some of these dairy cow is what I say. Talking to neighbor this morning and he said cows are milking better than ever (usual bull, all his geese are swans) anyway there are many like him locally. There isnt a hope in hell that something isnt going to give sticking out a cow in a field today expecting her to consume enough grass and then race back to the parlor for a kilo of ****e nut. Its just not possible.

These cows will then be put in and feed some mish mash of a mix and will go back in ltrs and the first think the farmer will say is you cant bate grass. In reality you can bate and ignorant farmer. Ruminates need constancy and at the shoulders of the year this is especially important. Buffer feed of some sort needs to be fed well before the day the horse has bolted.

Sometimes I wonder, dairy boys breed this cows with serious potential and then forget to feed them to their potential. If cows havnt dropped back allot in milk in a system who are totally grass based then these cows must never even reach near their potential during the peak months of her production. Would they even hit 75% of their peak?
To me its like driving a Ferrari F1 car and saving a few bob by putting in laundered fuel

bob charles

Milked out wrote: »

Is three weeks long enough to keep the maize closed ye reckon?? Will open it once milkers are in and start up the wagon

We never close ours and have 20ft gone out of the front of it already. You maybe in for a fright though :mad: which I have found out

Milked out

bob charles wrote: »

We never close ours and have 20ft gone out of the front of it already. You maybe in for a fright though :mad: which I have found out

Why is the quality not what you have hoped for?? Have you got it tested?? pitted it on a weekend and in the day and a half it took me to get the netting to cover it the b*stards of crows had some job done on the polythene:mad:

bob charles

Milked out wrote: »

Why is the quality not what you have hoped for?? Have you got it tested?? pitted it on a weekend and in the day and a half it took me to get the netting to cover it the b*stards of crows had some job done on the polythene:mad:

the cattle have tested it for me

delaval

bob charles wrote: »

God help some of these dairy cow is what I say. Talking to neighbor this morning and he said cows are milking better than ever (usual bull, all his geese are swans) anyway there are many like him locally. There isnt a hope in hell that something isnt going to give sticking out a cow in a field today expecting her to consume enough grass and then race back to the parlor for a kilo of ****e nut. Its just not possible.

These cows will then be put in and feed some mish mash of a mix and will go back in ltrs and the first think the farmer will say is you cant bate grass. In reality you can bate and ignorant farmer. Ruminates need constancy and at the shoulders of the year this is especially important. Buffer feed of some sort needs to be fed well before the day the horse has bolted.

Sometimes I wonder, dairy boys breed this cows with serious potential and then forget to feed them to their potential. If cows havnt dropped back allot in milk in a system who are totally grass based then these cows must never even reach near their potential during the peak months of her production. Would they even hit 75% of their peak?
To me its like driving a Ferrari F1 car and saving a few bob by putting in laundered fuel

Whats you definition of a grass based system?

mahoney_j

bob charles wrote: »

God help some of these dairy cow is what I say. Talking to neighbor this morning and he said cows are milking better than ever (usual bull, all his geese are swans) anyway there are many like him locally. There isnt a hope in hell that something isnt going to give sticking out a cow in a field today expecting her to consume enough grass and then race back to the parlor for a kilo of ****e nut. Its just not possible.

These cows will then be put in and feed some mish mash of a mix and will go back in ltrs and the first think the farmer will say is you cant bate grass. In reality you can bate and ignorant farmer. Ruminates need constancy and at the shoulders of the year this is especially important. Buffer feed of some sort needs to be fed well before the day the horse has bolted.

Sometimes I wonder, dairy boys breed this cows with serious potential and then forget to feed them to their potential. If cows havnt dropped back allot in milk in a system who are totally grass based then these cows must never even reach near their potential during the peak months of her production. Would they even hit 75% of their peak?
To me its like driving a Ferrari F1 car and saving a few bob by putting in laundered fuel

Well said bob

mahoney_j

bob charles wrote: »

God help some of these dairy cow is what I say. Talking to neighbor this morning and he said cows are milking better than ever (usual bull, all his geese are swans) anyway there are many like him locally. There isnt a hope in hell that something isnt going to give sticking out a cow in a field today expecting her to consume enough grass and then race back to the parlor for a kilo of ****e nut. Its just not possible.

These cows will then be put in and feed some mish mash of a mix and will go back in ltrs and the first think the farmer will say is you cant bate grass. In reality you can bate and ignorant farmer. Ruminates need constancy and at the shoulders of the year this is especially important. Buffer feed of some sort needs to be fed well before the day the horse has bolted.

Sometimes I wonder, dairy boys breed this cows with serious potential and then forget to feed them to their potential. If cows havnt dropped back allot in milk in a system who are totally grass based then these cows must never even reach near their potential during the peak months of her production. Would they even hit 75% of their peak?
To me its like driving a Ferrari F1 car and saving a few bob by putting in laundered fuel

Well said bob

delaval

mahoney_j wrote: »

Well said bob

I thought you were grass based, totally confused now

mf240

delaval wrote: »

Whats you definition of a grass based system?

I reckon some of these lads are so obsessed with grass that they have started smoking it.

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

Well said bob

would totally agree cows here are on 2 bales of good silage a day and 3 kgs of a high energy maize nut, they went through the strip wire yesterday so had ad-lib grass all day brought them in for evening milking thinking the bales wouldnt be touched in just under 1 hour there wasnt a lick of silage left says a lot about the feed value of autumn grass

just do it

Milked out wrote: »

reseed will have to wait till spring for a grazing.

Reckon I might be doing the same. Reseeded 8wks ago and has had strong growth. Weanlings on a 24hr block of it today so depending on damage done it may have to wait for spring.

