Dairy chit chat II

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How's breeding going for everyone?
Week 10 finished here tomorrow and getting 4/5 a week returning. Haven't got as good s conception rate to first serve this year as last year but they look to have settled down in the last 3 weeks.
2 more weeks of breeding and that's us finished.

After a busy early to mid June for bull things totally quitened down now bull out next Monday .heifers scanned last week and all in calf bar 1 suspect that was there or thereabouts 28 days .like u gg concp to first serve not as good as I'd like for cows anyway but looking at things now I should hit 90% or very close calved in 6!weeks

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How's breeding going for everyone?
Week 10 finished here tomorrow and getting 4/5 a week returning. Haven't got as good s conception rate to first serve this year as last year but they look to have settled down in the last 3 weeks.
2 more weeks of breeding and that's us finished.

A couple of repeats coming all the time but scanning will tell in August. Spread out spring calving didn't help. Wil pull the bull on July 20thor thereabouts. Had a couple of heifers repeat but hopefully held to the bull. My abortion blood came back positive for neospora but vet said foetus is the only way fir sure to tell what caused it. Either way if she is not back incalf to th aa she'll get the road

blackdog1

I'd be of the same opinion on feeding as much grass as possible and getting the cows out as soon as possible but unlike Teagasc I think cows should be buffer fed on maize or wholecrop at the front end and back end of grazing can't see the logic of giving cows no or little feed during those periods. It also annoys me that irish fertility figures don't take into account stock bulls. Most European farmers never use them. This makes a huge difference to fertility figures. How much would our calving interval changed if we never used a stock bull? 10 days a year...maybe more.

GrasstoMilk

mahoney_j wrote: »

After a busy early to mid June for bull things totally quitened down now bull out next Monday .heifers scanned last week and all in calf bar 1 suspect that was there or thereabouts 28 days .like u gg concp to first serve not as good as I'd like for cows anyway but looking at things now I should hit 90% or very close calved in 6!weeks

Our 6 week incalf rate is looking better than this time last year. Had a few 6 week ones break which was annoying but that's life. No one year is going to be the same

kowtow

There's a study at Harpur I think - have misplaced the link - into the causes of the apparent inverse link between fertility and yield. From reading the summary I gathered that one of the big issues may be heat display behaviour? Are the same drops in fertility seen when cows are running with a bull as opposed to AI?

Buford T. Justice XIX

blackdog1 wrote: »

I'd be of the same opinion on feeding as much grass as possible and getting the cows out as soon as possible but unlike Teagasc I think cows should be buffer fed on maize or wholecrop at the front end and back end of grazing can't see the logic of giving cows no or little feed during those periods. It also annoys me that irish fertility figures don't take into account stock bulls. Most European farmers never use them. This makes a huge difference to fertility figures. How much would our calving interval changed if we never used a stock bull? 10 days a year...maybe more.

I'm curious as to what you mean by that ?

GrasstoMilk

blackdog1 wrote: »

I'd be of the same opinion on feeding as much grass as possible and getting the cows out as soon as possible but unlike Teagasc I think cows should be buffer fed on maize or wholecrop at the front end and back end of grazing can't see the logic of giving cows no or little feed during those periods. It also annoys me that irish fertility figures don't take into account stock bulls. Most European farmers never use them. This makes a huge difference to fertility figures. How much would our calving interval changed if we never used a stock bull? 10 days a year...maybe more.

I fed maize for the first time ever for some of last winter and the spring just gone.
Haven't a clue why ppl sow it tbh. I saw nothing extra out of my cows for it just that they were full looking but my protein was v poor on it which shouldn't be the case seeing as maize is full of energy and protein is a good indicator of how much energy cows are getting. I'm only using it as a safety net but it won't be used here in 2 years time I hope

And the end of the day we didn't even need it but I opened it up one wet week in February and fed it and had to keep feeding it because there wasn't enough in the clamp to close it again

whelan2

visatorro wrote: »

Where are you losing the cent per litre compared to top 10% of glanbia? Don't take question the wrong way just curious because there should be nothing wrong with your figures.

