Milking intervals

Farmhand285

Many doing 16/8 hour milking intervals pros cons

whelan2

I am. Great as I can be away out of the yard early in the evening.

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119647618#Comment_119647618

What time of the year do you start doing that ? I'm going to 13 milkings a week from the beginning of October

whelan2

I do it all year. Milk at half 6 am and between half 2 and 3 in the evening. Have to be away 6 evenings out of 7 for football for kids.

Farmhand285

It's a mighty job I think farm I'm on at the minute we have the batt latch cows are in the yard waiting super job farm I was on before was a pain 7 am and 7 pm adamant cows needed 12/12

dar31

do it all year as well, cups on at 6.30 am and 3 pm

gone from yard between 5-5.30pm.

older by the day

Jays what do ye be doing for the rest of the day. It's all habit. I'm afraid I got all the bad ones, about nine at night I start

whelan2

What time do you finish at? And what time do you get up in the morning?

Farmhand285

Farm I'm on is one out of four so lads I'm working for have 4 farms 2 owned 2 leased I'm milking full time on one and have relief milkers that I organise myself for weekends and what not but always plenty to do grass measuring power washing fertilizer fencing plenty To Be at between the four farms

Farmhand285

We milk at half 6 am and 3 in the afternoon

trixi2011

Milk @ 5 and 2 here need to pick children up 3 days a week so works grand not so easy to get relief for the early milking is the only downside

Grueller

5 and 5 here. Work a bit off farm too so that dictates a lot of it.

kevthegaff

6:30 and 4. Always try to be finished before 6

Pinsnbushings

24 hrs, 7 - 7..not for everybody

Green&Red

7 & 3 here, can be out the gap at 4.30 any evening it's needed. Gives great flexibility. Cows will get used to anything so long as you keep it constant

davidk1394

Clusters on here for around 7.10 and 4.30/5 in the evening. All done by 6/6.30

Wildsurfer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119647900#Comment_119647900

This wouldn't be good for ones mental wellbeing longterm I would imagine. You have to allow time to switch off from the job. Even if you do a bit of work again after milking at least you can stop when you want to. And from now on you're out rounding up cows in the pitch dark which there is no need for. Its never too late to change Older!

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119647654#Comment_119647654

One local man here has his split the other way around! He’d be milking at around 6.30 am and it could be anything from 9pm to 12 midnight before he does the “evening” milking!

Donald Trump

I reckon that lads with better set ups are more likely to have better schedules. That might be a bit of chicken-and-egg in that they build better set ups because they want their time.....but if you've a small parlour and it's taking you the guts of 3-4 hours from leaving the house to finishing up, then there might not seem to be much point with starting an hour earlier

Siamsa Sessions

I don't want to open a can of worms but does 16/8 have any impact on overall yield? Compared to say 12/12?

Donald Trump

Some lads used to milk three times a day! Does anyone do that now?

Pinsnbushings

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649769#Comment_119649769

Those with robots would probably be averaging over 2 milkings a day anyway

Farmhand285

It's mostly a crossbred herd thing from my experience on the 16/8 I'd say there would be some impact on you're more Holstein type cow correct me if I'm wrong

whelan2

No crossbreds here just milking at a time that suits me. I'm probably losing a few litres but there's plenty of time to change milking times when kids are older. Away to a game this evening with kick off 6pm.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650358#Comment_119650358

There’s be much less trouble in the world if more of us followed your approach 👍

K.G.

One thing about longer milking intervals is the next milking is slower in the spring early summer anyway. We have milk lorry at 815 and and if we milk early the evening before it slows morning milk

Finty Lemon

Not milking myself but this question that interests me!

Based on what I see locally, the more technical farmers tend to milk earlier and be wrapped up by around 6 at the latest while the men still milking at 8pm are more likely to be more traditional. We happen to have have two dairy farmers helping out with the underage football team, one always arrives in the field before 6 ready to go with all done, the other man tends to arrive in a rush and then heads away around 7:15 to go milking. Fair play to both for the time they put in though.

I guess its down to overall organisation and maybe a tradition of having staff in the yard? A lad on his own is more likely to drift into the later milking habit. I doubt the lads milking very late are gaining a whole lot of extra milk?

Farmhand285

I suppose it's from a labour point of view too when you're competing with the building industry too with similar enough working hours bar weekends but we only just milk Saturday and Sunday middle of the day is yours obviously spring is different our shoulder if you have silage to feed out it works well everyone is happy

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649516#Comment_119649516

Probably, half mad already anyway. I don't know. When the kids were young I used to have supper with them and milk when they go to bed. Rather than coming in at 7 and they gone to bed. I like milking when I'm not rushed. I often went to a match then pints then milked. All my children are farming mad, so through their eyes it must not look to bad. I know farmers around here, with ridged systems and they are two tired too go for pints on a Saturday night (no wonder they are, getting up at 6am/ 365 days a year).

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652314#Comment_119652314

Reminds me of being in the pub after a match years ago. Could be late 90s it’s that far back.

Two brothers, both around the 50 mark, were in the company. The chat was going on anyway, and it must have been after 10 when the elder of the two said to the other, “Come on Michael, we better drink up, we have to milk them cows yet.”

There was a silence. People were kinda shocked that anyone would milk cows so late.

The younger brother didn’t bat an eyelid and just said, “We’ll have one more and we’ll go then.” And that’s exactly what they did.

In fairness, they were well-known characters around the place and I’ve heard people tell that story several times over the years.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652314#Comment_119652314

There is no right or wrong. Whatever works for you and your family is the main thing. The fact that all you're children are interested in farming seems like a good litmus test to me.

I know what you mean about all these lads running all day to be finished early, too much panic and pressure.