Dairy chit chat II

blackdog1

stretch film wrote:

It seems they have no interest in proving bulls for Irish market other than in nz. If they're Irish partners were testing exclusively those Lic sired bulls then I could see less issues with contract.

Lic is losing its market share to icbf bred bulls off Lic sires. This is there attempt to stop this. It's a desperate attempt to keep there market share.

tanko

blackdog1 wrote: »

Lic is losing its market share to icbf bred bulls off Lic sires. This is there attempt to stop this. It's a desperate attempt to keep there market share.

Surely this type of contract wouldn't stand up in a court of law if challenged?

jaymla627

tanko wrote: »

Surely this type of contract wouldn't stand up in a court of law if challenged?

Monsanto have been operating like this for the past 20 odd years, but then they had a unique product and farmers dived in, lic are pissing against the wind so to speak given their weak market share and the vast array of other ai companies out their

friesian13

any new ai bulls for this spring. looking for high ebi and solids. looking at fr2238, fr2380, fr2249, fr2351, fr2275. any recommendations.thanks

whelan2

friesian13 wrote: »

any new ai bulls for this spring. looking for high ebi and solids. looking at fr2238, fr2380, fr2249, fr2351, fr2275. any recommendations.thanks

Used fr2249 and lck on the winter milkers.

freedominacup

A lot of milk lost here this winter with poor quality silage. We hit the first cut ten days ago. Yields gone from 13l to 15l on a group of cows all within a month of drying off, protein was under pressure also but rising again now. Safe to say we were missing a similar amount per day since early Oct. We ended up with a bulky second cut because of drought stress. Saved a nice bit on contracting charges but every penny saved and more gone west with less milk of poorer quality. No saving at all in bulk. Won't be going on holidays in last week of June again either.

Buford T. Justice XIX

https://twitter.com/Murphy1Diarmuid/status/819186169246285825

Interesting figure on the importance of spring grazing.

freedominacup

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Murphy1Diarmuid/status/819186169246285825

Interesting figure on the importance of spring grazing.

Not really sheriff. Completely meaningless figure really. When does spring start and finish for starters?

yewtree

I don't think it's meaningless if you can get grass into cows in spring it reduces feed bill and for a lot of lads spring grass is far higher quality than the silage they have so they will get a lift in cow performance.
I always find the early grazed paddocks grow the most over the year, the grazing seems to stimulate grass growth

mahoney_j

yewtree wrote: »

I don't think it's meaningless if you can get grass into cows in spring it reduces feed bill and for a lot of lads spring grass is far higher quality than the silage they have so they will get a lift in cow performance.
I always find the early grazed paddocks grow the most over the year, the grazing seems to stimulate grass growth

I agree with free ,and I agree with u in a different way ,your correct in saying that your earlier grazed paddocks ,for the most part grow more grass .but really high quality silage 76/77 plus did will trump it .heard a statement once that first rotation is for the grass and second rotation is for cows

yewtree

mahoney_j wrote: »

I agree with free ,and I agree with u in a different way ,your correct in saying that your earlier grazed paddocks ,for the most part grow more grass .but really high quality silage 76/77 plus did will trump it .heard a statement once that first rotation is for the grass and second rotation is for cows

I would agree that's kind of really high quality silage is a match for it but most farms don't have enough of it, think the average silage on dairy farms is 68 DMD a long way behind spring grass.

mahoney_j

yewtree wrote: »

I would agree that's kind of really high quality silage is a match for it but most farms don't have enough of it, think the average silage on dairy farms is 68 DMD a long way behind spring grass.

Then the question I'd ask is why isn't there a bank of hi quality silage there??.every dairy farm should have a reserve .this crack of getting 10/12 bales per acre or seeing a harvester on its knees harvesting silage should be a thing of the past

Buford T. Justice XIX

freedominacup wrote: »

Not really sheriff. Completely meaningless figure really. When does spring start and finish for starters?

Spring starts when cows go out :pac:

All the research and farmers measuring grass will tell you that early grazing will stimulate the sward to grow grass. We all have some land that can be grazed earlier than other land and getting that grazed will grow more grass through the year.

Even if cows have to go back in and put more silage back into the diet for a while, the importance of the early grazing is huge. Some lads in my discussion group go into covers of 1100 to 1200 or lower to get that grass into gear for the year.

farisfat

Spring gráss might not be top notch, but it's good for man and beast to get them out as sooon as possible.
Dose mé heart good to see them buck lep across the field.

yewtree

mahoney_j wrote: »

Then the question I'd ask is why isn't there a bank of hi quality silage there??.every dairy farm should have a reserve .this crack of getting 10/12 bales per acre or seeing a harvester on its knees harvesting silage should be a thing of the past

Agree on all that, but a lot of farmers don't make good quality silage. it's only the last couple of years I have got my own act together on silage quality.

orm0nd

mahoney_j wrote: »

Then the question I'd ask is why isn't there a bank of hi quality silage there??.every dairy farm should have a reserve .this crack of getting 10/12 bales per acre or seeing a harvester on its knees harvesting silage should be a thing of the past

were you in thomond park to day MJ ?

big turn out but sad occassion for the sponsors.

freedominacup

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Spring starts when cows go out :pac:

All the research and farmers measuring grass will tell you that early grazing will stimulate the sward to grow grass. We all have some land that can be grazed earlier than other land and getting that grazed will grow more grass through the year.

