Dairy chit chat II

kowtow

Keepgrowing wrote:

I totally agree, I'm absolutly exhausted

Me too. Something about the third day of a crisis which really knocks it out of you.

Still cut off here with about 50 yds of the boreen left to clear. Only way out by quad through paddocks. Water thawed at least, scrapers working just about and a small break from calving.

Not made any easier by being half way through the parlour refurb and milking on one side with buckets!

wrangler

Water John wrote: »

Fearlessly on the processors side.

A tweet to support my argument.

.'' Wonder will the @KepakGroup @dawnmeatsgroup #abp et al pay for lost lambs & cattle in the storm @farmersjournal''

whelan2

kowtow wrote: »

Me too. Something about the third day of a crisis which really knocks it out of you.

Still cut off here with about 50 yds of the boreen left to clear. Only way out by quad through paddocks. Water thawed at least, scrapers working just about and a small break from calving.

Not made any easier by being half way through the parlour refurb and milking on one side with buckets!

Crap here again today. Had 2 calves born dead yesterday. Had to put a cow with a bad heart down and now waiting on vet as a calf is coming upside down and head not coming.......knackery lorry Will be busy

Gawddawggonnit

Water John wrote: »

Fearlessly on the processors side.

Two words John...Force Majeure.

I only put the comment in to see some reaction...:)

wrangler

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Two words John...Force Majeure.

I only put the comment in to see some reaction...:)

i thought his comment was aimed at me, I do wish john would ''quote'' the post he's commenting on
According to the BBC news last night, their farmers aren't getting paid for milk they didn't sell.....are all the roads cleared well enough for milk collection with you

Mooooo

wrangler wrote: »

i thought his comment was aimed at me, I do wish john would ''quote'' the post he's commenting on
According to the BBC news last night, their farmers aren't getting paid for milk they didn't sell.....are all the roads cleared well enough for milk collection with you

Arla are paying

Gawddawggonnit

wrangler wrote: »

i thought his comment was aimed at me, I do wish john would ''quote'' the post he's commenting on
According to the BBC news last night, their farmers aren't getting paid for milk they didn't sell.....are all the roads cleared well enough for milk collection with you

No problem here with snow, ever. Most we’d get would be 8-10cm.
Our welfare issues would be with extreme temps...-18 to 40+.

The higher temps during summer heatwaves are much more difficult to deal with than freezing temps.

Mooooo

wrangler wrote: »

A tweet to support my argument.

.'' Wonder will the @KepakGroup @dawnmeatsgroup #abp et al pay for lost lambs & cattle in the storm @farmersjournal''

Coops are responsible for collection, are factories?

whelan2

Wasn't a drop of milk in glanbia Drogheda on Friday. Strathroy on the other hand kept going....

wrangler

Mooooo wrote: »

Coops are responsible for collection, are factories?

If they were responsible they would've given you 40c/ltr. be interesting to see if any farmers take a case to court

Mooooo

Dunno what dairygold are doing 're dumped milk yet, fortunate to have plenty storage here and yard cleared if lorry decides to come. I see glanbia are paying 20, should be base price unless it's the farmers yard that is the issue

einn32

Mooooo wrote: »

Dunno what dairygold are doing 're dumped milk yet, fortunate to have plenty storage here and yard cleared if lorry decides to come. I see glanbia are paying 20, should be base price unless it's the farmers yard that is the issue

We cleared the road for a dairygold truck yesterday. One fella down the road is a supplier. He tried on the hill with slush but didn't make so we helped. I told him he could take our tank for 2 euro a litre. We were clearing for our truck which collected us last night.

Cows back on twice a day. All water back. Just trying to clean up and regain some control. revived a calf this morning so something positive. cold rain though. Thaw is fierce slow. Just a miserable day really!

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

Dunno what dairygold are doing 're dumped milk yet, fortunate to have plenty storage here and yard cleared if lorry decides to come. I see glanbia are paying 20, should be base price unless it's the farmers yard that is the issue

The co-op shareholder agreement states that the co-op must buy and pay you for all the milk produced from all the cows you milk in their catchment area. The only get out clause in this, is that the milk is subject to quality standards.

