Dairy chit chat II

Water John

Tell the cows, you're going OAD. Best of luck in getting it fixed.

yewtree

boggerman1 wrote: »

Fair play to that man for switching to the dirty holstein.at least i not alone!.sick to the back teeth of new zealand,new zealand rammed down our throats by teagasc,the comic and agriland etc.last time i checked this is ireland not new f##king zealand

Its an interesting article, from an excellent operator. Its an endorsement of what teagasc and fj say, fertile cows that produce the majority of their milk solids from grazed grass.
i would be fairly involved with teagasc and never have i got the sense that the new zealand approach was being rammed down my throat.

whelan2

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Brilliant!
The motor on the milking machine is tripping the switch and just when I had 1 row milked.
So now I can't milk.
Serviceman/electrician is hopefully on the way.

Wexford loose and now this on a Sunday evening. Brilliant!:(

Did you get finished yet?

pedigree 6

whelan2 wrote: »

Did you get finished yet?

Nearly finished.
Replacement motor put in.
Sh1t everywhere.
Volume washer done the trick but slats are full now may hook up slurry spreader.

It never ends.....aghhh. .

Calfscour

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

She was found a few hours ago thank God. They brought in tracker dogs. Perfect tool for the job!
Found inside an ancient disused saltpetre mine on my land. I didn't know it was there but an old school chum of hers told me they often played there as children.
All's well.

Mother here had it would often escape and would take to the roads to go home. She lived about four miles away and would always find her way there, if not picked up by a neighbor. It's a terrible thing and I really have to try hard to remember her as the wonderful woman and farmer she was.

Calfscour

stanflt wrote: »

Seriously thinking of cross breeding next yr

All industries research shows greater profit

Having seriously considered quitting cows altogether this yr I decided to x- breed this yr. I have a very good 3.5 p 7000lt herd of pedigree black and whites. My thinking is it'll give me the option of OAD. The conception rate to first service was unusually bad this yr which was very disappointing. Add to this the hit I'll take in bull calf trade next spring I can achieve €150+ for calves here as I calved 98% in 6 weeks. I think the hefiers I get will have to be absolute dingers to make up what I've already lost.

cute geoge

Why did you consider quitting??
Imo lads are putting themselves under serious pressure looking for 80% calved in 6 weeks .At the end of the day if you milk the all the cows a couple of weeks later before drying off they will make up any loss of production by not compact calving

GrasstoMilk

cute geoge wrote: »

Why did you consider quitting??
Imo lads are putting themselves under serious pressure looking for 80% calved in 6 weeks .At the end of the day if you milk the all the cows a couple of weeks later before drying off they will make up any loss of production by not compact calving

Only way to do it. Used to be quite spread out here and I'd give up milking if I had to go back to that

Calfscour

cute geoge wrote: »

Why did you consider quitting??
Imo lads are putting themselves under serious pressure looking for 80% calved in 6 weeks .At the end of the day if you milk the all the cows a couple of weeks later before drying off they will make up any loss of production by not compact calving

No free time, not paid properly for hrs put in. Usual stuff. Had to take a huge change in how I do things here to stay at it. Seems to be working so far.

freedominacup

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Nearly finished.
Replacement motor put in.
Sh1t everywhere.
Volume washer done the trick but slats are full now may hook up slurry spreader.

It never ends.....aghhh. .

Milking went grand here. No problem with slurry we even went to a barbecue afterwards and waterford won the hurling. Twas a grand day altogether.

whelan2

freedominacup wrote: »

Milking went grand here. No problem with slurry we even went to a barbecue afterwards and waterford won the hurling. Twas a grand day altogether.

Aye lovely Sunday here too. Went to a championship match after milking.

Injuryprone

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Only way to do it. Used to be quite spread out here and I'd give up milking if I had to go back to that

Come back to us when you're doing 100 on your own

stanflt

Injuryprone wrote: »

Come back to us when you're doing 100 on your own

We calved 120 in 6 weeks- doesn't sound like a lot but honestly we were knackered- the saving grace was that we had 2-3 weeks pre breeding to recharge
I couldn't do it on my own tbh

Mooooo

Tbh compact calving is the way to go but you have to be able to bring someone in. Was codding myself doing it on my own the last couple of years at 130 to 140 calving with 30 to 40 in the autumn. Even if things go perfect you're under pressure and when things go bad it's a bollix all together, and my calving wasn't even that compact. Now if facilities are perfect it makes it easier but still even if someone came morning and evening to do calves

Water John

If everything runs smoothly, it's very hard work at those numbers. Get any bout of sickness in calves and it's yourself will be in the sick bay.

