Dairy chit chat II

Gawddawggonnit

Just back from a couple of days in the Peak District.
I was blown away by the 'greenness' of everything...."a green and pleasant land".

Keepgrowing

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Just back from a couple of days in the Peak District.
I was blown away by the 'greenness' of everything...."a green and pleasant land".

Grouse?

Gawddawggonnit

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grouse?

Yep.
Good year for them, but not a record.

Injuryprone

Keepgrowing wrote: »

How are you maintaining index 4 without compound?

Oh it's nothing to do with anything special I've been doing. Previous generation would not have spared the compounds presumably when can/urea would have been the go elsewhere. I can vaguely recall the first pallet of can that arrived in the place, must've been sometime in the early noughties. There was a bit of complaining going on.

Indexes are definitely coming back a bit, was allowed a couple of ton of cut sward after the most recent soil test. Probably should be soil testing more regular than the 4 years so that I get my allowances up quicker.

Waffletraktor

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Yep.
Good year for them, but not a record.

Any hassel from rspb/chris packham type nutters?

Gawddawggonnit

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Any hassel from rspb/chris packham type nutters?

Nothing, despite the fact that the rspb own/manage the estate next door.

Mooooo

Got cheque from factory for the reactors no word on visible lesions yet. One of the cows was only 50 euro short of the department valuation. Fcuk em

Mooooo

Scanning yday + heavy rain this morning = messy milking

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

Scanning yday + heavy rain this morning = messy milking

How did the scanning go?

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

How did the scanning go?

So so. Bull only came out at the weekend so will scan or milk test any not pregnant in a month. Will have 100 calved before the end of april anyway, must go though them properly yet hopefully not too many in april. 3 small heifers not in calf, and 4 cows bulled the first week of may and quiet since not in calf as well

Gawddawggonnit

Scanned a bunch of 98 this morning. 72 in calf, 12 are too early to say for sure (<35 days in calf), 14 definitely not in calf. Happy out.

Tested maize just now and it's ~34%dm.
Pitting maize for the next few days. Early start tomorrow. I fecking hate making silage.

Out of interest, I was reading the holiday thread whilst waiting for the dm results, and I noticed that people cancel holidays because they've silage to make. Why? Don't contractors do your work?
If you can't trust a professional outfit to make it, how're ye going to trust the newly trained unemployed to milk the cows? Just asking...

Mooooo

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Scanned a bunch of 98 this morning. 72 in calf, 12 are too early to say for sure (<35 days in calf), 14 definitely not in calf. Happy out.

Tested maize just now and it's ~34%dm.
Pitting maize for the next few days. Early start tomorrow. I fecking hate making silage.

Out of interest, I was reading the holiday thread whilst waiting for the dm results, and I noticed that people cancel holidays because they've silage to make. Why? Don't contractors do your work?
If you can't trust a professional outfit to make it, how're ye going to trust the newly trained unemployed to milk the cows? Just asking...

no bother getting someone to milk cows, covering the silage pit on the other hand....

Gawddawggonnit

Mooooo wrote: »

no bother getting someone to milk cows, covering the silage pit on the other hand....

When I was at that craic we had to close all gates etc after us....and cover the pits.
When did that end?

Timmaay

Goods few lads mow their own silage, stack the bales etc.

whelan2

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

When I was at that craic we had to close all gates etc after us....and cover the pits.
When did that end?

When you left

Gawddawggonnit

Timmaay wrote: »

Goods few lads mow their own silage, stack the bales etc.

BURNING DIESEL???

Sent a local lad that has spent a couple of years in NZ topping trawneens last week.
3.5m mower and 270hp tractor. He got a good kick out of sending photos to the kiwis....

Gawddawggonnit

whelan2 wrote: »

When you left

So I was the last fool. That figures I suppose.

Mooooo

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

When I was at that craic we had to close all gates etc after us....and cover the pits.
When did that end?

Our lads never covered pits for us anyway

Mooooo

Will be drying off the autumn calvers the end of the month. First ones to calve will have 7 to 8 weeks dry depending on gestation. Do ye bother dosing autumn calvers for fluke at dry off? Will dry em all off together as only 15 cows to dry and will be calved within a month of each other. Do ye do anything else at dry off?

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

Will be drying off the autumn calvers the end of the month. First ones to calve will have 7 to 8 weeks dry depending on gestation. Do ye bother dosing autumn calvers for fluke at dry off? Will dry em all off together as only 15 cows to dry and will be calved within a month of each other. Do ye do anything else at dry off?

We do for fluke and worms and rotavec. Also tar and spot on

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

We do for fluke and worms and rotavec. Also tar and spot on

Have an spot on yday. Have never given tar, may give it to them this year, a couple milking well all the time. Do you use and Albex type product? They would have gotten done for worms earlier in the summer already. Must check if I have anything with a reasonable withdrawal for immature fluke. Edit would it be ok to give the rotavec 8 to 10 weeks from.calving or would I want to wait till closer to the date?

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

Have an spot on yday. Have never given tar, may give it to them this year, a couple milking well all the time. Do you use and Albex type product? They would have gotten done for worms earlier in the summer already. Must check if I have anything with a reasonable withdrawal for immature fluke. Edit would it be ok to give the rotavec 8 to 10 weeks from.calving or would I want to wait till closer to the date?

Rotavec is fine from 3-13 weeks before calving. Albencare is what I'm using

jaymla627

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

So I was the last fool. That figures I suppose.

Getting pit silage done for 70 a acre with two 20ft trailers on and a 10 extra a trailer on long draws, my lad doesn't cover the pit here but wouldn't expect him too at the above rates

visatorro

jaymla627 wrote: »

Getting pit silage done for 70 a acre with two 20ft trailers on and a 10 extra a trailer on long draws, my lad doesn't cover the pit here but wouldn't expect him too at the above rates

Are you mowing that?

moneyheer

Gawddawggonnit wrote:

Out of interest, I was reading the holiday thread whilst waiting for the dm results, and I noticed that people cancel holidays because they've silage to make. Why? Don't contractors do your work? If you can't trust a professional outfit to make it, how're ye going to trust the newly trained unemployed to milk the cows? Just asking...

I know here your lucky if you can get contractor to pull out cover on pit with you let alone cover it properly.

alps

Timmaay wrote: »

Goods few lads mow their own silage, stack the bales etc.

Mowed, raked and loaded 25 acres, here yesterday...1litre burned per bale

jaymla627

visatorro wrote: »

Are you mowing that?

Nope contractor mows, wouldn't be taking savage heavy cuts to be fair, he'd be a 100 euro acre for lads doing heavy stuff, its serious value all the same grass is spread the width of mower and raked as well

ted_182

Fans of 36/48 hour breaks, would ye be inclined to go back in with the strip wire after about 3 days heavy day to aid cleanouts ??


Also going mowing is the holiday for some of us 😆😆😆

degetme

Back to 12hrs allocations. No wire up since early April

Mooooo

Got word from vet about cows that went down in blood. One had visible lesions, a 10 yr old cow. Must not have been very bad as from docket I got paid for entire carcass. So that's 1 from 22 to kill out with anything visible. Same cow had no change in skin readings in last 2 tests either