diet feeder

epfff

How many of ye using feeder and yeer views

Dawggone

Couldn't live without it but my system wouldn't be in vogue with the NZ ethos.

Problem is you can't graze maize.

Milked out

Have one here. Milk thru the winter using maize, grass silage, small bit of straw with ration put into it as well. Have put fodder beet in the mix as well. Good because we don't have enough feed space so the first ones eating have the same diet as the last ones to the barrier and cows can't sort what they want. If I was in spring milk would be unlikely to have one as wouldn't need to have a diet like that and straw and silage can be fed without it. Would prob put the money if I had it towards more feed space at the barrier. The feeder costs in terms of running cost, repayments and time should be taken into account as well. What are you looking to feed?

Timmaay

Don't have one, we probably have left plenty of litres behind us as a result of not having one, with liquid milk HOs. However at the end of the day all a diet feeder is is a tool to help feed the cows, we've made far far greater returns on increasing the days at grass, improving grass quality, having proper silage, reducing number of winter calvers, the list goes on. If you are maxed out at all the above, and are getting upwards of 3500l per cow per yr from just grazed grass, you can then worry about chasing them extra litres with the use of diet feeders/ bought in feed etc etc. Moving forward myself, I'm trying to steer away from the large HOs who really benefit from a TMR diet, but I'll never say never to getting one in the future if the sums stack up.

td5man

Diet feeder here, all it does is burn diesel and time.
Grass grass grass.

whelan2

have a 170 here, its paid for and will keep it till it falls apart

quader

Just sold ours and put the money into a new milking parlour

frazzledhome

Had a few in our time maize, beet and byproduct all the craic.

Feeders in parlour straw spread every second day before silage goes in, simple.

One of the happiest days of my life was the day it went, we had become slaves to it

Timmaay

quader wrote: »

Just sold ours and put the money into a new milking parlour

Sounds like a double win! Less time wasted buring diesel with the diet feeder, and quicker milking times!

darragh_haven

frazzledhome wrote: »

Had a few in our time maize, beet and byproduct all the craic.

Feeders in parlour straw spread every second day before silage goes in, simple.

One of the happiest days of my life was the day it went, we had become slaves to it

I thought you were using it to store dung:D... a mobile dungstead

Cattlepen

Have two seperate farms and run two diet feeders. Great for tmr and fattening but they are a hoor on diesel. Thinking of getting rid of one and just going back to shear grab for cows. Depends on yer system I suppose. If you have round bales don't get one. Take forever to chop them

td5man

quader wrote: »

Just sold ours and put the money into a new milking parlour

Was it hard to get a victim for it?

sh1tstirrer

td5man wrote: »

Diet feeder here, all it does is burn diesel and time.
Grass grass grass.

I used one on a dairy farm where I was helping out, it's a bit of a dose filling then feeding out and all the extra time especially for a spring calving herd.

stanflt

Have one here since 94
Had an abbey paddle for 15 years and a hi spec paddle for the last 8 which I relined earlier in the year

Haven't gone broke yet

But if I was spring herd alls I'd have is a beet bucket:feeder for cows where I could put our beet brewers or maize to buffer at shoulders and drought

Farmer Pudsey

I have one it has a single wheel and it uses one manpower. It is a hoor when on the beer. Fill it up push it over in front of barrier and throw it out.:P

frazzledhome

darragh_haven wrote: »

I thought you were using it to store dung:D... a mobile dungstead

Sold that one last Monday
Beer money

mahoney_j

Don't have one,would like one but managing fine without .if I bought one I'd need a second tractor and another diesel tank.will put my money into quality silage,extea cubicles,more grass ,better cows

quader

td5man wrote: »

Was it hard to get a victim for it?

yea a lot of lads rang about it but they wanted it for half its value would like to have got more for it but what i got paid for new feeders and troughs and the difference between a new and second hand machine

Dawggone

Can't understand people saying that wagons burn a lot of diesel. Yes if you are driving miles of road they would burn a bit but in one yard no.
1000 pto on eco... tractor doing 1200 revs... it's hardly a workout.

We change around the tractors on it in the off season to give them a run out.

Cow Porter

Wouldn't be without it here , ok we are winter milk but biggest change was the transition from dry to milking cow . Less lda cows , higher intakes. Wouldn't recommend one for herd doing less than 6500 litres. Also when a shed came available to house youngstock a mile away no quams of how we'll feed them

Deepsouthwest

Wow, can't get over all the hate for feeders, or is it cos they're just v uncool! Have had feeders here for yrs, always feeding in two yards, and only one pit open at a time, so always drawing silage from one of the yards. Have mixed silage, with straw, beet, maize etc. But often only used to feed silage. Have some v narrow feeding passages here so grabbing it into each shed v slow, and a lot of piking after. I know I'll be shot for saying this, but throw 7/8 grabs into the feeder at the pit, and drive straight through the house, two back corner doors open and house of cattle fed in no time.

Dawggone

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Wow, can't get over all the hate for feeders, or is it cos they're just v uncool! Have had feeders here for yrs, always feeding in two yards, and only one pit open at a time, so always drawing silage from one of the yards. Have mixed silage, with straw, beet, maize etc. But often only used to feed silage. Have some v narrow feeding passages here so grabbing it into each shed v slow, and a lot of piking after. I know I'll be shot for saying this, but throw 7/8 grabs into the feeder at the pit, and drive straight through the house, two back corner doors open and house of cattle fed in no time.

Yep. Very uncool.

Edit. Same here. Long feed passage. Hydraulic pipe burst one Sunday and it took hours to feed out silage - just silage.

dar31

Auger bearing on Keenan went this evening, had just finished fresh load for morning, service man to be here at 8 in morning, worst case an hours down time

Cow Porter

dar31 wrote: »

Auger bearing on Keenan went this evening, had just finished fresh load for morning, service man to be here at 8 in morning, worst case an hours down time

Should have bought a tub...... Ours probably give trouble tomorrow now after me saying it :-/

keep going

First thing im gonna buy when I have the money which means never.if it was just the machine ir would be fine buts the loader, the passageways , the high ration bins, the brewers grains, the bearings, the dietitian, the bigger tractor, the maize, the beet, the straw, the wholecrop,etc thats the problem.happened to buy a bundle ofwhite fencing post a few backs and thought to myself that there is no cheaper diet feeder than them

Base price

Have a Keenan here. It has been dormant for the last year or so but we would not consider selling it.
Best bit of kit for mixing feed for cull cows and bulls.
Neighbour borrowed it 2 winters ago to feed milkers on silage, maise and meal.
He bought a second hand one cause he was so impressed.

Insp. Harry Callahan

Have a JF 12m tub here, great job, just sharpen the knives a couple of times over the winter, feeding 140 or so dry stock cattle, 2 mixes once a day, just walk along the passages in the evenings and push/brush in any of the mix that is left.
Main benifit for me is that no real manual work like graping, carrying meal bags, also great for mixing straw into the diet if so required. Also very little waste as seem to eat all up.
Can leave the old man to do feeding if I have got something else on and he is happy enough,

frazzledhome

Our gone a few years, don't notice any change in profit but the extra time is very noticeable.

60% bales here now and I don't think there's a quicker way to feed cattle. Bale feeds 24 milkers for a day aprox. Would take some time to process any number of bales.

ganmo

Ya ever think of using a straw blower to feed silage?

Dawggone

ganmo wrote: »

Ya ever think of using a straw blower to feed silage?

Fecking painfully slow.
Diet feeder can feed 200cows/hour. Straw blower would struggle to feed 40.

frazzledhome

ganmo wrote: »

Ya ever think of using a straw blower to feed silage?

Had one, was even a pain spreading straw. Destroyed the place

Tried silage unreal slow

frazzledhome

Dawggone wrote: »

Fecking painfully slow.
Diet feeder can feed 200cows/hour. Straw blower would struggle to feed 40.

You'd need a 30 cu?

