Fodder Crisis

Morris Moss

jaymla627 wrote: »

That would only be the tip of it, you'd have big units at the minute feeding 50 plus odd ton a month that might only be a quarter of that in a normal year, they have no way factored this into their budgets going forward and if a small fortune is after been spent on expansion that already takes up a nice chunk of outgoings things get fairly into the red and quick

Know of a lad spending 3.5k a day at the minute, spent a huge amount of money expanding the last few years on top of that.

Reggie.

Morris Moss wrote: »

Know of a lad spending 3.5k a day at the minute, spent a huge amount of money expanding the last few years on top of that.

**** me

mengele

All the lads who cut around the 15th of may are well out of silage around here. I think that's the biggest problem. I know quality is important but what's more important is to have !enough. They didn't have half enough in the pit and should have waited another 2 weeks to cut

White Clover

mengele wrote: »

All the lads who cut around the 15th of may are well out of silage around here. I think that's the biggest problem. I know quality is important but what's more important is to have !enough. They didn't have half enough in the pit and should have waited another 2 weeks to cut

Rubbish. Three cuts of quality silage is superior to 2 cuts of bulky silage. I baled on the 8th of may I think, and still not out of silage. We started feeding silage in September.
There is no justification to making a big pit of rubbish just so you have "enough".

Bass Reeves

mengele wrote: »

All the lads who cut around the 15th of may are well out of silage around here. I think that's the biggest problem. I know quality is important but what's more important is to have !enough. They didn't have half enough in the pit and should have waited another 2 weeks to cut

White Clover wrote: »

Rubbish. Three cuts of quality silage is superior to 2 cuts of bulky silage. I baled on the 8th of may I think, and still not out of silage. We started feeding silage in September.
There is no justification to making a big pit of rubbish just so you have "enough".

There is an element of truth in what both of you claim. Yes there is no need to have a pit of rubbish but there is a huge push towards quality at present at the expense of a crop. It takes grass to grow grass and in some systems a three cut option in parts of the country is highly risky. As well cost involved is an issue. Delaying cutting by 10-14 days from early/mid may is not leaving you with a pit of rubbish. However it will push you towards a two cut system which may have less weather risks involved

_Brian

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There is an element of truth in what both of you claim. Yes there is no need to have a pit of rubbish but there is a huge push towards quality at present at the expense of a crop. It takes grass to grow grass and in some systems a three cut option in parts of the country is highly risky. As well cost involved is an issue. Delaying cutting by 10-14 days from early/mid may is not leaving you with a pit of rubbish. However it will push you towards a two cut system which may have less weather risks involved

As with everything in life, balance is the key.

K.G.

Noticed the last week cows are eating more silage as more cows come out of the period around calving.thought cross my mind that the boys up west could get into a lot of trouble soon as fellas closer to the areas where fodder was are now buying heavy.i d be surprised if any feed leaving cork county now.

mengele

White Clover wrote: »

Rubbish. Three cuts of quality silage is superior to 2 cuts of bulky silage. I baled on the 8th of may I think, and still not out of silage. We started feeding silage in September.
There is no justification to making a big pit of rubbish just so you have "enough".

But is that all from the same ground. I'm just talking about this area. All the lads who cut their pit early are out. Worse than that is that there buying bales which are way worse than pit that might have been cut early June.

Paddocks with bales are a different study they can be cut earlier to get back in to rotation but you need to have some bit of bulk in your main crop to see you through a long winter

Mooooo

Take two cuts here off the same ground, if it was let run late id have no aftergrass in the autumn or one cut of lower volume poorer silage in the pit if one cut was done as opposed to two

mahoney_j

mengele wrote: »

All the lads who cut around the 15th of may are well out of silage around here. I think that's the biggest problem. I know quality is important but what's more important is to have !enough. They didn't have half enough in the pit and should have waited another 2 weeks to cut

Then you’d have a pit of average dry cow feed that’ll require more meal to balance .quality always trumps bulk as dose knowing what feed is in yard and reacting quickly to shortages .big problem a lot of lads have is there too quick expanding,too much stock and banking on late autumn and early spring yearly

mahoney_j

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There is an element of truth in what both of you claim. Yes there is no need to have a pit of rubbish but there is a huge push towards quality at present at the expense of a crop. It takes grass to grow grass and in some systems a three cut option in parts of the country is highly risky. As well cost involved is an issue. Delaying cutting by 10-14 days from early/mid may is not leaving you with a pit of rubbish. However it will push you towards a two cut system which may have less weather risks involved

2 week delay from mid to late may is in a lot of cases going from rocket fuel to laundered diesel

CHOPS01

Bass Reeves wrote: »

It is amazing what lads pay for ration and so called fodder stretchers. At 400/pallet it is 258/ton. Buying a decent ration at 220/ton blown into bin. Most fodder stretchers are poor quality feeds.

Feed reps talk the talk in general they will get paid and most charge interest now.Yes there are some chickens coming home to roost in the milk game as lads that expanded too fast are under pressure but most are not in that boat, short of feed but surviving. Most dairy lads will have spec'ed a ration/nut or be buying straights they know exactly what they are feeding. Better than buying lucky bags.

Have 35 inside getting 2.5 kgs to store and 1.5 to weanling and limited silage. amount fed has dropped from over 200kgs/day down to 70kg/day. Had a discussion with a lad buying silage. My cost are still sub 1 euro/day in feeding he was not sure what his were costing him

What have you been feeding to the stores ?

FeelTheBern

Bass Reeves wrote: »

It is amazing what lads pay for ration and so called fodder stretchers. At 400/pallet it is 258/ton. Buying a decent ration at 220/ton blown into bin. Most fodder stretchers are poor quality feeds.

