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

freedominacup

Mooooo wrote: »

Would the waikito type metre jars be better then the DIY buford? No jars in our parlour but with extra units I'd have to get extra metres for recording anyway

No, no, no, no. The greatest cnuts of yokes ever in a parlour. Diy metre a pleasure by comparison. I have a head covered in scars after those waikato balls of sh1te. I'd never record again if I had to go back to them. I think we'll get recorder to stay during calving in future. Too much else on to tie two into the parlour for a slow milking.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

Would the waikito type metre jars be better then the DIY buford? No jars in our parlour but with extra units I'd have to get extra metres for recording anyway

I wouldn't say so, Mooooo, the Munster meters match the volumes, speed of milking and sample bottle to every cow. They have some issues like some units being unable to read the barcode on some bottles and blockages in some units from lack of vaccum but they leave 2 spare units so they can be swapped if needed.. And you also have to do a very hot acid wash after morning milking.

kevthegaff wrote: »

How much is it per cow BTJ for 4 tests per year?

Iirc, it's about 11euro a cow, Kev.

Keepgrowing

freedominacup wrote: »

No, no, no, no. The greatest cnuts of yokes ever in a parlour. Diy metre a pleasure by comparison. I have a head covered in scars after those waikato balls of sh1te. I'd never record again if I had to go back to them. I think we'll get recorder to stay during calving in future. Too much else on to tie two into the parlour for a slow milking.

+1 Devils creation

We stopped recording in 2014. Only info being used was Scc. Herd was growing so oy scc cows, empty and three wheel cows being culled.

Scc now sitting in the low 100's. We use CMT in spring to clear all cows as they calve. If she fails she gets tubed and tylo, worked well this spring. If we have a spike during season we CMT whole herd, remove and treat or cull offender.

This spring we'll be maxed out numbers wise so may go back recording to select culls on performance. When we were recording we paid a guy to do the bottles and the hand piece, great job.

The reason we recorded for so long has a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't allowed near the parlour when we were recording :)

kowtow

Keepgrowing wrote:

Scc now sitting in the low 100's. We use CMT in spring to clear all cows as they calve. If she fails she gets tubed and tylo, worked well this spring. If we have a spike during season we CMT whole herd, remove and treat or cull offender.

I can't get comfortable with CMT... should show something on a cow over 200?

What's the critical factor, how much liquid added or how much liquid in proportion to the qty of milk? If I go heavy on reagent will I eventually get something off 1 quarter or another by way of experiment?

Or should I get one of those capacitance meters instead? Does anyone have one?

Happy with scc as far as milk recording goes but it would be great to have something more regular.

Must also find a lab for tbc.. keep meaning to ask vet.

kevthegaff

Keepgrowing wrote:

Scc now sitting in the low 100's. We use CMT in spring to clear all cows as they calve. If she fails she gets tubed and tylo, worked well this spring. If we have a spike during season we CMT whole herd, remove and treat or cull offender.

Do you find it hard using the CMT? I find it tricky.

leg wax

quick question , i am on a 14% cube at the moment still on all grass but will be going onto silage at the weekend and silage will be then making up a large amount of the diet, we are spring herd ,going to order last meal for weekend what shall i put them on in a cube form, no hoky poky mixes that i cant get , cows in ok order milking for another 6-8 weeks max, slippers on for legs then for the winter.

Mooooo

leg wax wrote: »

quick question , i am on a 14% cube at the moment still on all grass but will be going onto silage at the weekend and silage will be then making up a large amount of the diet, we are spring herd ,going to order last meal for weekend what shall i put them on in a cube form, no hoky poky mixes that i cant get , cows in ok order milking for another 6-8 weeks max, slippers on for legs then for the winter.

Do you know the protein of the silage? An 18% p nut should do it, high in energy. Overall protein in the diet should be around 15/16% so that should balance the silage in most cases.

visatorro

Keepgrowing wrote: »

+1 Devils creation

We stopped recording in 2014. Only info being used was Scc. Herd was growing so oy scc cows, empty and three wheel cows being culled.

Scc now sitting in the low 100's. We use CMT in spring to clear all cows as they calve. If she fails she gets tubed and tylo, worked well this spring. If we have a spike during season we CMT whole herd, remove and treat or cull offender.

This spring we'll be maxed out numbers wise so may go back recording to select culls on performance. When we were recording we paid a guy to do the bottles and the hand piece, great job.

The reason we recorded for so long has a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't allowed near the parlour when we were recording :)

Sure you've the young lads milking now, I'm sure they'd be able to handle recording!!

On a practical note older generation started recording with me there. No freeze brands so would have to recognise tag numbers just from the udder. Gave me an interest and sense of responsibility while also training the brain to work with and remember figures. That was the theory anyway!!!

Signpost

My first year milk recording after the old lad gave it up years ago. My one let down which might not be an awful bad thing I guess is how to accurately make decisions. I've done the ruthless culling the last years so no SCC worth talking about, I always did (and still do) a milk volume recoding with my own meters ever month so I knew who was under performing and have most of them bred out. Was hoping the protein and fat would give me great insight but I'm seeing a variation of maybe +/- 10% across the herd and all on relatively good numbers so no real advantage for decision making there.
How do ye all analyse the recording results to make 12.50 per cow cost justify itself?

Mooooo

Well here when winter milk months I'd dry off low lactose cows or cows doing under a certain amount of litres. Other than that I guess if your herd is where you want it the benefit I'd if selling heifers perhaps or if you go down with tb you get higher compensation. Hard to justify unless you get info that can be used

Signpost

An awful complaint but was hoping to see huge variations in my solids. Would love to increase my herd average to around ~475KG over next few years but with so little variation in the cows its hard to decide who to breed out of the herd and who to cull etc. Have about 30% of herd as first calvers this year so I'll stick with it for another year to see if there will be a noticeable increase in the data gathered then and go from there. Just wasnt sure had I missed a trick in what people were reading from the reports!

