Do you have enough feed left for this spring?

whelan2

Weather has been terrible here, see alot of straw and silage bales being transported around. Do you have enough feed for a few more weeks? Only opened second silage pit this morning here. Realistically cows wont be out for another 2 weeks if weather dries up. Have a nice bit of straw and silage bales left. Only problem here is slurry storage. So have you enough feed for the rest of this "spring"?

Mooooo

Have enough till end of March if fulltime inside, may be tight on silage but have maize. Heifers will finish kale this week alright. OK for slurry storage but cubicle space for milkers is big thing, about 30 short, may cull cows I was going to milk on early yet. Have heifers calves lined up to go to out farm, brother is down there so will feed morning and evening for me.

Sam Kade

If everything had to be kept indoors I've enough silage until first week of April and enough hay for an extra month.

jimmy G M

Have enough feed for another 6 weeks assuming no cattle are let out. Plenty of grass; could let off up to 60 yearlings if weather took up. Suckler cows normally go out as they calf- none out yet.

Not a rib of straw left here, bedding calves on old meadow hay 😲.
Slurry tanks ok for another 3 weeks aprox.

Could badly do with a dry week here - running out of space for cows and calves.

GrasstoMilk

Yep have about 50t of maize, 250 bales of silage left at a guess and 30 odd bales of hay and not far off 100 bales of straw left.
Like mooo milker space is my issue. We've been inside for the last 3 days and it's far from ideal. Shed only holds 60 at a push and there's 100 cows in it.
We've grazed all our driest ground and what's left to graze is ground that wouldn't be as free draining. We might be back out tomorrow if rain stays away today.

Plan for this year to to get a 170ft trough in the yard that will feed cows both sides and open up the shed I'm currently using to hold 120 cows comfortably

Signpost

Done a count yesterday & I'm good until April 10th on silage and that shall be that, time to start praying to multiples of gods for a break in the weather...
At least I'm good on storage for once thou which is a nice positive

Who2

plenty of silage here and luckily bedded autumn born calves on wood-chip so have extra straw. i had cows and calves out but i rehoused them yesterday as they were starting to cut up the ground a bit too much. Still have autumn calves creeping out and only really doing damage at entrance to the shed so i'm,not too worried. I'm biting at the bit to let the replacements out, as i'm stuck for another 20-30 kg before they go to the bull in the middle of april. If the weather comes anyway half right next week they'll be out on grass.

Keepgrowing

Absolutely loads left but I'd like a bit more hi quality bales, rationing them here ATM.

Buying dry cow silage delivered for €17/bale, so I didn't bother opening our own pit as it costs more. Will stay buying if it stays sub €20/ bale

Bullocks

Enough for the next 3/4 weeks and will have plenty of grass if the weather dries up . The first cut last year was late and slack due to poor growth and I actually thought the pit would last a bit longer

freedominacup

Should be ok here. Ground wettest I've seen it here at this time of year. Plenty of grass but as usual at this time of year if it gets wet at all it's useless. Cows in yesterday and today. Hard to credit how contented they were last night. Decent feed and a dry lie during the day for a change after poor conditions all week seemed to help the mood no end. They seemed to have a nice bit extra milk wise last night too.

Timmaay

For the milkers, about 10 leafy bales... Not hugely worried tho, can buy in maize, soyahulls, barley. Only about 15 bales of straw also, but done a deal with a neighbour who will drop me down some as needed. Plenty of dry cow silage, but importantly I've the roofed silage pit empty, this combined with no straw taking up space is saving my bacon in terms of winter accommodation the minute.

ganmo

Could do with more straw but there's plenty of silage

blue5000

Straw very scarce, loads of silage, like you whelan opened 2nd pit this week too. Slurry storage is ok, but if weather stays wet will have to juggle a few loads between tanks.
Biggest problem is small suckler calves not being able to go out to grass.

RedPeppers

Enough pit silage here until about 15th april with everything housed. Stores going over next couple of weeks so will take pressure off. Cows usually not out around here till early april at the earliest. Plenty of hay and straw in the shed. Slurry for about 3 weeks. Could really do with getting friesian maidens out to grass.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I have enough pit silage till the end of the month for the dry cows but very short on good quality bales for the milkers.

Very short of straw though and the drys opened a gate and broke a water pipe last night and flooded their bed with water.

So have had to fire the milkers out and put most of the drys in what should be their cubicle space.

Milkers getting fed in ring feeders in an open yard atm so I'm thinking of not waiting for the TAMS approval and putting in 40 cubicles in the dry cattle shed this Summer:(

Edit: 170 bales of silage for the drys left as well.

mahoney_j

2 bales per cow of really good high dm bales left for all cows ,over 70 acres pit silage and 40 ish 8*4*3 bales of straw left ,loads of grass .comfortable for feedcspace .msidens still in and v happy I didn't let them out a few weeks back

blackdog1

Hopefully have enough silage untill may 1st. Culling isn't an option as I'm locked up. Got enough whole crop till mid April. Straw will be tight. Think I'll be OK for slurry storage as I can spread on field I'm gonna plough for whole crop. Biggest pain is drop in protein and increased cost of adding soya to the diet.

Who2

blackdog1 wrote: »

Hopefully have enough silage untill may 1st. Culling isn't an option as I'm locked up. Got enough whole crop till mid April. Straw will be tight. Think I'll be OK for slurry storage as I can spread on field I'm gonna plough for whole crop. Biggest pain is drop in protein and increased cost of adding soya to the diet.

