Dairy chit chat II

Mooooo · 05-10-2017 02:19PM

How are ye all managing the last round? The weather of the last few weeks forced us back on to lighter covers in the dry ground so giving cows as much grass as they'll way now on wetter half while the conditions are there. By right I should be stretching things out with silage but I'm thinking use the chance to get wet ground grazed. May house by night next week then and could stretch rest of grass till Nov 1.

freedominacup · 05-10-2017 03:55PM

Mooooo wrote: »

How are ye all managing the last round? The weather of the last few weeks forced us back on to lighter covers in the dry ground so giving cows as much grass as they'll way now on wetter half while the conditions are there. By right I should be stretching things out with silage but I'm thinking use the chance to get wet ground grazed. May house by night next week then and could stretch rest of grass till Nov 1.

We introduced approx 4kg/dm of silage 2 weeks ago tomorrow. Got around 2l of a lift in yield and better solids immediately which they've held. We were sorry we didn't bring it in a forthnight sooner. Giving them approx 14 kg grass dm per day. Should be out until the end of the first week in Nov at this rate

They are clearing the buffer feed by the time washing is finished after evening milking. Sometimes let the first couple of rows back in after morning milking to mop up a couple of wheelbarrows of feed not cleared the previous evening. 21l at 4.3 and 3.9. Hoping to hit 560kgs milk solids for the year. If they match last year's last quarter they'll be a bit above that level.

Grass would want to be as cheap as it is because it takes a lot of managing and is only a base to the diet for at least 5 months if the grazing season. April to Aug once it's tightly managed it gives a good bit of milk the rest of the season it needs to be heavily supplemented.

Timmaay · 05-10-2017 04:02PM

This time of the year is why I need to shut my mouth when I'm bitching and moaning about feeding afew bales during summer droughts lol, still near perfect grazing conditions here, cleanouts struggling abit, only because the cows have been forced to eat 2500 covers which got very little nitrogen since July. Cows dung very loose with all the fresh grass, another reason to stick with the maize, I'll be buffering that from early nov so will dry them up overnight. Aside from them 2 minor issues head down and plough on through this huge wedge of grass we still got, will hopefully stretch it out till late Nov with the milkers (lower Sr this year), if the weather turns sooner the heifers can finish the job in Dec or jan.

Keepgrowing · 05-10-2017 04:14PM

Mooooo wrote: »

How are ye all managing the last round? The weather of the last few weeks forced us back on to lighter covers in the dry ground so giving cows as much grass as they'll way now on wetter half while the conditions are there. By right I should be stretching things out with silage but I'm thinking use the chance to get wet ground grazed. May house by night next week then and could stretch rest of grass till Nov 1.

All heavy covers grazed
Started bales today
Will monitor to get correct amount
41 days till we close farm on Nov 15 at at 650-700
Working on area per day from now on, closing cover is now the target.

Cows milking 1.67 kg Ms on 4 kg of 12%

10.89% empty after 12 weeks
85% calving in 6 weeks
Heifers not scanned but will boost this figure.

yewtree · 05-10-2017 04:37PM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

All heavy covers grazed
Started bales today
Will monitor to get correct amount
41 days till we close farm on Nov 15 at at 650-700
Working on area per day from now on, closing cover is now the target.

Cows milking 1.67 kg Ms on 4 kg of 12%

10.89% empty after 12 weeks
85% calving in 6 weeks
Heifers not scanned but will boost this figure.

Six week in calf rate is 85%? That is some going.
also great production, down to 1.45 kg ms here with a lot of silage goin in.

Keepgrowing · 05-10-2017 04:46PM

yewtree wrote: »

Six week in calf rate is 85%? That is some going.
also great production, down to 1.45 kg ms here with a lot of silage goin in.

Should qualify that rate is as per scan, so +/- iykwim

Gawddawggonnit · 05-10-2017 05:53PM

No rain or irrigation since it was planted around the 25may.

Gawddawggonnit · 05-10-2017 05:55PM

Planted same time and just 25mm of irrigation. Big difference.

Keepgrowing · 05-10-2017 07:34PM

Umbilical guys here today 12 hrs on farm and 250k gallons spread at 4000 per acre. That's over 8 * 2500 tankers per hour. Why would you bother yoking the tanker? No gaps or roads damaged.

