So anyone have their cows back inside?

sheebadog

Couldn't resist

dar31

Nope, still out, grazing westerwolds this evening and probably tomorrow as well then back to paddocks should have dried out by then
Miserable day here to day

Greengrass1

dar31 wrote: »

Nope, still out, grazing westerwolds this evening and probably tomorrow as well then back to paddocks should have dried out by then
Miserable day here to day

What do they milk like of the westerwolds dar?

Milked out

In with the last 2 days, only a days grazing left on dry paddocks and heavyish covers on the wetter half of the farm. Pit silage gone so breaking up baled silage for diet feeder, pain in the hole so it is

Timmaay

Brought mine in an hr before milking this evening to pick at silage, and they were glad of it, all rushed up the field and into the shed! So I didn't send them out till 9pm, thats about as good as it gets for them ha. Weather has died down now, and they have a sheltered paddock for the night!

jack o shea

they ran into the shed this morning after milking **** knows when they be back out again.

Sam Kade

jack o shea wrote: »

they ran into the shed this morning after milking **** knows when they be back out again.

A cold miserable b@stard of a day I wouldn't blame them

awaywithyou

Ah we don't have them out yet....

frazzledhome

jack o shea wrote: »

they ran into the shed this morning after milking **** knows when they be back out again.

Remember this post? Stop bitching and suck it up, you asked for this weather!!

wouldnt mind this weather last til may just to piss the "experts" off, while the rest of us laugh at them

mf240

I put them in last November.

Didn't get them out yet as I couldn't find my platemeter.

maxxuumman

frazzledhome wrote: »

Remember this post? Stop bitching and suck it up, you asked for this weather!!

wouldnt mind this weather last til may just to piss the "experts" off, while the rest of us laugh at them

Frazz, you should put the quote in quotes, when I read it first I thought you had finally lost it.

Viewtodiefor

mf240 wrote: »

I put them in last November.

Didn't get them out yet as I couldn't find my platemeter.

Use d wellie tis cheaper!

freedominacup

Cows here have been getting 10 kgs dm plus indoors for the past few days. Very glad of the wholecrop now.

stop thelights

Cows back in since yesterday. Won't be on till tomorrow or thurs as the weather is picking up then. Wet next Monday again tho according to long range. So still getting silage maize and beet and we'll play it by ear

Greengrass1

My cows were up in milk this morning.
Don't know why lads think they can't handle it.
Are the cows in for your comfort or there's?
Granted I gave the 2kgs of our mix if meal but they weren't kept in

kevthegaff

Mine have been out 5 weeks day and night, running low on grass now. starting to feed silage in the evening before letting them out

blackdog1

Cows on wholecrop, small bit of silage and 2.5 kg maize meal with .5k of molasses in diet feeder and another 3kg of 18% ration in parlour. Doing jusr under 27 litres at 3.52 protein. Their out on grass with this diet. Getting 20kg of this diet per cow rest on grass. Their happy out.

freedominacup

blackdog1 wrote: »

Cows on wholecrop, small bit of silage and 2.5 kg maize meal with .5k of molasses in diet feeder and another 3kg of 18% ration in parlour. Doing jusr under 27 litres at 3.52 protein. Their out on grass with this diet. Getting 20kg of this diet per cow rest on grass. Their happy out.

Are they putting it away everyday? On the better days ours could leave some of it. Sunday they left a lot as the day improved so much from when I fed them until they came back in. I was glad it was in the passage on Mon morning though as it started chucking it down at 7 so they had something to chew on for an hour or two. I'd say they'll be back on to around 6kg DM today and we'll see what Thurs brings.

blackdog1

freedominacup wrote: »

Are they putting it away everyday? On the better days ours could leave some of it. Sunday they left a lot as the day improved so much from when I fed them until they came back in. I was glad it was in the passage on Mon morning though as it started chucking it down at 7 so they had something to chew on for an hour or two. I'd say they'll be back on to around 6kg DM today and we'll see what Thurs brings.

Yea some days they don't eat as much do the next day I compromise. I cut out silage and some wholecrop if needed. Clean the face on 3rd day if its not spotless and give that to maiden heifers.

Works fine.

freedominacup

blackdog1 wrote: »

Yea some days they don't eat as much do the next day I compromise. I cut out silage and some wholecrop if needed. Clean the face on 3rd day if its not spotless and give that to maiden heifers.

Works fine.

