Dairy chit chat II

Gawddawggonnit

stretch film wrote: »

I still get confused sometimes about your stance on protectionism lol..
Bit like the non gmo aspirations it'll never make a value added base for milk just a new norm with added layers of cost imo

Protectionism? Hmmm...
Didn’t you know that I’m an undercover eco-warrior?
Absolutely nothing wrong with Irish dairy farmers importing PKE from half way around the planet...grass fed, didn’t you know?

As for gmo...read this;

https://www.gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/18399

older by the day

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Protectionism? Hmmm...
Didn’t you know that I’m an undercover eco-warrior?
Absolutely nothing wrong with Irish dairy farmers importing PKE from half way around the planet...grass fed, didn’t you know?

As for gmo...read this;

https://www.gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/18399

I need a fag after reading that, shear everything we eat is either sprayed or something added to it now. Sher the wife is spraying antibactieral stuff on every surface, car air freshers ect. Shear we would love to feed only grass alone but this year is an exception. Most fellows would rather never to see a feed lorry again

Gawddawggonnit

older by the day wrote: »

Shear we would love to feed only grass alone but this year is an exception. Most fellows would rather never to see a feed lorry again

....hmmm. Years like this will never, ever happen again!

All dairy farmers have made themselves dependent on feed lorries, in one way or another. To wean off the feed lorry rip out the parlor feeders and silos, get out the plough and grow your own.

Out of interest. If someone came to you to invest all of your hard earned money on a farming system that totally based that system on just ONE crop, to produce milk for the lowest of low commodities, would you invest?
I wouldn’t...

I might if there was a premium for the produce, and a good one, for the innate risk that’s obviously built into that system.

GrasstoMilk

Has anyone here got any cubicles from o donnell engineering?
How do you like them?

blackdog1

GrasstoMilk wrote:

Has anyone here got any cubicles from o donnell engineering? How do you like them?

Really good. Have them in a year. I also have jourdan ones and the ó Donnell would be stronger. Very pleased so far.

GrasstoMilk

.

GrasstoMilk

blackdog1 wrote: »

Really good. Have them in a year. I also have jourdan ones and the ó Donnell would be stronger. Very pleased so far.

Seem like a sound bunch! Had planned on going to tullamore today to see the cubicles but it didn't happen

stretch film

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

....hmmm. Years like this will never, ever happen again!

All dairy farmers have made themselves dependent on feed lorries, in one way or another. To wean off the feed lorry rip out the parlor feeders and silos, get out the plough and grow your own.

Out of interest. If someone came to you to invest all of your hard earned money on a farming system that totally based that system on just ONE crop, to produce milk for the lowest of low commodities, would you invest?
I wouldn’t...

I might if there was a premium for the produce, and a good one, for the innate risk that’s obviously built into that system.

An idealistic stretch doesn't find an iota in what you say to disagree with.

He would also say that his one trick pony has the ability to fulfil the majority of his forage needs the majority of the time.

Pragmatic stretch however knows he was never any good with the plough or never had to be.
All he needs to boost his needs /fill his gaps is available within an acceptable range cost wise to exactly the amount required. Now sometimes that has travelled a mile down the road or another time halfway around the world .
Because of the little amount he uses most years he can't see the point in changing tack.
I doubt when all the shouting is over, this year won't change his mind. He'll just have to scramble harder for the next little while.

Realistic stretch will leave the health of the nation /union to those who are experts in their field. The 90 days trial on livestock in the piece you linked will have to do me if its ok with them .
If using a waste byproduct of something as murky as the Palm oil industry makes idealistic stretch uneasy then a quick word in the ear from pragmatic stretch will sooth his nerves because that industry is not driven chasing profit on cattle feed.
A lot of gesturing on food origin /sustainability is hollow enough in my opinion.
The housewife knows her stuff and i t's her pocket that concerns her all day long.
Now I can rail against that till the cow's come home but it hasn't yet and probably won't make a whole lot of difference.

I'll be bold enough to suggest pragmatic dawg might see something in what I'm saying.

