Dairy Chit Chat- Please read Mod note in post #1

keep going

Wildsurfer wrote: »

I picked up a Kerbl one last week but still in the box as I'm undecided whether it would be good enough as Ill be heating 200L at a time and it according to website this takes 11 mins to heat 8L to 42degrees. I'm guessing like me your feeding calves before evening milking with milk kept over from morning? Oh and it cost €250.

Its more a case of having a barrel in the calf house with a reserve of milk in yougurt in it and some days there would be alot of milk for tthe fresh milk to heat upvor if you didnt keep enough out of the tank for the calves.would put it going at the start of milking and it wouldnt have to be full warm for calves just enough to take the chill out of it

keep going

Are any of you with milk fever trouble feed ing the cows ration pre calving

freedominacup

atlantic mist wrote: »

had 3 cows calve with twins all went down after calving in last few days, gave a few bottles of magnesium and calcuim in case, seems to have knocked them all together they are barely going, look like i havent fed them in a year, one of them is now breathing funny anyone else having issues with twins, had vet out couldnt really put there figure on it just twins takes it out of the cow

Too late for you now but cows carrying twins usually stand out in dry cow group assuming you haven't scanned. They will not be putting on any condition compared to the rest of the group. As you said your own are in a rag. You can't over feed a cow carrying twins. If we think we have one identified we put them with fresh calvers/winter milkers and the extra feed usually sees them right.

Panch18

Timmaay wrote: »

No wounder the calves are flying it, it's the same as giving them OAD strength powder the twice a day probably ha? Any scour with them?

Haha true, rocket fuel for them!!

I'm dreading type the s word because as sure as I say no problem we'll get a dose of it!! But so far all good thank god. Calves can handle a fair amount of milk once get going.

Been doing the OAD feeding on the heifer calves for a few years now, no problems at all with it and a fair saver on labour

frazzledhome

freedominacup wrote: »

Too late for you now but cows carrying twins usually stand out in dry cow group assuming you haven't scanned. They will not be putting on any condition compared to the rest of the group. As you said your own are in a rag. You can't over feed a cow carrying twins. If we think we have one identified we put them with fresh calvers/winter milkers and the extra feed usually sees them right.

There's a great idea. We put dry ours for 10 weeks instead of 6 and group in a small straw shed that's for waifs and strays. Feed the best of silage to them. As you say can't over feed them

frazzledhome

Panch
Would you ever consider continuing oad for entire season?
I'm wondering are there and cost savings?
Litres will be down but I wonder will kgs per cow be down proportionally?

Benefits are there for breeding but by the looks of things your fertity is on the ball.

On calves, I don't think calves thrive properly till that go Oad.

Timmaay

frazzledhome wrote: »

Panch
Would you ever consider continuing oad for entire season?
I'm wondering are there and cost savings?
Litres will be down but I wonder will kgs per cow be down proportionally?

Benefits are there for breeding but by the looks of things your fertity is on the ball.

On calves, I don't think calves thrive properly till that go Oad.

Surely cow type would dictate this, any sort of br fr will dry herself off come August at a guess. Even with the idea cow I'd be carrying a huge replacement rate for the 1st year or so of going OAD, by the sound of it from reading about lads who went OAD some cows despite how good a milker they are still dry themselves off early and just are not suited to the system. Going the other extreme ha, I know of a chap who was OAD for a few years with pure HOs to try and improve fertility, supposedly there was one cow who'd knock out 45l in the single milking, huge huge bag coming into the parlour, and she'd take all day to milk ha.

leg wax

i bought 1 of those milk carts with a pump on it, now that cuts down on work feeding calves, some yoke :P:P. calves are flying been fed whole milk twice a day 6 litres each.3 ltr a time

whelan2

Timmaay wrote: »

Surely cow type would dictate this, any sort of br fr will dry herself off come August at a guess. Even with the idea cow I'd be carrying a huge replacement rate for the 1st year or so of going OAD, by the sound of it from reading about lads who went OAD some cows despite how good a milker they are still dry themselves off early and just are not suited to the system. Going the other extreme ha, I know of a chap who was OAD for a few years with pure HOs to try and improve fertility, supposedly there was one cow who'd knock out 45l in the single milking, huge huge bag coming into the parlour, and she'd take all day to milk ha.

What about scc?

freedominacup

Panch18 wrote: »

Haha true, rocket fuel for them!!

I'm dreading type the s word because as sure as I say no problem we'll get a dose of it!! But so far all good thank god. Calves can handle a fair amount of milk once get going.

Been doing the OAD feeding on the heifer calves for a few years now, no problems at all with it and a fair saver on labour

I fckn thought things were going well on that regard yesterday, fckn thought mind didn't even say it out loud to myself. You can imagine the mess this morning.