Anyone have the top manufacturing price on their report? Just to see what the difference is. Mine was 31.4cpl. Stayed very close to liquid quota all winter

blackdog1

Buford T. Justice V wrote:

I'm curious as to what you mean by that ?

It's simple fertility figures are based on conception rates and ease of calving and calving interval etc. If you have an in calf rate of 95% with ai for 6 weeks and bull for 6 weeks. If you take out the bull and aI'd for 12 weeks your in calf rate would probably drop by 10-20%. Therefore when your comparing ireland fertility figures to say like Germany or France where they use little or no bull the figure we get is in ireland favour. Take out the bull and I imagine they would be very similar.

yewtree

blackdog1 wrote: »

It's simple fertility figures are based on conception rates and ease of calving and calving interval etc. If you have an in calf rate of 95% with ai for 6 weeks and bull for 6 weeks. If you take out the bull and aI'd for 12 weeks your in calf rate would probably drop by 10-20%. Therefore when your comparing ireland fertility figures to say like Germany or France where they use little or no bull the figure we get is in ireland favour. Take out the bull and I imagine they would be very similar.

Is there any evidence of that happenig? Using all ai this year on herd i think i would pack in farming if my in calf rate dropped by 20%. A few guys in my DG moving away from bulls, to much hassle/ unreliable. AI done right gives same conception rates as stock bull.

blackdog1

yewtree wrote:

Is there any evidence of that happenig? Using all ai this year on herd i think i would pack in farming if my in calf rate dropped by 20%. A few guys in my DG moving away from bulls, to much hassle/ unreliable. AI done right gives same conception rates as stock bull.

It's all about compact calving. You can achieve the same conception rates with ai just not normally in the same period. It might take you 16 weeks instead of 12.

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I fed maize for the first time ever for some of last winter and the spring just gone.
Haven't a clue why ppl sow it tbh. I saw nothing extra out of my cows for it just that they were full looking but my protein was v poor on it which shouldn't be the case seeing as maize is full of energy and protein is a good indicator of how much energy cows are getting. I'm only using it as a safety net but it won't be used here in 2 years time I hope

And the end of the day we didn't even need it but I opened it up one wet week in February and fed it and had to keep feeding it because there wasn't enough in the clamp to close it again

Maize ain't full of protein chief ,energy yes if balanced correctly for protein and in conjunction with grass you should of seen production and solids increases ,that is unless maize was of very poor quality

GrasstoMilk

mahoney_j wrote: »

Maize ain't full of energy chief ,energy yes if balanced correctly for protein and in conjunction with grass you should of seen production and solids increases ,that is unless maize was of very poor quality

Maize was really good stuff. 28dm and 33 starch I think or other way around I can't remember which. Yield never went passed 24 until they hit second round grass and I had a lot of the herd calved by end of Feb

Timmaay

On breeding season, thankfully I've had almost no difficult calvings during April or may, and the most of them seemed to cycle within 30days, so are hopefully all in calf and pulled back a few weeks by now. I've a hard enough cull lined up this year, good few older HOs who need to go, some of them still repeating away but I obviously don't care about that.

With the maize, I always leave it at the front of the silage pit, open it early enough in Nov, and use it to stretch out the last bit of autumn grass (high p in the grass balances out the low p in the maize then), and aim to have it all gone start of Feb the latest. When the cows were inside full time, they were on a 24% nut. Milked very very well for late lactation cows, it's the 1st winter I'd say I nailed the cows diet and got a decent production out of them.

