Livestock/General Farming photo thread TAKE #2 ::::RULES IN 1st POST::::

wrangler wrote: »

We use one here to test the colostrum, some ewes'd be very watery

Would you use that information then as part of your breeding program?

funkey_monkey wrote: »

So what do you do with this information? I was thinking of measuring the DM in our silage, but then I thought WTF would I do with the information when I got it.

Brix is a tool used by so called regenerative farmers, organic and new age farmers.
It's recommended by all the soil health gurus.

The higher the brix, the healthier the plant, the harder it is for pests and diseases and viruses to attack that plant.
Then it goes that any animal or human that consumes that plant will be healthier too and it'll be harder for diseases and viruses to attack that animal or human.

Conventional advice here is to cut silage when grass is brix 3.
Artificial fertilizer lowers brix.
Organic natural fertilizers full of a lot of minerals raises brix. And foliar feeding same as well.
I've heard of some in this country getting silage to a brix of 14 but it's years of management to get to that level and you'd want your own mower ready to go when the time is right.
Brix is low in the morning. High in the afternoon and higher with full strong Sun.

Don't the simmental heifers look great when they are washed and dolled up?

https://www.donedeal.ie/beefcattle-for-sale/rathnashan-simmentals-draft-sale-online-14th-nov/26329259

https://twitter.com/i/status/1321524905008107520

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

Grueller wrote: »

Never in my farming career have I tubed a suckler to dry her off and I would be Autumn calving most of them so drying in June to meet the flies. Never get problems from drying them off either.
Just to say my cows would be 3/4 or more beef breed so no real milky first cross Angus cows either.

I often noted that with the sheep too, the place is alive with flies when we're weaning yet only 2 or 3% get mastitis after weaning

I do tube dry most of my cows as most of them are fairly milky, I have thankfully never had an any issue with mastitis. What I have always done is bring them into the yard in the morning then after dinner separate the cows and calves to tube the cows. Calves will have the cows drank dry when tubing. I feed the cows straw for a few days in a pens beside the calves, there would be a little bit of bawling but not a lot as the cows can lick the calf through the bars, it has aways worked well for me. The cows then go out to a bit of winterage ground for awhile.

Anto_Meath wrote:

Hi looking for peoples thoughts on the quite wean paddles, I see a neighbor has them in at the minute, he tells me it's his first year using them so he isn't sure how it will go yet (Saturday will tell). What I have noticed is some of his cows now have a good elders (they nearly look like they are springing). Do you let the calf drink the cow once before you remove the calf and tube the cow or have you to milk out the cow before you tube her?

we've used the wean pads and their good unless the cow has big teats where the calf is still able to work around the wean pad.
We've been putting a few inch long screws onto the wean pads and this seems to do the trick.
We also use them on young cows that are inclined to suck as well and it works for this too.
Usially tube the cows a 1-2 weeks after weaning them.

funkey_monkey wrote: »

What age of calves will be in there and what would the density be? Any reason as to why you go for sawdust over straw?
The thing I like about the sawdust is you can go in with a shovel and lift the dung where it lies without causing much disturbance to the reset of the bed, then shake the dust around it and its good to go for another while.

Autumn born calves. 4 weeks to 3 months going in. I will have 30 of them lying back there with access to the cows on the slats 24/7.
I go for the sawdust simply because I have a neighbour who is a joiner and he dumps it there from the extractor system. In other words it's free. I find the labour saving over straw a godsend even more so than the cost savings.

Sunset over Galway

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Two May blue bulls. Just weaned so was a noisy shed for a couple of days

What bull are they off?

A bit of Opticlox will sort that sore eye.

Lady Haywire wrote: »

White is SOY off a Charolais cow & the black is BZC off a Limousin.

Lovely animals.

How do you find SOY at calving. 13%
I have used dbz, and rws, 11% I think, a few times, chanced a DEP 18% this year not sure what I've let myself in for. Big cows alright but the fear factor or the high %. Thought rws was grand after.

Thanks for that. Haven't had an extreme muscle animal here for a while. We're all Mozart until last couple years. In March have bb5223, dbz, rws and an sfl (was the only blue in the tank that day.) Cows getting older now and I'm getting more tempted by the blues. Thanks again

Lady Haywire wrote: »

SFL! Those straws go a good price now. Hope for a heifer from that one!! Best of luck with them anyway, the bit of muscle is always tempting alright

SFL was a Great breeder
BB2247 is gone too