David's going Dairying.

I'll stick up more information and photos when its fully finished. I just got it up and running to milk. Cows trained into the routine quick enough. I think milking them individually helped.

In the summer I'll put up the final figures for everything. As of now I'm gone over budget by 15k. However I had no cost for digging or stone. I also sold building stone, flagstones and slates which will bring the 15k back to about 8k. At the moment I'm just enjoying the journey even though the weather is brutal.

This is the collecting yard for the minute. A wall going parallel with the tank, this will be built 7ft to the left, and another wall going between the pillars of the shed will be built during the summer. The fence is doing fine for the moment.



The cows closest to calf are in a large loose bedded shed. We set up a calving gate temporarily in this shed for the spring. It works just fine and we only used the head gate once so far. This shed and the one to the right of it will be turned into cubicles during the summer.

squinn2912 wrote: »

What make of head gate is that?

It's a Condon head gate.

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Fair play David - great stuff!

Did the lorry driver say anything about the surface or being able to turn to get in? I only ask as it might be an issue if I went ahead here.

He called on a month ago and we decided what we were going to do. I just made it wide enough so there wont be any issues.

trg wrote: »

Fair play David. Will you be tracking figures as you go along?
Comparing actual figures to budgeted figures and that

Yes I will. When I have the final spend put together I'll post it up.

The parlor finished

Say my name wrote: »

Do you have to put in a pvc ceiling in the dairy?

I don't have to put in a ceiling but I have to put in a PVC division between the dairy and parlor.

Hello everyone. I was silent with my updates for a while. By the time building was finished and calving done I was just drained, mentally not physically. This last lockdown hit me harder than expected and I got into a bad habit of working longer days and actually getting less done. I am back on track again and feeling like myself.

Right so I am milking 48 cows out of my original 52 calves. 1 heifer died in September from pneumonia, 1 heifer absorbed the embro in September, 1 heifer was a free martin and 1 heifer had bad warts on her teats and got mastitis. She had a fine AA bull calf but I couldn't get milk out of her. Out of these 48 cows, 1 cow got E.Coli mastitis in two quarters and is only milking from the other two. Another  cow got Staph Aureus mastitis and is milking on three quarters. Both cows are in the last row and both will be culled the end of the year.

Spring 2021 had it's ups and downs. I had no C Sections and I didn't loose any cows. 7 calves were lost. 2 because I left the cows calve too long and 5 were down to poor minerals. I was giving cows Crystalx pre calving lick buckets from the end of November until the 1st week of March and I changed to another brand. While it said it was a pre calving mineral lick it was lower in Ca and Mg. Into the third week of March I noticed cows being slow to calf and taking a lot longer. When I handle the cow the calf is coming fine and is alive. An hour later I handle the cow and the calf might have moved forward an inch or 2 and is dead. I lost 3 calves in a row and 2 more a week later. This hit me badly, I got 10 cows blood tested. 5 that lost calves and 5 that calved with a while. The 5 that lost calves were deficient in Mg and Ca. I sent 2 calves to the vet lab and the results showed that the calves drowned. I changed back to the original lick and the final cows that were calving all got a bottle of Ca under the skin an hour before calving. Every other calf was fine. I finished calving the middle of April.

AI is going well and today I put CIDR's into 6 heifers and 7 cows to bring the last few bulling. I have a few repeats so far but not many. My first milk recording was done in the middle of April. The average litres is 25 with protein at 3.4% and BF at 4.11% The grass mixed with chicory and plantain isn't working out as well as I hoped. The cows find it palatable but everytime they graze it the protein goes down. Everything in the parlor is finished and all is left is a slab of concrete out the front for the milk lorry. I will do one tank and 80 cubicles this summer. I will also do one roadway. At the moment I am using strip wires and a 90 gallon water tank for the cows. It's a bit of work to move but works fine for this year.

I'll post up more later

cosatron wrote: »

Pre calver mineral dust on silage nightly and 2 bolus at dry off will sort out your mineral deficiency. Not a fan of buckets, how do you know if all the cows are getting a lick

Tubs were used for the previous winter because of the setup. Cows were fed silage in feeders and there wasn't enough room for them all to eat at once. I was dusting minerals on the silage.

Say my name wrote: »

And David don't give up on that plantain and chicory.
Drill in some clover or broadcast and slurry.
Your protein went down. But I bet the litres stayed up or increased ever so slightly and I'd say the cows looked more content.

Milk protein % payments were only brought in to reward the nitrogen sellers. :pac:
Get the clovers in and they'll do the same job and the plantains and chicory will buffer it better against bloat.

Yes the litres went up and cows we're very happy. I forgot to add I will keep with it. There is clover mixed through the sward.