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Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mod note: New thread, folks.

Old thread link below

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057901177&page=250

Buford T. Justice

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Mooooo

That gap timer thing some lads use is supposed to be good

jaymla627

trixi2011 wrote: »

I don't disagree at all with you that it's a savage job probably one of the best I've seen but for the number of cows it is going to be a huge expense going forward . Alot of people talk about the labour saving element of rotarys bit don't know if there really is that much of a saving .

The worst aspect of a rotary is washing the thing, used to always dread the end of milking and facing into stopping down and up for 15 minutes and folding down the trays and cupping up 50 plus sets of clusters

Buford T. Justice XIX

straight wrote: »

I'm only a small setup by today's standards and it's taking me an hour to get the cows in in the mornings these days.

The biggest problem we have at the minute is to get the feckers standing up to bring them in. The cows were in a paddock near the yard yesterday evening so I walked down for them. Gave up and walked back for the tractor to get them standing up.:rolleyes:

GrasstoMilk

How many cows do you need to justify a 50 point rotary

GrasstoMilk

straight wrote: »

At least you will get paid. Alot of dairy heros not very good to pay their Bill's by all accounts. Contract rearing could get messy for both parties.

If you dont get paid you just land back the heifers to there owner

straight

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

The biggest problem we have at the minute is to get the feckers standing up to bring them in. The cows were in a paddock near the yard yesterday evening so I walked down for them. Gave up and walked back for the tractor to get them standing up.:rolleyes:

Glad it's not just me. Pleading with them to get them in for a full hour these mornings. I always read about milking only taking lads an hour when it takes me 2 - 3 hours to get mine in, milked, washed up and gap closed on them again.

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

If you dont get paid you just land back the heifers to there owner

Your still down money. I know a fella contract rearing and he's delighted with the money he's making. He wasn't feeding any ration which is fine as long as he hits the targets but it's not as easy as dry cattle. Getting them all to calve in 6 weeks is big responsibility to take on.

Buford T. Justice XIX

straight wrote: »

Glad it's not just me. Pleading with them to get them in for a full hour these mornings. I always read about milking only taking lads an hour when it takes me 2 - 3 hours to get mine in, milked, washed up and gap closed on them again.

Mine were on 2kgs up till recently to keep the grass growing ahead of them. Covers are very good ahead of them atm so dropped back to 0.5kgs and they're on a go-slow in protest:pac:

jaymla627

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How many cows do you need to justify a 50 point rotary

Much better measure would be liters produced per year, properly costed I’d say you would want to be sending 2.5 million liters a year to justify it

whelan2

Young lad brings in cows here and I start milking. It's now getting to the stage that I'm on the 6th row now before he has them all in. Getting them out of the parlour is hardship too, not helped by the dog standing at top of parlour with a mineral bucket lid waiting for you to throw it for her. She wont let cows by until you throw it

Siamsa Sessions

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

The biggest problem we have at the minute is to get the feckers standing up to bring them in. The cows were in a paddock near the yard yesterday evening so I walked down for them. Gave up and walked back for the tractor to get them standing up.:rolleyes:

Have you no dog???

Fella I milked for years ago had what I thought was a right useless oul fool of a shep. He'd lie around the shed and bark if a car came into the yard, but that seemed about as much as he did.

Then I walked out for the cows one morning with him and the dog came with us. Same as yourself, the cows were lazy and slow to stand up. Next thing, the farmer said, "Speak up Bob", and the dog started barking. All the cows started standing up and walking towards the gap. I never questioned the dog's job after that!

mahoney_j

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How many cows do you need to justify a 50 point rotary

4/500 I’d say and a strong current account !!!!

Buford T. Justice XIX

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Have you no dog???

Fella I milked for years ago had what I thought was a right useless oul fool of a shep. He'd lie around the shed and bark if a car came into the yard, but that seemed about as much as he did.

Then I walked out for the cows one morning with him and the dog came with us. Same as yourself, the cows were lazy and slow to stand up. Next thing, the farmer said, "Speak up Bob", and the dog started barking. All the cows started standing up and walking towards the gap. I never questioned the dog's job after that!

No dog here with a good number of years, sadly. Still heartbroken over the last one but I'm looking at getting a pup soon if I can find one I like.

The last one used bring the cows for me in the morning and evening while I was setting up the parlour. The first would be coming in the gate by the time I'd be sorted and she wouldn't come back until all the cattle were in. The neighbours cattle across the river not coming in for me to milk used bother her too, though:D

I'm half thinking of a quad as well for later in the year when fences need moving and ground gets sticky for going into with the tractor.

whelan2

mahoney_j wrote: »

4/500 I’d say and a strong current account !!!!

