Dairy chit chat II

visatorro

First week in November but prob have an early couple. I don't have anywhere to put the dries. I normally take three cuts then put them there but that's not going to happen certainly as early this year. Urea is right level apparently. The silage I'm feeding will be gone before results come back! I have good silage but it's my winter feed. I'm doing what I can to preserve this. I don't know, plenty will tell me I'm wrong but sure feck them.

Condition is holding, cows started coughing the real hot week. I gave them ibr booster and they cleared up.

Buford T. Justice XIX

whelan2 wrote: »

Was surprised as lad I ordered them off said Wednesday at the earliest. Thats the worst of the meal bin , you dont have too much warning that you need to order

Kerry just about 48 hours atm. I am just short of 4 milkings with the storage in the parlour feeders so I'll have to horse a few bags up a ladder when the bin is empty.

Fairly p!$$ed off of this year now but at least it's outside the door.

whelan2

straight wrote: »

2 crap years

That's the thing about the new deferred payment scheme from Glanbia , what happens if we get the same next year?

whelan2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Kerry just about 48 hours atm. I am just short of 4 milkings with the storage in the parlour feeders so I'll have to horse a few bags up a ladder when the bin is empty.

Fairly p!$$ed off of this year now but at least it's outside the door.

Theres 2 sight glasses on my bin, first was empty on Friday evening, other was empty this morning , sometimes meal sticks to the inside of my bin. I dont owe anything to the crowd I am buying off so might have made a difference

visatorro

straight wrote:

Fair play to you for your honesty. Will you be making any changes for the future like lowering your stocking rate, etc. Not knowing your exact situation but with the weather extremes we're getting I think we'll all have to be pulling back from trying to maximise numbers.

There was a row here a couple of weeks ago about being over stocked. Well this year I am over stocked on the ground I can get cows to, and have no grass anywhere else.

Timmaay

visatorro wrote: »

First week in November but prob have an early couple. I don't have anywhere to put the dries. I normally take three cuts then put them there but that's not going to happen certainly as early this year. Urea is right level apparently. The silage I'm feeding will be gone before results come back! I have good silage but it's my winter feed. I'm doing what I can to preserve this. I don't know, plenty will tell me I'm wrong but sure feck them.

I'm half way through my pit of milker silage. Got 120cows milking here at the minute still, have 5 to cull this week but the rest are pulling their weight grand, so I see no point in backing down now, still a good few nice milk cheques to come yet. Milking block stocked at about 2.2cows/ha here, so when the rain eventually comes I'll aim to build up a nice wedge of grass and graze as late as possible, worst case of if the pit of milker silage gone I'll pull the plug on the winter milk this year, and cull any of the late calvers. Definitely bit if a gamble if the drought doesn't end till oct, but I think we are all totally fcuked either way in that case.

visatorro

Timmaay wrote:

I'm half way through my pit of milker silage. Got 120cows milking here at the minute still, have 5 to cull this week but the rest are pulling their weight grand, so I see no point in backing down now, still a good few nice milk cheques to come yet. Milking block stocked at about 2.2cows/ha here, so when the rain eventually comes I'll aim to build up a nice wedge of grass and graze as late as possible, worst case of if the pit of milker silage gone I'll pull the plug on the winter milk this year, and cull any of the late calvers. Definitely bit if a gamble if the drought doesn't end till oct, but I think we are all totally fcuked either way in that case.

Milking platform at 5/ha. There's a couple of reasons for that this year. Not farm related

stretch film

Mooooo wrote: »

Some going, dairygold are 6 to 8 days. Just flatout

Got a delivery yesterday.

alps

Mooooo wrote: »

Some going, dairygold are 6 to 8 days. Just flatout

Everyone in dairygold has feed on order. The minute you get a delivery your next one is on order. We are due a delivery tomorrow and have our next one already on order for 8 days time...

No one is going to back down from having as much as possible on order..

GrasstoMilk

visatorro wrote: »

Milking platform at 5/ha. There's a couple of reasons for that this year. Not farm related

5 is a very high sr. what are your running at most other years? 4 for me would be as far as I'd be willing to go to as an sr on MP. We'd be up over 5 here at times when high growth comes but that's only for 10-14 days

Keepgrowing

whelan2 wrote: »

That's the thing about the new deferred payment scheme from Glanbia , what happens if we get the same next year?

Spot on

kevthegaff

I didn't get to see it but father was saying alot of farms up for lease on IFJ last week, this could be more prevalent in the future

yewtree

I had a look at the lyons research notes http://www.ucd.ie/agfood/about/lyonsresearchfarm/lyonssystemsresearchherdnotes/
No grass in diet due to drought, 9 kg concentrate and maize silage cows doing 1.85kg ms. It appears that high input systems are equally screwed when they run out of grass.

jaymla627

yewtree wrote: »

I had a look at the lyons research notes http://www.ucd.ie/agfood/about/lyonsresearchfarm/lyonssystemsresearchherdnotes/
No grass in diet due to drought, 9 kg concentrate and maize silage cows doing 1.85kg ms. It appears that high input systems are equally screwed when they run out of grass.