GrasstoMilk

Injuryprone wrote: »

Come back to us when you're doing 100 on your own

And ye reckon I've a pile of labour?
Only me and dad here. Yes, couldn't do it without him but he's heading for 70 now and he definitly won't be increasing his work rate.
Just going to have to get more things automated as much as I can. We're over the 100 and heading for more and I'll be at a stage in 5 years time that I'll be able to manage it all on my own and the only way to do it is compact calve.
Autowasher on parlour
Calf feeder
Backing gate in collecting yard
Good cow roads and a functional yard.
It can be done and is being done.
Don't have all that yet but that's where We will be soon

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

Tbh compact calving is the way to go but you have to be able to bring someone in. Was codding myself doing it on my own the last couple of years at 130 to 140 calving with 30 to 40 in the autumn. Even if things go perfect you're under pressure and when things go bad it's a bollix all together, and my calving wasn't even that compact. Now if facilities are perfect it makes it easier but still even if someone came morning and evening to do calves

It doesnt have to be done in 6 weeks. Calved from end of January here until beginning of april. 120. With minnimal help. A week or so break before breeding start. Won't be in a rush to increase numbers..... same with Autumn... as long as its not spread out over a long time. No point killing yourself either

farisfat

stanflt wrote: »

Seriously thinking of cross breeding next yr

All industries research shows greater profit

Going cross breeding here next year .
What bulls will u use thinking of okt Jersey and psq kiwi cross.

Buford T. Justice XIX

freedominacup wrote: »

Milking went grand here. No problem with slurry we even went to a barbecue afterwards and waterford won the hurling. Twas a grand day altogether.

You're a terrible man, freedom:D

yewtree

stanflt wrote: »

We calved 120 in 6 weeks- doesn't sound like a lot but honestly we were knackered- the saving grace was that we had 2-3 weeks pre breeding to recharge
I couldn't do it on my own tbh

Would find the same here, wrecked after the 1st few weeks.
To make it work need have to have help, Good setup and system in place and Easy calving sires.a few years ago i had none of those things and if I continued what i was at there in no way i would be able to calve number of cows.
I wouldnt go back either to spread out calving for six months, much perfer the structure of year now. From my expuerence with spread out calving total hours worked go up its just spread out over a longer period.

Buford T. Justice XIX

cute geoge wrote: »

Why did you consider quitting??
Imo lads are putting themselves under serious pressure looking for 80% calved in 6 weeks .At the end of the day if you milk the all the cows a couple of weeks later before drying off they will make up any loss of production by not compact calving

It's not so much 80% in 6 weeks but 80% in 6 weeks and off to grass by calving close to turnout. Grass is still by far the cheapest and easiest available quality feed that we have.

Calving being spread out later in the spring and milking on in the Winter leads to having large ration bills to supplement silage to get the quality of the cows diet up so they won't be losing condition while milking over winter. And add in the fact there is no winter supplement to milk price in Kerry and you are probably just breaking even while milking those late calvers.

As GrasstoMilk says, compact calving, automate as much as possible and get in some help for a few weeks even just to feed calves or feed cattle while the pressure in on while the farmer concentrates on the important jobs of calving and grazing.

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

It doesnt have to be done in 6 weeks. Calved from end of January here until beginning of april. 120. With minnimal help. A week or so break before breeding start. Won't be in a rush to increase numbers..... same with Autumn... as long as its not spread out over a long time. No point killing yourself either

Well realistically it will be over 9 to 12 weeks for most and when milking year round the late calver milks on so there is no loss in output but when all spring ideally you want to have em calved as early as possible to be able to dry them all off at some point. I know you can milk on if you wish but don't want to do that esp if no bonus for that milk and if only a row of cows coming in to the parlour. Look it's not the be all and end all everyone must do what they are comfortable with but that's the way I see it. For me going from split to spring only I'll be just focusing on calving in spring compared to calving and breeding and feeding different groups of cows and youngstock

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

And ye reckon I've a pile of labour?
Only me and dad here. Yes, couldn't do it without him but he's heading for 70 now and he definitly won't be increasing his work rate.
Just going to have to get more things automated as much as I can. We're over the 100 and heading for more and I'll be at a stage in 5 years time that I'll be able to manage it all on my own and the only way to do it is compact calve.
Autowasher on parlour
Calf feeder
Backing gate in collecting yard
Good cow roads and a functional yard.
It can be done and is being done.
Don't have all that yet but that's where We will be soon

I admire your ambition ,your doing the basics (core essentials)cows breeding grassland etc very well but I don't think your totally grasping the labour element ,80% plus 6 week calving rate in spring requires more than one labour unit if I want to keep on top of things and not burn out ,there's extra rows of cows bigger groups of stock etc which all take more time I've a reasonably ok yard high 6 week calving rate and good early farm to get cows out not quite at 120 cows and I had help 4 mornings a week this spring but I was fooked at end of it

yewtree

There are different ways of getting help a few lads i know are getting a night calver to check cows so they get a good nights rest every night. Get contractor to feed out silage and fert for those 6 weeks aswell.

freedominacup

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

You're a terrible man, freedom:D

I know I'll pay for it but I couldn't resist.

