Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

straight

trg wrote: »

€845 they went for. They were good enough quality and breeding.

Happy with that.

You deserve every penny of it. Alot gone into heifers at that age.

Timmaay

Glad I'm not planning on buying in stock this year. With level 5 now my only regret is I didn't start breeding early April and be calving away for Jan lol.

Grueller

Timmaay wrote: »

Glad I'm not planning on buying in stock this year. With level 5 now my only regret is I didn't start breeding early April and be calving away for Jan lol.

I want to buy 4 to finish out a line in the parlour. To be honest a 100 or 2 either way doesn't really bother me if the stock are what I want and they drive on lucky and well. I have bought cheap stock that worked out dear in the long run and dear stock that worked out cheap.

mahoney_j

straight wrote: »

You deserve every penny of it. Alot gone into heifers at that age.

There is but not 12 months old yet and fair stint to go till they hit the parlour .great price

GrasstoMilk

jonopat wrote: »

Any advice here on improving maiden heifer colostrum quality on calving? Currently on 73dmd pit silage w/ pre calver mineral dusted.

Soya and oats 2 weeks pre calving

Started cows on 2kg straw and 300g soya today, they'll go onto 1kg straw and 2kg oats and soya 2 weeks out from calving

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Soya and oats 2 weeks pre calving

Started cows on 2kg straw and 300g soya today, they'll go onto 1kg straw and 2kg oats and soya 2 weeks out from calving

Ye held on to the diet feeder ye did? I'd say I'll be greasing ours up to see if she'll go again, was hoping if be further thru last years pit but not so, will need to add a bit to the silage to keep and gain condition on some of the girls, silage isn't quiet enough I reckon and feedspace is tight so locking back and feed ration with buckets is awkward, slow and ultimately makes em unsettled

Farney Farmer

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Soya and oats 2 weeks pre calving

Started cows on 2kg straw and 300g soya today, they'll go onto 1kg straw and 2kg oats and soya 2 weeks out from calving

Where do you buy the soya and oats? How much are they costing you?

straight

mahoney_j wrote: »

There is but not 12 months old yet and fair stint to go till they hit the parlour .great price

It is but I sold calves at 8 weeks for 400 and I don't think I had much out of them. He probably did better than me as he only had to run them on grass and keep them half a winter. Most of the money goes in before weaning.

GrasstoMilk

Mooooo wrote: »

Ye held on to the diet feeder ye did? I'd say I'll be greasing ours up to see if she'll go again, was hoping if be further thru last years pit but not so, will need to add a bit to the silage to keep and gain condition on some of the girls, silage isn't quiet enough I reckon and feedspace is tight so locking back and feed ration with buckets is awkward, slow and ultimately makes em unsettled

Yeah we did, wouldn't be much demand for second hand keenans thr age of our one now
Might look at changing it next year if the year is reasonable

GrasstoMilk

Farney Farmer wrote: »

Where do you buy the soya and oats? How much are they costing you?

Local millar mixes it up for us
Not sure on the price of the soya, wouldn't be buying alot of it to get a deal on it, say its 450 a tonne

Injuryprone

Grueller wrote: »

I want to buy 4 to finish out a line in the parlour.

I hope you're not after jinxing yourself! Bit presumptuous to be counting your chickens this early in the year

straight

Injuryprone wrote: »

I hope you're not after jinxing yourself! Bit presumptuous to be counting your chickens this early in the year

Don't we all know it. Always good to have a couple of spares.

GrasstoMilk

straight wrote: »

Don't we all know it. Always good to have a couple of spares.

Dead right!
Came out this morning to a smasher of a jex incalf heifer with a broken leg, sickened!
Dont know what will come of her, not calving till mid March so she has some time

Timmaay

Good 1st lactation cow who'd thrown the calf here this morning ugggh, done for salmonella and all. Always something.

straight

Timmaay wrote: »

Good 1st lactation cow who'd thrown the calf here this morning ugggh, done for salmonella and all. Always something.

I had one of them. Blood tested her and nothing showed up. Just one of those things. Fr heifer calf of course.

