Dairying....

Icelandicseige

Do you enjoy the lifestyle of milking twice a day everyday?

Timmaay

I'm a lazy dairyfarmer, I start milking at 8am and 5pm, finished up at 6pm. Outside of calving season I'd aim to take two milkings a week off every week. So in one sense I'm blessed in comparison to many people I know who are in the whole rat race, and get to sit in a car for 3hrs+ a day and then stuck in an office etc. However ultimately milking still is a chore, there certainly are some messy milkings, esp during calving season with heifers etc when the milking parlour is the last place in the world you will want to be ha. That's life though.

kevthegaff

Icelandicseige wrote:

Do you enjoy the lifestyle of milking twice a day everyday?

Depends on the milking, in spring I could be 2hrsx2 a day in the parlour. I've had 3 killings off in a year, sick of it

Coolfresian

Only to the extent that I have help and not tied to it if I need to be elsewhere. It's nice to have the option to take a few milking s off a week especially on a Sunday. Otherwise for me it d become a hateful chore.

mahoney_j

kevthegaff wrote: »

Depends on the milking, in spring I could be 2hrsx2 a day in the parlour. I've had 3 killings off in a year, sick of it

Who did u kill off Kev ,a heifer or relief milker !!!!

kevthegaff

A few killings on the other thread lately!

whelan2

kevthegaff wrote: »

A few killings on the other thread lately!

Autocorrect? Killings came up on my phone before when I was sending a lad a text. I dont mind milking but I make sure to have my Thursday evening off every week to keep me sane.

farmerjj

Icelandicseige wrote: »

Do you enjoy the lifestyle of milking twice a day everyday?

Yip enjoy milking most of the time, st stephens day is the only day i wish i was,nt milking, and the odd sunday evening, but listen to the radio when milking so keep in touch with whats happening in the outside world.

whelan2

farmerjj wrote: »

Yip enjoy milking most of the time, st stephens day is the only day i wish i was,nt milking, and the odd sunday evening, but listen to the radio when milking so keep in touch with whats happening in the outside world.

Going to ask Santa for a new radio for the milking parlour, any ideas?

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

farmerjj wrote: »

Yip enjoy milking most of the time, st stephens day is the only day i wish i was,nt milking, and the odd sunday evening, but listen to the radio when milking so keep in touch with whats happening in the outside world.

Going to ask Santa for a new radio for the milking parlour, any ideas?

We had a hifi type job with the radio in plant room and the speakers in the parlour, just got an extra bit of wire to go to the speakers. That's gone now thinking of getting the ear defenders with a built in radio

mahoney_j

Icelandicseige wrote: »

Do you enjoy the lifestyle of milking twice a day everyday?

Yes ,absoutely live it ,most of the time .i worked off farm for 10 years but always helped out and maintained an interest in it.i don't see it as a chore or a slog .im my own boss and make my own decisions .ive invested in farm to make it more efficent and easier run and take time off .reseeding ,roads ,fencing built a new parlour ,added cubicles ,yard improvements etc and by next spring will have doubled herd size since 2011.
I'll have reached the max nos I can handle on my own then ,will have relief milker and part time help through spring in addition tho .will keep an eye out for opportunities from there but I won't turn into a slave or be married to the place just to milk more cows .more to life than cows and work

Mulumpy

Got out of it this year thankfully. Nice to have a lot more time to spend with the kids and not have to build life around the cows.

farmerjj

whelan2 wrote: »

Going to ask Santa for a new radio for the milking parlour, any ideas?

I use a cheap enough Philips radio, and then Philips wireless headphones, there a great job not blaring radio and volume control on the headphones.

