Dairy chit chat II

Grazed 2wks ago. I've seen here burnt up worse before, we expect something like this 1 in every 3 or 4yrs. Never seen it this bad this early however, usually not till mid July/August, that's the one thing that has me worried, how long will I have to keep feeding silage, the pits were empty here end of the spring also obviously. I'm sitting at about 7wks winter feed for the full herd at the minute, about half what I'd like, and if I have to feed back out at the rate I am for next few weeks, if so it will end up a far bigger problem than the fodder crisis. Not going to panic yet tho ha, a good week of rain would solve most my problems, Sr is low here so only need to grow 40 to keep me tipping over.

Ffs lads. I've 60 acres of silage mowed. No rain wanted.

stretch film wrote: »

Ahhh you were spoilt on the after grass.
Nothing can be done about it now.
A lot of tidying up to be done when rain does arrive.
Over a month now without it and a sea breeze to boot .
Usually would have a second cut to sacrifice but this sh#t is way to early .
Fek all rain forecast next few days

Waited too long last year for surpluses to appear and quality suffered. Tried to get cows to clean out rather than topping. Did not work. Decided that one way or the other every paddock would be mowed between 20th of Apr and 1st of June to maintain quality. In a much better place quality wise this year but only bales off 2 paddocks. Most paddocks pre-mowed. One or two topped after youngstock.

kowtow wrote: »

Well I've gained a new respect for contractors after the last couple of weeks. Have been standing in for my neighbor's usual rake driver. Gave up counting sometime last week after 1000 acres, feel about 20 years older and I'm pretty certain my head is capable of spinning 360 degrees like that horror film character.

I feel like I ought to be taking what's left of the poor rake out for a romantic dinner and a night away somewhere.

About time

Got a few mm of rain here since midday. 40 units of urea gone out on everything bar second cut. Asked the oul boy had he the stomach to chance spreading the fert for third cut now on the basis it takes 7-9 days for urea to become available and we'd be cutting it Monday. A bridge to far to say the least of it. If we get the other few mm forecast over the next few days we should be set into July for grass.

Talking about feeding, I'm giving 285 Euro for 16% dairy nut. Same price for 14% fertility boost nut. I get 4 ton at a time is that bad or good. probably will get a5 to 10 euro bonus back next march. It's a good quality ingredient nut, what are ye feeding, how much

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Couldn’t disagree more

No better way to hit yield and solids and thus your pocket .if measuring grass /walking paddocks you would react a lot quicker by slowing rotation and upping meal or last resort silage .stemmy grass now is due to grazing too strong grass not baling premowing or topping last round

Timmaay wrote: »

No rain worth talking about here ugggh.

4.3mm here. Expect to be back to full dust by evening at the rate the wind has dried up everything.

Cows however gone back up in milk lest 2 days. Wait for collection to calculate exactly, but I think the reduction in heat is a big factor..

older by the day wrote: »

Maize, distillers dried grain, rape seed meal, soya hulls, maize gluten, Palm kernel, wheat, molasses blend and a load of minerals, its 290 Euro now, 16 protein

Get them to take out the palm kernel and maize gluten replace with wheat. Replace the rapeseed with soya and cut the price by 15 euro.

freedominacup wrote: »

Just after ordering a maize soya hulls mix. Will feed it a 4kg/HD for the next 10 days and review then. Will probably feed 2kg dm of bales as well. Bales will be gone at that stage. Either the rain forecast over the weekend along with what fell yesterday does the trick with urea and we're motoring again or it's going to be an expensive summer.

Why did you chance spreading Urea in this weather Free, would a CAN based product not have been a safer bet?

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Why did you chance spreading Urea in this weather Free, would a CAN based product not have been a safer bet?

Plenty of moisture yesterday to get it into the ground. Wouldn't be too worried after that. Haven't spread CAN on grass for years.

whelan2 wrote: »

The jug I use for putting detergent in the wash trough was missing from the dairy this morning so I poured the detergent in from the drum. It splashed up on my face. My eyelid is still really sore. Anyone know what you can put on your eyelid. Was just rubbing it with a wet paper towel most of the day. It was the deosan chlorine free detergent. Found the jug in the machinery shed after. No one owned up to taking it

Eyewash for a start from the first aid kit.

Acid burn so just keep washing with water is the treatment I think. Luckily it didn't get into your eye

Rinse it away from your eye iykwim