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

charolais0153

Timmaay wrote: »

I may finally get a calving gate. No huge demand for one here, c sections etc don't exist, so more just looking for a cheap but functional one. How does this one look? https://www.donedeal.ie/farmsheds-for-sale/calving-gates/10806349

Definitely get one with a section gate, a deformed calf or such would need to come out the side

GrasstoMilk

greysides wrote: »

I can't understand farmers without a decent calving set up. It's not the vet that's going to get the best value out of it.

PS: Consider lighting as well.

Had to get a vet out 2 springs ago to calve a cow, he was delighted with the set up, told me a few hairy stories of cows in between rusty gates tied with twine

Base price

Re calving gates. I would suggest that anyone fitting a calving gate into an existing crush should also have removable posts/sleeves particularly on the head gate and quick release side rails as well.

whelan2

On calvings, vet was telling me some of the calls they get are horrendous, some lads only call when they cant get the calf out and have made a total mess of things.

rangler1

whelan2 wrote: »

On calvings, vet was telling me some of the calls they get are horrendous, some lads only call when they cant get the calf out and have made a total mess of things.

I've seen vets make a wrong judgement call too, Razor wire gives them the opt out, suppose it's a bit tidier than anything a farmer would be trying

whelan2

rangler1 wrote: »

I've seen vets make a wrong judgement call too, Razor wire gives them the opt out, suppose it's a bit tidier than anything a farmer would be trying

We all make mistakes, had a young vet put calf legs through cows womb here a few years ago. But in fairness if the vet is only called a long time after the farmer has started to try to calve the cow in most cases there's not much they can do

Sam Kade

whelan2 wrote: »

On calvings, vet was telling me some of the calls they get are horrendous, some lads only call when they cant get the calf out and have made a total mess of things.

Surely they can know their limitations before things get too far. The vet is fairly flahool with his information.

whelan2

Sam Kade wrote: »

Surely they can know their limitations before things get too far. The vet is fairly flahool with his information.

Maybe, I know my limitations, I am probably a bit on the girly side, so might ring my dad first and see what he thinks and then get vet. Probably costs a bit more in the long run but better than a knackery bill and a vets bill

Mooooo

Had vet put for one calving last year, pair of twins both backwards with first one coming with legs down. All I needed was for her to give the injection to stop her forcing managed to get legs out and calved her fine then. If I had kept going myself cow could have being fcuked as well as dead calves. But it's only experience leads to knowing when u need them to step in as well.

rangler1

Mooooo wrote: »

Had vet put for one calving last year, pair of twins both backwards with first one coming with legs down. All I needed was for her to give the injection to stop her forcing managed to get legs out and calved her fine then. If I had kept going myself cow could have being fcuked as well as dead calves. But it's only experience leads to knowing when u need them to step in as well.

I'd always get a vet here if there was even the slightest doubt......too much depending on a live calf in a suckler situation.
Even with that, the vet has insisted there's room and got it wrong a few times

charolais0153

If the cow stops forcing altogether, it gets very difficult. We have a few lazy docile cows that have the pushing power but dont use it in comparison to the slightly livlier cow

simx

charolais0153 wrote: »

If the cow stops forcing altogether, it gets very difficult. We have a few lazy docile cows that have the pushing power but dont use it in comparison to the slightly livlier cow

Yeah had a lim cow calve Thursday morning and if it was left up to her the calf still be in her, lazy bi@€h

Bullocks

simx wrote: »

Yeah had a lim cow calve Thursday morning and if it was left up to her the calf still be in her, lazy bi@€h

Will you get rid or bull her again , she would be getting a one way ticket here

Signpost

Going to do a milk sensitivity test this year before getting the dry cow tubes. Is it more effective to take it from a tank of milk (6 milkings) or from only 1 milking?