Timmaay

leg wax wrote: »

i bought 1 of those milk carts with a pump on it, now that cuts down on work feeding calves, some yoke :P:P. calves are flying been fed whole milk twice a day 6 litres each.3 ltr a time

My cart is one of them 4 wheeled yokes with a 220l blue barrel with the top cut off, works a charm, bit of tape on the side for how much needed in it (about 80l at the minute), fish out the milk with a bucket when feeding. 3 groups of 8or 9 calves so far, 10 teat no compartment teat feeder, but calves grouped by age/size. 3l/calf here also, the FRs are all flying it, AAs abit lazy and dopy 2bh, often need 1/2 a speedy feeder bottle extra of milk.

Timmaay

freedominacup wrote: »

Too late for you now but cows carrying twins usually stand out in dry cow group assuming you haven't scanned. They will not be putting on any condition compared to the rest of the group. As you said your own are in a rag. You can't over feed a cow carrying twins. If we think we have one identified we put them with fresh calvers/winter milkers and the extra feed usually sees them right.

Very useful advice, got one here I dried off 2wks ago, I'll fire her back in with the milkers. But anyways, cow calved here early to twins today, scanning didn't show them up, also she is in only average condition, all 3 cows who have calved out of that particular group have only had average enough bags of milk at calving, I'm thinking the silage they are getting isn't up to scratch? It doesn't look the worst of stuff, but obviously hasn't been quite doing the job. I threw the cow today a bottle of calcium also, shakey enough after calving. Good few calved last few days here, 2nd big crunch. Heifers everywhere, sheds in the home yard utterly hammers, really need cows out by night, and flog off the bull calves to take the pressure off.

leg wax

just on calves ,what are lads doing as feeding and how much for how long ,when do you cut back on milk or whats your routine to final milk cut off , my first pen of calves are flying but should they be eating more meal at 4 weeks old, should i be cutting back a little on milk or just keep them going at 6 ltrs for another 4 weeks

Milked out

leg wax wrote: »

just on calves ,what are lads doing as feeding and how much for how long ,when do you cut back on milk or whats your routine to final milk cut off , my first pen of calves are flying but should they be eating more meal at 4 weeks old, should i be cutting back a little on milk or just keep them going at 6 ltrs for another 4 weeks

Dont pull back on milk, Keep going with milk until they are eating 1kg of meal each. Just give them enough ration initially that it will be gone in a day to keep it fresh or else take whateevr is left over and replace it with fresh meal each day to help them get into eating it. Generally its at 8 to 10 weeks they'll be eating enough. Also wean going by the smallest in the group. We go to once a day with the milk for a week or so before pulling milk altogether when weaning

Panch18

frazzledhome wrote: »

Panch
Would you ever consider continuing oad for entire season?
I'm wondering are there and cost savings?
Litres will be down but I wonder will kgs per cow be down proportionally?

Benefits are there for breeding but by the looks of things your fertity is on the ball.

On calves, I don't think calves thrive properly till that go Oad.

Giving thought to the OAD for the year frazz, we are using nearly all kiwi Friesian for the last few years onto cows that would have been a mix of hol and br Friesian base.

As you say our fertility is good, and our solids are good as well and we have very little lameness problems, and these are the main benefits of OAD that we see given as the main benefits of the system

I think what's holding us back is that we have a beef enterprise as well and while we are not rearing the calves at the moment we would like to have the option to do it which would rule out jersey's and it seems that you need to be jersey inclined to go to full OAD

Now I know it's not necessarily 100% logical to let a beef enterprise determine the route of the dairy enterprises but we love the beef side of things, and at the end of the day getting enjoyment out what you do is important as well

I suppose it's a little bit of fear that is holding us back, if we were 100% confident that we could do it with our current cows then we would probably do it. We're just not sure on that and the only way to find out is to do it

I think what will happen is that we will get there slowly, maybe delay going twice a day by a few weeks one year and see how it goes

We are definitely very keen on the idea though. Wish there was more Irish research on it

Panch18

leg wax wrote: »

i bought 1 of those milk carts with a pump on it, now that cuts down on work feeding calves, some yoke :P:P. calves are flying been fed whole milk twice a day 6 litres each.3 ltr a time

Very flash!! We got the carts without the pumps!!

Same as yourself, about 6l a day, starting OAD tomorrow

frazzledhome

Really had a balls of a day. One of those days when I should've stayed in bed.

It started with two emails detailing how something I've had in train for some time couldn't be done. The cowardly feckers sent them last night, thinking I'd probably not see them till today and tomorrow being Friday I'd be cooled down.

I picked them up at 6am and phoned the two people concerned at 9am outlining how the invoices they're preparing would be ignored till a solution was found.

He presto, both called this afternoon with a fix. Lazy feckers. If people would just look for solutions rather than problems their lives and mine would be so much easier. Wtf are these kids learning in college?

