Dairy chit chat II

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

trixi2011 wrote: »

Hows everyone's milk production going this spring well behind here on litres and solids only have 5kg of grass in the diet rest a mix of maize and grass silage . Sitting at the same production for the past 3 weeks

I remember asking an old lad many moons ago how does he stop his hounds from consistent barking? (He had quite a few)....I feed them, he said.
Not being smart, but that’s poor return from fresh calved cows. Assuming their fresh, not stale.
A balanced diet is what’s needed. Emphasis on ’balanced’ Trixi.

Yip fresh enough calvers alright hard to get enough in to them alright there far from being hungry tho and holding condition. Well 3.4p and 5.1 f urea still in the mid 20s

alps wrote: »

How much if this could you add to the diet? If toasted maize not available, would maize meal do? Would you be inclined to drop the parlour 6kg a little and go hard with the maize through the silage?

Rolled maize is an excellent source of energy but be careful how you go. ‘Going hard’ is dangerous. Go easy and introduce slowly. Careful also with fresh calvers entering the herd as they won’t be up to speed with the maize meal.
Toasted maize is much safer.

trixi2011 wrote: »

Yip fresh enough calvers alright hard to get enough in to them alright there far from being hungry tho and holding condition. Well 3.4p and 5.1 f urea still in the mid 20s

I’d be looking towards an energy source for fresh calvers.
Protein to fat ratio looks a bit out of kilter.

Mooooo wrote: »

Yeah, after rain yday back in today and 2nite so will add silage back in, plenty maize tight on silage

Why not add silage to forage maize? If you’d good quality maize and grass silage balance their intake to 16%p and cut down on nuts.
Works here...

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Do the cows know that fodder is tight or something. 3rd and 4th calves for today are on the way. I'll be down to single figures in dry cows fairly quick with the way s few more are springing

35 still dry here, and wouldn't expect more than one or 2 the next week, and thank Fook for that, a side from grass being short I'm having some serious issues with scour in the calves born the last week. Compact calving is all grand and dandy during feb but wheels alot harder to keep on the wagon from mid March on.

jaymla627 wrote: »

Its needed, where extremely loose until nis was added, will be buffering them with 2kgs of nis for the entire lactation to see if I can sort out my bf issues, went in with a beet pulp/soya hull/flaked maize mix last year and was next to useless, with fats down at 3.4 at one point and not getting above 3.6 till near July
Would be putting straw through diet feeder instead with a touch of molasses if feeding quality straw was even possible to source but it isn't

Add 3.5/4% megafat as well ,big improvements here since both that and nis added .megafat in at 3.5% till mid June and nis in all year

Anyone have recent soil temps ? Wondering is my thermometer broken, getting 9/10 degrees in a few different paddocks.

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Anyone have recent soil temps ? Wondering is my thermometer broken, getting 9/10 degrees in a few different paddocks.

Don't have one myself but Met eireann's recording yesterday at 10cm depth at 10am have

Oak Park at 7.3
Johnstown Castle at 6.8
Belmullet at 8.6
Claremorris at 7.9

I'd say your own could well be correct with the sun today. I wouldn't mind hearing from someone else that has one myself.

Nice day out today and they say Mayo is a cold place.

Edit: just seen the previous post.

alps wrote: »

Everyone boasts about the length of their thing....

Well it's the guys with the shortest thing....have the highest temperatures...

Temp at full depth of the probe here is 6c and temp at 2 inches is at 10c

Which one is more important for growth?

The hand and head that holds the probe.;)

Where ever the roots are...

No point testing soil temperature now. Grass has been growing 3 weeks ago.
Get it out be fecked.;)

The March madness showing no sign of ending here, outbreak of crypto now, lost 4 the last 2 days and stomach tubing good few more. Fair hard to find any motivation for all this sh1t by now. Only saving grace has been calving slowed down, nothing born last few days, if I get afew more dry days I'll start calving them outside instead.

jaymla627 wrote: »

Are you snatch calving our letting calves suck cows, even calving outside won't break the cycle if calves are let suck the cow as your cows are probably covered in crypto oocysts, what electrolytes are you going in with

Let nearly every calf suck this yr, haven't brought the cow in for at least 24hrs after milking, and it's worked very well until now!, alot less work and good strong calves. But yeh fair point, almost definitely pushed my luck by now, the crap March has put serious pressure on sheds here, where I'd normally expect a decent number of the drys off straw and on cubicles the milkers have hogged all them the last 3wks. Young HE calves also have almost zero fight in them when they get any sort of scour also, definitely time to move back to an AA bull!

Timmaay wrote: »

The March madness showing no sign of ending here, outbreak of crypto now, lost 4 the last 2 days and stomach tubing good few more. Fair hard to find any motivation for all this sh1t by now. Only saving grace has been calving slowed down, nothing born last few days, if I get afew more dry days I'll start calving them outside instead.

Parafor from day 4 to 12 should sort it.

What a late spring!
Closed off some silage ground today. This time last year that same field was already in the pit.

Here’s hoping for a nice wet summer, NOT for ye though!