Unless you're short of grass I'd cut out the grass silage. You could probabaly get most of the 20kgs(Fresh I'm assuming) into them in a couple of hours in the afternoon without it and get them back out at night if it wasn't raining. Even if the grass silage is 80+ it's not as good as the grass at this stage.

blackdog1

freedominacup wrote: »

Unless you're short of grass I'd cut out the grass silage. You could probabaly get most of the 20kgs(Fresh I'm assuming) into them in a couple of hours in the afternoon without it and get them back out at night if it wasn't raining. Even if the grass silage is 80+ it's not as good as the grass at this stage.

Yes but its good to stretch the thr wholecrop. I prefer a bit of silage to all grass silage. Think ill be buffer feefing until mid April if this weather continues

stanflt

Cows stayed out all day yesterday and no problems

Doing 33litres but in at night

Weighed all the cows yesterday- 616kg avg

So I delivered 1.09 kg ms per kg lw last year or 0,48 kg protein per kg lw

mahoney_j

stanflt wrote: »

Cows stayed out all day yesterday and no problems

Doing 33litres but in at night

Weighed all the cows yesterday- 616kg avg

So I delivered 1.09 kg ms per kg lw last year or 0,48 kg protein per kg lw

What dose ur buffer consist of stan??.33 Ltrs is good going and diet must be bang on to achieve that.mine edging towards 31 ltrs now on just grass ,5-8 kg hi maize 18 in parlour and hi quality wraps at nights..will start secobd round 06/4.hope weather comes as good as promised next week.

Gillespy

Kept them in yesterday, out again today. Dry and a good drying breeze there now. Low on suitable silage for milkers so don't want many more days inside.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Don't know why lads think they can't handle it.
Are the cows in for your comfort or there's?

Ever consider the fact others have different land and get different weather to you?

Greengrass1

Keenan having a meeting in local dairy farm today at 2 about buffer feeding and maize.
Will be interesting but they are holding it on a lads farm that doesn't believe in grass and let'l the cows run around the whole farm in Feb and now there back in the shed as he has no grass

joejobrien

Greengrass1 wrote: »

My cows were up in milk this morning.
Don't know why lads think they can't handle it.
Are the cows in for your comfort or there's?
Granted I gave the 2kgs of our mix if meal but they weren't kept in

Greengrass1 Have you considered other lads situation. Heavy land require great care and that a defination of a good farmer. Thats a fair reason to be in,its not for the comfort of you or cows. Have our cow out by day when it allows but have to stay indoor when condition deteroriate. There is no proplem been a good farmer if you have dry land and they can be out fulltime. But when your paddocks are swimming after rainfall you cant go out until there is some drying and we dont get much of that. Unfortunately alot of posters on here appear to be on dry land and or lightly stocked. Would love to be out fulltime but it is not realistic .Maybe a little consideration to others may be nice.

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Keenan having a meeting in local dairy farm today at 2 about buffer feeding and maize.
Will be interesting but they are holding it on a lads farm that doesn't believe in grass and let'l the cows run around the whole farm in Feb and now there back in the shed as he has no grass

U should go greengrass u could learn an afull lot there.be slow to criticise a high input /output system because these guys are incredibly well tuned in on how to correctly feed and manage their cows.u previously posted that u will start second round next week and ur first paddock has barely 800 in it.u could yet need to buffer feed hard for a while in april

mahoney_j

joejobrien wrote: »

Greengrass1 Have you considered other lads situation. Heavy land require great care and that a defination of a good farmer. Thats a fair reason to be in,its not for the comfort of you or cows. Have our cow out by day when it allows but have to stay indoor when condition deteroriate. There is no proplem been a good farmer if you have dry land and they can be out fulltime. But when your paddocks are swimming after rainfall you cant go out until there is some drying and we dont get much of that. Unfortunately alot of posters on here appear to be on dry land and or lightly stocked. Would love to be out fulltime but it is not realistic .Maybe a little consideration to others may be nice.

Fully agree,excelkent post..like greengrass I had cows out early and as much as I could when weather allowed.i envy ye guys on wet marginal land and how ye manage.which leads me back to greenfield kk which sone here see as the holy grail and think we all should be doing what they did in feb..have cows out when u wouldn't put the dog out,poach paddocks and underfed cows.

mf240

Well my own situation is fragmented farm with a lot of poor land at home. A lot of which has been shored over the years.

All the silage ground is in small bits up to three miles away. So grazing from April to Oct would be all that's achievable really.

I've filled my quota though so the bit Greengrass has left will be a help.