RightTurnClyde

kevthegaff wrote: »

Depends on the milking, in spring I could be 2hrsx2 a day in the parlour. I've had 3 killings off in a year, sick of it

Jesus Kev you need to do something about time off. You'll burn out or get sick sh1t of it if you don't start taking breaks. I know when you're young you'll put the shoulder to the wheel, but you need to put a plan in place for more time off.
I went through the spring here on my own, and to be honest by April I was as near to burnout as I want to be.
Despite having myself convinced that I couldn't afford help, my advisor sat me down and we went through the figures and for what I was getting back, the cost of a bit of help was very small. I ended up getting in a guy from May for 4 months to do every evening milking. A lot of evening I would be still up on the farm doing some jobs while he was milking, but at least it got me out of the pit for a while. Then some days it meant that after morning milking I was free to do stuff with the family. To be honest it took the drudgery out of the year.
No harm to be out of the pit or off the farm every so often, helps you realise there's more to life than pulling tits. Take a few breaks you'll enjoy farming even more if you do

mahoney_j

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Jesus Kev you need to do something about time off. You'll burn out or get sick sh1t of it if you don't start taking breaks. I know when you're young you'll put the shoulder to the wheel, but you need to put a plan in place for more time off.
I went through the spring here on my own, and to be honest by April I was as near to burnout as I want to be.
Despite having myself convinced that I couldn't afford help, my advisor sat me down and we went through the figures and for what I was getting back, the cost of a bit of help was very small. I ended up getting in a guy from May for 4 months to do every evening milking. A lot of evening I would be still up on the farm doing some jobs while he was milking, but at least it got me out of the pit for a while. Then some days it meant that after morning milking I was free to do stuff with the family. To be honest it took the drudgery out of the year.
No harm to be out of the pit or off the farm every so often, helps you realise there's more to life than pulling tits. Take a few breaks you'll enjoy farming even more if you do

Massive +1

kowtow

whelan2 wrote: »

Going to ask Santa for a new radio for the milking parlour, any ideas?

I've been looking at this as well, there's an outfit that advertise on done deal and I think it's two hundred and something for the fully waterproof, external speakers, powersupply etc. ...

The alternative is a marine stereo (which I think is basically what the one above is) or even a marine enclosure for a car stereo.

With car stereos the price seems to depend a lot on whether you need bluetooth, if you are going to drive it from your phone etc...

the other option is probably those bluetooth speakers you can put in the shower.

something like this might be an idea:

http://www.force4.co.uk/department/electronics/marine-audio/force-4-compact-bluetooth-marine-stereo.html#.V_zk-PkrKUk

freedominacup

kevthegaff wrote: »

Depends on the milking, in spring I could be 2hrsx2 a day in the parlour. I've had 3 killings off in a year, sick of it

I honestly don't know what the fascination with one man operations is. I understand you've been developing hard kev and more power to you but from the sounds of it you need to reassess things.

Sam Kade

I milked 11 months last year twice a day every day, same this year no one else in the house interested in milking.

whelan2

Sam Kade wrote: »

I milked 11 months last year twice a day every day, same this year no one else in the house interested in milking.

Then get someone from outside the house. Or do you like milking?

farmerjj

Sam Kade wrote: »

I milked 11 months last year twice a day every day, same this year no one else in the house interested in milking.

Hey if your enjoying it, then what harm (if not then you,d wanna organise a milking off here and there, its a job after all not a life sentence)

whelan2

Sam Kade wrote: »

I milked 11 months last year twice a day every day, same this year no one else in the house interested in milking.

What happens if something happens to you? Would you have someone to take over the milking?

Sam Kade

whelan2 wrote: »

Then get someone from outside the house. Or do you like milking?

I like milking but a day off now and then would be welcome, maybe next year.

Postdriver

I milked 50 cows for 5 year's straight never missed 1 milking from 22 yrs old to 27 got out of dairy at 33 absolutely sick to eyeballs of it i was ayr calving made my own silage spread own slurry and dung etc.
13 year's later now and the doc's in the asylum are letting me go back milking again soon and guess what I'm rearin to go!!

Sam Kade

whelan2 wrote: »

What happens if something happens to you? Would you have someone to take over the milking?

Relief milker short term, long term cows out the gate.