Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Basically a feeder tank which holds 12 k gallons is taken to field where slurry spread ,it’s basically a big trailer on wheels ,it can be raised to travel (empty )on road and lowered to ground level in field hydraulically .then there is a 5k gallon and 4.5 k gallon tank hauling slurry to it and blowing it in to feeder tank …there’s a 2250 gallon tank with dribble bar spreading ,this has a lazy arm which means fella spreading dosnt even have to get off the tractor to fill his tank ….a savage impressive operation

tractors drawing to feeder tank all 50 k from start to finish over 65 k gallons hauled and spread in just over 6.5 hours .20 mile round trip

Havnt a clue how to copy a link here but if on Facebook check out john kennedy agri contracting and go back to March I think few pictures and videos of it there

the ground I haul it to gets two cuts silage per year ,slurry now goes there twice per year because of this operation …indexe are good but I’m in dero and can’t spread any chemical p so I have to get slurry here …..I’m one of those dero farmers stocked at 4 on milk block ….I don’t just dump slurry snd chemical n here ….I’m stitching in clover yearly ….don’t go with fertiliser till ground temps are 6 plus and rising …don’t blanket spread bar maby one round in spring and apply n at a unit per day of round

A typical dairy farm like so many others ….heavily fragmented …..no big block of land ….storage in place …yard fairly complient ….slurry not just something to be dumped out or just spread …I used to horse out the n ….no more ..far too dear to be misusing if and anyway I’m spreading less now and growing more grass…..I can sustain 4 cows per he proably more and farm in an environmentally friendly manner

soil testing every paddock yearly ,,,testing fresh grass weekly and reacting to what there telling me has a big change on way I do things

That's some job, I have an outside block rented as land here is hard to travel in the shoulders. It gets slurry both in spring and back end. I take 2 cuts off it every year as well. I hear hes a good contractor

Didn't you blanket your MP with the umbilical last January though?

Bottom line, what you and Grasstomilk are forgetting, or maybe don't realise, is that 3/4 of your annual slurry is spread on the MP before ye even get up on the tractor. At 4.0 and assuming the full 25% of what's left is taken to outfarm, that's equivalent to stocking at 3.0 if you were keeping all the slurry at home.

For what Grasstomilk said to be correct, ie 4.0 is the same as 2.5 so long as all the slurry is taken to outfarm and overall is 2.5, cows would need to be housed full-time for 4.5 months and not even 1 load of slurry spread on MP.

I think both of you will admit that's not the case currently. I think it's only a matter of time before the MP SR is addressed even if it's not this time around

Ammm.......cows are spreading it themselves every time they go for a dump while at grass. I knew you weren't allowing for that

I wouldn't expect to read this in the IFJ.

Cows in ‘Band 3’ have a 23% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity (CO2e/kg of milk solids) than the lower yielding cows in ‘Band 1’.

I see your argument, but if getting most of there energy from grazed grass are they not just recycling the nutrients in the grass, so in theory if we don't bring in the nutrients in a bag or through meal are we not in a fairly stable system.?

If all winter feed is sourced from outside blocks I suppose all slurry when housed needs to be returned, which mj is doing. Would it stand to reason if cows are being buffer fed at the shoulders and this takes place in sheds or slats to allow a certain amount of slurry be captured, and this again is spread on outfarms, would we avoid nutrient loading on the mp.

Ha I'm probably overthinking that now, and sounding stupid.

I was in Moore park today 

I questioned Laurence shalloo on the new N bands 

Was just palmed off

“They’ve nothing to do with cows effiency, purely down to nitrogen they excrete “ 

And that it’ll be based on 3 year average, keep the cull cows longer etc, feed bit less meal

the figures they used are just silly, talk about cheery picking numbers to suit and argument.

the lower band cow is only producing 3714 kg at 3.45pr and 4.04bf or 278 kg/ms

yet she is being fed 770kg/dm meal or 895kg fresh weight and 33% of their diet from silage.

there might be some reasoning to where they are trying to go in light of the banding structure, but when using pie in the sky numbers in order to make a point, all creditability is gone.

the best line in the letter is "....... Data from a coop show that ......." ie we got data from a random source

There was an excellent submission pencilled by them with lots of facts and science ….why didn’t the brain power in Tegasc consult them …

We’re just in the higher bracket here 

I’ve 2 choices if it comes into force 

Embrace it and drive on litres more 

Or 

Move off the milky cows with poor % and focus on trying to get the herd to 9% solids or higher and keep yield under 6300l

No not at all

Is there ground nearby to let you drop to 2.35/ ha? If going over it anyway would drive on tbh. Only 11% of herds over it, would have assumed a lot of herds are rel mature now so thought it would be more. A lot of herds just there or thereabouts I spose. Climate and water wise stocking rates are going to be hit so its a losing battle unless it can be proven on paper other wise.

Big elephant in the room is if dero goes altogether, while some may come out the other side of it, it could ruin others. So if there is to be investment it better fcukimg work. The catch is in the new CAP, grants won't be there for those not already compliant, and may not be there for others either as it may be seen to be facilitating expansion. Likely parlour ones aren't coming back either.

Ireland is probably 15 years of where Australia is at re the above, quotas went their in the early 2000's I think and a boom period followed that ment processors expanded etc, treated suppliers like dirt as finding a home for your milk was hard enough, its the shoe on the other foot now with a dwindling milk supply and processors actively canvassing for milk and alot having to mothball plants as they can't source enough milk to run them