Signpost

Put them in 2016 and no problems with them

simx

Any prices on cubicles and mats these days lads? Have a few to put in to increase feed space

orm0nd

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Has anyone here got any cubicles from o donnell engineering?
How do you like them?

replaced some old 3 legged (1970's vintage) with the bolt on to the wall type a couple of years ago

very happy with them especially for the larger cows

no problems and no pressure sores like previous

GrasstoMilk

orm0nd wrote: »

replaced some old 3 legged (1970's vintage) with the bolt on to the wall type a couple of years ago

very happy with them especially for the larger cows

no problems and no pressure sores like previous

Good to hear. We've a small enough type cow 580 ish mainly

Buford T. Justice XIX

There's a trial about to start on a high energy GM ryegrass in the US.

https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rural-news/rural-management/gm-grass-may-provide-answers

Timmaay

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There's a trial about to start on a high energy GM ryegrass in the US.

https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rural-news/rural-management/gm-grass-may-provide-answers

We actually badly need something like this to help the dairy image in Ireland. Next step would be a grass that sequences a higher amount of carbon.

simx

Timmaay wrote: »

We actually badly need something like this to help the dairy image in Ireland. Next step would be a grass that sequences a higher amount of carbon.

Be higher sr on some farms if they got that grass in

blackdog1

Timmaay wrote:

We actually badly need something like this to help the dairy image in Ireland. Next step would be a grass that sequences a higher amount of carbon.

People don't want Gm feed they hardly want milk produced off it. I don't see this as the answer at all, people will flock away from irish products if we start using this.

yosemitesam1

There's a trial about to start on a high energy GM ryegrass in the US. https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rur...rovide-answers __________________ Unlikely to come to anything, high fats in grass lowers milk fat%. The idea of feeding oils to cattle has been around for ages but its a case of do a lovely little experiment in the lab and see reduced methane, bring it out to the real world and see that it messes up animal performance

kowtow

blackdog1 wrote: »

People don't want Gm feed they hardly want milk produced off it. I don't see this as the answer at all, people will flock away from irish products if we start using this.

Milk already tastes bland enough when it's produced from intensively cultured ryegrass. I'd have reservations about anything which reduces (further) the variety being grazed by cows if we want to lay claim to a premium product.

Say my name

Timmaay wrote: »

We actually badly need something like this to help the dairy image in Ireland. Next step would be a grass that sequences a higher amount of carbon.

By sequences you mean puts a lot of carbon in the ground. I take it.
Above ground is easier see and manage.

The trouble is with any plant/root carbon fixing in the ground is that at any time it can simply rot or go back into the atmosphere especially with bad management.

The only carbon that won't degrade or at least slowly degrade is carbon in a bog, coal, oil or heat treated carbon (Biochar).
Coal and oil was formed by pressure (and heat of some sort), biochar by heat and some cases pressure as well.
There's a theory that the carbon from the prairies in the U.S. mostly came from repeated burning by the natives for management of the buffalo herds.


I was just thinking this year with the current situation. Wouldn't a great system be an on farm continuous biochar production system using the coillte forests as feedstock. Situated beside a facility for growing/germinating peas and wheat seed with hydroponics. With the hydroponic unit using the heat from the Biochar burner to use for feed for stock during the winter. The Biochar gets used as bedding for the stock. So the inoculation of the biochar gets taken care off too.

So you'd have bedding and feed being produced every day in a continuous closed loop during the winter with the whole system carbon negative and making your land carbon negative too with the application of the bedding.

The thoughts you'd have when you're milking!!

Gawddawggonnit

stretch film wrote: »

An idealistic stretch doesn't find an iota in what you say to disagree with.

He would also say that his one trick pony has the ability to fulfil the majority of his forage needs the majority of the time.

Pragmatic stretch however knows he was never any good with the plough or never had to be.
All he needs to boost his needs /fill his gaps is available within an acceptable range cost wise to exactly the amount required. Now sometimes that has travelled a mile down the road or another time halfway around the world .
Because of the little amount he uses most years he can't see the point in changing tack.
I doubt when all the shouting is over, this year won't change his mind. He'll just have to scramble harder for the next little while.

