Dairy chit chat II

mf240

mahoney_j wrote: »

587 kgms ,86% 6 week in calf rate ,100% heifers calved 22/26 months ,371 day ci,4.16% fat 3.6 p .128 ebi,supplied milk from 04/02 to 22/12 and milked oad from 15/11 to dry off

Keep the head down, you'll get there. Do you feed any meal at all?

cosatron

mf240 wrote: »

Icbf report here all five stars on top as usuall and all one stars on bottom. My only worry are these guys getting money to make charts that I don't want or need

As the auld lad says, the only numbers I’m worried about are the ones on the bottom of the milkcheque

mahoney_j

mf240 wrote: »

Keep the head down, you'll get there. Do you feed any meal at all?

Meal what’s that. ??,lots of feeding in grass docks and nettles !!!

whelan2

mahoney_j wrote: »

Meal what’s that. ??,lots of feeding in grass docks and nettles !!!

And rushes

GrasstoMilk

cosatron wrote: »

As the auld lad says, the only numbers I’m worried about are the ones on the bottom of the milkcheque

That's true but my milk cheque is an awful lot better since I started chasing compact calving, 24 month calving for heifers

Timmaay

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

That's true but my milk cheque is an awful lot better since I started chasing compact calving, 24 month calving for heifers

The milk cheque has always be reasonable here thankfully . My workload and stress levels are a different matter now that we are getting there with compact spring on calving.

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

That's true but my milk cheque is an awful lot better since I started chasing compact calving, 24 month calving for heifers

Calving heifers early and at 22/25 months and high 6 week in calf rates are biggest drivers of solids and heifers lasting here .hard slog for few weeks in spring but worth it

whelan2

Timmaay wrote: »

The milk cheque has always be reasonable here thankfully . My workload and stress levels are a different matter now that we are getting there with compact spring on calving.

Whats your calving interval?

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

Whats your calving interval?

402 days! Meaningless enough figure here also, because there are a few big hos who only calf down every 2nd spring, (they do about 14lk across the 2 yrs with no extra feed over the rest), they add a few days each to the CI, milking on culls also doesn't help.

freedominacup

mahoney_j wrote: »

Calving heifers early and at 22/25 months and high 6 week in calf rates are biggest drivers of solids and heifers lasting here .hard slog for few weeks in spring but worth it

How does it help retention rates for heifers?

whelan2

Timmaay wrote: »

402 days! Meaningless enough figure here also, because there are a few big hos who only calf down every 2nd spring, (they do about 14lk across the 2 yrs with no extra feed over the rest), they add a few days each to the CI, milking on culls also doesn't help.

That's not too bad, 371 here in top 5% ,when will you finish calving?

mahoney_j

freedominacup wrote: »

How does it help retention rates for heifers?

In a spring herd with compact calving having them calved early gives them a much better chance to last in that type of system .

cycle4fun

cosatron wrote: »

As the auld lad says, the only numbers I’m worried about are the ones on the bottom of the milkcheque

lol Your auld lad is right.

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

That's not too bad, 371 here in top 5% ,when will you finish calving?

Fair play, that's very good especially considering how easy it would be to let cows slip from autumn to spring etc! Calved into July last yr (was the 1st year with no autumn at all so had to take the hit in the spring otherwise would of had a silly empty rate, this year I'm back to mid May (took the hit in empties now though ughh). Aim now is to keep pulling back a week or so a year, once the late spring can't fill the liquid quota I'll sell it, bloody Glanbia are apparently taking 5% of it this year in an case!!

GrasstoMilk

Ground temps are fairly good here. First paddock grazed off and calving going good

Reggie.

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ground temps are fairly good here. First paddock grazed off and calving going good

How did ya break it?

Say my name

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ground temps are fairly good here. First paddock grazed off and calving going good

I'm on my third paddock here. I got a good response to my early spread urea and slurry.
I had my first cow bulling today and it's not yet 3 weeks since start of calving.

The way the weather could be looking though I could be very lucky to have put it out as early as a Sudden stratospheric warming is currently occurring and more than likely we might be getting easterly winds at the end of Feb start of March and who knows how long they'll last and could be put in the freezer. If it does come Very cold and frosty I'll graze off the heavy covers that got urea on dampish ground and if it stays damp and mildish I'll keep going the way I'm going on the drier land and sure the grass will still be growing behind me.

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ground temps are fairly good here. First paddock grazed off and calving going good

Pissing rain here again

GrasstoMilk

Reggie. wrote: »

How did ya break it?

Plastic sheet peeling off the screen is all

alps

kowtow wrote: »

Is that individual farms or countries?

If I remember correctly, we're pretty expensive on a total economic cost basis, at least in the european context. Difficult to get an up to date price / litre to place us on that graph but I think there were only a couple of countries more expensive than us - at least in 2012.

I recall that the Italians may well have been one of them!

