Livestock/General Farming photo thread TAKE #2 ::::RULES IN 1st POST::::

Base price

pure breed wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Base Price.
I was looking in that link alright but can't seem to locate or see a option for the calves that were on sale.

It looks like only 15 calves were sold - lot numbers 300 - 314. Scroll down to the very end.

patsy_mccabe

Some nice heifers;

https://www.donedeal.ie/beefcattle-for-sale/heifers/26241347

tanko

They're very nice alrite but are a lot of them not fit to kill.
Would they have any milk and getting calves out of them cold be tricky i think.
I'd prefer a good R grade heifer and let the bull put the muscle/shape into the calf.

charolais0153

tanko wrote: »

They're very nice alrite but are a lot of them not fit to kill.
Would they have any milk and getting calves out of them cold be tricky i think.
I'd prefer a good R grade heifer and let the bull put the muscle/shape into the calf.

I don't think they are that strong, you'd often get r grade heifers with dam all milk either

patsy_mccabe

tanko wrote: »

They're very nice alrite but are a lot of them not fit to kill.
Would they have any milk and getting calves out of them cold be tricky i think.
I'd prefer a good R grade heifer and let the bull put the muscle/shape into the calf.

The voice of experience. :rolleyes:

tanko

Each to their own i suppose, i don’t mean to knock them.

In saying all that i have this ZGM lady off a QCD X HE cow. Her mother has loads of milk and has a milk figure of +14, she has a figure of +6.
I’m thinking of keeping her on. Anyone got any ZGM cows, what are they like?

charolais0153

tanko wrote: »

Each to their own i suppose, i don’t mean to knock them.

In saying all that i have this ZGM lady off a QCD X HE cow. Her mother has loads of milk and has a milk figure of +14, she has a figure of +6.
I’m thinking of keeping her on. Anyone got any ZGM cows, what are they like?

I don't see why you wouldn't, certainly not too muscled

Grueller

tanko wrote: »

Each to their own i suppose, i don’t mean to knock them.

In saying all that i have this ZGM lady off a QCD X HE cow. Her mother has loads of milk and has a milk figure of +14, she has a figure of +6.
I’m thinking of keeping her on. Anyone got any ZGM cows, what are they like?

I'd keep her

patsy_mccabe

tanko wrote: »

Each to their own i suppose, i don’t mean to knock them.

In saying all that i have this ZGM lady off a QCD X HE cow. Her mother has loads of milk and has a milk figure of +14, she has a figure of +6.
I’m thinking of keeping her on. Anyone got any ZGM cows, what are they like?

A few Gamin heifers here but no cows yet. ICBF have Gamin below average and 90% rel for maternal calving. If you have doubt about her, let her grow away a bit more and give her an easy calver. You know yourself.

tanko

She's only six months old yet, will get an easy calving Saler the first time anyway.

funkey_monkey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54590868



Very sad for the family involved.

Was there something about farmers liability for cattle breaking out at night versus during day - or is that an urban myth?

CHOPS01

Happy Autumnal Grazers

funkey_monkey

The above oriented correctly

Say my name

Been having the craic today.

Brix testing silage. (Measuring sugars).
A stainless steel garlic press is used to extract the juice from the silage and a drop is put on the refractomiter and you look through the eye piece on the brix reader to get the reading.

funkey_monkey

Do you measure your dry matter too?

Say my name

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Do you measure your dry matter too?

No.
I had a bloke in with a hand held NIR tester last year and that was the first test ever on silage here.
The above was the first time using the brix reader with silage.

wrangler

Say my name wrote: »

No.
I had a bloke in with a hand held NIR tester last year and that was the first test ever on silage here.

We use one here to test the colostrum, some ewes'd be very watery

Say my name

wrangler wrote: »

We use one here to test the colostrum, some ewes'd be very watery

Would you use that information then as part of your breeding program?

wrangler

Say my name wrote: »

Would you use that information then as part of your breeding program?

She wouldn't get a chance to be a persistent offender, it'd be more to save the lambs we'd check it, it'd be recorded but it wouldn't be used to pick replacements

funkey_monkey

Say my name wrote: »

No.
I had a bloke in with a hand held NIR tester last year and that was the first test ever on silage here.
The above was the first time using the brix reader with silage.

So what do you do with this information? I was thinking of measuring the DM in our silage, but then I thought WTF would I do with the information when I got it.

Say my name

funkey_monkey wrote: »

So what do you do with this information? I was thinking of measuring the DM in our silage, but then I thought WTF would I do with the information when I got it.

Brix is a tool used by so called regenerative farmers, organic and new age farmers.
It's recommended by all the soil health gurus.

The higher the brix, the healthier the plant, the harder it is for pests and diseases and viruses to attack that plant.
Then it goes that any animal or human that consumes that plant will be healthier too and it'll be harder for diseases and viruses to attack that animal or human.

Conventional advice here is to cut silage when grass is brix 3.
Artificial fertilizer lowers brix.
Organic natural fertilizers full of a lot of minerals raises brix. And foliar feeding same as well.
I've heard of some in this country getting silage to a brix of 14 but it's years of management to get to that level and you'd want your own mower ready to go when the time is right.
Brix is low in the morning. High in the afternoon and higher with full strong Sun.

funkey_monkey

Say my name wrote: »

I've heard of some in this country getting silage to a brix of 14 but it's years of management to get to that level and you'd want your own mower ready to go when the time is right.

Do you alter ration based on this or do you use it for grassland management next year?

Say my name

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Do you alter ration based on this or do you use it for grassland management next year?

I'm still mucking around and just starting.
But from other applications of other products that I've used that would raise brix but I hadn't the tester then. I'd say it's a benefit for growing and fattening cattle on grass only. I've been able to fatten cows on grass only and get the same grades and killout that before here you'd need meal.
All the books say it's brix that make the difference. I'll find out now I suppose over the next few years.

Edit: That Will Armitage that organic dairy farmer mentioned on this forum recently uses brix for years now. He had a tweet years ago of cutting grass silage at brix 14.

patsy_mccabe

Don't the simmental heifers look great when they are washed and dolled up?

https://www.donedeal.ie/beefcattle-for-sale/rathnashan-simmentals-draft-sale-online-14th-nov/26329259

wrangler

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Don't the simmental heifers look great when they are washed and dolled up?

https://www.donedeal.ie/beefcattle-for-sale/rathnashan-simmentals-draft-sale-online-14th-nov/26329259

I always liked the simmenthal, they were a very quite breed, I used to try to get them that nice red too, some here would grow to 800kg which would be some pain in a wet autumn.

patsy_mccabe

https://twitter.com/i/status/1321524905008107520

charolais0153

lm2014 x eby x cwi yearling out of first calver


tvr x pio 10 month old weanling

calving this time next year hopefully

Anto_Meath

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

Grueller

Anto_Meath wrote: »

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

Never in my farming career have I tubed a suckler to dry her off and I would be Autumn calving most of them so drying in June to meet the flies. Never get problems from drying them off either.
Just to say my cows would be 3/4 or more beef breed so no real milky first cross Angus cows either.

wrangler

Grueller wrote: »

Never in my farming career have I tubed a suckler to dry her off and I would be Autumn calving most of them so drying in June to meet the flies. Never get problems from drying them off either.
Just to say my cows would be 3/4 or more beef breed so no real milky first cross Angus cows either.

I often noted that with the sheep too, the place is alive with flies when we're weaning yet only 2 or 3% get mastitis after weaning