Ground under reseed that was only chain harrowed is still solid enough to allow the weanlings graze it. Another plus for that min till method.

Cows in for today and tomorrow. I reckon I'll keep the autumn calvers in and use the dry cows to graze out remaining paddocks by day.

Milked out

jaymla627 wrote: »

would totally agree cows here are on 2 bales of good silage a day and 3 kgs of a high energy maize nut, they went through the strip wire yesterday so had ad-lib grass all day brought them in for evening milking thinking the bales wouldnt be touched in just under 1 hour there wasnt a lick of silage left says a lot about the feed value of autumn grass

Kept fresh calvers in fri nite due to heavy rain after having as much grass as they could eat and gave 2 bales of silage like that and and only half a bale was eaten come morning. Fair enough they don't have the appetite of the spring calvers but they're still getting somethimg out of the grass anyways to be doing 30 + litres

just do it

bob charles wrote: »

Grass test here last week (lovely lush looking reseeded stuff) hadnt the energy to feed a bunny rabbit

Are you serious?! F**k it. I've dropped nuts out of the weanlings diet now that they've moved into this top quality grass. They may only be in there for one day though :rolleyes:

bob charles

just do it wrote: »

Are you serious?! F**k it. I've dropped nuts out of the weanlings diet now that they've moved into this top quality grass. They may only be in there for one day though :rolleyes:

Your feeding a suckler weanling, not a cow. go to the fridge and look at your ltr of whole milk (which isnt that whole) and it has circa 600calories per ltre or it. How many litres would your fat feckers of weanlings knock back in a day:D:D


JDI im going to start stalking your to become a direct driller :)when you see the advantages of of doing it in wet weather, the old sod can carry serious traffic

bob charles

mahoney_j wrote: »

Well said bob

I better have a lye down with people agreeing with me, this the extra hour that has me thinking straight

mahoney_j

delaval wrote: »

I thought you were grass based, totally confused now

Grass based but look after cows,energy content of diet needs to be kept up especially in current conditions.no silage for me yet but have upped parlour nuts to 4 kg daily..silage takes edge of grazing so none going in bar a monsoon or if forced to house cows which won't happen till mid to late November.
Cows can't be expected to milk and gain condition at grass in current conditions just not enough dm content in it and cows would have to eat more of it than there stomach could handle thius scoury cows etc.

mahoney_j

delaval wrote: »

I thought you were grass based, totally confused now

Grass based but look after cows,energy content of diet needs to be kept up especially in current conditions.no silage for me yet but have upped parlour nuts to 4 kg daily..silage takes edge of grazing so none going in bar a monsoon or if forced to house cows which won't happen till mid to late November.
Cows can't be expected to milk and gain condition at grass in current conditions just not enough dm content in it and cows would have to eat more of it than there stomach could handle thius scoury cows etc.

just do it

bob charles wrote: »

JDI im going to start stalking you....

Now there's an image

bob charles

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass based but look after cows,energy content of diet needs to be kept up especially in current conditions.no silage for me yet but have upped parlour nuts to 4 kg daily..silage takes edge of grazing so none going in bar a monsoon or if forced to house cows which won't happen till mid to late November.
Cows can't be expected to milk and gain condition at grass in current conditions just not enough dm content in it and cows would have to eat more of it than there stomach could handle thius scoury cows etc.

Do you reckon 4kgs is enough per day, your girls would still have to eat close on 100kilos of grass. Your probably right in that amount as hopefully weather will pick up and grass will dry out. Just because it looks good in the field doesnt mean it feeds the same.

For anyone who want to get an idea of the size in quantity terms of how much 100 kilos of grass is, get the lawnmower out

delaval

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass based but look after cows,energy content of diet needs to be kept up especially in current conditions.no silage for me yet but have upped parlour nuts to 4 kg daily..silage takes edge of grazing so none going in bar a monsoon or if forced to house cows which won't happen till mid to late November.
Cows can't be expected to milk and gain condition at grass in current conditions just not enough dm content in it and cows would have to eat more of it than there stomach could handle thius scoury cows etc.

Exactly what I'm doing so how can you agree with Bob's version of how grass based cows are fed when in fac he has it completely wrong. What he says is of course correct but it not what I consider grass based. What he describes is bad farming practice. He must have very bad farming neighbours or has no idea what grass based means

bob charles

Have we given any reason by this constant double posting the forum is having?

delaval

bob charles wrote: »

Have we given any reason by this constant double posting the forum is having?

Seems to be happening to Tim and Mahoney only that I notice, maybe just keen to get their point across????

td5man

bob charles wrote: »

Have we given any reason by this constant double posting the forum is having?

It happens if you press your phones back button after replying to a thread.

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

Seems to be happening to Tim and Mahoney only that I notice, maybe just keen to get their point across????

doing there best to up post numbers:D

just do it

td5man wrote: »

It happens if you press your phones back button after replying to a thread.

Yup, seems to be a not-so-smart-phone phenomenon

awaywithyou

cows in by night since last monday night.... eating 10 roundbales (top quality stuff) a night... have upped it to 12 bales tonight.... as when i went to visit them around midnight last night... barrier cleaned.... 3-4kgs in parlour (depending on whos feeding them)... nice cover in the paddocks left to be grazed.... they'll be out by day til the grass is gone.....

case 956

awaywithyou wrote: »

cows in by night since last monday night.... eating 10 roundbales (top quality stuff) a night... have upped it to 12 bales tonight.... as when i went to visit them around midnight last night... barrier cleaned.... 3-4kgs in parlour (depending on whos feeding them)... nice cover in the paddocks left to be grazed.... they'll be out by day til the grass is gone.....

how many cows u feeding to eat 10 round bales a day:eek: