diet feeder

cz527

I have a milking herd of 45 and I rare all the calf's and have around 15 sucklers and I have 15 acres of barely ever year keep the straw and grain and us it for feed and bedding I roll all my own grain I feed all raps and give out meal with wheel barrow and bbuckets would a diet feeder make my life better or worse would I be better of staying with the system I have

tomieen jones

cz527 wrote: »

I have a milking herd of 45 and I rare all the calf's and have around 15 sucklers and I have 15 acres of barely ever year keep the straw and grain and us it for feed and bedding I roll all my own grain I feed all raps and give out meal with wheel barrow and bbuckets would a diet feeder make my life better or worse would I be better of staying with the system I have

seen an article where in new Zealand dairy they are moving away from machinery to self feeding from silage pit! One man can feed 350 cows in5 minutes moving an electric wire and a small tractor for scraping yards! Takes a big tractor to drive a diet feeder and another to load it! Maybe your barrow is more reliable and spread your grain along the face of the pit! It would keep costs down! Machinery is expensive to maintain let alone buy

cz527

tomieen jones wrote: »

seen an article where in new Zealand dairy they are moving away from machinery to self feeding from silage pit! One man can feed 350 cows in5 minutes moving an electric wire and a small tractor for scraping yards! Takes a big tractor to drive a diet feeder and another to load it! Maybe your barrow is more reliable and spread your grain along the face of the pit! It would keep costs down! Machinery is expensive to maintain let alone buy

Could be right less cost is always a better option especially when profits are so small

tomieen jones

I was in the planning process of building a slatted unit until a wise old neighbour told me no! Slatted units require more labour in regard feeding silage pushing in silage and machinery expenses ! I went for self feed and cubicles and must say a small tractor scraper and electric wire to move every day about 30 minutes i'm done with that side of things! Was delighted with myself when I saw that article because at the time I felt was I going back wards to what they did in the 70s

cz527

tomieen jones wrote: »

I was in the planning process of building a slatted unit until a wise old neighbour told me no! Slatted units require more labour in regard feeding silage pushing in silage and machinery expenses ! I went for self feed and cubicles and must say a small tractor scraper and electric wire to mice every day about 30 minutes i'm done with that side of things! Was delighted with myself when I saw that article because at the time I felt was I going back wards to what they did in the 70s

Subtitles the old ways are the best ways less cost at the end of the day is what it is all about

Timmaay

cz527 wrote: »

I have a milking herd of 45 and I rare all the calf's and have around 15 sucklers and I have 15 acres of barely ever year keep the straw and grain and us it for feed and bedding I roll all my own grain I feed all raps and give out meal with wheel barrow and bbuckets would a diet feeder make my life better or worse would I be better of staying with the system I have

Sounds like your busy as is with quite a few difference enterprises already, if you want to make life easier would you not give up the barley, buy in straw and consider parlour feeders and a meal bin instead, costs less than the diet feeder and less work needed. Won't feed the sucklers but I assume they don't need much nuts?

cz527

Timmaay wrote: »

Sounds like your busy as is with quite a few difference enterprises already, if you want to make life easier would you not give up the barley, buy in straw and consider parlour feeders and a meal bin instead, costs less than the diet feeder and less work needed. Won't feed the sucklers but I assume they don't need much nuts?

Have to say that dos make sense in the run of things

blackdog1

tomieen jones wrote: »

seen an article where in new Zealand dairy they are moving away from machinery to self feeding from silage pit! One man can feed 350 cows in5 minutes moving an electric wire and a small tractor for scraping yards! Takes a big tractor to drive a diet feeder and another to load it! Maybe your barrow is more reliable and spread your grain along the face of the pit! It would keep costs down! Machinery is expensive to maintain let alone buy

It sound like the movie back to the future to me

Timmaay

blackdog1 wrote: »

It sound like the movie back to the future to me

Takes me about 5mins to load the silage and maize into the feeding passage with the shear grab, if it's a really wet and sh1tty day and the plastic needs to be shoved back I push it with the grab ha.

I remember well my dad feeding the heifers here from the face of the pit, grand if the pit face remained straight but would always end up with them leaving silage behind at the sides, then one jumping over the wire up onto the pit and punching holes all over the plastic. Too dangerous with high pits also, silage will be falling down on the animals. Bigger yard needed also for the animals if the pit was outside, and more slurry etc. In theory the idea works well, but needs alot of things right, in our case I definitely wouldn't go back. We still just use a ring feeder for the heifers though ha.

yellow50HX

How well are you set up for a diet feeder at present, if it means extra machairy and extra cost then factor this in.

Have you a tractor to drive it?
Have you a seprate loader/ tractor to load it. Does you loader have a quick attach to swap from bucket to pike and backa again?
What type of feed you have?
What kinda of fodder storage have you and can you access with with the tractor and loader?
Are you feed passages big enough to fit the feeder?
Will you need to make separate diets for the different cattle?
If you do a 2 day mix can you park the feeder indoors overnight?

We did self feeding for years and wouldn't goo back. It was inside the shed so pit face was high this meant that we had to lift the upper bits off daily and put in a round feeder, also yard scraping took longer and there was a lot of waste and the cows would pull the silage out under the wire and stand on it. Lots of silage ended up in the slurry tank.

It's fine for lads in NZ who have a 1 or 2 month winter and have less strict slurry storage regulations.

joejobrien

OMG
Is the industry on the back foot ????? The systems above mentioned were there years ago, changed due to both(mainly)
1. pollution control
2. labour.
Handling large numbers require good setups, leads to better mangement.
Pollution issues are in New Zeland and futher restriction are on track.
Get rid of barley as timmay sugests leading to more ground for cow...increse profit.
Unsure if diet feeder would achive anything. Whats your current production ?
cheap and cheerful aproach MAY not be always the answer

mf240

Timmaay wrote: »

Sounds like your busy as is with quite a few difference enterprises already, if you want to make life easier would you not give up the barley, buy in straw and consider parlour feeders and a meal bin instead, costs less than the diet feeder and less work needed. Won't feed the sucklers but I assume they don't need much nuts?