Mooooo

Local vets are doing an offer for one bulk and 3 individual samples for 30 quid. How does that compare? I assume 24 hrs as opposed to one milking maybe? They told me just take the bulk sample before I come in with individual ones, didn't specify how many milkings

mahoney_j

Signpost wrote: »

Going to do a milk sensitivity test this year before getting the dry cow tubes. Is it more effective to take it from a tank of milk (6 milkings) or from only 1 milking?

If milk recording .pick your highest scc cows and pool a sample .there your problem cows so that's were you'll get best answer

Buford T. Justice XIX

mahoney_j wrote: »

If milk recording .pick your highest scc cows and pool a sample .there your problem cows so that's were you'll get best answer

I'd be inclined to separate them, mahoney. A very high scc cow with one bug wight show up as the dominant bug in the sample if the other samples with different bacteria were lower on the day. And the drug to treat that one might not be the best for the others in the pooled sample.

I found that out the hard way:(

Signpost

Hadn't even thought of taking individual cows! Only have 2 cows gone over the 200 mark all year so I'll take a sample from the two of them and then one more from the tank with 24 hours milk and hopefully that will be a good accurate representation of the whats happening.

inthepit

Vet here said get sample from cow and get it to the lab as soon as possible.
His view was some bugs can become less active as temp drops and others can reproduce faster.It might give a less accurate reading.

Mooooo

inthepit wrote: »

Vet here said get sample from cow and get it to the lab as soon as possible.
His view was some bugs can become less active as temp drops and others can reproduce faster.It might give a less accurate reading.

I thought unless you cooled it immediately would you not have issues with the ambient temp and bacteria doubling every 20 min?

Water John

Highly recommend any dairy farmers read the AMA on at the moment, by and Infant Milk Scientist.
Shows the diff between human and cows milk and why whey protein is more important than casein protein for babies.

GrasstoMilk

Signpost wrote: »

Hadn't even thought of taking individual cows! Only have 2 cows gone over the 200 mark all year so I'll take a sample from the two of them and then one more from the tank with 24 hours milk and hopefully that will be a good accurate representation of the whats happening.

Wouldn't agree with taking it from milk tank, you'll pick up the bacteria that are on the out side of the cows teats doing it that way,
Pick 8 cows, one a row if you want, clean them super well with the disfectant wipes and a clean pair of gloves, make sure no **** gets into the bottle off the bag, let off the stale milk in the teat end as well.

kowtow

Water John wrote: »

Highly recommend any dairy farmers read the AMA on at the moment, by and Infant Milk Scientist.
Shows the diff between human and cows milk and why whey protein is more important than casein protein for babies.

Presumably human babies don't come as well equipped with rennet / chymosin as their bovine counterparts?

Always thought infant formula was a waste of good milk (1) because by and large babies already have a decent supply of their own milk at hand and (2) more importantly, because they should all be taught to eat cheese from a very early age.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Water John wrote: »

Highly recommend any dairy farmers read the AMA on at the moment, by and Infant Milk Scientist.
Shows the diff between human and cows milk and why whey protein is more important than casein protein for babies.

It's not on the AMA forum, John.

Any link to it, if you get the chance?

Thanks in advance:)

Lady Haywire

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

It's not on the AMA forum, John.

Any link to it, if you get the chance?

Thanks in advance:)

I need to teach you how to use a searchbar...:P

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057666905

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I need to teach you how to use a searchbar...:P

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057666905

I just finished reading it and came back to post the link:P

Lady Haywire

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I just finished reading it and came back to post the link:P

Yeah yeah

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Yeah yeah

Unlike you, I wouldn't be browsing the newborn and toddler forum often:pac:

Water John

Its on the right of the home page, as usual.
Hope you enjoyed the read, Buford. Opened new horizons for you.

Sorry, have been on only occasionally, been sick. Need some of Kowtow's cheese to heal the gut.

mf240

leg wax wrote: »

who on here has heifers going to kilmallock mart on monday can they pm please.:cool:

Did you go to this sale today legs? What was trade like?