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

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

If you've recently done a derogation plan then your over the line, which GG has.

We're compliant here don't worry. Only for the straw bedding we'd be in trouble alright.

Cattle before concrete

Timmaay

kowtow wrote: »

Can you not straw bed with the derogation?

No no no, I mean if you have successfully completed a derogation plan then clearly you do have enough winter accommodation for your stock numbers. Straw bedding is a relatively low capital method of winter accommodation, as you only need a tank for runoff. The downside is more labour, costs (straw, athlough factor in the organic matter/p&k your importing), and it's a pain in the arse to milk off. But for farmers with short winters and who can successfully out winter it's perfectly adequate.

frazzledhome

kowtow wrote: »

Can you not straw bed with the derogation?

If you can't I shouldn't have a derogation.

kevthegaff

Gloomys Days like today no mood to milk, fit to dry them all off:-)

Panch18

kevthegaff wrote: »

Gloomys Days like today no mood to milk, fit to dry them all off:-)

Cows dried 2 weeks today!!

Bliss!!

Timmaay

Why so early panch?

stanflt

Panch18 wrote: »

Cows dried 2 weeks today!!

Bliss!!

Jasus panch just looking at Glanbia connect and I delivered 19.67 litre per cow per day in November which includes my dry cows- 1 in every 5 milking is an autumn calver- 20 more to dry next week they will calve 50 days after drying off

Panch18

Timmaay wrote: »

Why so early panch?

Ah we try to avoid indoor milking as much as possible, none if we can help it

Ground got too wet so the cows were housed. Dried them off immediately. Could have milked them in, they were milking well but couldn't really be bothered with it!! Done enough for the year!

Panch18

stanflt wrote: »

Jasus panch just looking at Glanbia connect and I delivered 19.67 litre per cow per day in November which includes my dry cows- 1 in every 5 milking is an autumn calver- 20 more to dry next week they will calve 50 days after drying off

We like our rest Stan!!

Ah the cows were milking fine, but ground conditions got too wet and we don't really do indoor milking so dried them off

Have enough milked for the year

Deepsouthwest

Panch18 wrote: »

Ah we try to avoid indoor milking as much as possible, none if we can help it

Ground got too wet so the cows were housed. Dried them off immediately. Could have milked them in, they were milking well but couldn't really be bothered with it!! Done enough for the year!

When do u start calving again? Do u milk while housed in the spring? Milking OAD here, cows down to 10 litres now, but fat and protein gone to 5.35 and 4.33, so it's still comes to a nice few euro everyday.

Panch18

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

When do u start calving again? Do u milk while housed in the spring? Milking OAD here, cows down to 10 litres now, but fat and protein gone to 5.35 and 4.33, so it's still comes to a nice few euro everyday.

Last few days of jan we'll be going again so the girls have a nice long rest for themselves!!

Yeah we'll milk indoors in the spring, about a third of the land is by a river so not suitable for very early grazing so don't really have a choice at spring. Won't be for too long but need to be careful with the rotation. Will milk the cows once a day till they hit grass and up to twice then as soon as they hit the green stuff

Brown Podzol

Panch18 wrote: »

Last few days of jan we'll be going again so the girls have a nice long rest for themselves!!

Yeah we'll milk indoors in the spring, about a third of the land is by a river so not suitable for very early grazing so don't really have a choice at spring. Won't be for too long but need to be careful with the rotation. Will milk the cows once a day till they hit grass and up to twice then as soon as they hit the green stuff

A lot of lads must be dried off. They're over on the General Secretary thread 24 hours a day.;)

Panch18

Brown Podzol wrote: »

A lot of lads must be dried off. They're over on the General Secretary thread 24 hours a day.;)

A few of them would make you wonder all right!!

Deepsouthwest

Panch18 wrote: »

Last few days of jan we'll be going again so the girls have a nice long rest for themselves!!

Yeah we'll milk indoors in the spring, about a third of the land is by a river so not suitable for very early grazing so don't really have a choice at spring. Won't be for too long but need to be careful with the rotation. Will milk the cows once a day till they hit grass and up to twice then as soon as they hit the green stuff

Not sure if I'd be a fan of OAD in the spring, udders bursting with milk and on cubicles don't make good bedfellows! I'd also be worried OAD in spring might affect yields for the rest of that lactation. I milked TAD last spring for the most of feb, even though I wasn't sending any milk to the coop!
Would u dry up as early as October if cows had to be housed earlier nxt yr.

Panch18

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Not sure if I'd be a fan of OAD in the spring, udders bursting with milk and on cubicles don't make good bedfellows!

Well I should say last year was the first year that we did it in spring, an experiment really and with the quota and everything it made sense. It went very well, we were surprised ourselves. But we will definitely be doing it again. from a workload point of view it's such a god send

But then again we wouldn't be against the idea of going OAD all the time

Deepsouthwest

Panch18 wrote: »

Well I should say last year was the first year that we did it in spring, an experiment really and with the quota and everything it made sense. It went very well, we were surprised ourselves. But we will definitely be doing it again. from a workload point of view it's such a god send

But then again we wouldn't be against the idea of going OAD all the time

Fair enough, I'd b interested to hear how it goes for u. Would u be milking similar numbers to other yrs so u'd have something to compare with?

frazzledhome

Brown Podzol wrote: »

A lot of lads must be dried off. They're over on the General Secretary thread 24 hours a day.;)

:)
There's 2 complete Dicks on there, other than that it's great hysterics

Panch18

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Fair enough, I'd b interested to hear how it goes for u. Would u be milking similar numbers to other yrs so u'd have something to compare with?