Mooooo

I used to look at the milk recording as well as the ebi when picking bulls for cows when breeding. Could also go thru cow families and see which ones are doing what etc

whelan2

scc is the first thing I look at, then solids. SCC is normally under control but treated first cow since May yesterday evening. Fresh calver

Keepgrowing

Reading out test tomorrow all prayers requested

Timmaay

What nut everyone feeding? Still on a mix of barley/14% high energy, so probably only 12% p. All spring milkers but should be fulltime on grass for another 3wks. Should I be going up on the p?

Mooooo

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Reading out test tomorrow all prayers requested

Just finished reading there, had one doubtful. Will send her to factory so locked up for another 50 days probably till glands cultured. Vet not sure if we'll end up having a test as well. Balls anyway

cosatron

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Reading out test tomorrow all prayers requested

snap. were reading ours tomorrow aswell. best of luck.

Mooooo

Scanned heifers y day after test 38 out of 41 in calf. Obviously wasn't paying attention the day their brothers were being sent to the mart as calves, 2 of the 3 not in calf were free martins in with the group. Unfortunately they are very spread out as the first round Ai went poor and I decided to leave the late spring born heifers, which would be normally kept for winter Ai, with them and the bull in an effort to get rid of the that group and bring all heifers back to 2 year old calving so most of those ones are calving in may, with 2 in June. Just have to be disciplined next year in breeding stop date in spring and push on the yearlings and hopefully within 2 years things will be tightened up

cosatron

cosatron wrote: »

snap. were reading ours tomorrow aswell. best of luck.

All clear. Thank god. Got him to scan heifers aswell on rented land and all in calf. Today was a good day

Keepgrowing

cosatron wrote: »

All clear. Thank god. Got him to scan heifers aswell on rented land and all in calf. Today was a good day

All clear here.
All read by 12.30 then cleaned up yards. Home on couch with stove lit watching a Blacklist relief guy milking this pm as I'm on for weekend. Kids at their friends house Mrs not to be found, bliss

visatorro

Timmaay wrote: »

What nut everyone feeding? Still on a mix of barley/14% high energy, so probably only 12% p. All spring milkers but should be fulltime on grass for another 3wks. Should I be going up on the p?

Am feeding 16%hi energy. Cows on zero grazed grass and middling silage for roughage. Haven't much grass left in paddocks. Cows on the final straight. 12 lts 4,14 fat, 4 pr. First time over four here. Yeah!! ****e forgot I'm getting paid feck all for my high solid white gold.

RightTurnClyde

Did the heifer calves with Mastermectin last week. They weren't showing any signs of hoose at the time. But they have a fine hoose cough now.
Suggestions? Never had a hoose issue before
Go again with Mastermectin. Drench?

Mooooo

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Did the heifer calves with Mastermectin last week. They weren't showing any signs of hoose at the time. But they have a fine hoose cough now.
Suggestions? Never had a hoose issue before
Go again with Mastermectin. Drench?

Had a similar issue here, vet recommended to go with a drench as it would be a different product. Edit that was when coughing didn't go away after 3 weeks

Buford T. Justice XIX

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Did the heifer calves with Mastermectin last week. They weren't showing any signs of hoose at the time. But they have a fine hoose cough now.
Suggestions? Never had a hoose issue before
Go again with Mastermectin. Drench?

Wait.

Ivermectins have a long enough activity. Iirc they are just coughing up what was there at dosing.

Just keep a watch for pneumonia?

freedominacup

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Did the heifer calves with Mastermectin last week. They weren't showing any signs of hoose at the time. But they have a fine hoose cough now.
Suggestions? Never had a hoose issue before
Go again with Mastermectin. Drench?

We can get no good of ivermectins. I'd be going in with a drench asap. Our calves are a month behind because of a poor response to ivermectins early in the season. I don't really blame the product as I'm willing to believe we are doing something wrong or we bought in a resistant strain of hoose somewhere along the line. Regular trips through handling facilities for dairy stock is never a bad thing for them to be used to anyway. An hour or so each time when you're moving them. No big deal and you know it's done.

Timmaay

visatorro wrote: »

Am feeding 16%hi energy. Cows on zero grazed grass and middling silage for roughage. Haven't much grass left in paddocks. Cows on the final straight. 12 lts 4,14 fat, 4 pr. First time over four here. Yeah!! ****e forgot I'm getting paid feck all for my high solid white gold.

Hit the 4 here also! 4.7bf, 15l. Do you dry off, and if so when you planning on drying off?

RightTurnClyde

Thanks lads for the replies. Yere right I better do them with a drench, better be safe. To be fair, I've never had an issue with ivermectin before, but it doesn't seem have to done the trick this time.
Balls, as I was hoping for tomorrow off, and the heifers were dropped to an outside block on Monday. No crush there and they're roaming a 20 acre field.
Looks like the missus is going to get in that Sat morning run she was hoping for. Dunlops instead of Nikes though

greysides

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Wait.

Ivermectins have a long enough activity. Iirc they are just coughing up what was there at dosing.

Just keep a watch for pneumonia?

I'd hold off for a few days for the reason above.

Signpost

What type of teat spray do ye all use? I've been using Deosan Teatfoam but at 47 euro per 20 litres I'm getting a bit fed up of the price. On pre & post spraying this time of the year so I know its good for that but going forward next year when just on post surely a good cheaper alternative? I've no scc issues for years here so the spray is prob working alright but still very hard to justify the expense of it

Keepgrowing

Bike outa action 4 days now, it's amazing how much you'd miss it.