Dairy chit chat II

Keepgrowing wrote: »

The old adage "an ounce of feeding is worth a ton of breeding"

Work ethic

I'd say the milker is right...."an ounce of breeding is worth a ton of feeding is the saying iirc

charolais0153 wrote: »

I'd say the milker is right...."an ounce of breeding is worth a ton of feeding is the saying iirc

Correct, got it arse ways again

On new milkers, I've got in a ucd student for July, chap I have had never seen the inside of a Milking parlour before, very little animal experience ha (despite studying animal crop production), no farming background, just a months experience on a beef, sheep and pig farm previously, he admitted he isn't sure why he is even studying agriculture ha. Anyways 3rd day of him here I was heading off to Moorepark, I knew I'd be really pushing my luck to get him up to speed and milking on hisown for that ha, however I took it nice and handy with him the 1st 2days here, I still had the option of calling in one of my more regular relief milkers the day before, but I decided he was up to speed with it. He didn't have a bother with it on hisown, he's been doing most the weekday Milkings since, learning fast and gaining confidence, and definitely seeing a possible career for himself in dairying moving forward (the beef and sheep farmers he was with were fairly blunt with him about the lack of opportunity there ha)

Timmaay wrote: »

On new milkers, I've got in a ucd student for July, chap I have had never seen the inside of a Milking parlour before, very little animal experience ha (despite studying animal crop production), no farming background, just a months experience on a beef, sheep and pig farm previously, he admitted he isn't sure why he is even studying agriculture ha. Anyways 3rd day of him here I was heading off to Moorepark, I knew I'd be really pushing my luck to get him up to speed and milking on hisown for that ha, however I took it nice and handy with him the 1st 2days here, I still had the option of calling in one of my more regular relief milkers the day before, but I decided he was up to speed with it. He didn't have a bother with it on hisown, he's been doing most the weekday Milkings since, learning fast and gaining confidence, and definitely seeing a possible career for himself in dairying moving forward (the beef and sheep farmers he was with were fairly blunt with him about the lack of opportunity there ha)

Your probably easy to work for. Used to do a lot of relief milking and there was some difference in lads. Some lads wouldn't leave you a note or anything just expect you to figure everything out yourself.

These auld xbred runts are hardly worth milking

Department vet that was here the other day said a few minutes after you go into a farm you will get a vibe as to how the farmer works/treats his animals. Broken tails are the big one.

Keepgrowing wrote: »

LOL
OAD don't get it. I've never heard of anyone doing it cause it's more profitable. It suits some but I'm far from convinced.

I feel that if we're to be honest and accept that land isn't free 1500 kgms per ha is a minimum

Have mine on OAD at the moment (we keep them on their toes here, it'll be 3x daily & nighttime milking next month)....

Have to say the added time for them f****ing around in the parlour banging feeders especially with the number of flies around at the moment would seriously take the shine off it as a full time thing, at least from my perspective.

Keepgrowing wrote: »

LOL
OAD don't get it. I've never heard of anyone doing it cause it's more profitable. It suits some but I'm far from convinced.

I feel that if we're to be honest and accept that land isn't free 1500 kgms per ha is a minimum

Would be very unsure on oad, think its a great optiion for some nearing end of career and wants to take a step back.
Outside of that i think reduction in output would be hard manage.

Equally unsure there is a min output/ha and then everything is ok. Anyone can get 1500 kg/ha, just keep feeding or overstock your farm.
The greenfield have a land cost and are profitable and arent near 1500 kg/ha and for that matter neither am i. Stocked here at just under 3 and will do 460kg ms in a near perfect year for dairy farming.
Would it not be better set profit targets rather than production targets. These should include full labour and land costs.

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Ask your two experts if there's enough UIP (Undegradable intake protein) in that diet.
High producing cows in a warm temperature environment especially need enough UIP.
Recommended %'s are in the link below.

http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Nutrition/Protein/

Other than there's a few studies into milk protein % drops in heat stressed cows which seems to effect the protein ( certain casein over another) more than fat in milk.
This is the latest study. Disregard the climate change paragraph.
http://www.academia.edu/18084930/Effect_of_summer_season_on_milk_protein_fractions_in_Holstein_cows

How's your Scc by the way?

Got a milk tank test for ibr done and results are back today. Negative.

Pulled out the sorghum silage and replaced it with lucerne. The sorghum was advice I got from a yank...

From your link I've just bought an artic of toasted soya and will be including 1kg/hd/day. Hate buying in feed...

Scc is 117.

mahoney_j wrote: »

Hmmmm there a certain person on twitter that'd lynch u for that statement !!!!,I agree with u tho .at 3 cows per he 1500 kgms would def be minimum

Ha ha, persistent use of #OAD won't convince me. Profit figures from a number of farms on OAD for some time may

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Grazing grass dairy farming in Ireland is just so simple.:D

Ya. They get 2 choices.

Take it

Or leave it....

whelan2 wrote: »

Anyone see the new contraption for milk recording. Recorder not impressed anyway

The little stainless cup thingy? The recorder here abandoned it after one row and went back to a test tube last time here ha.

blackdog1 wrote: »

Why ? Big mastitis problem? . Do you milk record? If not do and pick out your high scc cows and put them in a separate group by the parlour and milk them last . Pre spray and post dip the herd and treat the high scc cows or cull them. Also make sure you pre rinse your machine with paracitic acid.

Do a culture on the high scc cows find out what type of mastitis and what drugs it's sensitive too. Talk to your vet and pick out a suitable dry cow tube.

Used to have mastitis trouble started dipping all clusters in paracitic acid and it sorted it out. Kept doing it since that. Have occasional cases but nothing major, it's more as a preventative. Any good or bad experiences of cluster cleanse?

Went away for a week...just after doing a run around to see how grass is...

Phuq...The relief man must have left the sun switched on full time....