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Outdoor cubicles and cold weather

kevinm177

Was thinking about topless cubicles but I'm just wondering if anyone has experience of them in really icy conditions. Would there be a problem with cows slipping? Cheers

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joejobrien

It begs belief how navive some people on here are. They become blinkered by costs costs and nothing else. Cheap first day is generally not always the solution on a longer term approach..... but its fashionable by some. Also the one amazing factor in all this and only been eluded by 1/2 people, is the MAN OR WOMAN!!!!! Is he OR she not worthy of a decent faciliates so as they may enjoy life and the family???????
25 vs 55 is a hell of a difference. 25 year old WILL BECOME 55 ......read into yourself.
Finally people should look at condition of the cows on Greenfields site....picture speaks louder than words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

K.G.

kevthegaff wrote: »

I had an angus bull on the side of a mountain eating hay, reckon he was happier/cleaner than any animal. Pretty good sheds here but drenched, took my eye off the ball this winter with buildings and I'm paying for it now, had a rda and a cow with peritonitis. Think cows were a little below bcs and I'm paying for it now.. Calves haven't loss one tho coughing and scour seem to be starting, not a happy year so far

Pretty much the same here.around here people say when youre making **** silage that tis better than a pike of snow but lately i have been debating that.i had the cows in super order at drying off but they have slowly lost condition over winter and im putting down to second cut delayed 5weeks aand first cut 3weeks late

alps

Greenfield was a demonstration....

For years the Moorpark model lacked the credibility of a stand alone, financially independent unit, freed of the constraints of experiments and trials, and it's associated staffing requirements..

This is it..

Markcheese

jaymla627 wrote: »

But sure that would defeat the whole purpose of the perceived greenfield mantra, the bollocking that went on with their out-wintering pad for years and the cost of maintaining it would of paid for the roof tenfold over the outdoor cubicles they finally relented to putting in, calf mortality rate of 8% is pretty high to that jk alluded to as been normal god knows what it will be at after the past week.....
Lads can defend the place all they want but theirs definitely animal welfare issues their that are preventable

Greenfield is an startup experiment... It'd be a pretty poor experiment if they just replicated moorepark.. What they show doesn't work for them is as important as what does...
.

kevthegaff

I had an angus bull on the side of a mountain eating hay, reckon he was happier/cleaner than any animal. Pretty good sheds here but drenched, took my eye off the ball this winter with buildings and I'm paying for it now, had a rda and a cow with peritonitis. Think cows were a little below bcs and I'm paying for it now.. Calves haven't loss one tho coughing and scour seem to be starting, not a happy year so far

grassroot1

mf240 wrote: »

If you were to base decisions on the past few days, then you wouldn't be milking cows.

You would not be farming!!

jaymla627

wrangler wrote: »

mahoney_j wrote: »

Cool the jets it was a freak event ,not ideal for cows could be 30 years before we see it’s like again ,easy for keyboard warriors to comment .greenfield parlour and cubicles/oad totally exposed but they still kept cows fed and got cows milked .huge praise should go to the team there for there efforts

What's the difference in cost for roofing per cow, a neighbour pricing a shed 65 by 50 at 10000, would it hold 65 cows at 150/cow extra, what's outdoor cubicles costing per cow.
As with sheep, sheds are for the farmer not the animals, but this has been a rotten year for animal outdoors.
Farmers should be shown the bad days before they commit, it said last night on journal that cows hadn't been milked since thursday morning until last night in greenfields.
There was a farm walk on an outdoor march lambing farm in Februrary, They're about a week into lambing now!!!!! wonder how many went home from that farm walk thinking they were going outdoor lambing, a lot of young farmers at that farm walk

But sure that would defeat the whole purpose of the perceived greenfield mantra, the bollocking that went on with their out-wintering pad for years and the cost of maintaining it would of paid for the roof tenfold over the outdoor cubicles they finally relented to putting in, calf mortality rate of 8% is pretty high to that jk alluded to as been normal god knows what it will be at after the past week.....
Lads can defend the place all they want but theirs definitely animal welfare issues their that are preventable

Buford T. Justice XIX

A few lads I follow on twitter have put in topless cubicles the last few years but have already put in poles for a roof when cash flow allows it.

boggerman1

What I don't get about the whole cheapo outdoor cubicles' thing is the feeding.lads burst their arses to cut top quality silage and given its Ireland is rain's a damn lot during the winter ,is it not pointless giving cows that silage and it pissing rain on it.personally I wouldn't change from my roofed cubicle shed.it was dear at the time but fcek it,it will be paid for in a couple of yrs time

mf240

If you were to base decisions on the past few days, then you wouldn't be milking cows.

patsy_mccabe

Obviously an emotive subject.

