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

freedominacup

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

It might have been the shower of Fs by the milk lorry driver at me too.

That'd be his last visit to my yard.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Ah, he's grand, just having a very, very bad day. Everything going wrong for him today but he left laughing anyway.

kowtow

On the off-chance does anyone have fairly old cashman pneumatic feeders and know anything about how they are "wired" (if air can be wired..)..

I have a red, a blue, and a thin clear(ish) line. the red and the blue look like they are chained together along all the feeders and I reckon the thin line goes to whatever control switch or button is in the pit but I could be massively wrong. Is there an air supply in the pit itself as well as up at the feeders??? If I am right is the narrow control line by any chance supposed to use the milking vacuum rather than a blast of air?

This could be the start of a beautiful adventure with pneumatics...

OverRide

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Milk lorry, fertiliser lorry and JCB arrive in the yard at the one time.

How about 3 Esb trucks a nuts lorry,the milk lorry and the ESB JCB all at the same time *
Bit of rearranging during that!


* after winter storm Jezebel or whatever it was called

whelan2

OverRide wrote: »

How about 3 Esb trucks a nuts lorry,the milk lorry and the ESB JCB all at the same time *
Bit of rearranging during that!


* after winter storm Jezebel or whatever it was called

One day last spring I had county council inspector, farm services guy from dairies and vet doing a section at the same time

Buford T. Justice XIX

OverRide wrote: »

How about 3 Esb trucks a nuts lorry,the milk lorry and the ESB JCB all at the same time *
Bit of rearranging during that!


* after winter storm Jezebel or whatever it was called

:eek:

Did you put up a set of traffic lights after that?:pac:

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

One day last spring I had county council inspector, farm services guy from dairies and vet doing a section at the same time

Ah jezz, I hope ya had the council chap helping out with the section, show him the real side of farming.

visatorro

15 litres, 3.55 pr, 3.77 fat. urea 30. scc 222. 2 kgs meal. 5lu/hect. not measuring so cant put a figure on grass but prob have too much atm.
drying of 33% of herd next week, autumn calvers. culling another 20% from now til christmas.

on scc only tubed half the herd at dry off last year. had two visible cases of mastitis and two was no traces but high scc. two treated , two culled. scc stayed between 170-250. mostly around 200. all cows given teat seal. dry cows held on slats during winter.

solids prod dont look great to lads here, but prot here used to only be 3.2 for the autumn. making a little progress.

ozil10

Just wondering what % nut/ration
People are feeding at the moment
Cows still doing 21.5 litres on 1.5kg of 14% nut
Plenty of grass In front of them although growth rates have dropped the last week

whelan2

visatorro wrote: »

15 litres, 3.55 pr, 3.77 fat. urea 30. scc 222. 2 kgs meal. 5lu/hect. not measuring so cant put a figure on grass but prob have too much atm.
drying of 33% of herd next week, autumn calvers. culling another 20% from now til christmas.

on scc only tubed half the herd at dry off last year. had two visible cases of mastitis and two was no traces but high scc. two treated , two culled. scc stayed between 170-250. mostly around 200. all cows given teat seal. dry cows held on slats during winter.

solids prod dont look great to lads here, but prot here used to only be 3.2 for the autumn. making a little progress.

did you scan yet, was there many bulling after you took out bull?

mahoney_j

ozil10 wrote: »

Just wondering what % nut/ration
People are feeding at the moment
Cows still doing 21.5 litres on 1.5kg of 14% nut
Plenty of grass In front of them although growth rates have dropped the last week

3.5 kg fty of 17% ,excellent grass in front of cows but after testing samples it just ain't testing as good as appears .since going to that nut ,milk up 0.8 ltrs ,urea 28 up from 11 ,lactose 4.94 up from 4.8 and still over 2 kg ms daily .lack of sun is the problem with grass quality

ozil10

mahoney_j wrote: »

3.5 kg fty of 17% ,excellent grass in front of cows but after testing samples it just ain't testing as good as appears .since going to that nut ,milk up 0.8 ltrs ,urea 28 up from 11 ,lactose 4.94 up from 4.8 and still over 2 kg ms daily .lack of sun is the problem with grass quality

Cheers
Is the 17% nut your own mix?
If so what's in it

Mooooo

At group yday was mentioned that protein was lower than earlier in the year for a lot of people and only rising in last 2 weeks or so. One reasoning was due to lack of sunshine and growth coming in bursts that grass dm was lower than normal esp where grass was after grass or a lot of N which led to cows being full without being able to get in enough dm.

mahoney_j

ozil10 wrote: »