Still doing over 2kgsms here on 9kgs and bales, Lyons has been a disaster all year performance wise, extremely poor benchmark for the system they are trying to replicate

mahoney_j

jaymla627 wrote: »

Still doing over 2kgsms here on 9kgs and bales, Lyons has been a disaster all year performance wise, extremely poor benchmark for the system they are trying to replicate

Lots of trial work going on in fairness ,1.85 kgms very respectable at this stage considering no grass is pretty good

GrasstoMilk

Anyone have prices on cubicles?
Quote of 90€ for cubicle and mat from one company ATM

Mooooo

In fairness with Lyons, they haven't had the flexibility of other herds as they are trying to keep parameters the same for the trial work etc. Tbh who hasn't been tested this year it's over a number of years results should be looked at, of course once everything that happens is recorded when conclusions are gathered.
I

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Anyone have prices on cubicles?
Quote of 90€ for cubicle and mat from one company ATM

Not recent but was similar a couple of years ago for individual mat plus cubicle. If you can afford a roll I would go for that, prefer them to individual ones, near on twice the price tho

GrasstoMilk

Mooooo wrote: »

Not recent but was similar a couple of years ago for individual mat plus cubicle. If you can afford a roll I would go for that, prefer them to individual ones, near on twice the price tho

Can't unfortunately but it's something that can always be changed.

visatorro

GrasstoMilk wrote:

5 is a very high sr. what are your running at most other years? 4 for me would be as far as I'd be willing to go to as an sr on MP. We'd be up over 5 here at times when high growth comes but that's only for 10-14 days

3.8 until July, reducing to 2.8 in Sept would be the norm.

yewtree

Mooooo wrote: »

In fairness with Lyons, they haven't had the flexibility of other herds as they are trying to keep parameters the same for the trial work etc. Tbh who hasn't been tested this year it's over a number of years results should be looked at, of course once everything that happens is recorded when conclusions are gathered.
I

I think it's a very good trial well worth looking at. my point is without grass all systems are screwed at the moment

blackdog1

mahoney_j wrote:

Lots of trial work going on in fairness ,1.85 kgms very respectable at this stage considering no grass is pretty good

It's a very expensive diet for 24litres. 30kg of maize, alfalfa and 9kg concentrate... That includes 2kg of soya at what 400 a tonne??.

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Can't unfortunately but it's something that can always be changed.

What about easy fix mats and cubicles. Are they very expensive. Alot of people are happy with the plastic ones I hear.

GrasstoMilk

straight wrote: »

What about easy fix mats and cubicles. Are they very expensive. Alot of people are happy with the plastic ones I hear.

Not even going to price them. Have heard mixed reports about them tbh. If I had money I would put the cowcoons in from Wilson Agri. Friend put them in last year and didn't have to push one cow up into one and they were only used to a straw bed

Mooooo

Have easy fix here in one row, fitted them in the middle of winter after losing a cow in old small ones. The cubicles are fine in that they have been bent but go back more or less straight after but the mats are too soft, torn by cows just standing on them after 1 year. The bolts and nuts they supplied were a balls but I'm assuming that was just a bad batch due to galvanizing or something, wouldn't screw into each other. No cheaper than standard cubicle either

jaymla627

straight wrote: »

What about easy fix mats and cubicles. Are they very expensive. Alot of people are happy with the plastic ones I hear.

You’d be talking north of 240 euro a space plus vat for the easy fix cubicle and mat, their crazy dear but serious quality

GrasstoMilk

Some use full advice here

jaymla627

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Some use full advice here

Lads on heavier ground that’s not burnt up and still green/growing should be spreading away, put out 10 ton here today and another 6 going out tomorrow, if your farm is burnt to pieces and is in shutdown mode, it would be relevant

GrasstoMilk

jaymla627 wrote: »

Lads on heavier ground that’s not burnt up and still green/growing should be spreading away, put out 10 ton here today and another 6 going out tomorrow, if your farm is burnt to pieces and is in shutdown mode, it would be relevant

Not burnt up here like others are around. Just really lacking moisture. Farm went rock hard in mid April and hasn't softened since. We'd usually retain some moisture in soil for a long time due to deep clay but not this year

yewtree

jaymla627 wrote: »

Lads on heavier ground that’s not burnt up and still green/growing should be spreading away, put out 10 ton here today and another 6 going out tomorrow, if your farm is burnt to pieces and is in shutdown mode, it would be relevant

We have continued spreading here haven't burnt to the extreme I have seen. Rain on Sunday and showery overcast since. Farm looks to be moving again.