They're usually the best discussions.

Keepgrowing

blue5000 wrote: »

Mod noteOk we're all a bit stressed with the weather the last few days, let's not be bitchy with everyone here. Read over your comment before you hit the 'submit reply' button. Thanks

This thread was a car crash before and should be closed

blue5000

Mod noteOk we're all a bit stressed with the weather the last few days, let's not be bitchy with everyone here. Read over your comment before you hit the 'submit reply' button. Thanks

carrollsno1

Willfarman wrote: »

You won’t be a young farmer for long. Years pass quickly so it’s important to future proof the place.. it’s not just the cows you’re sheltering in the long term.

Always had the idea of being a miserable b#stard and farming til i drop, last few years i said f#ck it work hard in your 20s get farming in your 30s in my 50s take a step back and in my 60s well i hope ill be lile the lads in my class thst are white collar workers, retired.
Im not planning on farming till i drop anymore so a young mans set up suits me tbe finest

Gawddawggonnit

Good milk price this year so no subsidised ski holiday...the ski holiday came to ye!

When ye were on ye’er Ski holidays did ye not see the set-up that livestock farmers had?

I’ll get my coat...:)

memorystick

mahoney_j wrote: »

An insulting ignorant comment ,of u only knew the hours and effort put in over last few days to keep things going and keep stock fed watered and content

I do know. Are you the only farmer that got snow and frost over the last few days? ☃️

Willfarman

You won’t be a young farmer for long. Years pass quickly so it’s important to future proof the place.. it’s not just the cows you’re sheltering in the long term.

wrangler

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Can one therefore draw the conclusion that dairy farmers are the only farmers that are profit focused...? No!

Edit. Apologies you’re only having a cut at Wrangler...

Again

Anyway someone died in the EU and made dairy farmers God , so armchair farmers are not the only ones creaming it at the moment

Coolfresian

Base price wrote: »

I read that article. To be honest I'm not in favour of outdoor cubicles. There was a pic on the IFJ of indoor cubicles that were covered with drifting snow and the cows didn't seem to use them. One wonders how cows fared in uncovered cubicles with the East wind/snow.
IMO if we Irish farmers have to subject our livestock to NZ type systems to make a living then its a sad state of affairs for animal husbandry :mad:

Exactly. With climate change high on the global agenda and our already extremly high animal welfare standards being examined more we can't just bury our heads in the sand. Pictures which have being circulating on social media and that article in the journal about cows huddled together outdoors to stay warm unable to be mlked and with cubicles buried in snow is not what I want to see in Irish ag and does us a great disservice. Imo, cows need shelter from these conditions no matter how rare they occur. If u can't justify the cost of having a roof over your cows and an enclosed milking parlour that can be used in these conditions what's the point of it all? By the way the article didn't mention where the calves were taken to be warm?

Gawddawggonnit

alps wrote: »

The dairy farming gig is hugly focused on return if investment, that's how they pay such high rental prices to armchair farmersðŸ˜Ž

Can one therefore draw the conclusion that dairy farmers are the only farmers that are profit focused...? No!

Edit. Apologies you’re only having a cut at Wrangler...

wrangler

alps wrote: »

The dairy farming gig is hugly focused on return if investment, that's how they pay such high rental prices to armchair farmers😎

If a cow gross output €2500+/yr, I don't think €300 is high rental to facilitate that,

Gawddawggonnit

Lol.

Interesting read on a Sunday morning.

Indoor or outdoor doesn’t really matter a damn.
Post photos of ye’r cows people. I’ve only seen one photo posted of cows not caked in shyte this winter, and that’s Keepgrowing. Doesn’t he have OCs?

Any other photos of cows they may as well have them on slats....

