Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

cosatron

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I wouldn’t single out any individuals in the magazine but the tone of positivity porn on every page got boring very fast.

Are there any dairy farmers in the country who are not following the Teagasc/official line?

Loads of them. But you wont hear a word off them. Some great farmers over here in galway milking on piss poor ground

mahoney_j

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I wouldn’t single out any individuals in the magazine but the tone of positivity porn on every page got boring very fast.

Are there any dairy farmers in the country who are not following the Teagasc/official line?

Lots and there getting on just fine ,tbf wouldn’t rubbish all the Tegasc spiel take what’s relevant

whelan2

Got a text from my vets yesterday of a shortage of synulox tubes. Only 3 tubes on the market terrexine, cobactan and mastiplan. I assume this is due to brexit. Calciject and magniject to increase by 50% at the end of the month

trixi2011

whelan2 wrote: »

Got a text from my vets yesterday of a shortage of synulox tubes. Only 3 tubes on the market terrexine, cobactan and mastiplan. I assume this is due to brexit. Calciject and magniject to increase by 50% at the end of the month

Don't think it's brexit think it's covid related . Very few tubes available in the uk all last year

straight

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

K.G.

straight wrote: »

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

When you are writting the check k its hard to see it but its widely said to be one of the cheapest winter forages anyway

tanko

straight wrote: »

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

Maybe it's a dumb question would you not be better off calving your cows a bit later so that they peak at grass?

Mooooo

straight wrote: »

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

Make sure its under plastic. Harvest at the right time as well. Pit will need extra protection along with feed face, crows will drive you mad. A long pit with a narrow feed face is best. Good feeding as a buffer with grass, if feeding with silage tho will need protein and possibly minerals with it.
You may not end up feeding less with it but if you get silage quality right and good maize performance can be excellent

straight

tanko wrote: »

Maybe it's a dumb question would you not be better off calving your cows a bit later so that they peak at grass?

It's hard to get the 305 days then. It could be april before they get settled to grass here. It just destroys them when they are out for 2 weeks and then back in for a week.

degetme

straight wrote: »

It's hard to get the 305 days then. It could be april before they get settled to grass here. It just destroys them when they are out for 2 weeks and then back in for a week.

When do you dry off the last of the cows

straight

degetme wrote: »

When do you dry off the last of the cows

December 15th. Dried them off a week earlier this year because the were in so early. Calving date is feb 8th but I'll be expecting calves on Frb 1st. Started breeding on May 3rd.

Timmaay

Mooooo wrote: »

Make sure its under plastic. Harvest at the right time as well. Pit will need extra protection along with feed face, crows will drive you mad. A long pit with a narrow feed face is best. Good feeding as a buffer with grass, if feeding with silage tho will need protein and possibly minerals with it.
You may not end up feeding less with it but if you get silage quality right and good maize performance can be excellent

In terms of harvest at the right time. Do not let your contract grower dictate when it is cut, and especially do not cut it in early Sept while still green, this is purely in the favourite of the grower, because there are more wet tons/ac for him to sell, but your buying a lower dm crop, so your paying for water. Instead you should be agreeing to have it tested before harvest and loosely aim for 30 30, 30% dm and 30% starch.

In terms of the feed face, personally I've given up on keeping the crows away from the front of the feed face,if its tidy enough they will find it hard to dislodge too much maize from the actual face. However do not leave anything extra stripped off on top, this is where they will completely attack, I've seen them knock a foot off the top edge of a pit before! I usually shove back just enough plastic to get the one or 2 shear grabs wide that I need for that day. I also put afew lorry tires right up on the plastic, which I lift on or off with the shear grab (using the corner of the sheargrab, defo not the blades)

GrasstoMilk

straight wrote: »

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

Had been buying maize here for the last 5 years but didn't in 2020 due to getting heifers reared and freeing up extra ground for silage

Made our 1st cut the 10th of May- not grazed.

Cows milked just as well if not better than when we had the maize

Whats your silage quality like atm? If you can get that near 80 dmd it'll be every bit as good as maize imo, just feed some more meal with it

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Had been buying maize here for the last 5 years but didn't in 2020 due to getting heifers reared and freeing up extra ground for silage

Made our 1st cut the 10th of May- not grazed.

