A lengthening winter?

Grueller

Has this sell of weather lengthened the winter by much would you all think?
How are we all for fodder if it does go on for a couple of weeks longer than expected?
Personally I am OK. I have about 20 days of pit silage left and then have about 35 days of baled silage. We would usually have almost all stock out before April 1st and all Autumn calvers and their calves out by St Patricks day. Doing a quick count on fodder I could have 100 bales or so excess.

mengele

Plenty here. If say I would nearly have enough for next winter as well.

Donegalforever

Grueller wrote: »

Has this sell of weather lengthened the winter by much would you all think?
How are we all for fodder if it does go on for a couple of weeks longer than expected?
Personally I am OK. I have about 20 days of pit silage left and then have about 35 days of baled silage. We would usually have almost all stock out before April 1st and all Autumn calvers and their calves out by St Patricks day. Doing a quick count on fodder I could have 100 bales or so excess.

In the area where I live, it is usually the 1 May before stock go out.
We have at least a 7 month "winter".

Who2

Five weeks feeding left, I had about 30% out but the snow finished that. I’ll wean some of the autumn calvers and restrict them for a few weeks. I’ve a fair share of slurry out but no urea and it’s running fair late. Haven’t been this tight on feed in years and I had excess on a normal year. The back end destroyed me with stock in early but decent enough covers on a fair bit so one with the other I should be ok.

memorystick

Donegalforever wrote: »

In the area where I live, it is usually the 1 May before stock go out.
We have at least a 7 month "winter".

You're hardly feeding silage to suckers for 7 months?

Nekarsulm

Donegalforever wrote: »

In the area where I live, it is usually the 1 May before stock go out.
We have at least a 7 month "winter".

7 months is what you need to be budgeting for here in Cavan as well. This oul bulder clay is slow to heat up ......

tanko

memorystick wrote: »

You're hardly feeding silage to suckers for 7 months?

Its going to be commonplace around here this winter, it’ll be the same for dairy cows also.

orchard farm

And youd wonder why theres no money in sucklers

_Brian

memorystick wrote: »

You're hardly feeding silage to suckers for 7 months?

Yea, quite a few lads are looking at 7 months feeding heavy suckers here in Cavan. It’s probably a bit longer than usual but lads would be making 6 months feed anyway as that wouldn’t be uncommon.

It’s desperately expensive.

Muckit

Bring back the double chop!

_Brian

The 7 month winter for cows means it’s just cost €420 to feed her silage for the winter.
And she will have allot of annual costs to ad onto that to achieve her total annual cost to keep.

So when we see lads selling weanlings for €700 in the autumn they are at best breaking even but much more likely to be selling at a loss.

blue5000

_Brian wrote: »

The 7 month winter for cows means it’s just cost €420 to feed her silage for the winter.
And she will have allot of annual costs to ad onto that to achieve her total annual cost to keep.

So when we see lads selling weanlings for €700 in the autumn they are at best breaking even but much more likely to be selling at a loss.

I think part of the problem is housing believe it or not. Lads with good sheds, calving boxes etc. are slow to let cattle out in spring in case they have to bring them back in again.

If facilities were poor enough on a farm, lads would make use of them for priority cattle, eg. finishing cattle and put cows out to grass as they calve, or calve them at grass. A January or February born calf looks great in the autumn, but at what cost?

To answer OP, I have about 4 wks of silage left, but calved cows are going out, in sheltered fields, back in on cubicles at night.

On wet soils I know it's not possible to get cows out early, I think those lads would be better off finishing everything rather than selling weanlings at €700. Every farm is different.

tanko

_Brian wrote: »

The 7 month winter for cows means it’s just cost €420 to feed her silage for the winter.
And she will have allot of annual costs to ad onto that to achieve her total annual cost to keep.

So when we see lads selling weanlings for €700 in the autumn they are at best breaking even but much more likely to be selling at a loss.

If 20 cows eat one bale every day. At €25/bale = €5250 over 7 months.
So €262.50 to feed a cow silage for the winter.

_Brian

I was allowing a bale every 10 days per cow, perhaps too much, but it also depends on the silage quality how many bales would be eaten.

memorystick

_Brian wrote: »

Yea, quite a few lads are looking at 7 months feeding heavy suckers here in Cavan. It’s probably a bit longer than usual but lads would be making 6 months feed anyway as that wouldn’t be uncommon.

It’s desperately expensive.

You're haemorrhaging money to no end.

farisfat

tanko wrote: »

If 20 cows eat one bale every day. At €25/bale = €5250 over 7 months.
So €262.50 to feed a cow silage for the winter.