Rant over

Deepsouthwest

frazzledhome wrote: »

Really had a balls of a day. One of those days when I should've stayed in bed.

It started with two emails detailing how something I've had in train for some time couldn't be done. The cowardly feckers sent them last night, thinking I'd probably not see them till today and tomorrow being Friday I'd be cooled down.

I picked them up at 6am and phoned the two people concerned at 9am outlining how the invoices they're preparing would be ignored till a solution was found.

He presto, both called this afternoon with a fix. Lazy feckers. If people would just look for solutions rather than problems their lives and mine would be so much easier. Wtf are these kids learning in college?

Rant over

I have no idea what ur on about!

visatorro

frazzledhome wrote: »

Really had a balls of a day. One of those days when I should've stayed in bed.

It started with two emails detailing how something I've had in train for some time couldn't be done. The cowardly feckers sent them last night, thinking I'd probably not see them till today and tomorrow being Friday I'd be cooled down.

I picked them up at 6am and phoned the two people concerned at 9am outlining how the invoices they're preparing would be ignored till a solution was found.

He presto, both called this afternoon with a fix. Lazy feckers. If people would just look for solutions rather than problems their lives and mine would be so much easier. Wtf are these kids learning in college?

Rant over

if your talking about people providing a "professional service" I agree with you 100%. they are gone extremely lazy and seem to require two/three visits/consultations and a few cheques before anything is done.

whelan2

Had debt collectors ring me last week for money I don't owe. I was beyond annoyed. Then got an email from the company I am so supposed to owe with a credit balance on my bill. Seems some of these companies haven't a clue what is going on. The first thing out of the debt collection agency was would I be paying with visa. I wonder how many people just pay to get them to go away

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

Had debt collectors ring me last week for money I don't owe. I was beyond annoyed. Then got an email from the company I am so supposed to owe with a credit balance on my bill. Seems some of these companies haven't a clue what is going on. The first thing out of the debt collection agency was would I be paying with visa. I wonder how many people just pay to get them to go away

The sorta thing which would have boiled my blood before and prob left me a nervous wreck thinking about it ha, but nowadays I'm wayyy beyond caring about other people's lazy and sloppy work, and I make it my point to remain indifferent and don't let it bother me.

Mehaffey1

Got my man card today.

In other news started feeding out today. Ad lib P.K between milkings but that'll soon turn to night breaks for 2nd herd of 320 cows. Yanking out quarter Angus cows and low/no producers to save on grass.

Had the new worker driving the tractor after pm milking to move the P.K trailer for the first time even driving the old Ford 7840. No problems with driving, quick hitch etc, doesn't take long for people to find their talent.

frazzledhome

visatorro wrote: »

if your talking about people providing a "professional service" I agree with you 100%. they are gone extremely lazy and seem to require two/three visits/consultations and a few cheques before anything is done.

That's it. Some want to give a half hearted go and then tell you about why it can't be done. That's not what your paying them for.

However some thing unreasonable, unethical or illegal is a different story.

whelan2

Cows are out. Happy days

Milked out

whelan2 wrote: »

Cows are out. Happy days

Ours back in again after last night's rain. Had em out for 2 days ground is soft all the time. Fecking water pipe on way to paddocks is burst somewhere under ground so they had no water yday, the amount of walking they do when thirsty didn't help the paddock, another job to find that and dig it up now

whelan2

Milked out wrote: »

Ours back in again after last night's rain. Had em out for 2 days ground is soft all the time. Fecking water pipe on way to paddocks is burst somewhere under ground so they had no water yday, the amount of walking they do when thirsty didn't help the paddock, another job to find that and dig it up now

We didnt get any rain last night. Will be on/off grazing here for a while. Will probably bring them back in around 3

kowtow

Deepsouthwest wrote:

I have no idea what ur on about!

Sounds like Frazz has been let down by his hit men.

.. "there wasn't a horses head to be found in the parish"... you know the type.

RightTurnClyde

FYI, for any who hasn't dealt with the banks in a while, ICBF reports are a big player now

Milked out

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

FYI, for any who hasn't dealt with the banks in a while, ICBF reports are a big player now

Yeah they looked for our coop performance report in Jan 14, would want to keep on top.of herd recording dry offs, culls etc. to keep them in shape. Or yields per cow etc look poor. Let it slip here in last few weeks with different things going on must take a day or half a day out to catch up on paper work

Milked out

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

FYI, for any who hasn't dealt with the banks in a while, ICBF reports are a big player now

Yeah they looked for our coop performance report in Jan 14, would want to keep on top.of herd recording dry offs, culls etc. to keep them in shape. Or yields per cow etc look poor. Let it slip here in last few weeks with different things going on must take a day or half a day out to catch up on paper work