Cows milked just as well if not better than when we had the maize

Whats your silage quality like atm? If you can get that near 80 dmd it'll be every bit as good as maize imo, just feed some more meal with it

Maybe. I go for bulk with the pit. Can make good quality bales alright. I feel I do fine in the autumn. It's the spring is my biggest challenge. I want to get the energy into them and flesh on their back. I only ever go to 5 kg in the parlour and I don't think it gives me much value. We'll see. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Totally unchartered waters for me. I actually didn't think crows would be a problem with maize. I thought that would be more a tmr or beet problem. I have a shotgun but don't have much patience for it. It's a job for while the kids are in school.

mahoney_j

straight wrote: »

Maybe. I go for bulk with the pit. Can make good quality bales alright. I feel I do fine in the autumn. It's the spring is my biggest challenge. I want to get the energy into them and flesh on their back. I only ever go to 5 kg in the parlour and I don't think it gives me much value. We'll see. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Totally unchartered waters for me. I actually didn't think crows would be a problem with maize. I thought that would be more a tmr or beet problem. I have a shotgun but don't have much patience for it. It's a job for while the kids are in school.

First year with Maize here fed a bit in December along with v good bales ,I’m sold savage feed ,dungs firmed up within 2 days proteins up yields up .think it’s going to be key to complementing grass thru spring into the summer .grew it on own land and if I go contract rearing route I’ll continue it myself if not I’ll contract it out .on the grass silage buy in bulk if needed for dry cows but always aim to cut highest quality possible ,can always be thinned out with hay or straw

Castlekeeper

straight wrote: »

I'm after finding a guy to grow 10 acres of maize for me this year. It's something new for me and not too many in my locality using it. I have difficulty every year getting the cows out in Feb/early March. They pine away and often peak indoors or fail to peak I should say. So it's big money and I hope it works out for me. I intend throwing it along the feed barrier on top of the silage and cutting back the nuts maybe in the parlour. Who knows, maybe the pit will do 2 years.

Just feed every second grab, you needn't bite as big with the maize.
Why would you limit parlour feeding to 5kgs?
6-8 is no issue, depending on cow size.

straight

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Just feed every second grab, you needn't bite as big with the maize.
Why would you limit parlour feeding to 5kgs?
6-8 is no issue, depending on cow size.

Never went over 5. My ration generally has 7 kg max feeding rate but I just don't like giving them so much. Meanness maybe. Fear of stomachs. Rightly or wrongly i don't think it gives me the return

cute geoge

Instead of maize and the trouble of balancing maize with purchased high protein ration could a lad just fire a kg of maize meal along feed barrier and kg of hi energy meal on top fed to milkers in between milkings

Mooooo

Can you grow enough feed without it? If so perhaps the 10 grand if spent on extra roadways may help solve the getting out to grass part?

straight

Mooooo wrote: »

Can you grow enough feed without it? If so perhaps the 10 grand if spent on extra roadways may help solve the getting out to grass part?

Well I have all the infrastructure in place and I was a host farm for teagasc grass 10 so I tried all that. I'd say a high rainfall area is the biggest problem. It's alot of money but sure we'll see.

Mooooo

straight wrote: »

Well I have all the infrastructure in place and I was a host farm for teagasc grass 10 so I tried all that. I'd say a high rainfall area is the biggest problem. It's alot of money but sure we'll see.

No harm to try it anyway and if it works in your system it's always an option. If one needed to buy in feed I'd definitely look at it ahead of silage. It really works well when indoors in a tmr with good grass silage. And per kg is as cost effective. When we had it, come spring, cows would be in by night out by day if not enough grass, don't have space for buffering really. Only issue I'd have feeding it grab by grab would be stronger cows may eat most of the maize, weaker cows left with the grass silage and neither getting the balanced diet. If buffering it would be less of an issue, as grass outside and maize inside. It is great to keep condition on cows as well
Do you manage to keep good bales for spring? As in proper quality silage as opposed to surplus paddocks, which in my case tend to be made cos grazing wasn't right the previous round? If the cows end up getting the pit silage in that period it could be part of the issue as well? Of you go for two quality cuts instead of one bulk in the pit you would have the same volume of silage but better quality and would prob not loose that much time either as regrowth would be faster after a quality second cut than a bulky first cut

straight

Bales were always in front of the silage pit so they were always used in the autumn. I have a second location laid out for quality bales now so I could keep some for spring. I paid big money for quality bales in 2019 spring and I saw no significant benefit. Cows don't do the intakes after calving. Maize = energy. Dunno, we'll see.