But leaving the rules aside, you would think that in a coop situation that everyone should be paid for their milk, and the tab picked up by everyone, as it is only by pure chance of timing and location that some were collected and some were not. It would only be reasonable to think that in a situation like this, that everyone takes a little less so that those misfortunate do not loose all.

It is interesting where glanbia pitched the payment value. Was it a case of saying, we will split the price, and pay you half, or was it pitched that they would cover production costs?

In any case, let's see how other coops treat milk loss.

We were very fortunate here, totally due to an incredible effort by our collection driver....deeply indebted..

orm0nd

Great credit due to our Arrabawn collector who risked getting stuck with a full artic load of milk getting in here this morning, no milk dumped thanks to a neighbour lending a 1000 ltr mobile tank

whelan2

whelan2 wrote: »

Crap here again today. Had 2 calves born dead yesterday. Had to put a cow with a bad heart down and now waiting on vet as a calf is coming upside down and head not coming.......knackery lorry Will be busy

Cow euthanized. Womb ruptured when vet calving her. Didn't get calf out either

3 the square

whelan2 wrote: »

Cow euthanized. Womb ruptured when vet calving her. Didn't get calf out either

You would need tick skin to be dairy farming .

Water John

Bit of a though run there, Whelan. Hope next week is better. As someone has written here earlier, it's outside the door.
Alps you are mostly correct, except the milk coop membership, that states they will take all the milk produced on your farm. Standard practice is, they collect from your premises.
Any thing else being said or offered, is a distraction.
I would agree the farmer should, clear his own entrance.

boggerman1

Things back to normal today.the main thing was water which on Friday was a big problem.disconnected a couple of big troughs out the fields and put down a new line from well.lucky its close by sheds only 20 yrds or so.cleared the yard yesterday for whenever the lorry man can get in.i ain't going to ring him.he will get to me whenever he can.everyone is pissed off with the disruption but no point in falling out with the milk man.lucky only a coupl of heifers calved in past few days to help situation.in a few weeks time this will all be a distant memory when everything is out and cows are bursting with milk.I hope😉

jaymla627

Water John wrote: »

Bit of a though run there, Whelan. Hope next week is better. As someone has written here earlier, it's outside the door.
Alps you are mostly correct, except the milk coop membership, that states they will take all the milk produced on your farm. Standard practice is, they collect from your premises.
Any thing else being said or offered, is a distraction.
I would agree the farmer should, clear his own entrance.

A fair bit of milk been dumped here but a lot of it is due to bulk tank size, couple of lads around us wouldn't have capacity for 4 milkings at peak milk, glanbia state you need 5 by the rule of milk purchasing document they could sting lads this way if it transpires milk was dumped due to insignificant storage capacity rather then going over a five day storage period

Keepgrowing

whelan2 wrote: »

Cow euthanized. Womb ruptured when vet calving her. Didn't get calf out either

Whelan, it's been a tough week a real bastard for man and beast. The best of run places had losses this week that they wouldn't normally encounter. We have top notch facilities and have a shed of 45 bull calves get a serious chill the night before the snow despite our best efforts.

All calves got 4 litres of beastings at birth were on adlib milk in a brand new shed and 2-3 weeks old. Wind just chilled them. We've been keeping the worst of them under lights and in our little hospital since. The lads who take care of them are gone home till 3.30 so I made a call, rang knacker and he's just left with the nine of them.

It fookin killed me, I'm sitting in our little farm canteen not able to go home for a bit of grub I'm so upset. The other side is that the time they were taking was compromising the attention to the others.

Since the warning was issued nobody has called to collect calves as they normally would do we're chocka and I'm concerned that this could have a knock on effect. I've guys coming in the morning to collect calves. Bvds I've posted I've no doubt haven't made Enfer or if they did they're closed till Monday ensuring a further delay.

We've had 63 calvings up to midnight last night since this shyte began and this is testing us.