And a nice bank manager

Castlekeeper

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Have you no dog???

Fella I milked for years ago had what I thought was a right useless oul fool of a shep. He'd lie around the shed and bark if a car came into the yard, but that seemed about as much as he did.

Then I walked out for the cows one morning with him and the dog came with us. Same as yourself, the cows were lazy and slow to stand up. Next thing, the farmer said, "Speak up Bob", and the dog started barking. All the cows started standing up and walking towards the gap. I never questioned the dog's job after that!

I've a pretty useless old dog like that as well, but equally so, she'll bark and hunt when I give her the nod and her favourite pass time of chasing swallows and martins takes her in and out through them so they're moving in no time. There would be a fair scatter if she was at sheep though!

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How many cows do you need to justify a 50 point rotary

Depends on what position you are 're development really. If you have the land accommodation and cow's right I'd imagine it's whatever level of debt you are comfortable carrying really. Anything much beyond 24 units in a herringnone would need 2 people to stay efficient, so over 240 cows would be 10 rows, wouldn't want to go beyond that myself. That rotary could be a one man show for most of the year.
Have a lot to do here so I'll be staying with the 14 unit for a number of years yet

Castlekeeper

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

How many cows do you need to justify a 50 point rotary

In the IGA thingy, that Henry Walsh was saying 320 and you wouldn't want any less without a lot of spare cash. Hard to see it justifiable even at thathe imho.
The farmers of the UK twitter account this week were milking 470 cows with one 24 unit, and they just built another 24 unit and one person milks in each! I must read more to see how it works on the land based etc.

Castlekeeper

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

No dog here with a good number of years, sadly. Still heartbroken over the last one but I'm looking at getting a pup soon if I can find one I like.

The last one used bring the cows for me in the morning and evening while I was setting up the parlour. The first would be coming in the gate by the time I'd be sorted and she wouldn't come back until all the cattle were in. The neighbours cattle across the river not coming in for me to milk used bother her too, though:D

I'm half thinking of a quad as well for later in the year when fences need moving and ground gets sticky for going into with the tractor.

Is it fair to ask how does a tractor help?
Between getting up and down off it opening gaps and marking fields I couldn't imagine it being of much use.
I used to take a hurley and a two tennis balls. Between missing and having to find the ball and the few that'd hit the target, they'd get moving, I'd stay moving and the time would pass quick enough.
If you'd a dog that wouldnt herd you could at least train it to bring back the ball!
#toptip

Wildsurfer

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

https://youtu.be/FJ8O2y01CmY

Very well thought out rotary parlour. A credit to them

Wouldn't agree with his decision to use split drain instead of slats for exit race though. Imagine the amount of sh1t that will be in that race by the time 340 cows will be gone through it. If it was slatted most will be gone down through and you would have remainder washed off very quickly, and if it was a busy day you wouldn't even need to wash it. I think he over thought that one.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Is it fair to ask how does a tractor help?
Between getting up and down off it opening gaps and marking fields I couldn't imagine it being of much use.
I used to take a hurley and a two tennis balls. Between missing and having to find the ball and the few that'd hit the target, they'd get moving, I'd stay moving and the time would pass quick enough.
If you'd a dog that wouldnt herd you could at least train it to bring back the ball!
#toptip

We never lock them in, if they have enough to eat, they'll stay in the field so drive straight into the field without opening and closing gaps. Our biggest problem here was the ground being too dry so there was no chance of driving back over the bit of ridging made in the spring.

Tractor comes in and the first few stand up, drive around the outside and back again and the most of them are walking towards the gap.

Timmaay

Jezz, I'm spoilt here with the quad, they are slow enough here the min, I certainly don't need to drive aggressively or anything, but you can cover the ground so much faster with the quad and zigzag across the whole field herding them towards the gap alot faster, once they are on the lane way I usually go up ahead of them, put the clusters on the 1st row, then bring in the few stragglers. The thoughts of spending a full hour bringing them in, think I'd just go OAD in that case ha.

cosatron

we never have any issues getting the cows. I suppose its one of the benefits of 12 hour grass allocation. they definitely drop a gear from july on but that's a good sign.

awaywithyou

jaymla627 wrote: »