Cheers
Is the 17% nut your own mix?
If so what's in it

Mix formulated and mixed by feed mill in nut form ,maize ,soya ,barley ,hulls ,best pulp ,and usual vitimans ,minerals and cal mag

Mooooo

ozil10 wrote: »

Just wondering what % nut/ration
People are feeding at the moment
Cows still doing 21.5 litres on 1.5kg of 14% nut
Plenty of grass In front of them although growth rates have dropped the last week

Sticking with the 14.5 nut here for another 2 to 3 weeks anyway, will be blanket spreading and a lot of after grass coming in so should be plenty. At the same yield as yourself but will be drying off autumn calvers soon. May get a sample of grass tested see what it comes back with

mahoney_j

Mooooo wrote: »

At group yday was mentioned that protein was lower than earlier in the year for a lot of people and only rising in last 2 weeks or so. One reasoning was due to lack of sunshine and growth coming in bursts that grass dm was lower than normal esp where grass was after grass or a lot of N which led to cows being full without being able to get in enough dm.

Lack of sun is biggest difference this year,as I said grass looks good but ain't testing or feeding the same .my protein rising every month this year bar April despite having what id regard as excellent grass .still back over 0.15 on 2015

Mooooo

mahoney_j wrote: »

Mooooo wrote: »

At group yday was mentioned that protein was lower than earlier in the year for a lot of people and only rising in last 2 weeks or so. One reasoning was due to lack of sunshine and growth coming in bursts that grass dm was lower than normal esp where grass was after grass or a lot of N which led to cows being full without being able to get in enough dm.

Lack of sun is biggest difference this year,as I said grass looks good but ain't testing or feeding the same .my protein rising every month this year bar April despite having what id regard as excellent grass .still back over 0.15 on 2015

Did you compare to 14? That was mentioned was that those feeding little to low meal may have been effected more as those feeding meal were riding that gap. I fed meal all the way thru and while it didn't drop on any previous month p well back on last year I think because meal possibly a bigger part of diet as well as grass dm? Have you the results and date of grass analysis handy?

yewtree

Mooooo wrote: »

At group yday was mentioned that protein was lower than earlier in the year for a lot of people and only rising in last 2 weeks or so. One reasoning was due to lack of sunshine and growth coming in bursts that grass dm was lower than normal esp where grass was after grass or a lot of N which led to cows being full without being able to get in enough dm.

Same at our group aswell everyone at the group was disappointed with protein. i was over 3.8 last year at this stage last year struggling to hit 3.7 at the moment. Much the same reasons were talked about at our group. last year was an exceptional year for protein so this years protein % mightn't look as bad when compared against years other than 2015.
Cows here are in good condition score and breeding seems to have gone really well so one indicate that cows are well fed, cows have averaged about 0.75kg/ day of meal over last 3 months. Has anyone got grass tested lately to look at ME?

freedominacup

yewtree wrote: »

Same at our group aswell everyone at the group was disappointed with protein. i was over 3.8 last year at this stage last year struggling to hit 3.7 at the moment. Much the same reasons were talked about at our group. last year was an exceptional year for protein so this years protein % mightn't look as bad when compared against years other than 2015.
Cows here are in good condition score and breeding seems to have gone really well so one indicate that cows are well fed, cows have averaged about 0.75kg/ day of meal over last 3 months. Has anyone got grass tested lately to look at ME?

Grass testing is a snapshot accurate portrayal of a moment in time. A link on a grass measuring website with regularly updated test results from some of the usual sites would be a lot more useful.

yewtree

freedominacup wrote: »

Grass testing is a snapshot accurate portrayal of a moment in time. A link on a grass measuring website with regularly updated test results from some of the usual sites would be a lot more useful.

That's a fair point, if pasturebase took a set of farms across country and took regular samples and published info would be really useful it should pick up a trend of lower ME in grass over a grazing season if that was happening.

visatorro

whelan2 wrote: »

did you scan yet, was there many bulling after you took out bull?

Yeah scanning done. Pulled bulls out early on purpose as am reducing numbers. Had 5% earmarked (injected) for culling and another 20% duly obliged. The usual carryover cows. Couple of older ones but a few more heifers than expected. Nothing obvious wrong with them. Bit disappointed Tbh but I'll get over it!

mahoney_j

yewtree wrote: »

Same at our group aswell everyone at the group was disappointed with protein. i was over 3.8 last year at this stage last year struggling to hit 3.7 at the moment. Much the same reasons were talked about at our group. last year was an exceptional year for protein so this years protein % mightn't look as bad when compared against years other than 2015.
Cows here are in good condition score and breeding seems to have gone really well so one indicate that cows are well fed, cows have averaged about 0.75kg/ day of meal over last 3 months. Has anyone got grass tested lately to look at ME?