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Maize was really good stuff. 28dm and 33 starch I think or other way around I can't remember which. Yield never went passed 24 until they hit second round grass and I had a lot of the herd calved by end of Feb

Should of said protein ,33 starch would be exceptional even for maize on a year like last ,even more so again as yours wasn't down under plastic

alps

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

blackdog1 wrote: »

I'd be of the same opinion on feeding as much grass as possible and getting the cows out as soon as possible but unlike Teagasc I think cows should be buffer fed on maize or wholecrop at the front end and back end of grazing can't see the logic of giving cows no or little feed during those periods. It also annoys me that irish fertility figures don't take into account stock bulls. Most European farmers never use them. This makes a huge difference to fertility figures. How much would our calving interval changed if we never used a stock bull? 10 days a year...maybe more.

I fed maize for the first time ever for some of last winter and the spring just gone.
Haven't a clue why ppl sow it tbh. I saw nothing extra out of my cows for it just that they were full looking but my protein was v poor on it which shouldn't be the case seeing as maize is full of energy and protein is a good indicator of how much energy cows are getting. I'm only using it as a safety net but it won't be used here in 2 years time I hope

And the end of the day we didn't even need it but I opened it up one wet week in February and fed it and had to keep feeding it because there wasn't enough in the clamp to close it again

Like buying drink for a woman that won't put out.....you think you're doing a great thing while you're feeding it....but when you look back it was a complete waste of time....

GrasstoMilk

mahoney_j wrote: »

Should of said protein ,33 starch would be exceptional even for maize on a year like last ,even more so again as yours wasn't down under plastic

It was under plastic

yosemitesam1

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

It was under plastic

Would your cows have the genetics to give much of an increase in yield?

mahoney_j

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Would your cows have the genetics to give much of an increase in yield?

Obviously a problem somewhere as to get no response to maize with a starch content of 33 and dm of 28 beggars belief

GrasstoMilk

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Would your cows have the genetics to give much of an increase in yield?

Have cows doing 8000. Herd average is around 6000. They peaked at 28. Lots of young cows in it

alps

On course here for 11 rotations on some paddocks....probably 1/3 of them..

Some year for grass production..

mf240

I'd say you were short protein in the diet to make use of the maize starch.

Keepgrowing

alps wrote: »

On course here for 11 rotations on some paddocks....probably 1/3 of them..

Some year for grass production..

What have you grown to date?
9.5 tonne as of today here, looking like a record breaker.

I recon we may have even been underestimating covers when I saw covers in Moorepark on Tuesday

Keepgrowing

Started another bit of this today. Have to cross a river in 2 places PIA.

I recon it's the quickest ROI along with reseeding and lime

stanflt

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Have cows doing 8000. Herd average is around 6000. They peaked at 28. Lots of young cows in it

That couldn't be right if they only peaked at 28

My herd still doing over 28 here with no autumn cows dried off yet- some doing less than 15 admit idly

But sure I'm prob over feeding them anyway - still getting 5kg average

GrasstoMilk

stanflt wrote: »

That couldn't be right if they only peaked at 28

My herd still doing over 28 here with no autumn cows dried off yet- some doing less than 15 admit idly

But sure I'm prob over feeding them anyway - still getting 5kg average

How couldn't it be right? Btw love your 'only'

GrasstoMilk

mf240 wrote: »

I'd say you were short protein in the diet to make use of the maize starch.

Had plenty of protein with the spring grass

tanko

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Started another bit of this today. Have to cross a river in 2 places PIA.

I recon it's the quickest ROI along with reseeding and lime

What length are those slabs, i assume there's steel reinforcing in them?

Keepgrowing

tanko wrote: »

What length are those slabs, i assume there's steel reinforcing in them?

28' steel reinforcing 9' thick. About 5 tonne each. Cows and quad only traffic on them. Farm machinery not allowed on cow roads.

the_blue_oval

Keepgrowing wrote: »

I recon we may have even been underestimating covers when I saw covers in Moorepark on Tuesday

Wondering the same here. would have put covers at a bit less than what they were saying in moorepark. Cut and weigh here when doing grass walk and my eye normally wouldn't be too far off what the scales says, so was wondering whether I was off or were they over-estimating...