Even if cows have to go back in and put more silage back into the diet for a while, the importance of the early grazing is huge. Some lads in my discussion group go into covers of 1100 to 1200 or lower to get that grass into gear for the year.

I could have cows, from a point of view of poaching risk or damaging swards, in at least 95% of our ground on 10 of the past twelve days. I might well put them out next week. I'm sceptical about the benefit to the swards tbh but happy that there are health benefits for man and beast. Very hard to maintain output on early spring grass. Very hard to balance diet. I'd love to see a breakdown of his €2.70/day.

I have weanlings that are used to strip wires in a much better setup yard than other years. Getting them in and out would be straightforwards they might well get a run out a few days to get covers down. Similarly with dry cows close to calving. The exercise and room would probably be a help to them.

Fixture

The average values for silage analysed in Ireland is mediocre - and I think it's fair to assume the better farmers test their silage. Dread to think what the real average actually is....

mahoney_j

orm0nd wrote: »

were you in thomond park to day MJ ?

big turn out but sad occassion for the sponsors.

Yes morning was good but very technical ,presentation from Scottish guy on z grazing contained very questionable figures afternoon was excellent with Karina pierce and Finbar mulligan .really good informative day that dealt with feeding and management of your higher production cow whilst maximising grass use .organised by roches feeds but no sales pitch from company itself bar advertising in the room a sad day for Roche family with the passing of there dad and grandfather just before event .

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

Yes morning was good but very technical ,presentation from Scottish guy on z grazing contained very questionable figures afternoon was excellent with Karina pierce and Finbar mulligan .really good informative day that dealt with feeding and management of your higher production cow whilst maximising grass use .organised by roches feeds but no sales pitch from company itself bar advertising in the room a sad day for Roche family with the passing of there dad and grandfather just before event .

Was the lyons herd performance discussed and what kind of solids a cow they achieved for 2016/meal fed

Mooooo

Heifers broke threw the wire on the redstart, they seem fine themselves but the feckers seem to have knocked/eaten a good bit of it. Will have to rethink their arrangements in 2/3 weeks I'd say. Balls anyway

orm0nd

mahoney_j wrote: »

Yes morning was good but very technical ,presentation from Scottish guy on z grazing contained very questionable figures afternoon was excellent with Karina pierce and Finbar mulligan .really good informative day that dealt with feeding and management of your higher production cow whilst maximising grass use .organised by roches feeds but no sales pitch from company itself bar advertising in the room a sad day for Roche family with the passing of there dad and grandfather just before event .

Yep. My son was there. Texted me to say that Jim had passed on. RIP

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

Heifers broke threw the wire on the redstart, they seem fine themselves but the feckers seem to have knocked/eaten a good bit of it. Will have to rethink their arrangements in 2/3 weeks I'd say. Balls anyway

Great morning for it.,,

Keepgrowing

Spotted this on Twitter, I liked it!

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819510286206074884

alps

Laurence Shalloo says u must include your own full labour costs when analysing investments. Otherwise u could come up wit wrong conclusions https://t.co/9PgwVGchgO

yewtree

Not at the conference just seeing bits on here and twitter, I have always been impressed anytime I here Laurence Shaloo talk, seems really clued in, big advantage for dairy farmers to have him in teagasc

freedominacup

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Spotted this on Twitter, I liked it!

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819510286206074884

Why is anyone having discussions in the context of milk quota at this stage?

freedominacup

alps wrote: »

Laurence Shalloo says u must include your own full labour costs when analysing investments. Otherwise u could come up wit wrong conclusions https://t.co/9PgwVGchgO

Only fifty years late coming to the party. My oul boy always tells the story of one of his contemporaries hauling an "ACOT" advisor as it was then over the coals about labour costs at the RDS spring show in the late sixties early seventies. At the end he told the advisor he knew the farm the costs were based on."Run by an oul widow woman with two big ounseachs of sons to do the mullocking, and shur they're happy if she throws them ten bob each of a Saturday night for ten Carroll's and a couple of pints before the dance". A leather medal for the first teagasc advisor to actually admit there's a labour cost to milking cows.

jaymla627

freedominacup wrote: »

Why is anyone having discussions in the context of milk quota at this stage?

Might be more apt to have a discussion re nitrates and what happens if irish derogagtion isnt renewed this coming summer.....
But that dosent follow their party line of stocking the milking platform to the absoloute limit with cows all the while feeding the cows almost entirely on grass and clover too which apparently is the second coming of christ for dairy farmers and a pinch of meal but only if the wedge needs feeding....
Its getting unbelivable militant what murphy and co are trying to drive down dairy farmers necks at these conferances, theirs absoloutely no tolerance anymore given to other (higher) cost dairy systems....

freedominacup

jaymla627 wrote: »

Might be more apt to have a discussion re nitrates and what happens if irish derogagtion isnt renewed this coming summer.....
But that dosent follow their party line of stocking the milking platform to the absoloute limit with cows all the while feeding the cows almost entirely on grass and clover too which apparently is the second coming of christ for dairy farmers and a pinch of meal but only if the wedge needs feeding....
Its getting unbelivable militant what murphy and co are trying to drive down dairy farmers necks at these conferances, theirs absoloutely no tolerance anymore given to other (higher) cost dairy systems....

I'm a bit of a thorn in the side of our dg facilitator. Usually in the top three for solids percentages and on my own by a distance with kgs of solids per cow from pedigree holsteins. Stocked to the limit though and only getting worse.