how are you for feed?

Muckit

Well how are the silage stocks looking? Will you have enough to see you through?

Reggie.

Muckit wrote: »

Well how are the silage stocks looking? Will you have enough to see you through?

have enough till next christmas :cool:

moy83

Yup I reckon we are sound thankfully

ellewood

Muckit wrote: »

Well how are the silage stocks looking? Will you have enough to see you through?

No, heap of bales are getting small now and there eating it like mad bought straw before christmas to slow them down but there still flying tru it
So its either the ifor williams or the bale trailor later this week..

hugo29

ellewood wrote: »

No, heap of bales are getting small now and there eating it like mad bought straw before christmas to slow them down but there still flying tru it
So its either the ifor williams or the bale trailor later this week..

Lol one way of looking at it,

Should be ok here till25th April

armin van burren

Muckit wrote: »

Well how are the silage stocks looking? Will you have enough to see you through?

Will have plenty of silage to see me out unless we get a really bad spring

reilig

1/3 stock of silage used. 60 bales of hay too. Should have some silage and most of the hay left over.

Bodacious

I feel a right plant as I posted in a similar thread couple of weeks back that I thought id have silage left over but as it stands they are ripping through it ive extra cows and heifers this year and really feeing it but still should be okay unti mid april but ill have nothing left over id say.. ill keep firing it into them until they calve and might get 3 or 4 away to bit of grazing early to spare the silage the last couple of weeks


it can be hard to judge additional stock and additional winter grazing outdoors at times

munkus

Should be grand till the middle of march, quality not too bad either. Have 50 silage bales as backup. Alot will depend on weather in March to get them out early.

severeoversteer

will have a few hundred bales left over

considering buying a good few cattle in next few weeks

fed more meal than normal this winter and it has cut back use of bales alot , and the tanks would usually be nearly full, but they are only half full

Farmer Pudsey

Should be ok going through about 18.5/week. I have 170 left expect to get will get 40 odd cattle to grass first week in March. That will drop demand to 10/week maybe less as will be off loading some finished cattle as well. Will be cooling cattle down last week-10 days before turn out. Expect 100-110 bales will get met to March 1st. As Wellington said after the battle of Waterloo ''that was a close run thing''. Every year it the same with me.

Also will be getting into haylage in next 10 days as opposed to so wetish silage at present. It is well conserved but a low DM.

6480

about 6 weeks supply left , starting to buy in some pit silage at 30 a ton , had enough last year but up about 25 extra milking cows this year ,

Birdnuts

Made some great hay and baled silage last year so alls well - which is a good thing since I reckon the lack of snow/frost so far this winter means another cold/wintery spring is highly likely in my experience of such things.

ellewood

6480 wrote: »

about 6 weeks supply left , starting to buy in some pit silage at 30 a ton , had enough last year but up about 25 extra milking cows this year ,

Yea same as that, a good few extra mouths here this year + I sold some of what I taught would be extra in the summer to a lad who had done me a few favours and was stuck for some so I couldnt say no and then we got that bloody drought and that used up a fair few of them as well
Have 6 or 7 weeks left but will prob buy 2 mths worth just in case and if I dont use them this spring Ill have em for the drought this summer:D

hugo29

ellewood wrote: »

Yea same as that, a good few extra mouths here this year + I sold some of what I taught would be extra in the summer to a lad who had done me a few favours and was stuck for some so I couldnt say no and then we got that bloody drought and that used up a fair few of them as well
Have 6 or 7 weeks left but will prob buy 2 mths worth just in case and if I dont use them this spring Ill have em for the drought this summer:D

What is it with Kilkenny people and drought,
Are you married to dev by any chance

Reggie.

hugo29 wrote: »

What is it with Kilkenny people and drought,
Are you married to dev by any chance

or at least a neighbour

case 956

have about 6 weeks pit left and 70 bales, hoping to have calved cows at grass next week so should help cut down

ellewood

:)

hugo29 wrote: »

What is it with Kilkenny people and drought,
Are you married to dev by any chance

rs8

will work out fine hopefully! have 200 bales left

darragh_haven

About 3 weeks left in the first pit (which eas half full to start with. 60 bales that should do 10 more days. Don't want to open the second pit, it'd just be a pain in the arse.

Reggie.

darragh_haven wrote: »

About 3 weeks left in the first pit (which eas half full to start with. 60 bales that should do 10 more days. Don't want to open the second pit, it'd just be a pain in the arse.

Trying to stretch it darragh

darragh_haven

Reggie. wrote: »

Trying to stretch it darragh

Just being lazy reggie, just being lazy.

Reggie.

darragh_haven wrote: »

Just being lazy reggie, just being lazy.

Armchair farming, gotta love it

Mac Taylor

Should be fine until the middle of April. We ended up keeping more animals than originally planned. Hopefully we don't end up with a spring like last year. I wouldn't mind I was hoping to save some of the hay, it isn't every year you get the chance to make hay

darragh_haven

Reggie. wrote: »

Armchair farming, gotta love it

When I official took over the farm 2 years ago (my dad still does 98% of the work and makes 99% of the decisions) I went into a farm adviser.He told me keep my job, farm the system. ...... armchair all the way.

Miname

I bought in hay for the dry cows and upped the meal for the weanlings so should pull through. I have a lad with hay on standby if I'm stuck but once cows are calved I don't like feeding it. I had a dirty act pulled when buying the hay, the tramp I bought it off slipped in a good few really old bales o musty dirt through the rest of them.