They charge €120 per hour inc reeling out and reeling in.

mahoney_j · 05-10-2017 08:45PM

Mooooo wrote: »

How are ye all managing the last round? The weather of the last few weeks forced us back on to lighter covers in the dry ground so giving cows as much grass as they'll way now on wetter half while the conditions are there. By right I should be stretching things out with silage but I'm thinking use the chance to get wet ground grazed. May house by night next week then and could stretch rest of grass till Nov 1.

Started to close since Monday evening ,still out day/night no silage ,4 kg in parlour 1.72 kgms .my aim is to keep grass in diet till 7/10'november then house .depending on farm cover /area grazed I'll hold off on silage as long as possible .farm will close at 650'afc maby more .i should be feeding some silage as cows a tad loose but the winter will be long enough ....

yosemitesam1 · 05-10-2017 09:38PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Planted same time and just 25mm of irrigation. Big difference.

What are the roots like compared to maize?

Mooooo · 05-10-2017 09:40PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Planted same time and just 25mm of irrigation. Big difference.

What timing did you use for the irrigation? Twud be the opposite problem over here. Are there varieties better able to cope with drought out there?

straight · 05-10-2017 09:43PM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Umbilical guys here today 12 hrs on farm and 250k gallons spread at 4000 per acre. That's over 8 * 2500 tankers per hour. Why would you bother yoking the tanker? No gaps or roads damaged.

They charge €120 per hour inc reeling out and reeling in.

You will have a lot of dead earthworms tomorrow spreading it that heavy...

straight · 05-10-2017 09:53PM

I'm trying to choose a dairy nut supplier for next year. I'm thinking high maize content is best. Was looking at some websites, etc and I'm thinking of choosing a mill who specialise on ration as opposed to just using my co-op. I don't like to change supplier mid year. More guys tell me to use a small local mill is better. Any advice here?

kevthegaff · 05-10-2017 10:03PM

straight wrote:

You will have a lot of dead earthworms tomorrow spreading it that heavy...

I'd say it's out a of a lagoon and quite watery as kg has outdoor cubicles.

mahoney_j · 05-10-2017 10:21PM

straight wrote: »

I'm trying to choose a dairy nut supplier for next year. I'm thinking high maize content is best. Was looking at some websites, etc and I'm thinking of choosing a mill who specialise on ration as opposed to just using my co-op. I don't like to change supplier mid year. More guys tell me to use a small local mill is better. Any advice here?

Supplier shouldn’t make any odds ,it’s what u request in it that make a nut ,ufl content (energy)been crucial followed by protein fiber etc .im using a nut with same core ingridents (5) all year ufl content minimum is 0.975 and p can vary from 14/16

mahoney_j · 05-10-2017 10:22PM

kevthegaff wrote: »

I'd say it's out a of a lagoon and quite watery as kg has outdoor cubicles.

Still 4 k gallons Kev

Keepgrowing · 05-10-2017 10:30PM

straight wrote: »

You will have a lot of dead earthworms tomorrow spreading it that heavy...

It's dribbled on which is a lot different to splash plate. It's not a threat we check regularly. Very wary of soil structure here

alps · 06-10-2017 01:26AM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

It's dribbled on which is a lot different to splash plate. It's not a threat we check regularly. Very wary of soil structure here

Is that going on ground that will be grazed again before closing?. We're really short of ground to spread on, and just wondering if we could dribble or inject into ground we would be grazing in 15 to 20 days time, would it be ok...

Gawddawggonnit · 06-10-2017 06:01AM

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

What are the roots like compared to maize?

Excellent question and one I intend to investigate myself. The ground is too hard to dig with a shovel so I'll get the palet forks at it.
I suspect that the irrigated crop has deeper roots than maize and visa versa.

Gawddawggonnit · 06-10-2017 06:06AM

Mooooo wrote: »

What timing did you use for the irrigation? Twud be the opposite problem over here. Are there varieties better able to cope with drought out there?

6/7 leaf stage. Those varieties are supposedly the ultimate in drought resistant sorghum from the US. I used a three way mix with two sterile hybrids and one normal to help against lodging (!).

