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

Freejin

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Don't have to but it makes everything nice and even looking.
Milk line is the same height from the pit floor at the back as well as front.
Basically looks better.:D

That was the teagasc parlour plans I went off.

My milking machine man is fairly insistent that the fall in the cow stands follow the fall in the milk line to have a consistent milking in each position

pedigree 6

Freejin wrote: »

My milking machine man is fairly insistent that the fall in the cow stands follow the fall in the milk line to have a consistent milking in each position

Yea it was the guy who put in the parlour told me to do it that way.
He said all the pipes/lines would be the same length for every cow.
So same pressure.
That's the way it is now anyway.

Mooooo

Everything is hanging higher at the back of the pit here alrite so length of pipe and that is the same. I only stuck a new plant into old parlour so that's the main reason mine is that way. Don't stop milking here so doing concrete work is a balls. Old machine was taken out after morning milking and new one stuck in and milked the cows that night in it

GrasstoMilk

Ours is falling from front to back.
I don't think it matter a whole lot tbh

Ours was made with a 5 inch drainage pipe, 1 x2 inch timber put down and concreted around and a edged float ran down each side

Timbers pulled up when concrete was dry, ran a consaw down each side then.

Works great. If we were to do it again it'd be galvanise troughs and a galvanised kerb.
Probably break out the troughs and put in galvanised ones when we get feeders in

pedigree 6

Is there anyone else here with the same type falls as my parlour and do you have any slow milkers?

I'd say that's where the thinking comes into it.
I don't know only guessing here.

Probably could include rotaries as they'd be all the same too.

I wonder freejin do you and I have the same technician?
Pm if you want.

pedigree 6

Yea i'm not loosing my mind here altogether.

This is where the thinking/idea came from.
https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/rural-economy/farm-management/MilkingParlourFloors.pdf

mf240

Have it done the same way as yours. With the fall going to the front.

kowtow

Freejin wrote:

My milking machine man is fairly insistent that the fall in the cow stands follow the fall in the milk line to have a consistent milking in each position

Unless you have jars. If you have jars you can keep the jars consistent for the cows and the milk line sloped at its own convenience.

I think.

Also still looks a bit off If you have a touch of OCD.

Must be something about the time of year. I'm thinking of tearing down a wall and reroofing the parlour while we are dry to give myself an extra bit of room in the pit (currently about 4ft wide I think)

Am I mad?

Timmaay

kowtow wrote: »

Unless you have jars. If you have jars you can keep the jars consistent for the cows and the milk line sloped at its own convenience.

I think.

Also still looks a bit off If you have a touch of OCD.

Must be something about the time of year. I'm thinking of tearing down a wall and reroofing the parlour while we are dry to give myself an extra bit of room in the pit (currently about 4ft wide I think)

Am I mad?

How about putting out the whole parlour and turning it around, when I putting on the extra 6units here in a yr or so, so as the cows will be looking straight out at the paddocks and willing to exit quicker? Not actually the worse of ideas the more I think about it, when (or sorry if) I'm extending the parlour anyways.

kowtow

Timmaay wrote:

How about putting out the whole parlour and turning it around, when I putting on the extra 6units here in a yr or so, so as the cows will be looking straight out at the paddocks and willing to exit quicker? Not actually the worse of ideas the more I think about it, when (or sorry if) I'm extending the parlour anyways.

Worth thinking about. We can't do it because the levels all over the yard are so wild... cows would have less steps in a Buddhist temple.

mahoney_j

My parlour has no channels ,floors fall from cow standing position to under feed mangers and 1% fall from front to back ,milk line is looped and slipped from back to front ,no issues

Injuryprone

kowtow wrote: »

Unless you have jars. If you have jars you can keep the jars consistent for the cows and the milk line sloped at its own convenience

Unless you want to milk through the jars

kowtow

Injuryprone wrote:

Unless you want to milk through the jars

Good point. That's why it never works for me!

Injuryprone

kowtow wrote: »

Good point. That's why it never works for me!

Makes a big difference to milking time outside the spring

Buford T. Justice XIX

I sent off a few milk samples about a month ago to do a sensitivity on them, a bulk sample and two young cows with high SCC that I want to keep if possible.

I was hearing nothing back so I rang today to look for the results and it turns out they did an SCC on them but didn't send them off to the lab.

Does anybody know how long a sensitivity test takes? I want to be getting a prescription and ordering tubes for dryoff around now:(

Jexbullcalf

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I sent off a few milk samples about a month ago to do a sensitivity on them, a bulk sample and two young cows with high SCC that I want to keep if possible.

I was hearing nothing back so I rang today to look for the results and it turns out they did an SCC on them but didn't send them off to the lab.

Does anybody know how long a sensitivity test takes? I want to be getting a prescription and ordering tubes for dryoff around now:(

Ring these lads they'll tell ya +35345983800 enfer labs

GrasstoMilk

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I sent off a few milk samples about a month ago to do a sensitivity on them, a bulk sample and two young cows with high SCC that I want to keep if possible.

I was hearing nothing back so I rang today to look for the results and it turns out they did an SCC on them but didn't send them off to the lab.

Does anybody know how long a sensitivity test takes? I want to be getting a prescription and ordering tubes for dryoff around now:(

Did it last week got results today via email

Injuryprone

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/massive-variation-between-the-profitability-of-top-and-average-dairy-farms

Apparently "farmers operating high costs systems of production should copy what the better low-cost farmers are doing."

Buford T. Justice XIX

Injuryprone wrote: »

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/massive-variation-between-the-profitability-of-top-and-average-dairy-farms

Apparently "farmers operating high costs systems of production should copy what the better low-cost farmers are doing."

