David's going Dairying.

davidk1394

First tank of milk collected today. All the parlor and diary equipment is up and running well. Crush and handling facilities are in but I'm waiting on concrete.

TBC was 4,000. SCC was 240,000 I put this down to OAD milking. I have went twice a day since last Saturday. All the heifers are settling in well, as am I

There is still stuff to finish off outside including concrete and knocking what's left of the old house.

Mooooo

Fairplay, best of luck with it. Once the cows settle hopefully scc will drop a bit. Keep an eye on the milk filter for any clots just in case. Would be worth milk recording soon if you can. With a young herd of you find a high scc cow you have a good chance of curing them.

Siamsa Sessions

davidk1394 wrote: »

First tank of milk collected today. All the parlor and diary equipment is up and running well. Crush and handling facilities are in but I'm waiting on concrete.

TBC was 4,000. SCC was 240,000 I put this down to OAD milking. I have went twice a day since last Saturday. All the heifers are settling in well, as am I

There is still stuff to finish off outside including concrete and knocking what's left of the old house.

Fair play David - great stuff!

Did the lorry driver say anything about the surface or being able to turn to get in? I only ask as it might be an issue if I went ahead here.

Murang

Best of luck to you David just as a matter of interest when last was milk sold from your farm

funkey_monkey

Fair play David.
It's a lot of work and commitment to take up the dairy work. No half measures or shortcuts seem to be taken. Keep posting - its interesting reading as I know fek all about dairy - there are none in my area so this is all newish stuff to me.

trg

Fair play David. Will you be tracking figures as you go along?
Comparing actual figures to budgeted figures and that

davidk1394

Mooooo wrote: »

Fairplay, best of luck with it. Once the cows settle hopefully scc will drop a bit. Keep an eye on the milk filter for any clots just in case. Would be worth milk recording soon if you can. With a young herd of you find a high scc cow you have a good chance of curing them.

I'll be milk recording the end of the month and waiting on a Californian milk test to arrive.

davidk1394

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Fair play David - great stuff!

Did the lorry driver say anything about the surface or being able to turn to get in? I only ask as it might be an issue if I went ahead here.

He called on a month ago and we decided what we were going to do. I just made it wide enough so there wont be any issues.

davidk1394

Murang wrote: »

Best of luck to you David just as a matter of interest when last was milk sold from your farm

About 80 years ago. There was 80 cows on the farm milked by hand. We actually removed the a stone platform where the churns were loaded onto the cart.

davidk1394

trg wrote: »

Fair play David. Will you be tracking figures as you go along?
Comparing actual figures to budgeted figures and that

Yes I will. When I have the final spend put together I'll post it up.

Jjameson

Very exciting David. Great spring buzz off those photos.

davidk1394

Hi everyone. I was silent the last few weeks there because we were busy here. Things have settled in well. I had an issue with SCC but I did milk tests and culture tests and found the problem cows. 2 cows were in the high millions and one of them got e coli mastitis. She is going fine but I wont be breeding off her.

I had issues with calves being still born. I blood tested cows and they were low in Ca and Mg. I am giving them a bottle of calciject before they calf. I traced the problem back to the mineral buckets they were getting. The problem is sorted and I'm down to the last 5 cows to calf. All the build work is finished and the cattle crush is finished.

davidk1394

The parlor finished

davidk1394

Cattle crush and dairy. The front of the dairy has to be concreted and the old buildings to the left and the right have to be demolished

funkey_monkey

Hi David.

Great photos! What was the issue with the mineral buckets - were they the wrong ones or was there a batch problem with them?
Any chance of some more photos/plan of your crush layout as I'm developing one myself? How much were the expanding gates at the race entrance if you don't mind me asking.

I really like that transparent roof. What material is it - is it all perspex?

Say my name

davidk1394 wrote: »

Cattle crush and dairy. The front of the dairy has to be concreted and the old buildings to the left and the right have to be demolished

Do you have to put in a pvc ceiling in the dairy?

davidk1394

Say my name wrote: »

Do you have to put in a pvc ceiling in the dairy?

I don't have to put in a ceiling but I have to put in a PVC division between the dairy and parlor.

davidk1394

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Hi David.

Great photos! What was the issue with the mineral buckets - were they the wrong ones or was there a batch problem with them?

Any chance of some more photos/plan of your crush layout as I'm developing one myself? How much were the expanding gates at the race entrance if you don't mind me asking.

I really like that transparent roof. What material is it - is it all perspex?

I had crystalx buckets and we were going fine I changed to another brand and it was lower in Ca and Mg. I will be using powder minerals this year. I had to use buckets because of the set up I had.

Yes I will up load more later with measurements. They are 14 to 16ft gates roughly 150 a gate plus vat. Everything there was supplied by Condons

The sheeting was supplied by Greenhill Systems and is made in Belfast. It's made from PVC, UV resistant for 20 years. Its 6mm thick with 3 layers. It's made to suit each shed individually and worked out the same price as fibre cement sheeting.

farawaygrass

Are you supplying glanbia David?
Excellent looking set up by the way. You took no half measures

davidk1394

farawaygrass wrote: »

Are you supplying glanbia David?
Excellent looking set up by the way. You took no half measures

Yes I am. These new measures will allow me to go to about 95 cows. The aim is 120. I'm glad I didn't go and do the big cubicle shed I planned. I will do about 80 cubicles this summer.