Greengrass1

joejobrien wrote: »

Greengrass1 Have you considered other lads situation. Heavy land require great care and that a defination of a good farmer. Thats a fair reason to be in,its not for the comfort of you or cows. Have our cow out by day when it allows but have to stay indoor when condition deteroriate. There is no proplem been a good farmer if you have dry land and they can be out fulltime. But when your paddocks are swimming after rainfall you cant go out until there is some drying and we dont get much of that. Unfortunately alot of posters on here appear to be on dry land and or lightly stocked. Would love to be out fulltime but it is not realistic .Maybe a little consideration to others may be nice.

Point taken I agree

sheebadog

mahoney_j wrote: »

U should go greengrass u could learn an afull lot there.be slow to criticise a high input /output system because these guys are incredibly well tuned in on how to correctly feed and manage their cows.u previously posted that u will start second round next week and ur first paddock has barely 800 in it.u could yet need to buffer feed hard for a while in april

Damn good advice for everyone Mahoney.

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

U should go greengrass u could learn an afull lot there.be slow to criticise a high input /output system because these guys are incredibly well tuned in on how to correctly feed and manage their cows.u previously posted that u will start second round next week and ur first paddock has barely 800 in it.u could yet need to buffer feed hard for a while in april

I am going. I do feed cows well here.I know this man and his set up so I can comment.
This man had a very dry farm but I think he is being led down the wrong path by feeding maize and silage all year around.
For the level of feeding he is doing he's not getting the output and he would be better off if he put more focus on grass.
He is also lowly stocked

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I am going. I do feed cows well here.I know this man and his set up so I can comment.
This man had a very dry farm but I think he is being led down the wrong path by feeding maize and silage all year around.
For the level of feeding he is doing he's not getting the output and he would be better off if he put more focus on grass.
He is also lowly stocked

What sort of yields of milk and solids is he achieving because if he is feeding to a high level his output should be high..I will agree he should put more focus on grass as it is our cheapest feed to produce.as regards feeding cows correctly I wasn't questing that but there is a big difference between just feeding cows and feeding them a balanced diet for energy protein etc.i learnt an afull lot going to open days like that and visiting farms.i also picked up a lot from visiting low input farms and seeing how they utilise grass.u have to try and marry bits of both.a lot of high input guys have no faith in grass,compact calving etc whilst low input guys have too much faith in grass and don't trulky realise how to feed and manage their cows to achieve their full potential.

blue5000

Freshly calved sucklers are out day and night here, got a bale of hay in a ringfeeder last night though. Dry cows in, all bulls in but heifer yearlings are out. Mostly dry land here but wet land still had pools of water sitting on it at the weekend.

sheebadog

mahoney_j wrote: »

What sort of yields of milk and solids is he achieving because if he is feeding to a high level his output should be high..I will agree he should put more focus on grass as it is our cheapest feed to produce.as regards feeding cows correctly I wasn't questing that but there is a big difference between just feeding cows and feeding them a balanced diet for energy protein etc.i learnt an afull lot going to open days like that and visiting farms.i also picked up a lot from visiting low input farms and seeing how they utilise grass.u have to try and marry bits of both.a lot of high input guys have no faith in grass,compact calving etc whilst low input guys have too much faith in grass and don't trulky realise how to feed and manage their cows to achieve their full potential.

+++ This man speaks wisely!!!

stanflt

sheebadog wrote: »

+++ This man speaks wisely!!!

I hope he entered the Zurich competition

mahoney_j

stanflt wrote: »

I hope he entered the Zurich competition

Me willy isn't big enough!!.in truth I'm not claiming to know it all as regards milking and feeding cows but I'd like to think I've a good understanding of what it takes to make a cow tick and to see her calve easily,go back in calf and milk to her full potential gives me fulfillment..I still have an assload to learn and will make loads more mistakes but as long as I learn from them that's what counts.entering competitions like that dosnt appeal to me but I do like to benchmark myself against what other farms do and take something from every place I visit.

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

What sort of yields of milk and solids is he achieving because if he is feeding to a high level his output should be high..I will agree he should put more focus on grass as it is our cheapest feed to produce.as regards feeding cows correctly I wasn't questing that but there is a big difference between just feeding cows and feeding them a balanced diet for energy protein etc.i learnt an afull lot going to open days like that and visiting farms.i also picked up a lot from visiting low input farms and seeing how they utilise grass.u have to try and marry bits of both.a lot of high input guys have no faith in grass,compact calving etc whilst low input guys have too much faith in grass and don't trulky realise how to feed and manage their cows to achieve their full potential.