Is culling not your best option when locked up? How many tests have you to go?

kollegeknight

Half a barn of straw/silage and enough silage til end of April.

Believe it or not- our cattle are never out before mid April on a good year.

KatyMac

I have plenty, still using 2 years old bales which are a lot better than I'd thought - selling a few (of last year and good) to a neighbor who is stuck

kevthegaff

Wholecrop maize at 40/ton delivered, what do ye think?

Mooooo

kevthegaff wrote: »

Wholecrop maize at 40/ton delivered, what do ye think?

Can you test it? If it's good maize it should be ok, would be wary in terms of using it as it can go off fast once disturbed, will you be repitting it so to speak?

yewtree

Plenty of dry cow feed, but running low on high quality bales. I was thinking of buying in a couple of loads of beet to stretch feed.
Things can change quickly this time of year a few
drying days and cows would be away night and day so dont want to buy too much. Always get a spell of brutal weather every spring I wouldn't class this spring worse than any other.

Signpost

Where do people constantly seem to find good beet / maize / other top class feeding on a whims notice? I'd be keeping an eye out on dung deal most of the year and see nothing but sheite on it as a rule

twin_beacon

we have plenty of silage left, however the quality of the second cut is lower than expected.

Mooooo

Signpost wrote: »

Where do people constantly seem to find good beet / maize / other top class feeding on a whims notice? I'd be keeping an eye out on dung deal most of the year and see nothing but sheite on it as a rule

Where are you located? Timmay is in tillage country I think, so perhaps more access there. Lad that grows our maize also does beet but generally only plants to order so to speak maize anyway, he has beet for sale sometimes

Keepgrowing

Signpost wrote: »

Where do people constantly seem to find good beet / maize / other top class feeding on a whims notice? I'd be keeping an eye out on dung deal most of the year and see nothing but sheite on it as a rule

It's location I'd say. Can get beet here with 1 or 2 phone calls. It's what I use if quality bales run short

Doctor Shivering

The local contractor is usually a good person in the know as to find stuff,that'd be the first phone call
Plenty fodder here thank God
We usually budget for May to be on the safe side
Like the rest of ye it's like lannigans ball with the weather at the moment,the cow having 5 mouths

darragh_haven

Have enough very good quality pit silage until April 2nd or 3rd. A weeks worth of bales then if needed. 4 or 5 weeks of slurry storage.
.
Starting to get phone calls for bales now. Suddenly their not expensive anymore but have none for sale. Surrounded by dairy farmers that are getting nervous

K.G.

darragh_haven wrote: »

Have enough very good quality pit silage until April 2nd or 3rd. A weeks worth of bales then if needed. 4 or 5 weeks of slurry storage.
.
Starting to get phone calls for bales now. Suddenly their not expensive anymore but have none for sale. Surrounded by dairy farmers that are getting nervous

Getting that way myself but two dry days and silage demand would disappear

Timmaay

Mooooo wrote: »

Where are you located? Timmay is in tillage country I think, so perhaps more access there. Lad that grows our maize also does beet but generally only plants to order so to speak maize anyway, he has beet for sale sometimes

Agreed, purely about location, tillage lads I assume use it as a rotation crop? But as other said it can be a bit of a minefield in terms of quality, soyahulls fed at the feed passage, or rolled barley mixed with the parlour nuts are both a very reliable way of adding in energy, for about 17c/kgdm, average quality maize at say 50e/ton will cost you up to 21c/kgdm.

Beet probably more consistent in terms of buying in, but has its downsides also, no point getting excited about 25e/ton beet if it's unwashed and covered in sh1te and stones!

CloughCasey1

Have only 7 bags left. Have plenty of hay but would rather sell that.

pedigree 6

I think so.

whelan2

How's it looking now lads?

Mooooo

whelan2 wrote: »

How's it looking now lads?

Was out fulltime for a few days they'll be back in fulltime now for a few more have enough feed, smaller maidens are out on very dry out farm so will leave them there, give ration in yard to settle them. At back wall of silage pit tbh would prefer to finish it when this far back as there would be more waste than good stuff if not finished. Pia being back in tho. Cows manged to disconnect a water pipe as well last night so came out to one tank up at the slats

Bullocks

whelan2 wrote: »

How's it looking now lads?

Finished the pit this morning so lasted a bit better than I thought. Opening lucky bags over the weekend when I finish the few we have ourselves

bogman_bass

Have a week of good first cut silage left. Have plenty of rough second cut of needed

f140

whelan2 wrote: »

How's it looking now lads?

theres the world of it still around me. Are looking to buy some?

whelan2

f140 wrote: »

theres the world of it still around me. Are looking to buy some?

no have plenty of everything , thankfully, lesson learnt from a few years ago

Buford T. Justice XIX

I will have enough bar an absolute disaster of a spring. I will probably keep 30 animals in to eat up a share of bales and allow me to make better pit silage from their grazing ground, piled even higher this year probably.

Like Whelan2, a spring with a shortage of silage is a right PITA so I'll try to keep a good stock of spare silage.

Sam Kade

Still out day and night here except for a few dry cows. Theres high pressure coming in from tuesday on supposed to last up to next weekend.

Base price

I have fodder sorted for the calves but have spare rounds of - 11 lovely green bales of hay, 22 barley, 8 oaten and 6 or 7 wheaten which I will keep in the shed for next year unless the weather turns ****e. A neighbour was buying wrapped bales from my brother over the last 2 months but has most of his cattle out now. There are 12 left which I am claiming!