I have to say we have great staff with one guy travelling 15 miles every morning and collecting a colleague on the way. Despite this they both have been here 1 hour early every morning since Wed to keep the wheels turning.

Lift you head everyone we're all in the same boat and things will improve sooner than later.

Just for perspective the morning after the storm we had to dig a track with the loading shovel for an ambulance to collect a little 11 yo boy whose a class mate of my second lad to get him to hospital. Thankfully all is well. So Fook the calves, cows and frozen pipes for an hour and have a sit down at the fire.

I feel better now, rant over

dar31

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Whelan, it's been a tough week a real bastard for man and beast. The best of run places had losses this week that they wouldn't normally encounter. We have top notch facilities and have a shed of 45 bull calves get a serious chill the night before the snow despite our best efforts.

All calves got 4 litres of beastings at birth were on adlib milk in a brand new shed and 2-3 weeks old. Wind just chilled them. We've been keeping the worst of them under lights and in our little hospital since. The lads who take care of them are gone home till 3.30 so I made a call, rang knacker and he's just left with the nine of them.

It fookin killed me, I'm sitting in our little farm canteen not able to go home for a bit of grub I'm so upset. The other side is that the time they were taking was compromising the attention to the others.

Since the warning was issued nobody has called to collect calves as they normally would do we're chocka and I'm concerned that this could have a knock on effect. I've guys coming in the morning to collect calves. Bvds I've posted I've no doubt haven't made Enfer or if they did they're closed till Monday ensuring a further delay.

We've had 63 calvings up to midnight last night since this shyte began and this is testing us.

I have to say we have great staff with one guy travelling 15 miles every morning and collecting a colleague on the way. Despite this they both have been here 1 hour early every morning since Wed to keep the wheels turning.

Lift you head everyone we're all in the same boat and things will improve sooner than later.

Just for perspective the morning after the storm we had to dig a track with the loading shovel for an ambulance to collect a little 11 yo boy whose a class mate of my second lad to get him to hospital. Thankfully all is well. So Fook the calves, cows and frozen pipes for an hour and have a sit down at the fire.

I feel better now, rant over

Fook ya. Have me in tears now.

whelan2

Milkman here again now after collecting us last night.

kowtow

Keepgrowing wrote:

Lift you head everyone we're all in the same boat and things will improve sooner than later.

Keepgrowing wrote:

It fookin killed me, I'm sitting in our little farm canteen not able to go home for a bit of grub I'm so upset. The other side is that the time they were taking was compromising the attention to the others.

We lost a 2 day old calf here in the middle of it.. pneumonia I suspect after a wet and cold night when everything in the maternity pen was getting snowed on.

We'd done all that could be done.. including leaving the newborns with their dams for the duration of the bad weather but with one thing and another we might have got it out and under a lamp quicker than we did. Kicking myself not least because it's actually the first calf we have lost (barring a stillborn) in five years of this.

Out of the ordinary events will show up the stresses in every system small or large. There is no right or wrong way to avoid their effects and no way that you can plan for every specific outcome.

The only thing we can all do is look back at the photos of this weather and remind ourselves that building some small buffer of comfort .. spare space, spare time, extra straw.. silage... wiring for a generator... a mobile water tank.. whatever it may be.. will pay huge dividends in reducing stress when the time comes for us to deal with the next unexpected event, and one way and another that event will come.

The cows, unsurprisingly, recover much quicker than we do, so that's what we should concentrate on.

darragh_haven

kowtow wrote: »

We lost a 2 day old calf here in the middle of it.. pneumonia I suspect after a wet and cold night when everything in the maternity pen was getting snowed on.

We'd done all that could be done.. including leaving the newborns with their dams for the duration of the bad weather but with one thing and another we might have got it out and under a lamp quicker than we did. Kicking myself not least because it's actually the first calf we have lost (barring a stillborn) in five years of this.

Out of the ordinary events will show up the stresses in every system small or large. There is no right or wrong way to avoid their effects and no way that you can plan for every specific outcome.