There is an interesting link on that link

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/first-of-its-kind-product-launched-to-help-reduce-antibiotic-usage-in-dairy-herds/?utm_source=Agriland&utm_medium=also_read_section&utm_campaign=also_read_section

for

‘First of its kind’ product launched to help reduce antibiotic usage in dairy herds

but they don't tell us what it is, when to use it or how it's used?


I looked but I'm not seeing any of the information that we would actually need to tell us wtf it actually is

Lady Haywire

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There is an interesting link on that link

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/first-of-its-kind-product-launched-to-help-reduce-antibiotic-usage-in-dairy-herds/?utm_source=Agriland&utm_medium=also_read_section&utm_campaign=also_read_section

for

‘First of its kind’ product launched to help reduce antibiotic usage in dairy herds

but they don't tell us what it is, when to use it or how it's used?


I looked but I'm not seeing any of the information that we would actually need to tell us wtf it actually is

Imrestor, I think.

https://www.elanco.com/news/press-releases/2016/Imrestor-Press-Release.aspx

whelan2

Had a heifer with ketosis this evening, years since we had one, had to get vet as I had no chanatol-

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Imrestor, I think.

https://www.elanco.com/news/press-releases/2016/Imrestor-Press-Release.aspx

Or what it costs?

Go on, work your Google magic again:D

Thanks, btw.

Lady Haywire

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Or what it costs?

Go on, work your Google magic again:D

Thanks, btw.

In the US, a ten dose is $156, 50 dose is $781.
UK it seems to be £14.50 per tube, two tubes per cow, about a week before calving & within 24 hours of calving.

First link has a nice bit about estimated costs for/against prevention of mastitis.

http://www.dairyherd.com/magazine/will-new-mastitis-prevention-tool-pay

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-451633

Brown Podzol

Injuryprone wrote: »

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/massive-variation-between-the-profitability-of-top-and-average-dairy-farms

Apparently "farmers operating high costs systems of production should copy what the better low-cost farmers are doing."

"Ryan also said that Irish dairy farmers are in an unique position as in 2015, Ireland had the lowest cash costs per kilogram of milk solids at €2.90/kg compared with an average of €3.70/kg at European level."

“And in the non-European zone on the world scene we have the second lowest costs as a percentage of dairy output”, he said.

I see Matt is talking about the cash costs. More profit monitor bs. I'd place more faith in the IFCN analysis.

Cost indicator: The IFCN uses the indicator cost of milk production only which can be directly related to a milk price. This cost includes all costs from the profit & loss account of the farm. From this cost level, the non-milk returns from sales of cull cows, heifers, calves, manure, etc. and also returns from coupled direct payments have been deducted. Furthermore, the opportunity costs for own labour, land and capital are also included. For creation of the world map, the average size farm from each country was used.



https://www.verantwoordeveehouderij.nl/upload_mm/8/a/0/69580e65-361e-46d0-ab0b-39e97a9a0425_Article%20Milk%20prices%20and%20production%20costs%20world%20wide.pdf

Mooooo

Pit results came back, mainly second cut as it was put on top of first. I'll take another sample when I open it from the bottom half.
DM 26.7
DMD 72
ME 10.6
CP 16.5
Ammonia 3.6
pH 3.8

Signpost

Whats your plan with feeding concentrates with that silage? Once you dry them stop or will you continue to feed a few kilos right through?
Must have cut nice leafy stuff with your crude protein that high in the pit? Haven't tested yet as I have a heap of bales I want to get through so see how long they will last me.

Mooooo

Signpost wrote: »

Whats your plan with feeding concentrates with that silage? Once you dry them stop or will you continue to feed a few kilos right through?
Must have cut nice leafy stuff with your crude protein that high in the pit? Haven't tested yet as I have a heap of bales I want to get through so see how long they will last me.

I'm in winter milk so will be feeding it with maize silage, will see how that comes back and will balance the diet then, for dries initially I have a share of bales to get thru quality would be variable with them tbh. Dries may get a bit of meal with the pit silage if I feed maize with it, depends on condition, and seeing how much of each I have. some of the in calf heifers are small but I should be able to keep them on their own and feed em a bit extra as they won't be calving till april

blackdog1

Mooooo wrote:

Pit results came back, mainly second cut as it was put on top of first. I'll take another sample when I open it from the bottom half. DM 26.7 DMD 72 ME 10.6 CP 16.5 Ammonia 3.6 pH 3.8

Wouldn't surprise me if 2nd cut was better than first from what I'm hearing.

Timmaay

Scanning results just in. 1st predicted 12th Feb, 32 due in Feb, 30 March, 8 April, 9 May, 4 June, 4 early July! That's only the cows, 24heifers and I'd expect the bulk of them in Feb.

15 empties, which I was annoyed about 1stly (considering how long my breeding season was!), however of them 11 are either old or very average milkers, 4 are good late calving cows who I'll consider recycling around to spring 2018 (please talk me outa this if it's a stupid idea ha?)

Mooooo

Timmaay wrote: »

Scanning results just in. 1st predicted 12th Feb, 32 due in Feb, 30 March, 8 April, 9 May, 4 June, 4 early July! That's only the cows, 24heifers and I'd expect the bulk of them in Feb.

15 empties, which I was annoyed about 1stly (considering how long my breeding season was!), however of them 11 are either old or very average milkers, 4 are good late calving cows who I'll consider recycling around to spring 2018 (please talk me outa this if it's a stupid idea ha?)

I may sound like a broken record on this Timmay, but would you not be better off serving those few cows in Jan, they will milk well and if you will be supplying winter milk next year it saves them.rolling the extra few months. Give them a beef bull so the calves will be gone. Use the fact you are still in winter milk to tighten up the spring then pull the bull out so last cow calves in April.