Dairy chit chat II

mahoney_j wrote: »

Would a much simpler option be just cull a % of herd cell count ,feet poor solids etc .wont solve problem of no growth but will reduce demand straights like hulls and palm are going to get scarce and dear longer this drags on u mentioned tight on winter feed too even if rain comes it’ll take time for grass to recover

Its better to do it now than later when fodder supplies are dwindling and cow prices are lower

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

S
Starting on wheat tomorrow...
The hits just keep on coming.

For burgers? Or does it calm them? Sorry know nothing about horses ha. Did you ever see the movie BUCK the horse whisperer? Very good I think you'd enjoy it.

jaymla627 wrote: »

If lads are going this route they’d want to pull the trigger fairly lively, can see a lot of cheap cows been bought in the autumn/winter if Mother Nature doesn’t reboot and revert us back to our nice temperate wet climate, after the spring the cash buffers simply aren’t their for lads to spend small fortunes buying in feed to keep cows going

I don't get your point about the cash buffers. Surely the point of putting in feed is to maintain output? Is pke just gut fill? Feeding an 18% blend at 4kg/HD and a 50:50 blend of soya hulls and maize meal at 4kg. Yields stopped dropping at 29l. I'm hearing lots about yields under 20l. The extra feed is costing me around €1-€1.25/hd/day depending on how much feed you think would be going in anyway. Nothing unusual to be feeding silage here at this time of year so not counting it as an extra cost anymore than I'd be congratulating myself on my brilliant management skills if weather was cooperating and we weren't feeding silage at all.

Without that feed yields would be well back. How much? Hard to be sure. I'll let someone else stop feeding their cows and find out. In the first phase of this we threw some paddock bales of dubious quality into the mix before a flush of grass became available. That flush was there by luck not judgement. We knew that the deficit was short term, less than 10 days and we still took a hit to yields that we never got back. Bales were no more than gut fill and I didn't want to open silage pit. If I was doing it again I'd open the pit. If you want milk you have to feed for it. If you don't feed for it you will be without income. From the sounds of things posted here pke is pennywise and pound foolish.

freedominacup wrote: »

I don't get your point about the cash buffers. Surely the point of putting in feed is to maintain output? Is pke just gut fill? Feeding an 18% blend at 4kg/HD and a 50:50 blend of soya hulls and maize meal at 4kg. Yields stopped dropping at 29l. I'm hearing lots about yields under 20l. The extra feed is costing me around €1-€1.25/hd/day depending on how much feed you think would be going in anyway. Nothing unusual to be feeding silage here at this time of year so not counting it as an extra cost anymore than I'd be congratulating myself on my brilliant management skills if weather was cooperating and we weren't feeding silage at all.

Without that feed yields would be well back. How much? Hard to be sure. I'll let someone else stop feeding their cows and find out. In the first phase of this we threw some paddock bales of dubious quality into the mix before a flush of grass became available. That flush was there by luck not judgement. We knew that the deficit was short term, less than 10 days and we still took a hit to yields that we never got back. Bales were no more than gut fill and I didn't want to open silage pit. If I was doing it again I'd open the pit. If you want milk you have to feed for it. If you don't feed for it you will be without income. From the sounds of things posted here pke is pennywise and pound foolish.

100% correct

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Used Epricis on them instead this year. Injectable. Noticed a difference in the cows the following day. Finished with pourons, ended up doing the cows twice for the last few years. I have a feeling pourons are adding to parasite resistance.

Under the skin or IM?

Price per 100cows?

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

235 in the local merchants. Anyone getting it cheaper?

Better value from port .bigger loads obviously.

Keepgrowing wrote: »

It’s early July, if cows aren’t worth feeding at this stage they should be happy meals

Not a pke fan either ?

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Seven hours round trip with one horse and return home with two...wrong kinda expansion.

Bad day.

Came back with the foulest, meanest, no-good-bytch of a filly that you could possibly be unlucky enough to afford...

Bytch took a lump out of my shoulder.
Starting on wheat tomorrow...
The hits just keep on coming.

Sounds like you have a mean one there alright. A little light grazing might put manners on her. ..;)

I've found the hot weather has made pure pets out the horses left off. Normally this time of year they'd have no time for you at all ...

stretch film wrote: »

Not a pke fan either ?

Honestly I’ve never fed it so can’t comment. I’m not a great believer in “filling” cows. I reckon if you're going to the bother of feeding milch cows be sure it’s good gear

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Honestly I’ve never fed it so can’t comment. I’m not a great believer in “filling” cows. I reckon if you're going to the bother of feeding milch cows be sure it’s good gear

I'm in agreement .
I don't believe its gutfill but its new to me also. Time will tell.