Timmaay

At the level here where I'll be getting labour in every spring without a doubt. Done my 6yrs of being a slave on the farm during every calving season (and the 1st 2yrs of that were 9/10month calving seasons!), life too short and I'm too lazy and just do not have enough interest in milking and being a stockman to be a slave every calving season. I'm lucky enough to have been able to expand milk output by what we have, but equally so I can see my strengths lie in other places than just being a one man show with 100cows. I'm not fully convinced by some modern technology like calf auto feeders etc yet also, too many horror stories about when they go wrong at the wrong bloody time, and you end up a whole heap of calves needed to be trained onto teat feeders etc. Calf rearing itself is a full time job (between feeding, health, bedding etc), then with calving hours you realistically could do with 3 people during calving season. For me here it's now a case of drive on the cows up towards the 150 and get in the spring time labour, if I spend the profit from say 30 of them extra cows on labour, but end up under a lot less pressure etc myself then it will be well worth it.

Gawddawggonnit

Where's all this part time labour going to come from??
Do ye reckon that it's possible in the future to rely on idle workers to be waiting for the call...?

I wouldn't mind being able to whistle up temp workers...


Calve ayr and find it easy on the system. Six calved over the weekend no bother.

Mooooo

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Where's all this part time labour going to come from??
Do ye reckon that it's possible in the future to rely on idle workers to be waiting for the call...?

I wouldn't mind being able to whistle up temp workers...


Calve ayr and find it easy on the system. Six calved over the weekend no bother.

The lad working with me at the minute does 3 days here and 3 with the neighbour, obviously in spring we will have to work something out but I have plans in place to reduce calf workload. Tbh after that in my case would be investing in facilities/ infrastructure and then see what can be done 're numbers and a full time employee

Buford T. Justice XIX

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Where's all this part time labour going to come from??
Do ye reckon that it's possible in the future to rely on idle workers to be waiting for the call...?

I wouldn't mind being able to whistle up temp workers...


Calve ayr and find it easy on the system. Six calved over the weekend no bother.

It's not necessarily idle workers waiting for a call. I have all the silage and most of the slurry contracted out. I'll probably do the same with fertiliser next spring and maybe feeding silage as well for March in the near future. That will allow me to concentrate on cows, calves and grass during the peak.

One lad in my DG has a neighbours son come in to help with the calves, spreading fert and doing odd jobs around the yard. He's planning to get him trained to milk for next spring so he will have more time for other things, like sleep:D. Oh, and paperwork too:rolleyes:.

There's a nice number of lads looking for part time work like that and then you have the option of students for spring as well. And that's before you get into paid labour or FRS workers for a few months.

Lads simply won't be able to keep up that workload without some help, either interested family or some form of paid workforce in the future.

kowtow

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

It's not necessarily idle workers waiting for a call. I have all the silage and most of the slurry contracted out. I'll probably do the same with fertiliser next spring and maybe feeding silage as well for March in the near future. That will allow me to concentrate on cows, calves and grass during the peak.

One lad in my DG has a neighbours son come in to help with the calves, spreading fert and doing odd jobs around the yard. He's planning to get him trained to milk for next spring so he will have more time for other things, like sleep:D. Oh, and paperwork too:rolleyes:.

There's a nice number of lads looking for part time work like that and then you have the option of students for spring as well. And that's before you get into paid labour or FRS workers for a few months.

Lads simply won't be able to keep up that workload without some help, either interested family or some form of paid workforce in the future.

Interesting looking at the NZ equivalent full timers & cows... was reading something the other day about one particular farm, saying (I think) two full time employees for 440(?) cows, but crucially a "one man" cow shed - which I assume means milking - I think they said they would have liked more labour but wanted to pay down debt.

I wondered how typical that was of NZ - I always assumed the place was awash with seasonal staff / students.

Whilst the idea of random recruitment from outside the EU seemed a bit of a non-starter to me I suppose the concept of an southern / northern hemisphere band of touring calving assistants makes a bit of sense. The way that shearing gangs used to work.

The thing about part time / short season experienced labour like that is that you have to be willing to pay generously for it - it's hardly a minimum wage thing at least if you want things set up so there is a ready supply. The guys & girls doing it are willing to work hard but they want to go home with some cash in their pocket in my experience.