Milked 140 this year and will be calving similar number this year

But we had been increasing for the last 6 or so years prior to this so hard to directly compare

From a workload point of view alone we think it's worth it

Deepsouthwest

Panch18 wrote: »

Milked 140 this year and will be calving similar number this year

But we had been increasing for the last 6 or so years prior to this so hard to directly compare

From a workload point of view alone we think it's worth it

It's funny I used to do it a few yrs, only milk OAD after calving until I had enough cows, normally 30+ to start supplying. TAD now from the beginning.
Doctors differ and patients die!
Don Crowley, the Teagasc scc specialist that they keep rolling out has been the facilitator for our dg for a lot of our meetings over the last few yrs. He said last yr, even if milking OAD til April 1st, u still need to milk them TAD for the first five or six days after calving, something to do with setting them up right for the yr ahead.
One other add on, and maybe it's just me who thinks it, but I always find the first cow that calves every yr, nearly always have one a wk before the rest start flowing, is milked OAD for the first ten days or so, and never seems to milk well for the rest of the yr.

keep going

frazzledhome wrote: »

:)
There's 2 complete Dicks on there, other than that it's great hysterics

And alot of high horses

alps

keep going wrote: »

And alot of high horses

Bring back Dick Emery. ..

There was Dicks in Charleville...

Along the main street was it Dicks, Hurleys and Balls..?

Brown Podzol

alps wrote: »

Bring back Dick Emery. ..

There was Dicks in Charleville...

Along the main street was it Dicks, Hurleys and Balls..?

I think there were Tools there too. They came before the Balls.:D

kowtow

Stupid question probably -

What are the issues, if any, with building a partly slatted tank?

Doing a new shed layout at the moment and planning on keeping scrapers which I prefer, besides they are going in in the next few days - but might want to build a new tank next year in front of the shed, to get rid of our old concrete lagoon above ground tank.

As it goes, most of the new tank would actually want to be covered rather than slatted as it would be outside the sheds except for a few slats where the scrapers will finish, also would be the busiest part of the yard for tractor traffic.

Doesn't need to be a huge tank - but what's the story with putting a slab over parts of a tank rather than slats? sounds as though it might be costly unless they were removable sections....

Also is there a standard / economic depth for tanks?

RightTurnClyde

kowtow wrote: »

Stupid question probably -

What are the issues, if any, with building a partly slatted tank?

Doing a new shed layout at the moment and planning on keeping scrapers which I prefer, besides they are going in in the next few days - but might want to build a new tank next year in front of the shed, to get rid of our old concrete lagoon above ground tank.

As it goes, most of the new tank would actually want to be covered rather than slatted as it would be outside the sheds except for a few slats where the scrapers will finish, also would be the busiest part of the yard for tractor traffic.

Doesn't need to be a huge tank - but what's the story with putting a slab over parts of a tank rather than slats? sounds as though it might be costly unless they were removable sections....

Also is there a standard / economic depth for tanks?

Most slat companies do tractor slabs. Often used in circumstances like yours or in feed passages where the passage is part of the tank.
On the depth of the tank. Over 8ft deep, the laws of vacuum and physics come into play. It very hard to suck slurry out of the bottom of a tank that's over 8ft, unless the vacuum tanker has somewhere to park to reduce the lift.(slope in yard)

freedominacup

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Most slat companies do tractor slabs. Often used in circumstances like yours or in feed passages where the passage is part of the tank.
On the depth of the tank. Over 8ft deep, the laws of vacuum and physics come into play. It very hard to suck slurry out of the bottom of a tank that's over 8ft, unless the vacuum tanker has somewhere to park to reduce the lift.(slope in yard)

Whatever about the tractor slabs most precast companies will do wide slab concrete floors. I remember doing one of around 1250ft sq. Over 30 ft wide and you could stack tiles on it. I can't remember the exact thickness but 12" rings a bell. Any competent concrete contractor should be well able to advise you on the ins and outs of doing it. You will be able to get a floor speced to take anything you can throw at it.

Milked out

Tonight's collection will be the first one over the capacity of the old tank, driver never came last night so I assume he either just took today off or they're gone to 3 day collection. Grand job not having to worry about the tank overflowing if I milk late or lorry held up.

awaywithyou

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/shocking-video-footage-puts-spotlight-on-new-zealands-dairy-industry/



Anyone have a number for any of the ISIS lads..... I have a small job for em after watching this

RightTurnClyde

awaywithyou wrote: »

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/shocking-video-footage-puts-spotlight-on-new-zealands-dairy-industry/



Anyone have a number for any of the ISIS lads..... I have a small job for em after watching this

It's rough to watch alright. Scandalous treatment of calves. The use of the bobbi box was a pr disaster waiting to happen. Even though it's directed at NZ dairy farming, most of the issues are with the bobbi box to meat factory stage.
We're lucky here to have a decent beef industry here, even though sometimes it may not be very profitable, at least the bull calf or cull cow get the best of care till the day they go out the gate.

pedigree 6

That's shocking. F**king c*nt of a man. If I saw him doing that to one of my calves there'd be a sprong sticking in him. I rear my calves up to the 6 weeks and look after them better than myself before selling them.
Thankfully animal welfare is better in Ireland. Most of the farms here are family owned and a life is a life. Here our calves are worth something and I was averaging 170 for the freisian bulls. If I didn't look after them I wouldn't have got that. Makes your blood boil watching that.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Coveney confirms the Dairy Aid package will be paid in December:)

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/department-finalising-details-of-dairy-aid-package/