Grueller

Injuryprone wrote: »

I hope you're not after jinxing yourself! Bit presumptuous to be counting your chickens this early in the year

Could be 5 or 6 too. We'll just have to wait and see but the info to hand leaves me hoping that it's only 4.

trg

straight wrote: »

It is but I sold calves at 8 weeks for 400 and I don't think I had much out of them. He probably did better than me as he only had to run them on grass and keep them half a winter. Most of the money goes in before weaning.

To be honest I bought them in just weaned, off milk, had been tb tested, dehorned and vaccinated.

It was plain sailing enough now and really am just cashing in on what's a savage market at the minute, if i kept them and one was a dud my profit was kaput.

The original owner just wanted them out of his way as his contract rearer hadn't room for them.

I'm gone very anti suckler due to variety of reasons (father slowing down and kids speeding up chiefly amid stock with a tendency to be dangerous at calving time and very wary of kids all the time) so said I'd give a small gamble this way.

Initial thought was to put in calf and sell but couldn't really risk going down in a TB test and with prices as they were it didn't make sense to hang on.

They were a pleasure to deal with and I'll give it a go again albeit in the knowledge that prices go down as well as up!

The father was well impressed with them too. I don't want to be dictating to him what to be doing so if he coaxed himself off the sucklers I'd be delighted.

That said though a discussion with my buyer probably convinced me that he might be better off health wise just battling away with what he wants and likes. His own dad went downhill rapid after retirement when mind and body weren't occupied.

whelan2

straight wrote: »

I had one of them. Blood tested her and nothing showed up. Just one of those things. Fr heifer calf of course.

As long as it's only 1, if more do it then it's worrying.

Castlekeeper

trg wrote: »

€845 they went for. They were good enough quality and breeding.

Happy with that.

That's some price for weanlings, it'd be a good price for them next March. Well done.

visatorro

GrasstoMilk wrote:

Dead right! Came out this morning to a smasher of a jex incalf heifer with a broken leg, sickened! Dont know what will come of her, not calving till mid March so she has some time

Timmaay wrote:

Good 1st lactation cow who'd thrown the calf here this morning ugggh, done for salmonella and all. Always something.

Lost 4 cows and 4 weanlings this back end to various once off things. Cow down on slats this morning aswell. Disheartening but feck all I can do about it now!

timple23

Anyone know what height water drinkers/troughs should be in calf pens.

cute geoge

visatorro wrote: »

Lost 4 cows and 4 weanlings this back end to various once off things. Cow down on slats this morning aswell. Disheartening but feck all I can do about it now!

you might think that is bad but a neighbour years ago who had 20 cows stalled in and spoon fed like babies lost the first 4 calves at calving and this was at a time he had a big young family ,calves would have been a good price and he would have had no other income .He still talks about it nearly 40 years later

straight

timple23 wrote: »

Anyone know what height water drinkers/troughs should be in calf pens.

I don't know but I put them in at knee height and they work well. Some people put them in higher so they won't sh1t in them but I had no problem really.

whelan2

visatorro wrote: »

Lost 4 cows and 4 weanlings this back end to various once off things. Cow down on slats this morning aswell. Disheartening but feck all I can do about it now!

Look its outside the door, leave it there. Lost a few fr heifer weanlings in the autumn with pneumonia.

Base price

timple23 wrote: »

Anyone know what height water drinkers/troughs should be in calf pens.

I don't know what height our ones are but I can measure them tomorrow. We put a plastic pallet (the ones with the holes) under each drinker and it helps to keep the bedding drier.

straight

Have some young empty cows to get rid of here. Suitable for breeding. I wonder are they a good trade or is it just cull cow price

Mooooo

Are they dry, if so prob a cull price. Unless you serve them now and sell as in calf

K.G.

straight wrote: »

Have some young empty cows to get rid of here. Suitable for breeding. I wonder are they a good trade or is it just cull cow price

Alot of the lads that buy them like to get them earlier so they can put them on tmr before they get slack.if they are on just grass silage and ration up to now they might have slipped a good bit

straight

Mooooo wrote: »

Are they dry, if so prob a cull price. Unless you serve them now and sell as in calf

Ya, they're dried off since December 6th. Getting nuts now along with the in calf heifers. I rang a dealer in November if he wanted to milk them on and he said he'd only give cull price. Neighbour said he got 700 for young empty dry cows the other day and he thought it was good money.

kevthegaff

With culls I never get what I think their worth..