Realistic stretch will leave the health of the nation /union to those who are experts in their field. The 90 days trial on livestock in the piece you linked will have to do me if its ok with them .
If using a waste byproduct of something as murky as the Palm oil industry makes idealistic stretch uneasy then a quick word in the ear from pragmatic stretch will sooth his nerves because that industry is not driven chasing profit on cattle feed.
A lot of gesturing on food origin /sustainability is hollow enough in my opinion.
The housewife knows her stuff and i t's her pocket that concerns her all day long.
Now I can rail against that till the cow's come home but it hasn't yet and probably won't make a whole lot of difference.

I'll be bold enough to suggest pragmatic dawg might see something in what I'm saying.

I think you may be confusing pragmatism with short-termism Stretch.
Good post all the same...

Ella brings another more long term view here;

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/ireland-s-agriculture-emissions-are-hurtling-in-the-wrong-direction-1.3583142

Gawddawggonnit

blackdog1 wrote: »

People don't want Gm feed they hardly want milk produced off it. I don't see this as the answer at all, people will flock away from irish products if we start using this.

Voice of reason there Blackdog.

Why would anyone lock themselves out of a market of 500mln people, especially considering their proximity.

Say my name

kowtow wrote: »

Milk already tastes bland enough when it's produced from intensively cultured ryegrass. I'd have reservations about anything which reduces (further) the variety being grazed by cows if we want to lay claim to a premium product.

This will be the last of my strange posts for this evening.

But if you want to get the superior taste from grass and get the full benefits of all the available elements you need to pick a fertilizer that the whole range of nutrients is in, in just the correct ratios.
It's a liquid that powers all life on the planet.

Seawater is nearly the same as this but it just lacks that extra bit of iron.
You add iron sulphate to seawater and you get an explosion of life.
But this liquid if it could be made or naturally made and used without risk is the ultimate humus builder.

blackdog1

I personally think it will be solved by an additive being added to feed to reduce emissions the exact same as they do with cars.

On a side note I heard of a dairy farmer close to me going into a farmer and offering him more money to rent 30 acres that had been rented to the same tillage farmer for years. Sad thing is this particular tillage farmer supplied the dairy farmer with perfect winter barley straw for good money and when he didn't have a second cut, he sourced a good yielding field of winter barley for whole crop. Some very hungry people out there. No luck in it.

yosemitesam1

The problem with methane is it's an essential part of fermentation. Excess hydrogen is produced and methane is how the hydrogen leaves the rumen. Unlike nitrous oxide emissions which aren't far off methane but have such an easy solution to get them almost to zero, any guesses?

Mooooo

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

The problem with methane is it's an essential part of fermentation. Excess hydrogen is produced and methane is how the hydrogen leaves the rumen. Unlike nitrous oxide emissions which aren't far off methane but have such an easy solution to get them almost to zero, any guesses?

For indoor systems chp plants etc may be a solution if located near or have a facility on site to use the heat produced

Say my name

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

The problem with methane is it's an essential part of fermentation. Excess hydrogen is produced and methane is how the hydrogen leaves the rumen. Unlike nitrous oxide emissions which aren't far off methane but have such an easy solution to get them almost to zero, any guesses?

I'll play..

Biochar in cattle feed to catch the excess nitrates in the rumen and cut down on methane.

Seaweed meal makes the same claims in reducing methane too.

Perhaps mix biochar and seaweed to be sure to be sure.
After that I'm out..

Buford T. Justice XIX

MOD NOTE:We'll close this one down before the hamsters explode. I'll add a link to the new one once it's opened.

And here it is!

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=107779512#post107779512
Thanks to all for your contributions and see you in Dairy Chitchat 3.

Buford T. Justice

Gawddawggonnit

blackdog1 wrote: »

I personally think it will be solved by an additive being added to feed to reduce emissions the exact same as they do with cars.

While they’re at it...an additive for mortellaro would be handy.

Gawddawggonnit

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

The problem with methane is it's an essential part of fermentation. Excess hydrogen is produced and methane is how the hydrogen leaves the rumen. Unlike nitrous oxide emissions which aren't far off methane but have such an easy solution to get them almost to zero, any guesses?

Inhibitors?