autumn calving pattern

Greengrass1

Been thinking the last while of pushing my September and October calvers to calve exclusively for 4 weeks in November.
We've been told not to go over our winter contract.
This year I have 25 calving down and that is all I need. I had 33 last yr including emptys I milked on
I have 7 maidens to go incalf so I should be able to hold a 4 week calving and then sell any that Calve outside of that?
It would also mean this cows would be miking off grass for longer and that they would milk better off grass in Feb.
Any thoughts?

Cow Porter

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Been thinking the last while of pushing my September and October calvers to calve exclusively for 4 weeks in November.
We've been told not to go over our winter contract.
This year I have 25 calving down and that is all I need. I had 33 last yr including emptys I milked on
I have 7 maidens to go incalf so I should be able to hold a 4 week calving and then sell any that Calve outside of that?
It would also mean this cows would be miking off grass for longer and that they would milk better off grass in Feb.
Any thoughts?

will your indoor diet be good enough to keep condition on calved cows so they will go back in calf to keep calving in a four week period? If the cows will milk better off feb grass your winter milking diet is not 100% in my view.
what type of cow will be calving down? bit of an ask if you have a cow giving 40+kgs per day and asking her to go in calf more or less at first serve.
Any leniency for carrying over cows?? If you are in an expanding situation holing on to every available cow milking is a priority and you have to be flexible with calving dates until numbers get up.

Greengrass1

Cow Porter wrote: »

will your indoor diet be good enough to keep condition on calved cows so they will go back in calf to keep calving in a four week period? If the cows will milk better off feb grass your winter milking diet is not 100% in my view.
what type of cow will be calving down? bit of an ask if you have a cow giving 40+kgs per day and asking her to go in calf more or less at first serve.
Any leniency for carrying over cows?? If you are in an expanding situation holing on to every available cow milking is a priority and you have to be flexible with calving dates until numbers get up.

5500l 3/4 bred fr from a jex. Diet is mainly good silage 16% nuts and brewers and beet pulp if we buy some.
Haven't really got a proper winter diet as we used to milk a lot of carry overs.
Im not a liquid supplier so don't have big milky 10k litre ho's.
But your are spot on my diet will have to be good to hold a 4 week calving.
I have ample heifers so don't need to hold onto cows. And I will be at my Max numbers here in a few yrs unless I get found away for silage

mahoney_j

4 week calving spread is wishfull thinking gg,cow only gets one chance to go in calf and if not a cull or a carryover.from what I can gather here I don't think your winter diet would be good enough. Your silage is cut too late for real quality(>75 dmd)which should me a minimum for fresh autumn calvers.your silage,brewers and beet pulp would need an energy source like maize to balance it.also if feb comes ****ty weather wise like this year forcing winter calvers to grass would seriously hit conception rates.thats my 2 pence worth anyway.out of the winter milkers I'm familiar with here stan would be the winter milk model I'd be following,he's calving start date ,spread and diet would be bang on for winter milk

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

4 week calving spread is wishfull thinking gg,cow only gets one chance to go in calf and if not a cull or a carryover.from what I can gather here I don't think your winter diet would be good enough. Your silage is cut too late for real quality(>75 dmd)which should me a minimum for fresh autumn calvers.your silage,brewers and beet pulp would need an energy source like maize to balance it.also if feb comes ****ty weather wise like this year forcing winter calvers to grass would seriously hit conception rates.thats my 2 pence worth anyway.out of the winter milkers I'm familiar with here stan would be the winter milk model I'd be following,he's calving start date ,spread and diet would be bang on for winter milk

Ye that's why I said I'd throw this up to see what lads thought.
Never thought about them going out yo bad weather in Feb. I could keep them in of course.
The only reason we did first cut in June was because it was when I was finished in school so I hope to kerb that and be in may from now on.
Next yr the plan is to cut every 6 weeks
I'm going to ask neighbour when he is cutting beside me would he sell me whole crop next yr.
I have all the numbers I need for winter milk and it would be a pain in the arse having only that few calving over 8 weeks .Ive gotten rud of the calving all winter craic its in 8 weeks now this yr so I'll see if I can hold it there.
I could if course make it a 6 week breeding so I start calving mid October?

moy83

Why were you told not to go over your winter milk quota ? I would have thought that would be a time they wouldn't mind a few extra litres ?

Timmaay

I think being quite strict with winter AI and having a fairly short window is no real harm. If a cow doesnt hold to calf down in nov then she is only slipping around to Feb, hopefully not much over 2 months. We are about 85% spring now against about 60% before, and its probably made the single biggest difference to volume of milk produced, which is up 30/40% over afew years ago, our winter diet simple as is is not up to scratch, cows who are capable of knocking out 40L only hit 30L before they usually melt and spend the rest of the winter giving 20/25L. GG I'd say totally ignore what your milk adviser is saying about targets for the winter milk, do what produces the most profit and what is the simplest system instead.

Timmaay

moy83 wrote: »

Why were you told not to go over your winter milk quota ? I would have thought that would be a time they wouldn't mind a few extra litres ?

I dont think your limited, however you only get a winter bonus up to a certain amount, after that if the base milk price is only say 30cent in the winter you are going to be losing money very fast as your generally pumping feed into the cows.

Greengrass1

moy83 wrote: »

Why were you told not to go over your winter milk quota ? I would have thought that would be a time they wouldn't mind a few extra litres ?

Well we were told if we go over the contract we won't be paid bonus

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

I think being quite strict with winter AI and having a fairly short window is no real harm. If a cow doesnt hold to calf down in nov then she is only slipping around to Feb, hopefully not much over 2 months. We are about 85% spring now against about 60% before, and its probably made the single biggest difference to volume of milk produced, which is up 30/40% over afew years ago, our winter diet simple as is is not up to scratch, cows who are capable of knocking out 40L only hit 30L before they usually melt and spend the rest of the winter giving 20/25L. GG I'd say totally ignore what your milk adviser is saying about targets for the winter milk, do what produces the most profit and what is the simplest system instead.

All mine will peak at will be 25 one or two might go to 30 I'd say. They could be getting 3-4 KGS meal