Keepgrowing wrote: » A day on the Irish Grassland summer tour this year might change your view. I take your point about meal and silage for Feb/Mar. That's only 2 mths but you're doing it for 6 mths with your cow and system. Not starting a cow comparison thread btw. What ever one likes
mahoney_j wrote: » Mooooo wrote: » That's more or less what the 60 cow spring herd in ucd is aiming for. They have the herd made up of cows with the same ebi and production index but half would have a low milk kg and other half have a higher milk kg. I'll put up a proper post later on What did u think of ucd ,went up with great expectations ,right up my tree as where I want to get ,left dissapointed .greenfield kk would eat it up and spit it out as regards transperancy. Info and how to run a commercial herd
Mooooo wrote: » That's more or less what the 60 cow spring herd in ucd is aiming for. They have the herd made up of cows with the same ebi and production index but half would have a low milk kg and other half have a higher milk kg. I'll put up a proper post later on
mahoney_j wrote: » Just going to post something along those lines ,jay I've simillar cows production wise to you and for last 4 years I've started calving 01/02 and 6 week calving beteween 80/86% with latest calving date of 21/04 I milk to 20/12 and start drying off cows from 01/12 .there is no way in hell I'd milk through Xmas and janurary without a decent bonus over base .as kg pointed out this grassland walk would of been worth a visit ,wasn't there either but have read and heard lots about it and without knowing your land I'd say in comparasion to credons farm your block may be regarded as top notch .i do run tight in March/April but it's temporary and I always have a supply of bales or very high quality pit as a back up .silage is always quality over bulk ,I add straw to dry cows to slow them no hit on production ,bcs or solids .you simply keep a hi energy diet and keep dmi intakes high
trixi2011 wrote: » Everything scanned now 7 % empty about 5 of these empty cows were incalf and have slipped . Going to cull a hand full of the empty cows and the rest will go to the bulls in the next week or 2 and be sold as summer calvers.
jaymla627 wrote: » I've been on walks to some of the best grass-based farmers in the country, I fully appreciate the merits of the system, it's just not the route I'm going..... Max numbers are being reached here next year, only heifers and top 30% of cows are going to dairy ai for 4 weeks then everythings beef, going to try and run a replacement rate of less then 10% and pull back heifers reared per year to 20 , if I operate a strict spring block and have a bad season fertilitywise this simply won't work, I reckon by cutting heifer calves reared on farm by half and been able to sell 75-80 good beef calves every spring it will more then make-up for the apparen't fortune I'm leaving behind by not following the bible according to teagasc
Mooooo wrote: » Much of a market for summer calvers over there? Will you milk them on or sell pre housing?
Keepgrowing wrote: I take your point about meal and silage for Feb/Mar. That's only 2 mths but you're doing it for 6 mths with your cow and system.
blackdog1 wrote: » Keepgrowing wrote: I take your point about meal and silage for Feb/Mar. That's only 2 mths but you're doing it for 6 mths with your cow and system. But your prepared for it and budgeted for it. You also have the shed space. You must also look at the price difference. I recon winter milk producers will be up 10c a litre on spring taking into account winter milk bonus of 5.6 c. I'm not saying winter is better than spring but I would never knock it. Cash flow is king in business.