I bought a Charolais bull yesterday and he’s caked also. Will be clipped when he arrives because I couldn’t be looking at him.
Any cow not lying up on cubicles here gets culled. The majority of the time they cull themselves anyway due to high scc...

wrangler

mahoney_j wrote: »

An insulting ignorant comment ,of u only knew the hours and effort put in over last few days to keep things going and keep stock fed watered and content

Their eye is on the windfall at the end causing them to keep investment to an absolute minimum. I think they've gone too extreme.
Treat it as an investment maybe but it's animals not goods they're dealing with.
Big difference

valtra2

alps wrote: »

The dairy farming gig is hugly focused on return if investment, that's how they pay such high rental prices to armchair farmersðŸ˜Ž

The armchair farmers make money from the land. Work hard or work clever.

alps

wrangler wrote: »

What's the difference in cost for roofing per cow, a neighbour pricing a shed 65 by 50 at 10000, would it hold 65 cows at 150/cow extra, what's outdoor cubicles costing per cow.
As with sheep, sheds are for the farmer not the animals, but this has been a rotten year for animal outdoors.
Farmers should be shown the bad days before they commit, it said last night on journal that cows hadn't been milked since thursday morning until last night in greenfields.
There was a farm walk on an outdoor march lambing farm in Februrary, They're about a week into lambing now!!!!! wonder how many went home from that farm walk thinking they were going outdoor lambing, a lot of young farmers at that farm walk

The dairy farming gig is hugly focused on return if investment, that's how they pay such high rental prices to armchair farmers😎

mahoney_j

memorystick wrote: »

I get the impression that animal welfare wouldn't be high on your priorities the you reacted to that NZ comment. Learn from it.

An insulting ignorant comment ,of u only knew the hours and effort put in over last few days to keep things going and keep stock fed watered and content

carrollsno1

memorystick wrote: »

I get the impression that animal welfare wouldn't be high on your priorities the you reacted to that NZ comment. Learn from it.

So you could have a nz system in ireland with the cows well fed and in good condition farmers happy and cows are happy, but you could have a neighbour down the road with an indoor system with cows fading away, cows not performing farmer stressed aswell but hey he has a big shed to hide that from view and also hell be known as the great lad to spend money etc and the low cost farmer is seen as the bad farmer.
The best farmer i ever worked for was an irish farmer doing his best to run a new zealand system, there were farmers in the area with there pedigree cows, sheds and feeding cows concentrates year round etc and there fertility figures werent close to where we were when i left for nz. Then the farmer i was with in NZ was running a system similar to most irish farmers just with no sheds the cows were not in as good condition as back home and again the fertility wasnt as good either despite using artificial aids for breeding.

All i heard when working on the farm back home was "must be rough on stock there" must be up to there knees in sh#t" "cows must be starved" i said lads its plain in simple if there was stock suffering i wouldnt work there whether its an indoor or outdoor unit.
It just sickens me that in this day and age any young farmer making a go for himself and trying something different, is belittled and begrudged by farmers of his own generation and generations beforw him who are mostly just farming the system and a few cattle run around the farm for a few months just so they can draw down the payments

wrangler

mahoney_j wrote: »

Cool the jets it was a freak event ,not ideal for cows could be 30 years before we see it’s like again ,easy for keyboard warriors to comment .greenfield parlour and cubicles/oad totally exposed but they still kept cows fed and got cows milked .huge praise should go to the team there for there efforts

What's the difference in cost for roofing per cow, a neighbour pricing a shed 65 by 50 at 10000, would it hold 65 cows at 150/cow extra, what's outdoor cubicles costing per cow.
As with sheep, sheds are for the farmer not the animals, but this has been a rotten year for animal outdoors.
Farmers should be shown the bad days before they commit, it said last night on journal that cows hadn't been milked since thursday morning until last night in greenfields.
There was a farm walk on an outdoor march lambing farm in Februrary, They're about a week into lambing now!!!!! wonder how many went home from that farm walk thinking they were going outdoor lambing, a lot of young farmers at that farm walk

memorystick

mahoney_j wrote: »

Cool the jets it was a freak event ,not ideal for cows could be 30 years before we see it’s like again ,easy for keyboard warriors to comment .greenfield parlour and cubicles/oad totally exposed but they still kept cows fed and got cows milked .huge praise should go to the team there for there efforts

I get the impression that animal welfare wouldn't be high on your priorities the you reacted to that NZ comment. Learn from it.

Base price

mahoney_j wrote: »

Cool the jets it was a freak event ,not ideal for cows could be 30 years before we see it’s like again ,easy for keyboard warriors to comment .greenfield parlour and cubicles/oad totally exposed but they still kept cows fed and got cows milked .huge praise should go to the team there for there efforts

I ain't no keyboard warrior nor a veggie/vegan so chillax and douse your jets.