Dairy chit chat II

kowtow · 12-01-2017 02:56PM

jaymla627 wrote: »

Its getting unbelivable militant what murphy and co are trying to drive down dairy farmers necks at these conferances, theirs absoloutely no tolerance anymore given to other (higher) cost dairy systems....

If they saw my system they'd faint clean away.

freedominacup · 12-01-2017 03:06PM

kowtow wrote: »

If they saw my system they'd faint clean away.

You were looking for a lime dispenser a couple of days ago. Try getting a couple of bags of wood shavings. We changed over to them a week ago. Between the hardship hauling like around and the fact that the cubicles weren't staying clean enough something has to change. Very happy so far. Cubicles cleaned and bedded by the time the last cow leaves the house for milking. Simply pull off any dirt off the bed and pull back a bit of shavings. No rushing around with lime while they're being milked. Cows much cleaner also so milking time much faster. Like usage down by eighty percent at least. We only ever started using lime because of the unreliability and messing involved with getting sawdust. Unless we get some sort of disease issue I can't see us going back. Cost neutral also.

kowtow · 12-01-2017 03:14PM

freedominacup wrote: »

You were looking for a lime dispenser a couple of days ago. Try getting a couple of bags of wood shavings. We changed over to them a week ago. Between the hardship hauling like around and the fact that the cubicles weren't staying clean enough something has to change. Very happy so far. Cubicles cleaned and bedded by the time the last cow leaves the house for milking. Simply pull off any dirt off the bed and pull back a bit of shavings. No rushing around with lime while they're being milked. Cows much cleaner also so milking time much faster. Like usage down by eighty percent at least. We only ever started using lime because of the unreliability and messing involved with getting sawdust. Unless we get some sort of disease issue I can't see us going back. Cost neutral also.

I love the idea of shavings.

When you say "pull back" how much do you put down in each cubicle to start with? Do you mix with lime at all or just a lot less or occasionally?

Presumably these are the same kind of shavings you'd buy in the creamery for bedding horses etc.? Would they cause any problem in slurry channels I wonder?

yosemitesam1 · 12-01-2017 03:19PM

jaymla627 wrote: »

Might be more apt to have a discussion re nitrates and what happens if irish derogagtion isnt renewed this coming summer.....
But that dosent follow their party line of stocking the milking platform to the absoloute limit with cows all the while feeding the cows almost entirely on grass and clover too which apparently is the second coming of christ for dairy farmers and a pinch of meal but only if the wedge needs feeding....
Its getting unbelivable militant what murphy and co are trying to drive down dairy farmers necks at these conferances, theirs absoloutely no tolerance anymore given to other (higher) cost dairy systems....

Was there anything about clover put up. Couldn't see how your mans figures would stack up at all unless saving in less than €60 a cow was going to lead to the greater than 30% rise in profit..

Keepgrowing · 12-01-2017 03:55PM

freedominacup wrote: »

Why is anyone having discussions in the context of milk quota at this stage?

I'm not there so uncertain of context but assuming it's a message to move the thinking dial to proactive rather than hreactive with increasing volatility

Keepgrowing · 12-01-2017 03:59PM

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Was there anything about clover put up. Couldn't see how your mans figures would stack up at all unless saving in less than €60 a cow was going to lead to the greater than 30% rise in profit..

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819523972714921985

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819522186985738241

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819524864180678656

jaymla627 · 12-01-2017 04:03PM

freedominacup wrote: »

I'm a bit of a thorn in the side of our dg facilitator. Usually in the top three for solids percentages and on my own by a distance with kgs of solids per cow from pedigree holsteins. Stocked to the limit though and only getting worse.

Should be at 575 kgs ms delivered here on co-op report for 2016 of 1.45 ton of meal and 60% of herd 1st/2nd lactation, no tmr/maize just grass and good baled silage, sr will level of at 3.2/ha here....
once herd matures id fully expect to be hitting 600 kgs a cow year in year out, our just shy of 2000kgs ms/ha, to achieve this the grass rich/low cost way on minimial meal going in your talking about having to run nearly 50-60 more cows in my case, seems like certified maddness to me with grain cheap and looking that way for the foreseeable future how it would make sense to tag on more cows and all the associated expansion costs and extra land needed to carry these ladies how id be so much more finincial better off

freedominacup · 12-01-2017 04:44PM

kowtow wrote: »

I love the idea of shavings.

When you say "pull back" how much do you put down in each cubicle to start with? Do you mix with lime at all or just a lot less or occasionally?

Presumably these are the same kind of shavings you'd buy in the creamery for bedding horses etc.? Would they cause any problem in slurry channels I wonder?