Feed reps talk the talk in general they will get paid and most charge interest now.Yes there are some chickens coming home to roost in the milk game as lads that expanded too fast are under pressure but most are not in that boat, short of feed but surviving. Most dairy lads will have spec'ed a ration/nut or be buying straights they know exactly what they are feeding. Better than buying lucky bags.

Have 35 inside getting 2.5 kgs to store and 1.5 to weanling and limited silage. amount fed has dropped from over 200kgs/day down to 70kg/day. Had a discussion with a lad buying silage. My cost are still sub 1 euro/day in feeding he was not sure what his were costing him

How do you measure how much less silage to feed if you are adding in ration to diet? Do you do your calculations with estimated weight and dm of bale and then ration out a bale over x number of days for x number of cattle?

lakill Farm

Morris Moss wrote: »

Know of a lad spending 3.5k a day at the minute, spent a huge amount of money expanding the last few years on top of that.

that seems a serious bill in fairness. Over 100K a month?

yewtree

lakill Farm wrote: »

that seems a serious bill in fairness. Over 100K a month?

Id say its a typo, farmer would need North of 1000 cattle and have to have run out completely to be spending that kind of money.

Morris Moss

yewtree wrote: »

Id say its a typo, farmer would need North of 1000 cattle and have to have run out completely to be spending that kind of money.

No typo, has over 500 cows, replacements and cattle, buying in everything at the minute, built a rotary parlour last year and lots of work around the yard as well, rents a lot of ground too.

This has happened at a bad time for him, in a few years time he might have had more silage built up etc, he's under serious pressure mentally.

jaymla627

Morris Moss wrote: »

yewtree wrote: »

Id say its a typo, farmer would need North of 1000 cattle and have to have run out completely to be spending that kind of money.

No typo, has over 500 cows, replacements and cattle, buying in everything at the minute, built a rotary parlour last year and lots of work around the yard as well, rents a lot of ground too.

This has happened at a bad time for him, in a few years time he might have had more silage built up etc, he's under serious pressure mentally.

Probably not would just of milked even more cows, we are usually blessed in Ireland a lot of the time in we don't have the need to carry 9-12 months conserved feed in stock to cover extremes weather events....
Buts it's a fools errand too as not a lot of lads see the need to carry extra feed because sure the grass will grow and I'll be 300 odd plus days out at grass, it's all gone tits up this spring though and the above lad may just fall on his sword

yewtree

Morris Moss wrote: »

No typo, has over 500 cows, replacements and cattle, buying in everything at the minute, built a rotary parlour last year and lots of work around the yard as well, rents a lot of ground too.

This has happened at a bad time for him, in a few years time he might have had more silage built up etc, he's under serious pressure mentally.

Fair enough my mistake, hopefully it works out for him and his family not nice to hear of anyone in that position.
Every farm that expands goes through a few years where they are vulnerable to these types of shocks.

Mtx

The weather is getting worse, what are the solutions to this? Less stock? Rent silage ground for more crop? Cut earlier?

_Brian

Saw this online earlier.

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/ireland-the-wettest-the-country-has-been-in-over-300-years/?utm_content=buffer2df01&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Last 10 years wettest in previous 300,

Definitely feels like it, things will change on marginal land as it’s such an uphill expensive battle.

Say my name

_Brian wrote: »

Saw this online earlier.

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/ireland-the-wettest-the-country-has-been-in-over-300-years/?utm_content=buffer2df01&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Last 10 years wettest in previous 300,

Definitely feels like it, things will change on marginal land as it’s such an uphill expensive battle.

You'd have to wonder why 2017 was not included in that 10 year comparison?

2017 was the driest year in (I haven't got the records and I haven't got the inclination to look for them on met eireann ) how many years?
But in Johnstown Castle it was 30 mm drier than the previous year and 100mm drier than the year before that.

http://www.met.ie/climate/monthly-data.asp?Num=1775

Someone's looking for more funding me thinks.

Odelay

Is it possible they took the sum of the rainfall for the last 10 years and compared it to ten year periods over the last 100 years?

I says

This is Ireland it always fcuking rains

Buford T. Justice XIX

I says wrote: »

This is Ireland it always fcuking rains

We were away for a week last year and it only rained twice.

Once for 3 days and once for 4 days.:pac:

Say my name

Odelay wrote: »

Is it possible they took the sum of the rainfall for the last 10 years and compared it to ten year periods over the last 100 years?

It seems like it according to the article.

I never knew proper records were kept and measured in the same place in Ireland for 300 years.

Say my name

I says wrote: »

This is Ireland it always fcuking rains

The Romans named this country Hibernia.

"Land of winter".

Land full of cows with so much grass their bellies burst.:)

We went through the warm 90's and 00's when it was reported that we would never see snow again. That didn't last long.

There's a lot more influences on our weather than carbon but it always gets lumped in to serve a purpose.

Edit: But actually farmers should probably roll with this. In Australia farmers seemingly are getting paid according to how much carbon is being sequestered in the soil. So happy days.

blue5000

_Brian wrote: »

Saw this online earlier.

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/ireland-the-wettest-the-country-has-been-in-over-300-years/?utm_content=buffer2df01&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Last 10 years wettest in previous 300,

Definitely feels like it, things will change on marginal land as it’s such an uphill expensive battle.

1900mm is a lot, that must be Valentia, we only get an average of around 950mm here per anum. Lies damn lies..... springs to mind.

patsy_mccabe

Odelay wrote: »

Is it possible they took the sum of the rainfall for the last 10 years and compared it to ten year periods over the last 100 years?

Have a read of this;
https://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/rainfall.asp

I says

Frank McCourt in Angela’s ashes said it always rained in limerick before he emigrated.

Water John

So, some lads here will be cutting silage in 5 weeks time?