The only thing we can all do is look back at the photos of this weather and remind ourselves that building some small buffer of comfort .. spare space, spare time, extra straw.. silage... wiring for a generator... a mobile water tank.. whatever it may be.. will pay huge dividends in reducing stress when the time comes for us to deal with the next unexpected event, and one way and another that event will come.

The cows, unsurprisingly, recover much quicker than we do, so that's what we should concentrate on.

Its hard to put a price on something to reduce stress. People would be going on about a generator costing 3 grand, and the money could be used buying in-calf heifers (or anything). But its worth 10 times that if it reduces stress when the time comes that its needed.

K.G.

Lorry driver was telling me this morning he had to back out two lanes as lads had done nothing to clear the snow.

Mooooo

Lorry came here, must be making progress as I could have held if needed. Still snow in fields but roads are clear

wrangler

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Whelan, it's been a tough week a real bastard for man and beast. The best of run places had losses this week that they wouldn't normally encounter. We have top notch facilities and have a shed of 45 bull calves get a serious chill the night before the snow despite our best efforts.

All calves got 4 litres of beastings at birth were on adlib milk in a brand new shed and 2-3 weeks old. Wind just chilled them. We've been keeping the worst of them under lights and in our little hospital since. The lads who take care of them are gone home till 3.30 so I made a call, rang knacker and he's just left with the nine of them.

It fookin killed me, I'm sitting in our little farm canteen not able to go home for a bit of grub I'm so upset. The other side is that the time they were taking was compromising the attention to the others.

Since the warning was issued nobody has called to collect calves as they normally would do we're chocka and I'm concerned that this could have a knock on effect. I've guys coming in the morning to collect calves. Bvds I've posted I've no doubt haven't made Enfer or if they did they're closed till Monday ensuring a further delay.

We've had 63 calvings up to midnight last night since this shyte began and this is testing us.

I have to say we have great staff with one guy travelling 15 miles every morning and collecting a colleague on the way. Despite this they both have been here 1 hour early every morning since Wed to keep the wheels turning.

Lift you head everyone we're all in the same boat and things will improve sooner than later.

Just for perspective the morning after the storm we had to dig a track with the loading shovel for an ambulance to collect a little 11 yo boy whose a class mate of my second lad to get him to hospital. Thankfully all is well. So Fook the calves, cows and frozen pipes for an hour and have a sit down at the fire.

I feel better now, rant over

I built a new shed in the eighties for 90 calves and went by all the advice, same thing as you a whole lot perished. an adviser came from kerry Coop as we were using bloom at the time, told us to put canopies around the wall about 4ft high and 4ft out from the wall and solved the whole lot.....why couldn't Teagasc or whatever they were called at the time have told us that, all they said was ventilation, ventilation and more ventilation.
It was so obvious after, they'd lie out away from the canopy on the warm days and go in under the canopies on the cold nights.
Water under the bridge now, but I know what you're going through.
Look after yourself anyway

Fixture

whelan2 wrote: »

Wasn't a drop of milk in glanbia Drogheda on Friday. Strathroy on the other hand kept going....

Don’t think NI got as badly hit by the storm in fairness

whelan2

Fixture wrote: »

Don’t think NI got as badly hit by the storm in fairness

They were able to come down and stock the shops with milk.

GrasstoMilk

K.G. wrote: »

Lorry driver was telling me this morning he had to back out two lanes as lads had done nothing to clear the snow.

I cleared 5 miles here between yesterday and today after all the work with stock was done. Good mate did 20 hrs clearing drifts and his brother did another 20. Burned 700 litres of diesel between them. Tough 3 days on everyone. Got maidens water today finally, they were okay surprisingly. One of them sliced there hock to bits ( how I do not know) she'll be okay though. we lost one calf here, which is the first this year.
Luckily our pump house stayed thawed so I just stuck a 1inch pipe from it into a 300 gallon trough. Didn't bother trying to fool around with freezing water pipes.

Calf shed is bursting here. I had some sick ones last week so didn't send any at all.
Never been so glad to wash the parlour. Covered from head to toe in cow ****e milking.
Finished early tonight at 7 and having a few pints now. Never tasted as nice!