I overdid it at the start a bag to 10 cubicles. Half that would be loads. Only topped up drys and in calf heifers yesterday and then only because there was an odd few bags that had to be taken off the top of a new pallet for transport. Not being scraped to channels here so couldn't tell you on that score. Probably the same as the ones for horses but these have no fancy branding/logos and plain white light wrapper not the clear ones you normally see on the horsey stuff. I put out a small amount of lime some mornings if I get a chance seems to weigh the shavings down a bit. Put out hydrated lime yesterday as a bit of disinfectant.

freedominacup · 12-01-2017 05:14PM

jaymla627 wrote: »

Should be at 575 kgs ms delivered here on co-op report for 2016 of 1.45 ton of meal and 60% of herd 1st/2nd lactation, no tmr/maize just grass and good baled silage, sr will level of at 3.2/ha here....
once herd matures id fully expect to be hitting 600 kgs a cow year in year out, our just shy of 2000kgs ms/ha, to achieve this the grass rich/low cost way on minimial meal going in your talking about having to run nearly 50-60 more cows in my case, seems like certified maddness to me with grain cheap and looking that way for the foreseeable future how it would make sense to tag on more cows and all the associated expansion costs and extra land needed to carry these ladies how id be so much more finincial better off

We should be on 500 off 1.1 tonnes. Hoping to push meal and yields this year. Delivering 1000kgs per ha from every ha farmed.

yosemitesam1 · 12-01-2017 05:43PM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819523972714921985

https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819522186985738241
https://twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819524864180678656

https://mobile.twitter.com/aibrenn/status/819522186985738241/photo/1

Going off that I would have said that roughly €30/head worth of meal fed at the right time could have gained the extra milk solids, so somewhere around €160/ha not 430 gained.

Keepgrowing · 12-01-2017 07:05PM

freedominacup wrote: »

We should be on 500 off 1.1 tonnes. Hoping to push meal and yields this year. Delivering 1000kgs per ha from every ha farmed.

Hit 495 per cow with 990 per total farm ha on 780 kg nuts. Bloody Xbreds are shyte.

That includes and dry ow silage bought on and land rearing heifers Youngstock would account for 38% of the lus on the farm

GrasstoMilk · 12-01-2017 07:26PM

Busy at calf shed here. Got gates yesterday. Time consuming job when ye have a perfectionist DIY father like mine

Still have to sort some where to calve cows. No biggy really........

freedominacup · 12-01-2017 07:34PM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Hit 495 per cow with 990 per total farm ha on 780 kg nuts. Bloody Xbreds are shyte.

That includes and dry ow silage bought on and land rearing heifers Youngstock would account for 38% of the lus on the farm

No silage bought here. Youngstock would be somewhere around 30% of lus here. Should be higher but buying stock most years so calves not really matching up to cow numbers.

Edit; you're buying silage we're buying meal. Meal costing €70 here above your cost for concentrate. How much are you spending on buying silage?

Keepgrowing · 12-01-2017 07:52PM

freedominacup wrote: »

No silage bought here. Youngstock would be somewhere around 30% of lus here. Should be higher but buying stock most years so calves not really matching up to cow numbers.

Edit; you're buying silage we're buying meal. Meal costing €70 here above your cost for concentrate. How much are you spending on buying silage?

€32/ cow for forage purchased
Straw €11

GrasstoMilk · 12-01-2017 08:02PM

Really impressed with new milking machine since it was installed.
Scc has been dropping every collection for a month. Currently at 32 was at 130 the week we started.

All cows milked off straw too.

Cows doing 2.06 kgs ms with 4kg if 16% and 80 ish dmd paddock bales
Breeding started 9 days ago and 50% served.

bogman_bass · 12-01-2017 08:24PM

thisyear wrote: »

It seems poor form, was talking to a lad last night that was saying the contract covers LIC and its subsideries, so Eurogene is probably covered by it as well

LIC straws sold by Eurogene yes but Dutch or American straws wouldn't be covered. Can't see how they could claim intellectual property for bulls they don't own.

If I was still milking by view on it is any offspring from any breeding decvision carried out on MY farm is MY intellectual property and if you think you can tell me otherwise you can go and jump

Mooooo · 12-01-2017 08:54PM

822kg sold per ha last year including acreage of maize bought in and calf/heifer ground . Fed roughly 1.4 tonne but only 500kg sold per cow roughly. Long way to go to improve here. Start by less youngstock and more grass for cows this year

freedominacup · 12-01-2017 09:15PM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

€32/ cow for forage purchased
Straw €11

Either you're getting it cheap or you're not buying much?????

Keepgrowing · 12-01-2017 09:40PM

freedominacup wrote: »

Either you're getting it cheap or you're not buying much?????

