Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Mooooo

Grueller wrote: »

No I understood that heifers were naturally sealed. Ya they are springing hard and dropping milk as you say.

It can often be the calving pen where they pick it up, use a powdered disinfectant or lime on the straw may help.

whelan2

stanflt wrote: »

Had my first case of milk fever this am- not bad for 110 calvings- lifted her out of the cubicles to a straw bedded shed this morning- gave her another 2 bottles in the vein this evening and she was up after milking
Great satisfaction

Just be careful on the rate into the vein. 2 bottles is a bit much. Vet here wont give more than one in the vein.

greysides

whelan2 wrote: »

Just be careful on the rate into the vein. 2 bottles is a bit much. Vet here wont give more than one in the vein.

I'd agree unless the cow is absolutely flat out. Make sure the contents of the bottle are at blood temperature too!

straight

Didn't get milk fever in years. Possibly related to different minerals in different parts of the country. 25% of my cows calved in the last 4 days. Its around this time of the year I usually start to question my career choice. Perhaps milking through would have kept me more in the routine.

stanflt

whelan2 wrote: »

Just be careful on the rate into the vein. 2 bottles is a bit much. Vet here wont give more than one in the vein.

Cow weighs about 750kgs so 2 bottles wouldn’t be a worry

I always heat up the bottles in warm water even if only giving under the skin

whelan2

straight wrote: »

Didn't get milk fever in years. Possibly related to different minerals in different parts of the country. 25% of my cows calved in the last 4 days. Its around this time of the year I usually start to question my career choice. Perhaps milking through would have kept me more in the routine.

Walking up to the cow shed at 6.20am this morning in a blizzard made me question what I'm at. You know the feeling when you can't breathe. ...everyone else still in bed

cosatron

whelan2 wrote: »

Walking up to the cow shed at 6.20am this morning in a blizzard made me question what I'm at. You know the feeling when you can't breathe. ...everyone else still in bed

I've a 10 min walk to the yard aswell and it's pure torture some mornings especially when it's raining horizontally

Injuryprone

Grueller wrote: »

No I understood that heifers were naturally sealed. Ya they are springing hard and dropping milk as you say.

My hoof parer is flat out sealing heifers every back end with the roll over crate.

Base price

whelan2 wrote: »

Walking up to the cow shed at 6.20am this morning in a blizzard made me question what I'm at. You know the feeling when you can't breathe. ...everyone else still in bed

How is the new shed preforming. Did you have any snow blowing in.

Siamsa Sessions

whelan2 wrote: »

Walking up to the cow shed at 6.20am this morning in a blizzard made me question what I'm at. You know the feeling when you can't breathe. ...everyone else still in bed

If it's a choice between that and sitting thru countless Zoom meetings with civil servant types passing the time but convinced they're doing important work, I'll take the cold, wet, early morning every time.

I'm half-way between these 2 worlds and for me, getting cold and wet is an honest price to pay for being your own boss.

straight

whelan2 wrote: »

Walking up to the cow shed at 6.20am this morning in a blizzard made me question what I'm at. You know the feeling when you can't breathe. ...everyone else still in bed

2 calves in the cubicles yesterday morning, autowasher acting up, calving camera giving trouble, calves popping everywhere. The day doesn't be long passing. All healthy out so far thank god so long may that continue. Hope to get to watch the rugby tomorrow.

Gillespy

Six weeks or so of doing the bare minimum getting fat and weak it feels great to be back hard at it again. I don't know how the other types of farmers can do it all year round.

Tidying up for the Bord Bia thing I found the Bovikalc bolus gun I forgot about. Had meant to order a few boxes of them and will now reading this. Very handy to give to a cow you think might be vulnerable.

Timmaay

straight wrote: »

Didn't get milk fever in years. Possibly related to different minerals in different parts of the country. 25% of my cows calved in the last 4 days. Its around this time of the year I usually start to question my career choice. Perhaps milking through would have kept me more in the routine.

About 25% here the last 5days ha. Absolutely shattered now. Using whatever part time labour is needed, I'll have a 2nd person in milking for the rest of feb anyways. I milked through, but fairly sure this will be the last year I'll bother, the 6k litres I supplied for the whole of Jan, alongside holding onto what largely aren't very profitable late calving cows, nay life is too short.

Gillespy

It is a slog. Best thing we did was stop that and push calving a month later to Feb 10th.

Saying that, 6k litres is you doing your bit to flatten the supply curve.

older by the day

whelan2 wrote: »

Just be careful on the rate into the vein. 2 bottles is a bit much. Vet here wont give more than one in the vein.