The worst aspect of a rotary is washing the thing, used to always dread the end of milking and facing into stopping down and up for 15 minutes and folding down the trays and cupping up 50 plus sets of clusters

ah when i have last cluster attached to cow... i just switch from attaching clusters to cows to folding down trays and setting up clusters for washing as the last cows are going around... so u should be finished that side of it when last cows have exited.... we also have a deck wash(an absolute must on any rotary) so while im setting up clusters for washing the deck is also being hosed down.... we dont have much floor space around parlour (5 feet) so not alot of washing there either.... i have seen rotarys where u could drive an artic around the parlour such is the space between deck and wall of shed... looks great til u have u to go washing it...

back to ur mans parlour.... parlour imo should be back beside where the new cubicle shed is.... cows are walking past and in front of new shed and there was no mention of that having to be scraped with a tractor and scraper everyday..... more work.... ideally cows and machinery should not be crossing each other in a farmyard.... easier said than done.... but it could have been done there.... it looks like he wanted dairy near the road for milk tanker... access for the tanker wouldnt be high on my list when locating the building....

the only other thing i dont like is the race for testing by the wall... i actually cannot figure out why lads would put a chute along a wall.... and i also think chute is too long... will take ages to load cows into it.... race for testing here is in the middle of drafting area... access from both sides... holds a maximum of 5 cows.... we test as we milk... i slow down the deck to a nice speed where there will 5/6 cows will have arrived into holding area behind race just as vet has the 5 in the crush done.... works very very well.... vaccinating scanning and testing all done this way and works really well.... tried doing it all on platform like ur man plans on doing... will work ok as we used to do it but the system i described above works much much better

GrasstoMilk

Someone asked about milking gear a few days ago.
This is what I use. Gloves, dry cuffs and just s standard apron with no back covered - never had much issue with getting cow ****e on my back.

If it's really warm I want wear the apron

K.G.

Mooooo wrote: »

Depends on what position you are 're development really. If you have the land accommodation and cow's right I'd imagine it's whatever level of debt you are comfortable carrying really. Anything much beyond 24 units in a herringnone would need 2 people to stay efficient, so over 240 cows would be 10 rows, wouldn't want to go beyond that myself. That rotary could be a one man show for most of the year.
Have a lot to do here so I'll be staying with the 14 unit for a number of years yet

Watched and fair play everything was seriously speced and alot of thought gone into it.the thing is im putting 11 rows through a 14 unit ,parlour has cost roughly 20 k over th years feeder and bin another 5 k.can get through the cows from button to button this time of year in hour and half and that includes washing.i got a great tip on here think it was buford to wash as i go rather the end so one run of the hose has the whole place washed in a few minutes.my point is alot of money spent to milk twice as many cows as me and i cant belive the amount of washing in a rotary.you have to wonder is it worth going for all these cows and messing with hired labour

Wildsurfer

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Someone asked about milking gear a few days ago.
This is what I use. Gloves, dry cuffs and just s standard apron with no back covered - never had much issue with getting cow ****e on my back.

If it's really warm I want wear the apron

The s/s splashback looks a nice job is it easy to keep clean?

Mooooo

K.G. wrote: »

Watched and fair play everything was seriously speced and alot of thought gone into it.the thing is im putting 11 rows through a 14 unit ,parlour has cost roughly 20 k over th years feeder and bin another 5 k.can get through the cows from button to button this time of year in hour and half and that includes washing.i got a great tip on here think it was buford to wash as i go rather the end so one run of the hose has the whole place washed in a few minutes.my point is alot of money spent to milk twice as many cows as me and i cant belive the amount of washing in a rotary.you have to wonder is it worth going for all these cows and messing with hired labour

Same as a lot of things, if done right it may be worth it. For arguments sake if 1 person can manage 100 cows 2 managing 200 cows may be done in a more sustainable way in hours per person or workload. Obviously lots of variables. A case of maximising what's available to you and deciding after that if you want to, or can, go any further.
I find it's being caught between the two stools is awkward. Taking on labour can reduce ability to invest in facilities while at the same time not having it can put too much pressure on as well.

Mooooo

So much for 2 dryish days. 9 acres of damp silage it is then. Been good so far in terms of getting grass off bar the second cut going late so can't complain too much

dar31

Mooooo wrote: »

So much for 2 dryish days. 9 acres of damp silage it is then. Been good so far in terms of getting grass off bar the second cut going late so can't complain too much

Going to knock some paddocks this morning and bale late this evening, fed up waiting for a dry spell and need paddocks back in for cows.

Took a few fields to make hay from a neighbour, more as a favour, a few weeks ago. Fed up looking at weather app waiting for a clear run at it, haven't made hay here since I was in my teens, starting to render why.
Luckily neighbour's in no rush.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Baling here atm. I'm starting to wonder where I'm going to put the bloody things at this stage.

Better to be looking at it than for it I suppose:)