Sample I got tested came back 22% crude protein but pdie and pdin low .11.5% me and 15.8% dm ..this was aftergrass 19 ish days after baling and 18 days after 23 units n applied .looked savage stuff but tested differently..big problem most of this summer is lack of sun .super growing summer though

whelan2

visatorro wrote: »

Yeah scanning done. Pulled bulls out early on purpose as am reducing numbers. Had 5% earmarked (injected) for culling and another 20% duly obliged. The usual carryover cows. Couple of older ones but a few more heifers than expected. Nothing obvious wrong with them. Bit disappointed Tbh but I'll get over it!

was it 6 weeks breeding you did, will you do that again next year?

Brown Podzol

mahoney_j wrote: »

Sample I got tested came back 22% crude protein but pdie and pdin low .11.5% me and 15.8% dm ..this was aftergrass 19 ish days after baling and 18 days after 23 units n applied .looked savage stuff but tested differently..big problem most of this summer is lack of sun .super growing summer though

Low p% in milk, low corn bushel weight and cattle coming off grass 20kg/dw lighter. Enough heat but not enough sun. A more comprehensive grass analysis throughout the season from Teagasc would be a help. GR, dm and energy analysis. They are after all collecting a lot more in levies.

stanflt

Just scanned the last bunch of heifers- 66/66 in calf with the latest one calving 20 March- 17 of these were born April or May of last year so really happy

12% of the cows were empty last sat but these were mainly April and May Calvers this yr- latest cow is calving 12 April

First time we will be finished calving before msd

The end goal is in sight along way from where we were 7-8 yrs ago calving 11 months of the year

mahoney_j

stanflt wrote: »

Just scanned the last bunch of heifers- 66/66 in calf with the latest one calving 20 March- 17 of these were born April or May of last year so really happy

12% of the cows were empty last sat but these were mainly April and May Calvers this yr- latest cow is calving 12 April

First time we will be finished calving before msd

The end goal is in sight along way from where we were 7-8 yrs ago calving 11 months of the year

Great going Stan ,great to finish calving and even a week or 10 days break before start of breeding..heifers scanned here as well 90% calving February ,last one due from 15 March and one empty .havnt scanned cows yet but things look good .bull out 18/07 .2 repeats so far which will be culled .less than 6% served for April calving .

Waffletraktor

freedominacup wrote: »

Grass testing is a snapshot accurate portrayal of a moment in time. A link on a grass measuring website with regularly updated test results from some of the usual sites would be a lot more useful.

Depends on just how much detail you like but, I'm surprised a company doesn't give a few updates of live tissue samples of a few common sward mixtures weekly as it changes daily depending on if the weather is settled or not and fertiliser use etc..
As in after a highish dose of N it might look like lots of new growth vs floppy leafs but it's the plant trying to water down the toxic N to lower levels which affects all the other nutrients also until the hot of n looses the heat

Timmaay

"stanflt wrote:

The end goal is in sight along way from where we were 7-8 yrs ago calving 11 months of the year

About 4years into that cycle here, calving still strung out between Feb and the end of May but all the autumn calving gone at least. Love nor money wouldn't get me to go back to Ayr calving. I still need to reduce the amount of difficult calvings, and improve nutrition/bcs, alongside getting fully on top of fluke etc before I can start looking at 80/90% 6wk calving rates etc.

What way are you labour wise next spring Stan? This spring was too much for me, I'll be getting someone in for the likes of 1/2 a day every day next spring, especially when the heifers are calving down.

Mooooo

Have 6 acres ploughed, was picking stones earlier only a couple of runs of the rake with the loader for the big ones and a half bucket after that, first time ever it was that handy here with stones. First time that place has been ploughed so nice surprise. Hopefully the rest of the ground there will be similar, won't keep the hopes too high tho ha

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

Have 6 acres ploughed, was picking stones earlier only a couple of runs of the rake with the loader for the big ones and a half bucket after that, first time ever it was that handy here with stones. First time that place has been ploughed so nice surprise. Hopefully the rest of the ground there will be similar, won't keep the hopes too high tho ha

I had a JCB in for two days levelling old ditches into hollows and levelling off spoil from cleaning out drains. About 6 acres that had never been reseeded or ploughed and 3 heavy acres that used grow barley and spuds but the spud man wrecked old drains and it got cut up and used for grazing dry cows.

Pick a few stones next week and a quick run of a power harrow and we are going to spray it and plough it next spring and put in a heavy soil grass seed until I have a chance to drain the top and bottom of it.

That'll leave 10 acres for next year to level off like the place above and start firing out lime in the next 3-4 years like it's going out of fashion.:)