David's going Dairying.

timple23

Any particular reason you went for the bolus over the collars?

davidk1394

Hello everyone, I wasn't on here much since my last post because it was all go. I have plenty to post but not sure if I want to bore ye too much. The boluses are in 5 weeks, I am delighted with them. The reason I picked them over other options was the information it give you. It measures rumination, temperature, water intake, movement. It can tell you if a cow is sick, calving, bullying, if she has reproductive issues like cysts on the ovaries. It has been accurate on all of these so far. The app and website are easy to use, you have good back up, rolling warranty and the up front cost isn't as severe as the other options. I couldn't fault other systems but I just found this system ticked most of the boxes for me.

There has few been ups and downs the last while. One cow failed a TB blood test so I'm restricted since mid April. I'm hoping to pass the TB test in June as there was no lesions seen on her lungs. 30 ac of ground has been reseed two weeks ago, I'm into my third week of breeding, I have a few repeats so far but nothing too concerning yet. Myself and a few friends did it between us. It's the first time since 1998 since there was a pit of grass silage here. A few people said would I not get in a proper outfit but everything went well and we all knocked a bit of craic out of the day too which is the main thing. I made 180 bales of red clover silage and grass silage back in early May.

I'd like to see rain in the next week or so as grass is starting to go stemmy. If the ground doesn't get too dry I'll make a start at the water system. I was going to get a company in to do it but the cost was eye watering and I still had to put out the tanks and level them which is the hardest job, so I decided to do it all ourselves. 

davidk1394

There's room for a second cut in the pit and if the weather is good I'll aim for a third cut too.

davidk1394

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I updated this thread. 2023 was a challenging year with weather, finances and a few other bits but I survived it intact. I milked 106 cows last year, I am hoping to calf 112 cows to calf this year provided nothing else happens. I am disappointed with the amount of empty cows in 2023. It worked out at 12%, on top of that two cows died Christmas Eve, I had two other cows that lost their calves, the results from one of the calves came back with Schmallenberg and the other calf showed nothing unusual.

The cows averaged 272 days in milk, they produced 5237 kgs of milk, the total solids came to 423 kgs and the average SCC was 117,000. I fed the cows around 900 kgs of concentrates for 2023. The calving interval for 2023 was 375 days. If I’m being honest I shot myself in the foot in June during the mini drought. I made cows graze stemmy grass instead of baling it and zero graze in red clover grass The cows are in good condition, out to grass most days and some nights. I had a few cases of sub clinical milk fever and lost two calves because of it. I blood tested some cows and I’m waiting on the results.

There's plenty of work to get done out in fields but after all this rain I’ll have to wait another while. I’m starting to look at AI catalogues at the moment and planning on using more sexed semen and crossing more Friesian cows with Norwegian Reds and then crossing them with a Montbeliarde. I want to increase KGs of milk solids and fertility but I don’t want to use jerseys. It’s hard enough to sell calves at the moment and the minute buyers hear the mention of jerseys they won’t touch them.  I’m thinking of trying out a brassica crop in one of the paddocks so the cows can graze it, if the place gets dry. I’ll stick up a few pictures later. How’s the spring going with ye?

Kevhog1988

Interesting post david. What drove your fertility issues do you think?. We had a poor 2023 lambing % due to increasing numbers and not culling poor performers but on top them issues now I hope.

Best of luck with remainder of spring.

davidk1394

The first picture is of the first three way cross heifer calf born.

Second picture is of some of the heifer calves out of WWS straws. The bulls used were Conway, Lunser and Renegade.

Third picture is of the calves in their individual pens for the first few days. We used broken tines off the tedder and some box iron to hold up the rope for the heat lamps.

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121914670#Comment_121914670

The hot weather in June caused the main problem I think. A lot of cows were served and came back bulling after 60 days. I think I was expecting too much from them and not giving them enough feed aswell. I moved away from teagascs preachings this spring by giving them plenty of grass, access to silage and their getting 5kgs of meal a day. Cows are content, holding condition and are cycling normally.

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121914746#Comment_121914746

How is the JCB going? Do you feed all the cows with it. I have a real itch to get something like it. Mainly for big bags of fertilizer and doing bits and pieces and maybe give in the silage. Though one of my doors maybe a bit low

Wildsurfer

Did you find out what caused those 2 cows to die?

GrasstoMilk

one thing I would say is be consistent with what type of bulls/breeds you use David. You’ll end up with a higgildy piggildy herd of cows. Speaking from experience

choose high ebi bulls with + kgs milk and high %

you don’t need milky cows to sell kgs ms

don’t worry about calf price. 95% of your income is from milk and cull cow sales. Just do the calves well and you’ll sell them no bother. We have jex blood in the herd here and no issue selling calves. Granted it’s 10 years since we were actively crossbreeding

lastly on the teagasc preachings. Look after the cow in the spring and try get grass in when you can.

the main thing is you know there’s room for improvement which is a very good frame of mind to be in

we sold 560 kgs ms last year with a high ebi type cow and have never actively bred for litres. It can be done

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121914874#Comment_121914874

The JCB is going well, it's 1990. My father bought it in 97. It does all the work on the farm and even does a bit for a few local people. Put a new head gasket in it last November. I spent a few pound on it over the last few years to keep it right, it's a great machine being honest.

@Wildsurfer between the information off the Smaxtec bolus, vet inspection and the type of cow we're fairly certain both cows died of twisted stomachs.

@GrasstoMilk in the last 12 months I've learned a lot and I'm being more selective for breeding. The kind of bulls I'm aiming for is fertility at around €80, 0 to 100kg for milk, +.2 for protein and +.3 for fat. If I had a mature cow weight of around 580 to 600kgs.

I have one jersey cross 2nd lactation cow and I'm very happy with her if I'm being honest. I'm going to try move away from pure bred FR cows, fertility, milk solids and an odd lame cow are becoming a problem.

kevthegaff

Herd here is a mix of smaller type fresians and crossbreed. Land is very hilly here and cows do alot of walking. Fertility is normally good but I get lots of lameness. I'd like to come up in the ilk a bit too. What would ye recommend?

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915773#Comment_121915773

You shouldn't be using wws bulls like renegade unless you plan on putting the feed into them, unless your base cow is a glorified goat they'll do 550-600kgs ms 1st lactation with zero issues but 1.5-2 ton of meal plus quality forage as a buffer when grass quality is poor/not enough of it...

If you expect miracles of 800kgs of nuts with renegade heifers and expect them to go in-calf you'll be disappointed

cosatron

good going david. its going to take at least 5 years before you figure out the type of cow that best suits your system, so don't be afraid to try things out and also there are some savage medium sized holstien bulls out there that suit a grazing system down to the ground. from experience if you wish to increase liters make sure that the bull is +200 kg.

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915983#Comment_121915983

I looked at a herd that has been using WWS straws for the last 10 years and I liked the type of cows he has. I agree with you that those type cows have to be well fed and looked after to get the liters and solids out of them. 12 months ago I wasn't sure what kind of cow I wanted but I think I have an idea of the direction I want to go in now.

GrasstoMilk

If you’re going to use high milk bulls you’ll end up in the high band David. Just be aware of that

were In the high band here, just by 200 l and from my own fav box calculations I’d be better off in middle band selling 550 kgs ms and be able to have more cows

if I stay in the high band i may aim for a herd producing well into 600 kgs /cow to get the same ms /ha compared to if I had a herd of middle band cows

herd of cows doing 600 + kgs ms won’t take the same hardship my current type of cow would

Water John

Not in dairy, but that cross mix you're doing is similar to Pollard Farm in Wexford. Using the Norwegian Red for good health traits.