Alternatives are thin on the ground.

freedominacup wrote: »

jaymla627 wrote: »

If lads are going this route they’d want to pull the trigger fairly lively, can see a lot of cheap cows been bought in the autumn/winter if Mother Nature doesn’t reboot and revert us back to our nice temperate wet climate, after the spring the cash buffers simply aren’t their for lads to spend small fortunes buying in feed to keep cows going

I don't get your point about the cash buffers. Surely the point of putting in feed is to maintain output? Is pke just gut fill? Feeding an 18% blend at 4kg/HD and a 50:50 blend of soya hulls and maize meal at 4kg. Yields stopped dropping at 29l. I'm hearing lots about yields under 20l. The extra feed is costing me around €1-€1.25/hd/day depending on how much feed you think would be going in anyway. Nothing unusual to be feeding silage here at this time of year so not counting it as an extra cost anymore than I'd be congratulating myself on my brilliant management skills if weather was cooperating and we weren't feeding silage at all.

Without that feed yields would be well back. How much? Hard to be sure. I'll let someone else stop feeding their cows and find out. In the first phase of this we threw some paddock bales of dubious quality into the mix before a flush of grass became available. That flush was there by luck not judgement. We knew that the deficit was short term, less than 10 days and we still took a hit to yields that we never got back. Bales were no more than gut fill and I didn't want to open silage pit. If I was doing it again I'd open the pit. If you want milk you have to feed for it. If you don't feed for it you will be without income. From the sounds of things posted here pke is pennywise and pound foolish.

It's the sub 20 litre cows I'm referring to, if on a winter/drought diet your talking 6kgs 18% nut 300ton 4kgs soya hulls 220 ton and 8kgs dm silage, probably talking the guts of €3.50 plus a day on feed alone, to produce 7 euros worth of milk, our 17cent a litre....
Wouldn't touch pke/hulls either buffer mix here in at 4kgs is soya/beet pulp/flaked maize/peas/barley getting this blown in at 255 ton and its a lot better value at that then hulls/pke given extra milk response

Waffletraktor wrote: »

They're only grown by the peasant classes and not real farmers so are unimportant.

This is becoming a nasty place

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

jaymla627 wrote: »

It's the sub 20 litre cows I'm referring to, if on a winter/drought diet your talking 6kgs 18% nut 300ton 4kgs soya hulls 220 ton and 8kgs dm silage, probably talking the guts of €3.50 plus a day on feed alone, to produce 7 euros worth of milk, our 17cent a litre....
Wouldn't touch pke/hulls either buffer mix here in at 4kgs is soya/beet pulp/flaked maize/peas/barley getting this blown in at 255 ton and its a lot better value at that then hulls/pke given extra milk response

You obviously have the excess silage already to fill the rest of the gap with! Hulls going in here tonight. Ye might all scoff at what a herd like mine is yielding but it's worked for us for 40 plus years and we've done pretty Okay I think

Swings and roundabouts, have 1000 bales and 60 acres of pit in the yard be about 8 months feed if no grass in the diet , but I'm one of those high cost farmers feeding to much meal with low ebi cows who's doing the whole job wrong....
It's a tipping point this year for a lot of lads who have simply bred high solid/low volume cows that simply won't respond to feed like a good Holstein cow will, its the perfect system when grass is their but goes tits up when your get weather events like this year

Mf310 wrote: »

jaymla627 wrote:

It's the sub 20 litre cows I'm referring to, if on a winter/drought diet your talking 6kgs 18% nut 300ton 4kgs soya hulls 220 ton and 8kgs dm silage, probably talking the guts of €3.50 plus a day on feed alone, to produce 7 euros worth of milk, our 17cent a litre.... Wouldn't touch pke/hulls either buffer mix here in at 4kgs is soya/beet pulp/flaked maize/peas/barley getting this blown in at 255 ton and its a lot better value at that then hulls/pke given extra milk response

Sounds a good balanced mix is that plus nuts in parlour?

Yeah 6kgs in parlour of a 16% high maize nut with soya,beet pulp, barley, and maize distillers

Down to scorched earth for the milkers here, baled up half the stemmy rubbish that was ahead of them and will let them have free access to the feed passage & stick on 5kg in the parlour, they can go out at night and make what they will of the paddocks - nothing growing over limestone on the hills anyway.

We cut a heavy first cut on the outfarm 3 weeks ago and the majority of that is parched and brown still. Have a dozen or so acres of "bog fields" over there which have greened up - question now is should I spread a bag and a half of CAN on those now so we can choose whether to graze or cut them as the weeks go by? Not going to spread anything on the dry parched ground until there is some sensible chance of rain in the forecast.