Dairy chit chat II

As part of my parlour changes I need to do a little work to the drafting yard at the side of the parlour. I found the diagram below in the Moore Park infrastructure manual from earlier in the year and since our basic yard layout is similar, albeit a lot smaller (our drafting yard is a maximum of 5m x 12 or 13m whereas the one in the diagram is probably the same width and twice as long)

Nevertheless, with a small herd I think something similar could be made to do the job, but I wanted to know if anyone has experience of a similar layout. For daily chores like AI at milking time I can see it working perfectly, but mainly I would be worried about the bigger batch jobs like TB testing. The main difference between our existing layout and the one in the diagram is that at present our crush runs all the way up the parlour wall and therefore takes five or six milkers comfortably. When TB testing etc. we don't run through the parlour but collect everything in the collecting yard and shovel them up the milking parlour return passage and back down through the crush using a circular gate.

The "new" layout in the diagram has a hoof paring crush which only takes one cow, with a herringbone crush behind it.

1. Is it practical to TB test in a side by side / herringbone crush at all?

2. Is it practical to send all animals through the parlour routinely when filling up the crush for testing etc? Hopefully next year all our youngstock will be on an outfarm and this will be less of an issue anyway but I wonder does anyone do it as a matter of routine?

3. Any other issues / hints for herringbone crushes?

kowtow wrote: »

As part of my parlour changes I need to do a little work to the drafting yard at the side of the parlour. I found the diagram below in the Moore Park infrastructure manual from earlier in the year and since our basic yard layout is similar, albeit a lot smaller (our drafting yard is a maximum of 5m x 12 or 13m whereas the one in the diagram is probably the same width and twice as long)

Nevertheless, with a small herd I think something similar could be made to do the job, but I wanted to know if anyone has experience of a similar layout. For daily chores like AI at milking time I can see it working perfectly, but mainly I would be worried about the bigger batch jobs like TB testing. The main difference between our existing layout and the one in the diagram is that at present our crush runs all the way up the parlour wall and therefore takes five or six milkers comfortably. When TB testing etc. we don't run through the parlour but collect everything in the collecting yard and shovel them up the milking parlour return passage and back down through the crush using a circular gate.

The "new" layout in the diagram has a hoof paring crush which only takes one cow, with a herringbone crush behind it.

1. Is it practical to TB test in a side by side / herringbone crush at all?

2. Is it practical to send all animals through the parlour routinely when filling up the crush for testing etc? Hopefully next year all our youngstock will be on an outfarm and this will be less of an issue anyway but I wonder does anyone do it as a matter of routine?

3. Any other issues / hints for herringbone crushes?

We routinely put cows through parlour when dealing with big batches. They're used to moving that way. The top of our parlour can hold a crush full of cows and there is no turning back once they're in it. You'd also have the next crush full standing in the parlour.

stanflt wrote: »

Will you buy any??????

I might..... 8fr bull calves in a row. Got a fr heifer calf this evening

mahoney_j wrote: »

0.97 ufl 16% feed rate averaging 4.1 kg ,own mix made up maize ,barley ,beet pulp ,soya and usual vits,minerals and cal mag .lots of grass but days like today frig all feeding value in it ,silage may need introducing for a bit more dm on wetter days from here on ,no point feeding any more meal

Gave in a bale of silage this evening and they went mad for it. Even though they have loads of grass. Feeding 3kgs of a good 16 as well. It's turning wet now but was a great year so far and I have a good bit of grass in front of them but the silage will help stretch it out.

visatorro wrote: »

Anyone feeding this pelleted straw?

going to ring in the morning about it,

certainly the results achieved in trials look very promising

orm0nd wrote: »

going to ring in the morning about it,

certainly the results achieved in trials look very promising

Roches supplying it on our area ,serious stuff and big benefit in feeding it from start of calving to mid June ,higher butterfats solid dungs
Won't supress appetite for grass like straw hay etc would

mahoney_j wrote: »

Roches supplying it on our area ,serious stuff and big benefit in feeding it from start of calving to mid June ,higher butterfats solid dungs
Won't supress appetite for grass like straw hay etc would

Can it be mixed in the nuts MJ or has it to be fed separate.

kevthegaff wrote: »

I'm giving them some hay, would it do any harm to yield?

Absolutely not.
Would they even eat one kg?

jaymla627 wrote: »

It can be through nuts but cant be blended in and their has been cases where cows simply wont eat it, fed it here in the spring and didn't see any massive improvement in bf but was only going in with a kilo a cow as part of a 3 way mix, 2kgd plus is needed a day to get good results but I reckon you would need to be putting it in a tmr buffer fed to get cows to eat the 2 kgs

What price is it?

mahoney_j wrote: »

Family trip yesterday and today ,only back since 7,if I was here I'd def of opened 2 bales for them this evening ,windy cold and wet winter closing in quick.

We'll get a fabulous October. Keep the faith.

jaymla627 wrote: »

Around 180 a ton I think, should be getting cheaper with sterling dropping, but the nut itself has no real feed value, its all about just providing a roughage source to counteract the effects of lush grass, when I put in really good high dm bales here to replace it at 2 kgs dm cow my bf went from 3.5 to 3.8 and pr increased also, not going to bother with it next year and simply just going to feed out silage instead to help with bf

decided to go in with bales this pm , a bit earlier than we'd liked as we haven't a whole lot of surplus feed, but hopefully ground conditions will hold up to give a bit xtra grazing

blackdog1 wrote: »

I'm trying to hold off here until the 1st of October as I loads of grass and it's pit whole crop so once it's open I have to keep going but I'm dying to feed it in this weather!

We're obviously getting away almost clean down here. No real intention of feeding silage in the short term anyway. A few showers, a bit colder than you'd like it for the time of year but plenty of grass and grazing conditions good.