Keepgrowing · 06-10-2017 08:04AM

alps wrote: »

Is that going on ground that will be grazed again before closing?. We're really short of ground to spread on, and just wondering if we could dribble or inject into ground we would be grazing in 15 to 20 days time, would it be ok...

Yes, all paddocks will be grazed again and cover varied from 500-1500. We've grazed 4 days after dribble bar and it was fine.

kowtow · 06-10-2017 03:42PM

Well the heifers are 100% in calf, all but one to first service.

The milkers, not so good at about 66% (and of course the highest yielders are the empties..)

But we held a few smaller heifers off for autumn calving so the empty milkers can roll over with them.

What's a good date to start service for the Autumn?

stretch film · 06-10-2017 03:54PM

kowtow wrote: »

Well the heifers are 100% in calf, all but one to first service.

The milkers, not so good at about 66% (and of course the highest yielders are the empties..)

But we held a few smaller heifers off for autumn calving so the empty milkers can roll over with them.

What's a good date to start service for the Autumn?

12th of never

Mooooo · 06-10-2017 04:23PM

kowtow wrote: »

Well the heifers are 100% in calf, all but one to first service.

The milkers, not so good at about 66% (and of course the highest yielders are the empties..)

But we held a few smaller heifers off for autumn calving so the empty milkers can roll over with them.

What's a good date to start service for the Autumn?

I guess it depends on o preferences really. When are you calving in spring? Given that it's heifers and rollovers you will be serving they should hold to first service all going well, if the cow doesn't don't keep her. You could serve for the month of Jan and cows would be calving in Oct then. If you are not calving in spring till Feb yhatbwould be ideal. You could go earlier but you will have another job over Xmas as well and and if you go a month earlier the cows be dried off at a time when their would be plenty grass for milk production. Later drying off will allow you build a bit of autumn cover. With two breeding seasons work on keeping them short, more even bunch of calves each and be able to get one job done before the next starts if possible. Also don't get into the habit of serving rollovers with replacement straws use beef instead. If you are only calving in autumn for this year and unlikely to continue perhaps give them all beef straws, KYA is a good aa for heifers
Daughters of rollovers only make the problems worse and breeding for too long doesn't help matters either speaking from experience

whelan2 · 06-10-2017 06:21PM

Interesting trip to ballyhaise today. They have mostly jex. The milkers are split into different groups for research purposes. About 30 in the group we saw. About 120 cows altogether. Alot of the research is about grazing heavy ground. The incalf heifers are in on woodchip and this years calves are also housed. Paddocks are all split with strip wire and cows get allocation per day. Interestingly all suckler cows are housed at the moment as they are too heavy to be out on the land. Nice place

yewtree · 06-10-2017 06:34PM

whelan2 wrote: »

Interesting trip to ballyhaise today. They have mostly jex. The milkers are split into different groups for research purposes. About 30 in the group we saw. About 120 cows altogether. Alot of the research is about grazing heavy ground. The incalf heifers are in on woodchip and this years calves are also housed. Paddocks are all split with strip wire and cows get allocation per day. Interestingly all suckler cows are housed at the moment as they are too heavy to be out on the land. Nice place

Its an interesting place, always find donal is very interesting to talk too. The research out of ballyhaise is more relevant to my farm.
scanning results from most of teagasc herds seems very good, i see on the journal, looks like the ebi is delivering a more fertile cow going by results on the next generation herd

jaymla627 · 06-10-2017 08:19PM

yewtree wrote: »

Its an interesting place, always find donal is very interesting to talk too. The research out of ballyhaise is more relevant to my farm.
scanning results from most of teagasc herds seems very good, i see on the journal, looks like the ebi is delivering a more fertile cow going by results on the next generation herd

You'd hope so given the amount of genomic bulls their getting into ai, its abnormal the amount to be honest

whelan2 · 06-10-2017 08:22PM

Passed by a large enough herd on the way home and there was a hereford bull in with them working away, is it not very late to be still serving?

simx · 06-10-2017 08:26PM

whelan2 wrote: »

Passed by a large enough herd on the way home and there was a hereford bull in with them working away, is it not very late to be still serving?

Talking to an ai man the other day and said he did a 1st serve for a spring calving herd last week

Dairy chit chat II

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