Timmaay

You definitely need enough feed space with maize for every cow, ideally you need like 5% excess. I just lob in
afew ring feeders in the calving shed off the slats the back end when all the cows still milking.

I'd tend to agree with Jerry about growing maize yourself and contact rear out the heifers instead. You keep full control of the maize crop yourself that way, and it almost always is cheaper growth yourself, I've worked it out around the 40e per ton into the pit, including all costs like land charge etc, most contract grown stuff is 55e/ton, thats over a 4k saving on the 13ac we grow here most yrs. Bit of a learning curve growing it yourself the 1st year, but lads like maizetech are a great help for advice etc, in general once you get it sown in April or may you forget about it till October, half a days work then pitting it.

kevthegaff

Timmaay wrote: »

You definitely need enough feed space with maize for every cow, ideally you need like 5% excess. I just lob in
afew ring feeders in the calving shed off the slats the back end when all the cows still milking.

I'd tend to agree with Jerry about growing maize yourself and contact rear out the heifers instead. You keep full control of the maize crop yourself that way, and it almost always is cheaper growth yourself, I've worked it out around the 40e per ton into the pit, including all costs like land charge etc, most contract grown stuff is 55e/ton, thats over a 4k saving on the 13ac we grow here most yrs. Bit of a learning curve growing it yourself the 1st year, but lads like maizetech are a great help for advice etc, in general once you get it sown in April or may you forget about it till October, half a days work then pitting it.

Is there any spraying the maize?

Mooooo

Unless you have an outside block for it with a good site, I wouldn't grow it myself. Don't have the land here for it really. Roughly 950 to 1k an acre in to the pit to buy it.

Castlekeeper

Mooooo wrote: »

Can you grow enough feed without it? If so perhaps the 10 grand if spent on extra roadways may help solve the getting out to grass part?

Fair point but spoken like someone on free draining land,
it's a different world.

On another note I'd say midday feeding with meal is a nightmare for man and beast, nothing but stress and strain for all.
We'd never an issue with the mixed grabs if enough feeding space and the right amount is put in for them all to get enough. It's amazing the way they regulate it themselves and switch back to the grass silage.
Maybe straight you could try feeding an extra few kgs of a quality maize/ beet/ soya etc. nut in the parlour as an experiment this spring, even on a bunch? It would be the cheapest and easiest solution and the easiest to evaluate as well.
In our experience it's sudden changes in diet causes stomach issues, and grass can be the worst of all.

whelan2

That was some frost last night. Just finished milking now.

mahoney_j

whelan2 wrote: »

That was some frost last night. Just finished milking now.

Baltic ,crap at bottom of scraper runs frozen ,had to get tractor and bucket to cart it off ,2 troughs in shed flowing an outside trough they drunk from frozen

mahoney_j

cute geoge wrote: »

Instead of maize and the trouble of balancing maize with purchased high protein ration could a lad just fire a kg of maize meal along feed barrier and kg of hi energy meal on top fed to milkers in between milkings

In spring herd if getting to grass should be little to no need to balance it with protein bar they have to stay in for few days ,just get half tonne bag soya then and add what’s needed on top of silage

Mooooo

Lol, I know of the problems of wet ground and a lot of rainfall alright. Thankfully not all of it is heavy but a good share is. Reseeded 10 acres last year, had to spend 15k on drainage in it first, and that's after paying to buy the fecking thing. Have another 20 acres of heavy ground that needs doing as well but will focus on drier parts the next year or two if I can. The rest was done in 09 and is holding out, open drain needs to be cleaned out alright and 8 acres we heaped up and leveled is reverting to type a bit. 18 did no favours to our dryer ground either ironically enough as springs that were drained away found a new route when they started flowing again so they must be sorted as well.

On the maize no harm at all to try it, but if you can grow and harvest enough forage increasing meal for the period that catches you along with working on silage quality may work out as well with less cost and work, from my experience anyway.