Nothing said about solids or grass.
Said he was averaging 33l at the minute.
Very little said about diets just that if you buy a feeder all your problems will be solved.
I've come to the conclusion if you have v good baled silage for spring and autumn along with a very good but in parlour you will do just fine.
But if you have a very high SR and want to get more from cows then that's the road to go

Timmaay

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Nothing said about solids or grass.
Said he was averaging 33l at the minute.
Very little said about diets just that if you buy a feeder all your problems will be solved.
I've come to the conclusion if you have v good baled silage for spring and autumn along with a very good but in parlour you will do just fine.
But if you have a very high SR and want to get more from cows then that's the road to go

Agreed fully, but I'm willing to substitute some of the silage with maize/wholecrop, due to lack of land to rent around me, and considering the cowtype we have (HOs). 33l doesn't mean much to me, how many kgMS/day is much more useful.

Deepsouthwest

joejobrien wrote: »

Greengrass1 Have you considered other lads situation. Heavy land require great care and that a defination of a good farmer. Thats a fair reason to be in,its not for the comfort of you or cows. Have our cow out by day when it allows but have to stay indoor when condition deteroriate. There is no proplem been a good farmer if you have dry land and they can be out fulltime. But when your paddocks are swimming after rainfall you cant go out until there is some drying and we dont get much of that. Unfortunately alot of posters on here appear to be on dry land and or lightly stocked. Would love to be out fulltime but it is not realistic .Maybe a little consideration to others may be nice.

Finally someone in the same boat as me! Couldn't get over the pictures greengrass put up a while back showing how little damage his cows did to a paddock after being out during a wet night in feb, it nearly made me cry!

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Finally someone in the same boat as me! Couldn't get over the pictures greengrass put up a while back showing how little damage his cows did to a paddock after being out during a wet night in feb, it nearly made me cry!

Ah I've the oul wet spot too that ye don't see.
Neighbour told my father we bought a bog when we bought here. Father told him bad land didn't stop at the ditch. He didn't like that

Timmaay

stanflt wrote: »

Cows stayed out all day yesterday and no problems

Doing 33litres but in at night

Weighed all the cows yesterday- 616kg avg

So I delivered 1.09 kg ms per kg lw last year or 0,48 kg protein per kg lw

Stan I thought you were mostly on good dry land? Are the cows still in at night due to a lack of grass, or poor weather/grazing conditions, or are us folk who have had our cows out fulltime for a few weeks now just plan and simply nuts ha?

jack o shea

any clown can farm on dry sandy land in this rain swept country, its lads on heavy land is where the challenge lies, a heavy shower of rain and cows have to go back in and its back to cleaning cubicles and a bucket of lime and walking around the fields trying to find a dry couple of acres for the nxt "fine" day.

biddy2013

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Finally someone in the same boat as me! Couldn't get over the pictures greengrass put up a while back showing how little damage his cows did to a paddock after being out during a wet night in feb, it nearly made me cry!

ah wait til theres a bit of sun in the summer and they will be feeding again:D

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

U should go greengrass u could learn an afull lot there.be slow to criticise a high input /output system because these guys are incredibly well tuned in on how to correctly feed and manage their cows.u previously posted that u will start second round next week and ur first paddock has barely 800 in it.u could yet need to buffer feed hard for a while in april

Why does feeding a cow need to be such a mystery. Grass does the job and if it's wet or not enough supplement with good quality feed in the parlour, simple.

Make the very best quality silage you can and carry no passengers. No need to go to listen to a sales man selling a machine. Some people think that when they have a problem that a machine will fix it, milking get a robot, dietary issues get a feeder, calf problems get an auto feeder. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with these but a good grazing infrastructure and being switched on goes a long way.

Keep it simple, that's how to make money from cows

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

Why does feeding a cow need to be such a mystery. Grass does the job and if it's wet or not enough supplement with good quality feed in the parlour, simple.

Make the very best quality silage you can and carry no passengers. No need to go to listen to a sales man selling a machine. Some people think that when they have a problem that a machine will fix it, milking get a robot, dietary issues get a feeder, calf problems get an auto feeder. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with these but a good grazing infrastructure and being switched on goes a long way.

Keep it simple, that's how to make money from cows

Your man said he had a feeder before and sold it and was going completely grass but then his meal bills started to rise.
He mustn't have tried that hard at it because he told me when I asked that the whole farm had been grazed last week

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Your man said he had a feeder before and sold it and was going completely grass but then his meal bills started to rise.
He mustn't have tried that hard at it because he told me when I asked that the whole farm had been grazed last week