Mooooo wrote: » Yeah, will have to see how it develops tbh. The split calving herd of 140 cows is continuing as normal, ie for research. They have cubicles with barriers in which cows can only go to certain feed points etc and that kinda thing. They have also put together a spring calving demonstration herd of 60 cows with the following targets; 7500 to 8000kg milk/ 625 kgms in 305 days With a 365 day calving interval and 70% 6wk in calf rate. The point being the evaluate high feasibility of milk production grazing system on a limited land bank. The way they are going about it is 1500kg meal and grass and grass silage only. Stocking rate of 3.4 on mp, 2.25 on whole farm*. They are also doing a genetic comparison within the herd with one cow group having a milk pta of +288kg (high) and the other group a milk pta of +100kg (low). Cow size is approx 620 kg. Due to the genetic comparison they are feeding all cows the same amount of feed, as in not fty. So they are feeding according to stage in lactation as opposed to what's in front of them at the time. So from a commercial point of view that would be the first issue but in order to do that comparison that is how it needs to go. They said they will likely change after 2 years and go fty. They are recording daily with the parlour so predicted yields are fairly good and in august the high milk group had given 300kgs more milk but 1kg less ms to date however the predicted yields show the high yield group finishing 700kg milk and 23kgs solids higher in supply for the 305 days. So given the production index is the same at 72/73 the ebi pta doesn't seem that far out. They are all one herd treated the same. On grazing due to the high meal at the beginning of lactation high opening covers they found it hard to get going grazing covers as well as they liked with weather also. Tbh until the genetic comparison is done and out the way from a grass point of view they won't be going at full tilt. They were allocating 23kgs dm for first 120days of lactation tapered back to 18.5kgs after and to a low of 16kgs for the last third. They are staying within nitrates rules so 250kgs N. The reason for the * at the overall stocking rate they give is because this included the silage ground however all they take is 2.5 cuts off it so technically it's higher. We suggested zero grazing etc to have more grass instead of silage but they acknowledged they were options as to whether or not they go that way or not I dunno. Currently the rest of that ground it goes elsewhere in the lyons estate. Also most of the slurry goes.to.silage fields on rest of lyons estate so it was suggested could they keep 60 cows worth of slurry for their block as within the rules the indices on their own "block" won't hold. Currently at 3 for both p and k. They grew 13.3 tonne last year and used 11.4. Talking of hitting 14 tonne this year with close to 12 used. Impression was perhaps not currently managed commercially so until it goes that way a pinch of salt may be needed. A couple of different people involved aside from lads doing the physical work so may not help, in terms of the overall picture but look they are involved elsewhere too so in a uni not entirely feasable. It is mainly feed costs they will look at as other costs there are shared amongst rest of farm and given its 60 cows I guess it could be taken just farmer labour and use your own costs for everything else. They are planning on starting a website so something to keep an eye on but realise it has its constraints in terms info to be taken from it. May have missed a few things but it was a few weeks back we were there.
Keepgrowing wrote: » Weather was the same for both groups. Ai for six weeks then He Bulls to finish. Six week calving rate matches ai. Minerals were mentioned and got me thinking but I can only conclude that if 90% can manage with just minerals delivered by dairy nuts I don't really want the other 10%. The decision for these ladies is simple, cull them and get on with the fertile ladies. No cow calving in May and hopefully none after 20th of April in 2018. The one thing I'm not prepared to do is start bollixing with hormones etc to catch these ladies. We gave up all interventions a few years ago and things are improving well. My goal is 80% calved in 6 weeks and 100% in 11 weeks. Work in progress
Mooooo wrote: » Our five biggest cows are all out of wuh. Born as heifers' calves as well as the main reason we used him was he was proven easy calving at the time. Crazy tall
Buford T. Justice V wrote: » I came across a small bit of value added yesterday at the local shop. There were a few glass bottles of milk, which I haven't seen for years, so I asked the shopkeeper where they came from and how they were doing. A lad outside the local town buys milk from a neighbouring farmer and pasteurised and bottled it himself and delivers to local shops. The local shop started with a half crate once a week and is now up to a crate twice a week with demand rising and that's just one shop. Nice bit of value added for the farmer and a new business for the lad processing it.
Mooooo wrote: » My bull broke into the heifers last year in Dec for a bit of action and a grand Angus bull calf landed y day. Mother grand as well. Went to bring them in last night and the little fcuker covered the townland before I caught him. He'll be on his own for 3 weeks as that's when the rest start to ai. Mother is quiet when milking so a good if unplanned start
whelan2 wrote: » How does a robot cope with heifers, have 2 bitches here at the minute, tying them up is the only way to milk them.
whelan2 wrote: How does a robot cope with heifers, have 2 bitches here at the minute, tying them up is the only way to milk them.
Buford T. Justice V wrote: » Mooooo wrote: » My bull broke into the heifers last year in Dec for a bit of action and a grand Angus bull calf landed y day. Mother grand as well. Went to bring them in last night and the little fcuker covered the townland before I caught him. He'll be on his own for 3 weeks as that's when the rest start to ai. Mother is quiet when milking so a good if unplanned start A good start is half the battle. Was it the smallest heifer that went in calf? That's what happens here, the smallest of the bunch stands and goes in calf and then some bigger girls show up not in calf:(
Mooooo wrote: » Fine lump of a bill from mechanic on the tractor, had to split and do work on gearbox. Always happens the fecking tight year