If you got rid of the sucklers and the tillage youd make life very simple.

yellow50HX

mf240 wrote: »

If you got rid of the sucklers and the tillage youd make life very simple.

If the farm is fragmented then upping the dairy herd may not be as simple. That said I'd agree if you can swap the sucklers for milking cows and it dosent mean too much extra building cost then I'd do that 1st. Also if the tillage land can be turned to grass the I'd do that too.

the_blue_oval

what about something like this?

http://www.donedeal.ie/feedingequipment-for-sale/beet-chopper-feeder/2551837?offset=25


would be cheaper bought and cheaper to run than a diet feeder, would make the wheel barrow redundant and give the option of feeding beet aswell.

tomieen jones

joejobrien wrote: »

OMG
Is the industry on the back foot ????? The systems above mentioned were there years ago, changed due to both(mainly)
1. pollution control
2. labour.
Handling large numbers require good setups, leads to better mangement.
Pollution issues are in New Zeland and futher restriction are on track.
Get rid of barley as timmay sugests leading to more ground for cow...increse profit.
Unsure if diet feeder would achive anything. Whats your current production ?
cheap and cheerful aproach MAY not be always the answer

two extra high horse power tractors is a huge cost and could be considered more polluting!! I haven't had waste under the wire although I do pike down the high stuff and leave the wire back so they have to reach for it! Maybe extra labour as in piking but I don't mind this! But I wouldn't say going backwards as any system less dependent on oil! Eg machinery is the way forward!!

joejobrien

tomieen jones wrote: »

two extra high horse power tractors is a huge cost and could be considered more polluting!! I haven't had waste under the wire although I do pike down the high stuff and leave the wire back so they have to reach for it! Maybe extra labour as in piking but I don't mind this! But I wouldn't say going backwards as any system less dependent on oil! Eg machinery is the way forward!!

NOTE i never mention exta tractors
IF YOUR HAPPY WITH SAME......WORK AWAY.
Many will continue to mordenise

whelan2

what are those feeders like that have the engine on the front of them? only need 1 tractor then

joejobrien

No idea Whelan, never appeared on Irish farm very much, if any

tomieen jones

joejobrien wrote: »

NOTE i never mention exta tractors
IF YOUR HAPPY WITH SAME......WORK AWAY.
Many will continue to mordenise

indeed I accept you never mentioned two extra tractors ! , for me it would mean two extra tractors! its common practise to have a separate tractor for loading and one more powerful than the one I have for scraping yards! Everything else I use a local contractor! I only speak for myself and I believe the future of agriculture will move away from heavy machinery as much as possible for day to day jobs! Infact I believe we will actually be encouraged with subsidies going forward to have systems less reliant on oil

joejobrien

tomieen jones wrote: »

indeed I accept you never mentioned two extra tractors ! , for me it would mean two extra tractors! its common practise to have a separate tractor for loading and one more powerful than the one I have for scraping yards! Everything else I use a local contractor! I only speak for myself and I believe the future of agriculture will move away from heavy machinery as much as possible for day to day jobs! Infact I believe we will actually be encouraged with subsidies going forward to have systems less reliant on oil

Food is required every day for to feed most of the worlds population
Consumer requires cheap food
That means large scale, modern farming practices. Like it or not.
I wish it was different but growing cohort of people demand food cheap....listen to them at the butcher counter, radio etc.
It is precieved to be dear, when in fact we both know its the opposite

tomieen jones

joejobrien wrote: »

Food is required every day for to feed most of the worlds population
Consumer requires cheap food
That means large scale, modern farming practices. Like it or not.
I wish it was different but growing cohort of people demand food cheap....listen to them at the butcher counter, radio etc.
It is precieved to be dear, when in fact we both know its the opposite

Food is required every day to feed most of the population? google farming to the future without oil!

joejobrien

tomieen jones wrote: »

Food is required every day to feed most of the population? google farming to the future without oil!

Its apparent that you have different views.
Funnily multinational food companies also believe in large scale food production

lefthooker

Back to the question,

It's hard to advise without knowing the layout of your yard, sheds, feeding passages, no. of cattle to feed, how far you bring the calves and your current machinery.

But if you have the tractors, concrete, handy shed for meal storage, acces to other feeds and a few different batches to feed then a diet feeder can be very useful.

I definitely wouldn't go near self feeding, that's a backward step and ends up with more waste and scutter than you'd expect. I'd swap the sucklres for 15 milkers and consider turning the stubbles to grass and buying in your straw and dried rolled barley.

A straw blower and meal feeder bucket might be a much better option.

Carrigogunnell

Right because of the sucklers and growing barley I would think that the land is fragmented and these are not part of the grazing block. Is he saving money by having his own straw and grain. Like a few said we don't know situation but I'm wondering would a zero grazer be an option in this situation.

cz527

See one of my reasons is I both a new tractor and my old one witch is fairly worn out will be traded in agents a diet feeder or a 2100 abbey tanker and I thought the diet feeder would make my life

grazeaway

cz527 wrote: »

See one of my reasons is I both a new tractor and my old one witch is fairly worn out will be traded in agents a diet feeder or a 2100 abbey tanker and I thought the diet feeder would make my life

You ll need the second tractor to drive the feeder as best to load it while the paddle is being mixed otherwise your breaking shear bolts and straining the gears when mixing a full unmixed load.

So unless you plan to fix up the old one to drive a feeder the I would skip the feeder and get the tanker instead.