I spent money on the things that will make life easier. I designed this to be a 1 man show. My parents won't be around for ever. I wanted to make it safe and easy for people and the animals. Instead if putting in a drafting gate I used that money to do handling facilities.

The total cost for everything is coming in at 255K + VAT. That's an 11,000 bulk tank, 16 unit room for 20 delaval parlor, 12T crowley bin, 2 renai gas heaters, handling facilities, collecting yard and tank, shed and all concrete, painting the walls, electrical work, water softener and UV light. I will break it all down at a later date.

The TAMS grant has to be deducted off this figure

Water John

You've been very open and honest on this project, thanks. Wish you well.
Absolutely love the roof, hate dark milking parlours, having worked in a few.

JustJoe7240

2 months on, How are you finding things going?

davidk1394

Hello everyone. I was silent with my updates for a while. By the time building was finished and calving done I was just drained, mentally not physically. This last lockdown hit me harder than expected and I got into a bad habit of working longer days and actually getting less done. I am back on track again and feeling like myself.

Right so I am milking 48 cows out of my original 52 calves. 1 heifer died in September from pneumonia, 1 heifer absorbed the embro in September, 1 heifer was a free martin and 1 heifer had bad warts on her teats and got mastitis. She had a fine AA bull calf but I couldn't get milk out of her. Out of these 48 cows, 1 cow got E.Coli mastitis in two quarters and is only milking from the other two. Another  cow got Staph Aureus mastitis and is milking on three quarters. Both cows are in the last row and both will be culled the end of the year.

Spring 2021 had it's ups and downs. I had no C Sections and I didn't loose any cows. 7 calves were lost. 2 because I left the cows calve too long and 5 were down to poor minerals. I was giving cows Crystalx pre calving lick buckets from the end of November until the 1st week of March and I changed to another brand. While it said it was a pre calving mineral lick it was lower in Ca and Mg. Into the third week of March I noticed cows being slow to calf and taking a lot longer. When I handle the cow the calf is coming fine and is alive. An hour later I handle the cow and the calf might have moved forward an inch or 2 and is dead. I lost 3 calves in a row and 2 more a week later. This hit me badly, I got 10 cows blood tested. 5 that lost calves and 5 that calved with a while. The 5 that lost calves were deficient in Mg and Ca. I sent 2 calves to the vet lab and the results showed that the calves drowned. I changed back to the original lick and the final cows that were calving all got a bottle of Ca under the skin an hour before calving. Every other calf was fine. I finished calving the middle of April.

AI is going well and today I put CIDR's into 6 heifers and 7 cows to bring the last few bulling. I have a few repeats so far but not many. My first milk recording was done in the middle of April. The average litres is 25 with protein at 3.4% and BF at 4.11% The grass mixed with chicory and plantain isn't working out as well as I hoped. The cows find it palatable but everytime they graze it the protein goes down. Everything in the parlor is finished and all is left is a slab of concrete out the front for the milk lorry. I will do one tank and 80 cubicles this summer. I will also do one roadway. At the moment I am using strip wires and a 90 gallon water tank for the cows. It's a bit of work to move but works fine for this year.

I'll post up more later

cosatron

Pre calver mineral dust on silage nightly and 2 bolus at dry off will sort out your mineral deficiency. Not a fan of buckets, how do you know if all the cows are getting a lick

davidk1394

cosatron wrote: »

Pre calver mineral dust on silage nightly and 2 bolus at dry off will sort out your mineral deficiency. Not a fan of buckets, how do you know if all the cows are getting a lick

Tubs were used for the previous winter because of the setup. Cows were fed silage in feeders and there wasn't enough room for them all to eat at once. I was dusting minerals on the silage.

davidk1394

A couple of photos of the finished job internally and externally all is left to do is pour cement in front of the parlor

blue5000

I thought dry cow minerals were supposed to be 0 cal or is it phos? Something to do with the let down of milk putting a huge sudden demand on cows at calving. If the cow has been getting the mineral pre-calving their system isn't able to cope with the big demand. It's a long time since I milked cows so could be wrong.

Alibaba

Brilliant thread Davidk.
Found it very interesting as I've milked cows but not since 1996.
Only read through it this evening.
You haven't been idle but you have a smashing set up done now.
Best of luck with it - I'll be following your progress.

Say my name

blue5000 wrote: »

I thought dry cow minerals were supposed to be 0 cal or is it phos? Something to do with the let down of milk putting a huge sudden demand on cows at calving. If the cow has been getting the mineral pre-calving their system isn't able to cope with the big demand. It's a long time since I milked cows so could be wrong.

If you go too high with the nitrogen and potash on the silage ground it robs that grass of minerals.
It's only a small amount of calcium needed for supplement pre calving. I don't do it myself. Not telling anyone what to do though.
And it's a greater amount of magnesium needed. But the stone magnesium in commercial mineral supplement is really only half available to the cow. You're better off having that fully available from the plant and in the plant in the first place.

Say my name

And David don't give up on that plantain and chicory.
Drill in some clover or broadcast and slurry.
Your protein went down. But I bet the litres stayed up or increased ever so slightly and I'd say the cows looked more content.

Milk protein % payments were only brought in to reward the nitrogen sellers. :pac:
Get the clovers in and they'll do the same job and the plantains and chicory will buffer it better against bloat.