1.5 bales per cow but only fed to drys

Bales 10 to the dozen, field corners packed with them.

thisyear · 12-01-2017 10:18PM

bogman_bass wrote: »

LIC straws sold by Eurogene yes but Dutch or American straws wouldn't be covered. Can't see how they could claim intellectual property for bulls they don't own.

If I was still milking by view on it is any offspring from any breeding decvision carried out on MY farm is MY intellectual property and if you think you can tell me otherwise you can go and jump

dont think Id be bothered with the risk! Was looking up the LIC EBIs for the spring, they are not at the races at all so dont understand what they think they are protecting!!

GrasstoMilk · 12-01-2017 10:25PM

thisyear wrote: »

dont think Id be bothered with the risk! Was looking up the LIC EBIs for the spring, they are not at the races at all so dont understand what they think they are protecting!!

Good few top ebi SRM bulls are out of LIC breeding. There breeding did jump forward the breeding in this country. No doubt about it. LHZ is one example. He's from one of the biggest crossbreds farms in this country

thisyear · 12-01-2017 10:41PM

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Good few top ebi SRM bulls are out of LIC breeding. There breeding did jump forward the breeding in this country. No doubt about it. LHZ is one example. He's from one of the biggest crossbreds farms in this country

No doubt going back they had an influence inlcuding on my herd! But just looking at the latest lists they are way off and thats been the trend over last few years. Hence I havent been using them that much. The Irish companies like Munster and Dovea have caught and past them... bit like the rugby

jaymla627 · 12-01-2017 11:21PM

thisyear wrote: »

No doubt going back they had an influence inlcuding on my herd! But just looking at the latest lists they are way off and thats been the trend over last few years. Hence I havent been using them that much. The Irish companies like Munster and Dovea have caught and past them... bit like the rugby

Whats your basis of the above opionin, are you just going off the higher the ebi the better the bull and least not forget your talking about genomic sires in alot of cases, our are your higher ebi irish bred cows outpreforming your lic bred stock.....

thisyear · 13-01-2017 05:18PM

jaymla627 wrote: »

Whats your basis of the above opionin, are you just going off the higher the ebi the better the bull and least not forget your talking about genomic sires in alot of cases, our are your higher ebi irish bred cows outpreforming your lic bred stock.....

Mixture of both. spring calving so days in milk is number main goal here followed by milk solids%. I have good LIC cross(all black and whites) and good Irish ones. I pick a panel of bulls first by EBI then filter by the fertility and solids. All genomics, total believer.

thisyear · 13-01-2017 05:57PM

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/lic-contracts-are-to-ensure-delivery-of-very-best-technology-to-farmers/

Timmaay · 13-01-2017 06:05PM

I've got about 4km of electric fencing to be put in next week. Will set me back about 2k. One of them jobs I should have done 4 years ago!

whelan2 · 13-01-2017 07:12PM

Timmaay wrote: »

I've got about 4km of electric fencing to be put in next week. Will set me back about 2k. One of them jobs I should have done 4 years ago!

Are you doing the work or getting a contractor in? Lad that does relief milking here is a fencing contractor which is very handy

Timmaay · 13-01-2017 10:01PM

whelan2 wrote: »

Are you doing the work or getting a contractor in? Lad that does relief milking here is a fencing contractor which is very handy

Contractor all the way. Aside from it definitely not paying me to do it myself, I'm sick of all the crap farmers fencing around here the last few years.

freedominacup · 13-01-2017 10:14PM

Timmaay wrote: »

Contractor all the way. Aside from it definitely not paying me to do it myself, I'm sick of all the crap farmers fencing around here the last few years.

We use contractors a good bit here but almost never for fencing. It's a job I get great satisfaction from doing right. One of those jobs you can look back on your days work and see the progress you've made. Make sure to use a good cresote pressure treated stake. No question about their value for money. The uncle put in this type on a section before a silage demo here twenty years ago. They're still there and every other stake on the place replaced two or three times. They're just starting to give up the ghost this year. The first one or two being replaced.

Over the past 3-4 years we've been using pdm stakes. Hopefully they'll get me close to retirement. The few that broke when they were being put down had cresote to the centre.

Keepgrowing · 14-01-2017 04:49AM

Timmaay wrote: »

Contractor all the way. Aside from it definitely not paying me to do it myself, I'm sick of all the crap farmers fencing around here the last few years.

DM me your contractor contact details. Got quoted 3,500 for 450m of sheep with 2 barb and an additional 850 for single strand electric inside this.

I declined, will do ourselves. It's fencing someone else's stock out of our farm which is what pisses me off most.

Dairy chit chat II

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