Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118088913#Comment_118088913

Would the Maize not give way more bang next spring /summer Tim 🤔🤔🤔expensive stuff to be giving /stuffing late lactation cows with

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118088720#Comment_118088720

Started buffering with bales today. I had good grass but I guess the power is gone out of it. Hopefully they'll come back up a bit on the milk but it is nearly November after all.

ginger22

Ration prices up 40%, milk price up 10%, not a good combination

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093002#Comment_118093002

Ration prices up 40%. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118091993#Comment_118091993

Cheaper than 1st cut, and I got about 13ac worth of it. This is my 1st year drying off for the winter and I'd say I won't go through more than 3ac before end of the lactation. Obviously I'll be feeding grass silage to them also as the actual grass goes out of the diet.

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093002#Comment_118093002

If ration does actually go up by 40% (so thats say 300e to 420), if you feed a 5.5kl cow a ton a year, that 120e in extra ration cost works out at 2c/l. Which is roughly 6% of the milk price, so your still better of. If there wasn't any other input increases I'd actually be happy with them sums lol.

kevthegaff

Jaysus I hate everything about bales

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118099447#Comment_118099447

Bale shear 👌

Timmaay

Them bales with film instead of netting I found another handy way to feed out along the feed passage using the bale spikes, I only cut open part the base of the bale, and drive along shaking it out (I do 1 bale per 3 bays with maize). But yeh grass silage pit getting opened next few days and leafy bales will be left to feb.

kevthegaff

Fair waste in some of them too, I reckon a wagon with a long narrow pit would be a better job then those smelly wraps

kevthegaff

Then they sink and ye can't get the netting off them!

Timmaay

They only sink if you bale them wet, I bought myself a tedder this year and mowed most myself (the contractor with just a conditioner mower and baled a day or so later defo doesn't cut it anymore), no pancakes this year thankfully.

mr.stonewall

Bought a cheap 2nd hand tedder last year, great job for bales. Drops the bale count and less water, drier bales, and no pancakes this year. DM% is key with bales on a number of fronts

ginger22

got to bale them dry, did all our own this year with all the knives in the baler and grass well wilted. You would nearly eat them yourself.

whelan2

Agitator blade broke on my packo tank. Have to take the sheeting off the roof to get into the tank you'll never have to get into....

Mooooo

Bales are a necessary evil, but I still curse em every year. Big sheargrab and the pit much better. Weather shite with the last week, they were flying up till wed on just grass and 5kg, between 1.65 and 1.7 kg solids. In again till 2moro, will finish off what I can this week by day and leave whats left to the calves, not ideal but easiest way of managing things. If nov comes dry can use batches I dry off for the odd paddock that needs cleaning but unlikely to happen. Going drying off by mid Dec this year if I can work it, have a few weeks break. Have done all bar about 8 or 9 milkings since Feb 20, milked thru last Xmas as well.

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118101592#Comment_118101592

I am the same here Mooo. All milkings bar 9 here since April 20 and 8 of those 9 I missed were due to off farm work. 1 was because I had a 40th birthday party on a Saturday night so called in the cavalry for Sunday morning.

I am drying everything at the end of November. I am due to start calving about the 15th January.

straight

George is gone vegan. ..

https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2021/november/1/why-i-became-vegan-george-monbiot

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118101690#Comment_118101690

I had the vomiting bug last week, rang a lad who does a couple of milkings for me at 5am and he did 4 milkings for me. I physically wouldn't have been able. Going to Liverpool in a few weeks and getting 6 milkings off....

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118101576#Comment_118101576

Your getting awful bother with that tank

whelan2

Thankfully I have bulk tank maintenance cover. Service man will take the blade away and get it welded tomorrow

Timmaay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118103363#Comment_118103363

Had a wedding in the uk 2weekends ago, and down in Galway then thur to Sun, awful timing with the bloody weather on the farm, but between the 3 milkers I got they stepped in no problems and kept maize infront of the cows etc also. Will defo aim to keep them all on for the spring. All students so likes of 2 or 3 milkings a week each suits them fine. I certainly won't ever go back to no labour in the future ever again.

straight

Von Der Lying has said going after methane is the obvious solution. A quick fix she said. Low hanging fruit she called it. I'd say teagasc will be looking at the MAAC curve very soon. Maybe less cows more milk is the way after all. Who would have ever thought it?

Also alot of talk of a tax on dairy/beef.

Mooooo

Herd reduction is happening already within nitrates with the bands and in beef with schemes fixing numbers. Tell Germany to shut the coal plants and car factories and see how they'll get. Germany which is the 6th largest producer of milk in the world, which has regions of the country that produce more than we do...

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118111208#Comment_118111208

The one saving grace is the democrats and biden administration is toast for 2024 reelection, after losing the virginia governorship today, in a deep blue state, they are going to be wiped out by all accounts, it basically means Trump our who ever he backs for 2024 will pull the pin on anything agreed in cop 26 and the EU can stay the course and destroy its own citizens with carbon taxes etc, our just jump ship aswell,politically the EU commission is on a tight-rope if they push ahead with radical environmental measures any governments in power at the minute will be wiped out on the next election cycles and what replaces them won't be kowtowing to Brussels

yosemitesam1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118111208#Comment_118111208

Have a look at the the largest methane emitters. Russia, china and india, Usa in fourth.

The biggest three aren't going to do anything. Fossil fuels represent a minimum of 35% of methane source but could be much more as we are most likely underestimating them by a lot.

Most likely we'll be buying russian gas and supporting methane emissions while hammering the local businesses on both fronts of directly limiting their business while also undermining them with imports.

Didn't hear any mention of nox at all. Over 200 times as bad as co2 and potentially much easier to reduce in ag without putting the same limits on production. Big business would lose out then, go figure...

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118111307#Comment_118111307

its all about the big money, on todays news big funds who control 30% of worlds wealth setting out the agenda @ COP in Glasgow today

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118112510#Comment_118112510

well when Bill gates gives a speech at it, it just stinks to high heavens.

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118113549#Comment_118113549

Ya good old bill has proven himself to be far from honest and forthright at home and in business

Timmaay

I've been eyeing up this largely scrub feild at the bottom of my farm for the last 20yrs, just for the views, finally managed to get some sort of lease on it and milkers across to it.