Is it in the milk vein that most farmers use?

whelan2

Timmaay wrote: »

About 25% here the last 5days ha. Absolutely shattered now. Using whatever part time labour is needed, I'll have a 2nd person in milking for the rest of feb anyways. I milked through, but fairly sure this will be the last year I'll bother, the 6k litres I supplied for the whole of Jan, alongside holding onto what largely aren't very profitable late calving cows, nay life is too short.

You say that every year

whelan2

older by the day wrote: »

Is it in the milk vein that most farmers use?

I use the milk vein. Might go for the neck if there's no risk of getting a head butt

Mooooo

Delayed breeding last year as well given Feb was so bad, this year is turning out worse weather wise has hardly stopped raining since thurs and lashing now again. Main draw back was there seemed to be a good share of cows in heat the week i waited to start along with a few repeats so it actually pushed more cows out than I would have liked. Next week will see me busier. Ended up milking on anyway with empties and late calvers, between Dec, Jan and early Feb there was about 30 k litres there. I didn't think they'd milk that well, in hindsight if I had bought 10 fresh calvers last autumn I would have hit the winter bonus targets which along with selling the last 7/ 8 late calvers would have covered the cost of purchase and ussd them to tidy up the calving spread a bit. Anyhow time has passed now

Say my name

Reggie. wrote: »

Sure that lads only a cowboy

He's getting where we all should be heading though..
How easier is life and management when you don't have to worry about cal mag bottles and buying and dusting silage and adding minerals to water, when your mineral requirements are met from the forage.
All you have to worry about then is which cow had which calf. :pac:

whelan2

Say my name wrote: »

He's getting where we all should be heading though..
How easier is life and management when you don't have to worry about cal mag bottles and buying and dusting silage and adding minerals to water, when your mineral requirements are met from the forage.
All you have to worry about then is which cow had which calf. :pac:

Would normally get a few cases of milk fever in the autumn calvers here. Very rare in springtime

whelan2

Base price wrote: »

How is the new shed preforming. Did you have any snow blowing in.

It's a great job. Was a bit blowing in one side. I didnt put anything above the concrete walls at the sides. It's grand 95% of the time

jaymla627

Say my name wrote: »

He's getting where we all should be heading though..
How easier is life and management when you don't have to worry about cal mag bottles and buying and dusting silage and adding minerals to water, when your mineral requirements are met from the forage.
All you have to worry about then is which cow had which calf. :pac:

If you have iron and molybdenum issues all bets are off, cows get done here every six months with colesicure, along with adlib access to calsea blocks year round that they go through like smarties,

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

You say that every year

I'm gonna build another shed this year also finally lol.

Tonynewholland

whelan2 wrote: »

I use the milk vein. Might go for the neck if there's no risk of getting a head butt

Just tie her head to the back leg

JustJoe7240

Would only use a milk vein as a last resort due to riak of infection.Would tie the head back to the leg is she's a bit cranky.

raindodger

tismesoitis wrote: »

How were your fat and protein percentages for this collection? With 20% water these should be on the floor!!

protein back 3.80 to 2.90 bf 4.80 to 3.80 kerry supplier think only fined excess on collection but i presume a yellow card for rest of year.
On the phone straight away just as well i met the answering machine gave a chance to cool down (was having one of those days)
said he would keep eye on future collections in case of leak in plate cooler

Castlekeeper

Grueller wrote: »

No I understood that heifers were naturally sealed. Ya they are springing hard and dropping milk as you say.

They are, until they aren't, if you know what I mean, anyway, that ship has sailed, and it was only for comparitive reasons I asked.
I've had this problem before, any animals dripping milk are wide open to infection. In my experience, the best preventative is milking them the minute you see milk dropping, even it is days before they calve. It does no harm at all, just keep some cows biestings for the calves.

K.G.

Castlekeeper wrote: »

They are, until they aren't, if you know what I mean, anyway, that ship has sailed, and it was only for comparitive reasons I asked.
I've had this problem before, any animals dripping milk are wide open to infection. In my experience, the best preventative is milking them the minute you see milk dropping, even it is days before they calve. It does no harm at all, just keep some cows biestings for the calves.

Spraying withteat.dip.for.a.week before.calving helps too

Mooooo

Are DNA samples fast to come back? Have two cows calved one had twins and there are 2 bulls and heifer all black with white socks. Dunno which one had the twins

whelan2

Mooooo wrote: »

Are DNA samples fast to come back? Have two cows calved one had twins and there are 2 bulls and heifer all black with white socks. Dunno which one had the twins

Less than a week. The samples I sent for the first 2 bull calves were sire verified within a few days