Brown Podzol

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Should be fine until the middle of April. We ended up keeping more animals than originally planned. Hopefully we don't end up with a spring like last year. I wouldn't mind I was hoping to save some of the hay, it isn't every year you get the chance to make hay

Felt like that myself. Tis a shame to feed it.:rolleyes:

Mac Taylor

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Felt like that myself. Tis a shame to feed it.:rolleyes:

yep, but what can you do. Got a bale of the French hay last year and while I was greatful for it, it wasn't a patch on our own. Very tough in comparision.

Brown Podzol

I still have 4 8x4x4 of her majesty's hay. Rough ain't the word. I'd say its leftovers from grass seed harvesting.

delaval

We're about half way through fodder, so should be fine.

All milkers sill be going out. 1st Feb so load will lighten daily. Good cover on fields closed early. Slurry out on ground closed last and urea going on early closed ground this week

manjou

Should have enough also feeding to try and keep some hay in shed.Walked land yesterday and will need a weeks dry weather to get cows out as land is seriously wet but nothing calving for 3 weeks yet so hopefu;;y some dry weather in next couple of weeks

simx

Am going through it quick, reckon will have enough till end of March but that'll be it, getting beet this week so that should stretch it, although it will be tight as always, have that age old problem of having too many cattle

F.D

have enough pit silage till end of feb, only reason i will have enough till then is i have straw left in front of them the whole time and 1 kg/hd/day of meal
there is about 30 wrapped bales after that if the spring is slow coming i could be in trouble

biddy2013

measured the pit there this morning, will be tight, might buy some bales now to stretch it out a bit

visatorro

Ask a very stupid question but what's the exact way of measuring how many tonnes are left in a silage pit?

delaval

visatorro wrote: »

Ask a very stupid question but what's the exact way of measuring how many tonnes are left in a silage pit?

L*w*h/45= fresh tonnes

In feet if its precision chop

reilig

We bought in 8 ton of fodder stretcher meal this week because if we get a drawn out spring we could be short towards the end. Silage is still expensive when you have silage. Meal at €250 per ton is much cheaper than bales at €20 each and then have the hassle of drawing them. The fatter cows are getting 2kg each per day while on restricted very dry silage. We are making each round bale per pen of 7 cows do 4 days instead of 3. We will ease it off closer to calving and put them on hay for 6 weeks before calving. Should give us at least 1 month of extra feeding overall.

keep going

Considering buying beet for calved cows as the weather is poor and grass is scarce, should have kept a half acre of my own but grass was looking good in December so I finished it.cows went through a heap of silage in January but are slowing down now

biddy2013

i have oodles of grass but ground is very wet:cool:

severeoversteer

does anyone know where a 14 percent nut or ration can be got less than 255 euro

simx

keep going wrote: »

Considering buying beet for calved cows as the weather is poor and grass is scarce, should have kept a half acre of my own but grass was looking good in December so I finished it.cows went through a heap of silage in January but are slowing down now

Started feeding beet last week, waiting on test results on it back still, going mad for it now, any of ye beet men give me some advice, at the moment am on 5kg/hd daily, on a week exactly today, how long after initially first starting feeding would ye up the daily amount? And to how much? Thanks

Timmaay

There is a local lad who was selling beet, I was considering getting some, but he has turned around and said he is hanging on to the rest of it now, as he needs it for his sheep. Fodder isn't plentyful at all here in Wicklow, with the drought last year, and there could be problems yet definitely if this poor weather continues.

simx

Timmaay wrote: »

There is a local lad who was selling beet, I was considering getting some, but he has turned around and said he is hanging on to the rest of it now, as he needs it for his sheep. Fodder isn't plentyful at all here in Wicklow, with the drought last year, and there could be problems yet definitely if this poor weather continues.

Same kind of situation around here. Any local man I'm talking to is going to have just about enough and that's a moderately ok spring

stanflt

Silage for sale 72dmd

40euro a ton delivered in 30tonme loads

Cash on delivery

Clutch Pack

Will be lucky to get to March 1st here,I reckon silage will be scarce enough in certain areas.
I had paddocks with heavy covers but grass seems to be melting off them:(

stop thelights

Should be ok. Half way through silage and maize and a good bit of beet left too. we're hoping to pit some in the next month and have it for milkers if the need arises

Farmer Pudsey

Should be Ok depending on a majority turnout by St Patrick's Day, am still hoping to have over 2/3's out 1st of march. However weather has stopped grass growing and was hoping to get fertlizer out but will just hunker down and wait.

delaval

If I can get milkers to grass next week day and night will be ok if not will have to buy pit silage in March

Farmer Pudsey

delaval wrote: »

If I can get milkers to grass next week day and night will be ok if not will have to buy pit silage in March

How is your land holding up in this weather Delaval, as the cows calf are they going out to grass at present or is your land too wet.

delaval

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

How is your land holding up in this weather Delaval, as the cows calf are they going out to grass at present or is your land too wet.

No only had them out today for a few hours. There is actually water lying on some if the ground. Cows did no harm today but with only heifers calved so far in in no rush to let out. They are in with the winter milkers so are grand. For good luck we decided to calve 10 Days later this year. First cow due 10/2

bob charles

Last week was the first time in about 16 months that there is plenty of feed available to buy, have started building a bit of a stockpile as up to now it was JIT with grub:).