No farmer in this country can say there goibg all grass lads and don't be fooled by it.fairly obvious ye don't like Holsteins and that high input output systems are the work of the devil.i may be wrong but I think ye may of went to that event yesterday with yer minds made up that there is only one way of feeding a cow.33 Ltrs is good goibg and testament that diet is very good.i bet he is doing over 2 kg solids per cow.yes more and better use should be made of grass though.it was a Keenan event I take it so it was a sales pitch for their feeders.if you showed interest in one they have an excellent back up team of nutritionists etc who would put you on the right road as regards feeding a balanced diet.
Silage on its own with good parlour but will go a long way provided it is very good quality,>77 dmd,14% p etc.there ain't many that can make silage that good.

joejobrien

mahoney_j wrote: »

No farmer in this country can say there goibg all grass lads and don't be fooled by it.fairly obvious ye don't like Holsteins and that high input output systems are the work of the devil.i may be wrong but I think ye may of went to that event yesterday with yer minds made up that there is only one way of feeding a cow.33 Ltrs is good goibg and testament that diet is very good.i bet he is doing over 2 kg solids per cow.yes more and better use should be made of grass though.it was a Keenan event I take it so it was a sales pitch for their feeders.if you showed interest in one they have an excellent back up team of nutritionists etc who would put you on the right road as regards feeding a balanced diet.
Silage on its own with good parlour but will go a long way provided it is very good quality,>77 dmd,14% p etc.there ain't many that can make silage that good.

Well said mahoney,
people at lower yields and on an all grass system cannot possible comment until they have tried high input system, high output system. It is a complete no no from our advisory board, but it is easy for them to justify as the majority of farmers are understocked, access to enough of milking platform, and sadly alot of farmers are not up to speed or do not wish to be up to speed with mangement of high production holstiens and are happy to just tag along with the teagasc system, never giving an ounce of thought. The advisory board also ignores us farmers that are completely landlocked,unable to expand numbers and our only way is to drive a high output system. Yes it works. As I see it we produce more solids than any lad in our group, highest fertility, (95% calved in 7 weeks) on the smallest landbase which is heavy land. I do agree grass is awonderful feed but has limitations. Knowing the limitation is key.

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

No farmer in this country can say there goibg all grass lads and don't be fooled by it.fairly obvious ye don't like Holsteins and that high input output systems are the work of the devil.i may be wrong but I think ye may of went to that event yesterday with yer minds made up that there is only one way of feeding a cow.33 Ltrs is good goibg and testament that diet is very good.i bet he is doing over 2 kg solids per cow.yes more and better use should be made of grass though.it was a Keenan event I take it so it was a sales pitch for their feeders.if you showed interest in one they have an excellent back up team of nutritionists etc who would put you on the right road as regards feeding a balanced diet.
Silage on its own with good parlour but will go a long way provided it is very good quality,>77 dmd,14% p etc.there ain't many that can make silage that good.

We have a feeder, we had there advice and we had a bill every year of nearly 1k off them and all they wanted to do was get us buy 10 of everything and have feed every where.
We did it there way for 2 yrs and weren't a whole lot better off tbh.
Last two yrs our silage has been shire 68 DMD but they were exceptional years.

You seem to think that I don't like feeding cows.
You are completely and utterly wrong. I myself feel you don't need a big feeder in the yard and a nutritionist to do it.
We only ever made baled silage here because its what we could get best quality in. And we will continue to do so.

Plenty of lads well able to look after cows without a feeder and I know plenty of them.
And so do you.

I didn't go with my made up I wanted to see a different system and my father and I feel we won't be going back down that road for a ffgoid few yrs yet.
I'd much prefere have my farm stocked to its highest and be growing 16-17t DM and then look at other ways of getting more from it.
There's much better ways of spending 25k + than on a diet feeder

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

No farmer in this country can say there goibg all grass lads and don't be fooled by it.fairly obvious ye don't like Holsteins and that high input output systems are the work of the devil.i may be wrong but I think ye may of went to that event yesterday with yer minds made up that there is only one way of feeding a cow.33 Ltrs is good goibg and testament that diet is very good.i bet he is doing over 2 kg solids per cow.yes more and better use should be made of grass though.it was a Keenan event I take it so it was a sales pitch for their feeders.if you showed interest in one they have an excellent back up team of nutritionists etc who would put you on the right road as regards feeding a balanced diet.
Silage on its own with good parlour but will go a long way provided it is very good quality,>77 dmd,14% p etc.there ain't many that can make silage that good.

No prob with Hols or hi v low input, I suspect it's your paranoia!!
People don't have to make feeding cows into something complicated is all I'm saying as for K nutritionalists we'll say the jury's out on that one. Got the tshirt

kevthegaff

Lads is there a lot less waste from a diet feeder? I have one tractor so its a no no for me, but they are a great job for introducing straw into the diet. I agree with ye its the quality of feed that matters