Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Not a fan of single pens here, too much work, all in a group pen, 2 feeds on a bottle and onto a teat feeder, 4th feed they have the hang on it

I wouldn't have the patience to stand with a bottle. I've 2 calves in each small pen and I hang the single teat feeder on the gate and get them onto it and most of them drink away. Just to keep putting them back on if they lose the teat. Could have 4 newbies going together. Once they get 4 or 5 feeds I put them on the auto feeder.

Wildsurfer

Would you put them on auto feeder as young as 2-3 days old?

GrasstoMilk

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Would you put them on auto feeder as young as 2-3 days old?

Yes, find 3/4 days is ideal for them.
Any longer they get used to you feeding them and are slower to come to the stations themselves
First calves on the feeder this year were 10 to 12 days old, took us a week to train the buggers

stanflt

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Yes, find 3/4 days is ideal for them.
Any longer they get used to you feeding them and are slower to come to the stations themselves
First calves on the feeder this year were 10 to 12 days old, took us a week to train the buggers

Agree with you there- calves do better here the sooner you get them on the machine- mine are feed ad lib

satstheway

What hose is best for pit dropper ?
They don't last long.

Castlekeeper

satstheway wrote: »

What hose is best for pit dropper ?
They don't last long.

Have Tricoflex here .for about 20 years and still perfect

straight

https://www.facebook.com/1161444260573591/posts/3884625901588733/

Andre says leave the cows inside. Waste of time putting out early urea.

mahoney_j

straight wrote: »

https://www.facebook.com/1161444260573591/posts/3884625901588733/

Andre says leave the cows inside. Waste of time putting out early urea.

Hes opinions are a breath of fresh air ,often ridiculed by certain quarters because his advice is different .....it makes so much sense though especially early and late fertiliser

jaymla627

mahoney_j wrote: »

Hes opinions are a breath of fresh air ,often ridiculed by certain quarters because his advice is different .....it makes so much sense though especially early and late fertiliser

The same lads out spreading in February year after year, will have a hissy fit when derogation is pulled and still won’t put two and two together that they might just have contributed quiet significantly to the decline in water quality that will be the downfall of the whole lot, still all the while convinced that sure I spread protected urea that couldn’t of leeched, pointing to teagasc “research”

older by the day

straight wrote: »

https://www.facebook.com/1161444260573591/posts/3884625901588733/

Andre says leave the cows inside. Waste of time putting out early urea.

That's grand if you're feeding a lot of rich feed, like beet and maize. But there is nothing to put the shine on the cows like grass. Turns the shook one's inside out. ( Not very scientific) Great to give a fellow a break to scrape d cubicles. Orange alert for rain so they won't be out again for a while

Say my name

mahoney_j wrote: »

Hes opinions are a breath of fresh air ,often ridiculed by certain quarters because his advice is different .....it makes so much sense though especially early and late fertiliser

This is no secret since it was mentioned in talks at Biofarm 2020.
But there's a New Zealand farming Facebook group called Quorum Sense.
It's a practical group of 98% new Zealand farmers discussing ways of farming with natural nitrogen. They do take foreigners.
In the group myself even if I don't contribute but it's there to learn from.

Mooooo

He's not saying keep the cows in, just that this spring fert was better off in the bag for the most part. Dry warm Feb would be different

mahoney_j

Mooooo wrote: »

He's not saying keep the cows in, just that this spring fert was better off in the bag for the most part. Dry warm Feb would be different

All about weather and conditions ,I will say for last 3 years I’ve waited rather than having the spreader ready for jan 12,,grass still holds its rich green colour ,obviously lots of background fertiliser there ,looks like no fertiliser in February this year ,unless late this week and next week gets v dry .ground temps in 4 paddocks today after 12 were over 7 degrees ,

mahoney_j

older by the day wrote: »

That's grand if you're feeding a lot of rich feed, like beet and maize. But there is nothing to put the shine on the cows like grass. Turns the shook one's inside out. ( Not very scientific) Great to give a fellow a break to scrape d cubicles. Orange alert for rain so they won't be out again for a while

Tbf he didn’t say leave cows in ,but for those times cows have to be in you need top quality forage be it grass silage Maize whole crop etc

Mooooo

mahoney_j wrote: »

Tbf he didn’t say leave cows in ,but for those times cows have to be in you need top quality forage be it grass silage Maize whole crop etc

How are ye getting on milk quality wise. Cows on 19' put silage here and 6 kgs of 18% nut, solids are at 4.5bf and 3.5p. This time last year they would have been coming back in having been out earlier and protein had crashed to 3 and stuck there for a few weeks. Surprised they have held up, caveat of a couple of empty cows from last year still milking but they wouldn't keep the collection up that much

Say my name

Mooooo wrote: »

How are ye getting on milk quality wise. Cows on 19' put silage here and 6 kgs of 18% nut, solids are at 4.5bf and 3.5p. This time last year they would have been coming back in having been out earlier and protein had crashed to 3 and stuck there for a few weeks. Surprised they have held up, caveat of a couple of empty cows from last year still milking but they wouldn't keep the collection up that much