Do the bales move from the yard to shed for free.
And the cost of plastic and net disposal.

tanko

farisfat wrote: »

Do the bales move from the yard to shed for free.
And the cost of plastic and net disposal.

Im just talking about the cost of silage alone.
Have a 36 year old 2 wheel drive tractor which doesnt cost much to maintain and run to move bales into the shed.
Disposal of 500 wraps and netting costs €120/year.

farisfat

tanko wrote: »

Im just talking about the cost of silage alone.
Have a 36 year old 2 wheel drive tractor which doesnt cost much to maintain and run to move bales into the shed.
Disposal of 500 wraps and netting costs €120/year.

Most lads around me have tractors worth 40K plus for handling bales.

It's the small things that people don't factor in like the 120 for disposal.....these all add up to thousands.

Muckit

memorystick wrote: »

You're haemorrhaging money to no end.

He doesnt have cows afalk

Bass Reeves

Some lads cannot get a handle on there costs. Unless you quantify your costs you cannot look at other options. If bales are costing 25/bale and only do 10 days it is costing 2.5 cow per day. At this cost a ration and roughage solution is a better option. Yes straw is expensive this year but up until September hay was available at sub 25/bale delivered in most area's . Also lads taht buy up front during the summer are usually better off.

Such cows cows would maintain on 8-9 kgs of soyhulls at most and maybe less, this year they were not value but most years the cost around 180/ ton or about 1.60/day. you would need no straw or hay IMO with taht option just minerals and more than likely are feeding them anyway with poor quality silage

A hay and ration option maybe 6 kgs costing 220/ton and 50c of hay (bale to feed 50 cows for one day) 1.80/day.

Even at that by concentrating on making either 50% forage as good hay or silage ( taking light crops in May/june) would be a better option that paying throught the nose for poor quality forage.

I got caught this year cattle went in about 30 day early on average I knew i I was going to be short of silage and tried to source it but it was too much hassle and could not get a commitment from lads. Went the ration and limited silage option 3kgs of ration and 50% of normal silage it cost about 1.07/head/day to feed.

There is only two issues you need head space for all cattle and I suppose you would not want to be in the same yard as them.

Dakota Dan

tanko wrote: »

If 20 cows eat one bale every day. At €25/bale = €5250 over 7 months.
So €262.50 to feed a cow silage for the winter.

I feed 1.5-2 fusion bales a day to twenty two cows and they are getting 2 kgs of ration as well, they are late calving milkers though but even 20 dry cows will eat more than a bale a day.

tanko

Dakota Dan wrote: »

I feed 1.5-2 fusion bales a day to twenty two cows and they are getting 2 kgs of ration as well, they are late calving milkers though but even 20 dry cows will eat more than a bale a day.

Fair enough but im feeding a fusion bale a day per 20 spring calving sucklers which are in good condition. Its plenty for them, maybe too much.
I presume your cows are holsteins, i fed 38 big spring calving holsteins over xmas for a friend. They ate nearly 4 bales every day and a kg of precalver nuts. I couldnt believe how much they ate.

wrangler

tanko wrote: »

Fair enough but im feeding a fusion bale a day per 20 spring calving sucklers which are in good condition. Its plenty for them, maybe too much.
I presume your cows are holsteins, i fed 38 big spring calving holsteins over xmas for a friend. They ate nearly 4 bales every day and a kg of precalver nuts. I couldnt believe how much they ate.

It's unreal what suckler cows will eat,but it's also surprising what they'll live on.
they don't need to be fed to appetite, in fact they're better off if they're not

Dakota Dan

tanko wrote: »

Fair enough but im feeding a fusion bale a day per 20 spring calving sucklers which are in good condition. Its plenty for them, maybe too much.
I presume your cows are holsteins, i fed 38 big spring calving holsteins over xmas for a friend. They ate nearly 4 bales every day and a kg of precalver nuts. I couldnt believe how much they ate.

British friesian x Holstein.

Never wrestle with pigs

Got cought this year myself. Got really nice leafy mchale bales at €20. Good deal, I give him a good bit of work and he didn't do me any harm this year to be fair. I got 100 mchale bales of good barley straw delivered about 5 miles for €20.

30 calved sucklers are going trough 1.5 mchale bales a day and I just started to feed them 1.5 kg of a good 18% p nut this week. I'll get young heifers out in about a week. It'll be another 3/4 weeks depending on the weather before I get the cows out.

I'd usually get them out around paddys day. Ground is starting to dry up but not much winter growth this year.