Dawggone

frazzledhome wrote: »

You'd need a 30 cu?

28 cube. If all maize diet would need 30 to 32 cube.

RightTurnClyde

Had a teagle straw chopper here until '09. In fairness was fast at the silage, 40 secs for a mchale silage bale. All cows were bedded here on straw, and it wrecked the sheds, dust everywhere. Got sick of it in 09 when straw bill came to 9k. Chopper, 2nd tractor and straw ( straw came to 12,500 ) were sold, they paid for 170 cubicles, concrete, mats, 8 scrapers and a skid steer. Happy days and silage wagon did most of the silage from '10 on, summer not spent boll1king with bales

Cattlepen

Dawggone wrote: »

28 cube. If all maize diet would need 30 to 32 cube.

Just wondering how many kilos feed they are getting for to have a 32 cube? Just curious. It would take some driving

frazzledhome

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Had a teagle straw chopper here until '09. In fairness was fast at the silage, 40 secs for a mchale silage bale. All cows were bedded here on straw, and it wrecked the sheds, dust everywhere. Got sick of it in 09 when straw bill came to 9k. Chopper, 2nd tractor and straw ( straw came to 12,500 ) were sold, they paid for 170 cubicles, concrete, mats, 8 scrapers and a skid steer. Happy days and silage wagon did most of the silage from '10 on, summer not spent boll1king with bales

We had a Lucas great for bedding and dust crap for silage
On the whole a pain in the hole

Was a great yoke for covering beet to be fair

Cattlepen

frazzledhome wrote: »

We had a Lucas great for bedding and dust crap for silage
On the whole a pain in the hole

Was a great yoke for covering beet to be fair

Had a Lucas meself. They're a finicky fu***r. Got the new mchale. Have to say its a great yolk. Would put up withe the dust rather than pushing bales round with cattle pushing the other side. Dangerous work

Greengrass1

Waste of time for spring milk IMO. Know plenty who have got carried a way with feeder and forgotten about grass.
For all the giving out I do about the one here were putting it to good use now. Meal down to 2 kg in parlour and cows getting beet pulp silage in ours now. Seems to have sorted the milk issue.
I'd find much better places to spend money though than on a feeder if it was my decision
Have idea of getting some whole crop next yr as I think I'll be short silage so it will be handy then for winter milkers

Dawggone

Cattlepen wrote: »

Just wondering how many kilos feed they are getting for to have a 32 cube? Just curious. It would take some driving

Depends on DM.
Feed would always be high DM here so 16 to 18 ton.
Surprisingly easily driven unless you threw in a few bales without shaking them out.
150 to 200 ponies ticking over.

frazzledhome

Cattlepen wrote: »

Had a Lucas meself. They're a finicky fu***r. Got the new mchale. Have to say its a great yolk. Would put up withe the dust rather than pushing bales round with cattle pushing the other side. Dangerous work

We still bed calving area daily. Turf out cows and spread bales with loader, job done

Zr105

keep going wrote: »

First thing im gonna buy when I have the money which means never.if it was just the machine ir would be fine buts the loader, the passageways , the high ration bins, the brewers grains, the bearings, the dietitian, the bigger tractor, the maize, the beet, the straw, the wholecrop,etc thats the problem.happened to buy a bundle ofwhite fencing post a few backs and thought to myself that there is no cheaper diet feeder than them

IMO that where most people go wrong with feeders, there's no need for a lot of it, just keep it simple, With minimal ingredients,

Also on the dietitian the onse that certainly shouldn't be trusted are either merchant based ones, or else ones connected to selling feeders, ones trying to make sales, the other is trying to justify his sale to you...

whelan2

Zr105 wrote: »

IMO that where most people go wrong with feeders, there's no need for a lot of it, just keep it simple, With minimal ingredients,

Also on the dietitian the onse that certainly shouldn't be trusted are either merchant based ones, or else ones connected to selling feeders, ones trying to make sales, the other is trying to justify his sale to you...

yes its great here as they have the wrong correspondence name for our feeder, we hear nothing from keenans at all, just work away ourselves