Edit : Total costs were about 4.50 per kg solids in the 2012 analysis, Denmark and Italy were more expensive (4.75 and 5.25 approx) .. UK was about 3.30-3.50 (had to pluck these figures by eye off a graph so they aren't exact).

These are individual farms across all EU countries and Switzerland.....it would be easy to make the assumption that the Irish farms are at the profitable end of this graph but that would not be entirely correct..

To answer Mooooo's question above...full economic costs include all farm expenditure, interest, an hourly allowance of 15€ for unpaid labour, and a land cost which is equal to what you are paying to rent land into your operation...

Hence, entrepreneurs profit is the profit for your endeavours after you have paid your own wage and paid a cost for your land ( otherwise you are just subsidising milk production with either your time or your assets)

This ties into Kowtow's figures that show us in a higher economic cost bracket than you may realise. Many farmers are subsidising milk production, however most Irish farms in this survey fared out quiet well, and consolidated holdings would be at the most profitable end of this graph..

As far as I can remember for the period surveyd, IE and CZ returned the most profit, with NL faring out worst...

The messages for me are clear in that overall, lower costs mean higher profit, and that farmers supplying non commodity or premium markets don't necessarily loose that premium in increased costs...

Sillycave

Say my name wrote: »

I'm on my third paddock here. I got a good response to my early spread urea and slurry.
I had my first cow bulling today and it's not yet 3 weeks since start of calving.

The way the weather could be looking though I could be very lucky to have put it out as early as a Sudden stratospheric warming is currently occurring and more than likely we might be getting easterly winds at the end of Feb start of March and who knows how long they'll last and could be put in the freezer. If it does come Very cold and frosty I'll graze off the heavy covers that got urea on dampish ground and if it stays damp and mildish I'll keep going the way I'm going on the drier land and sure the grass will still be growing behind me.

Are we heading for a cold end of Feb start of Mar? Was going to go with urea early next week? Too but it out or not??🀔

Say my name

Sillycave wrote: »

Are we heading for a cold end of Feb start of Mar? Was going to go with urea early next week? Too but it out or not??🀔

There's a SSW occurring atm. That's the only thing that's guarranteed.
It will lead to cold or very cold conditions occurring somewhere in the northern hemisphere that's also guaranteed.
Where is the unknown.

Another poster here got badly caught out last year when they predicted a severe cold spell from a SSW. But it does increase the chances for cold from the east for Ireland.

Keep an eye on Gavs weather vids on YouTube and the folks on the weather forum on boards.

mahoney_j

Sillycave wrote: »

Are we heading for a cold end of Feb start of Mar? Was going to go with urea early next week? Too but it out or not??🀔

Slurry out but no urea ,weather has been too wet ,ground temps too low and still are so no point going with any calving going well ,cows out but weather ahead looks worrying

einn32

Someone went mad with urea here last night or else it's snow. Cows in today but probably need to slow down on the grazing. No grass here due to poor winter setup resulting in paddocks not being closed in time. Really brings home the need for good housing. Springs are tough now more often than not.

Mooooo

Had a cow with the blister out at one, said id leave her be for an hour went back in to the house to boil the kettle and fell asleep before the fecking thing was boiled awoke at 5 and out to the shed to find cow stretched and calfs head out and swollen, got the calf out alive and sat the cow up but has paralysis on the side she was lying on. Turned her to other side sitting up and will leave her be for a bit. The one I'm not there for and this happens, all the rest were spat out. Bull was fr 4019 and a big Calf, have 6 more from him and they are tiny feckers

einn32

Mooooo wrote: »

Had a cow with the blister out at one, said id leave her be for an hour went back in to the house to boil the kettle and fell asleep before the fecking thing was boiled awoke at 5 and out to the shed to find cow stretched and calfs head out and swollen, got the calf out alive and sat the cow up but has paralysis on the side she was lying on. Turned her to other side sitting up and will leave her be for a bit. The one I'm not there for and this happens, all the rest were spat out. Bull was fr 4019 and a big Calf, have 6 more from him and they are tiny feckers

Always the way. Does anyone not go check calvers at night?

visatorro

einn32 wrote: »

Always the way. Does anyone not go check calvers at night?

Checked at eleven last night, no panic on anyone, wondered in at six and dead bull calf. Cow up and about.

boggerman1

Check the cows around 10pm and get up again around 2.30 in the morning to throw an eye on the ones in the calving shed.

mahoney_j

Check cows at 11.30’,check camera at 3 am up at 6 over 40%. Calved only up one night ,crucial get 5/6 hours good sleep this time of year

dar31

Check around 10.30/11 and that's it for the night.
Up at 5.30 check camera have breakfast and plenty of coffee in the yard for 6. Only 1 loss out of 80 so far due to not checking through the night. Like mooo said could be up for every calving and still miss the one that looses a calf.