All spring calved. All replacements bred from high ebi type stock bulls must be ten years now. I think its more. No jersey. Fat 4.49. Pr 3.41.
Protein is down from 3.6 from when first collection went in at end of Jan.
4kgs( I think ? ..may weigh properly) of a 16 nut. Milk urea steady these past few collections around 16.
Some cows and heifers even bulling already.
I'm putting it down to better genetics coming through.

mahoney_j

Mooooo wrote: »

How are ye getting on milk quality wise. Cows on 19' put silage here and 6 kgs of 18% nut, solids are at 4.5bf and 3.5p. This time last year they would have been coming back in having been out earlier and protein had crashed to 3 and stuck there for a few weeks. Surprised they have held up, caveat of a couple of empty cows from last year still milking but they wouldn't keep the collection up that much

On bales ,Maize 6 kg 16% in parlour and out by day and few hours in evening when I can .fat averaging 4.77 protein 3.84,sac was bananas early on found snd cured one cow now back to 157,bit of a tbc issue early in month too but now back to 6 .bmachine needed a few ch washes after winter no margin for error with ch free products

older by the day

Say my name wrote: »

All spring calved. All replacements bred from high ebi type stock bulls must be ten years now. I think its more. No jersey. Fat 4.49. Pr 3.41.
Protein is down from 3.6 from when first collection went in at end of Jan.
4kgs( I think ? ..may weigh properly) of a 16 nut. Milk urea steady these past few collections around 16.
Some cows and heifers even bulling already.
I'm putting it down to better genetics coming through.

Do you use any ai

Say my name

older by the day wrote: »

Do you use any ai

Nope. Too expensive!!

And I'm too lazy. :pac:

I was ai..ing once but technicians were too late as getting busier and then a technician with a different company I was going to use, his life ended in a terrible farm accident.
So I went to farmers or farm managers direct and told them give me your best bull calf out of your best cow. And that worked for me till now.

Had to buy a few heifer calves this year off another herd with the same breeding strategy as myself as circumstances meant a young fr/hol went with the heifers and an aa went with the cows.

I happy enough with the system.

Not a mahoosive herd.

Mooooo

First of 5 jex heifers calved the other day, I assume next collection will be 5 bf and 4 p straight off the bat:p

Sacrolyte

Had a few cows not fully bagged up before calving. They seem to be on time. Any thing to watch out for? Preventatives, remedies etc

stanflt

Jaysus ‘tis wet rain ted

Gawddawggonnit

stanflt wrote: »

Jaysus ‘tis wet rain ted

Get back to bed!

stanflt

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Get back to bed!

What are you doing up! Sure everywhere is closed!

Gawddawggonnit

Mooooo wrote: »

He's not saying keep the cows in, just that this spring fert was better off in the bag for the most part. Dry warm Feb would be different

Did anyone ever do the figures between a dry and wet spring?
I remember doing up the rainfall figures in ‘86 and the year wasn’t even one of the wettest at all when the overall figures were added up.
I’ve nothing spread here yet because of regs.
I wonder where all those millions of gallons of slurry that were dumped with the last five weeks have ended up? Spoke with a Dutch lad yesterday that reckons if you need terra/dual wheels on the umbilical then you’re ‘dumping’. There’s a good few getting out of dairy there especially with quota making 80cpl. Some dollar for quota.

Gawddawggonnit

stanflt wrote: »

What are you doing up! Sure everywhere is closed!

Up at 5 every morning and I go in for 5:45 because the crew are in for 6. It’s the only time I drink coffee.

Mooooo

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Did anyone ever do the figures between a dry and wet spring?
I remember doing up the rainfall figures in ‘86 and the year wasn’t even one of the wettest at all when the overall figures were added up.
I’ve nothing spread here yet because of regs.
I wonder where all those millions of gallons of slurry that were dumped with the last five weeks have ended up? Spoke with a Dutch lad yesterday that reckons if you need terra/dual wheels on the umbilical then you’re ‘dumping’. There’s a good few getting out of dairy there especially with quota making 80cpl. Some dollar for quota.

The phosphorus quotas yeah, some interesting characters in Holland, same as anywhere I suppose. Never seen duals going round here but most wouldn't go if they were required.

Over the year figures tend to even out. 2018 as an example for the year wasnt very dry if the total amount was taken into account, 19 was drier, ended up close to average iirc. Down here anyway The conditions in the week before and after are what would determine it

GrasstoMilk

Say my name wrote: »

Nope. Too expensive!!

And I'm too lazy. :pac:

I was ai..ing once but technicians were too late as getting busier and then a technician with a different company I was going to use, his life ended in a terrible farm accident.
So I went to farmers or farm managers direct and told them give me your best bull calf out of your best cow. And that worked for me till now.

Had to buy a few heifer calves this year off another herd with the same breeding strategy as myself as circumstances meant a young fr/hol went with the heifers and an aa went with the cows.

I happy enough with the system.

Not a mahoosive herd.

Heifer calves are good money this year I believe? Have a few extra here to sell

Say my name

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Heifer calves are good money this year I believe? Have a few extra here to sell

You're too late!!

Bought em off an old workplace of yours.

dar31

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Heifer calves are good money this year I believe? Have a few extra here to sell

What are they making this year