Greengrass1

whelan2 wrote: »

yes its great here as they have the wrong correspondence name for our feeder, we hear nothing from keenans at all, just work away ourselves

Friend has a completely independent nutrionist. He gives him advise on what he needs and its up to him where he buys what then. He's after getting him using a lot more grass than what he was

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Friend has a completely independent nutrionist. He gives him advise on what he needs and its up to him where he buys what then. He's after getting him using a lot more grass than what he was

ye i have the guy that walks farm for me as well, yup grass is the key but wet land is the downer

mahoney_j

whelan2 wrote: »

ye i have the guy that walks farm for me as well, yup grass is the key but wet land is the downer

Grass is a super feed but can only do so much on its own

Deepsouthwest

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass is a super feed but can only do so much on its own

I'm inclined to agree, but I have no proof. Nxt yr will be interesting to see how much more milk we can push out in the autumn with no quota constraints. Just hope I don't slip down the slippery slope of feeding more to get more milk, but making no more extra money.

Greengrass1

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

I'm inclined to agree, but I have no proof. Nxt yr will be interesting to see how much more milk we can push out in the autumn with no quota constraints. Just hope I don't slip down the slippery slope of feeding more to get more milk, but making no more extra money.

For me it comes down to work /man I def wont be enploying someone full time unless I'm going to be milking a lot of cows. If I can get the 500kgs/cow and look after 120/30 cows on my own with s bit of help in sprinh I'll be doing very well adding a diet feeder to system all yr doesn't stack up imo not with the breed of cows in herd here

RightTurnClyde

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass is a super feed but can only do so much on its own

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

I'm inclined to agree, but I have no proof. Nxt yr will be interesting to see how much more milk we can push out in the autumn with no quota constraints. Just hope I don't slip down the slippery slope of feeding more to get more milk, but making no more extra money.

No quota constraints is one of the things I'm looking forward to next year, and being able see what exactly is the most I can get out of the grass. I've been a bit messed up here for the last few years carrying more cows than I needed (quota) and too high a stocking rate ( replacement heifers). Next year all that will be on the farm is the cows and heifer calves. Even though the cow numbers will be up, SR will be dropping from 3.2 to 2.7. For me that extra 18% in the stocking rate, was testing financially. At 3.2 the hamster wheel was starting to turn, more feed coming to produce milk, meanwhile the foot was on the brake for quota aswell. At 2.7 I'll be able to cut the meal to 500kgs and about 50% of that will be fed through "feed to yield", so I'm hoping to get a good return on it.
The price forecast for 2015 is a shame, but at least next year I have only one thing to worry about....bottom line. No more worrying about quota, hi stocking rate, high numbers of replacement heifers ( a b1tch on cash flow), etc. Now it's simple operation and down to business...payback time. ( here's hoping!)

milkprofit

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass is a super feed but can only do so much on its own

The question is
How much,,,,

mahoney_j

milkprofit wrote: »

The question is
How much,,,,

The reason I asked that question is that I think some totally overestimate what grass can do.stan put a figure of 4 k ltrs I think achievable on grass before supplementation is required.that figure is fairly right and maby conservative on a year like this and last when conditions and dm for the most part where ideal for grazing.on a wet year like 2012 you could do well to achieve half those figures

kowtow

mahoney_j wrote: »

The reason I asked that question is that I think some totally overestimate what grass can do.stan put a figure of 4 k ltrs I think achievable on grass before supplementation is required.that figure is fairly right and maby conservative on a year like this and last when conditions and dm for the most part where ideal for grazing.on a wet year like 2012 you could do well to achieve half those figures

I've heard a number of figures quoted ... both 17 litres + 27 litres spring to mind.. presumably these are figures for peak yield?

On which subject does anyone have a handy way of calculating the lactation curve from calving?... still trying to size a bulk tank for a small herd - made worse by the fact that most of the girls will have started the lactation suckling their calves for a couple of months. Not sure they will ever reach a decent yield in this lactation, hopefully OK for next though.