Outside blocks

Don't mind the zero grazer, tell us more about the au pair

Gg, I got a grass tech 140 here 4 yrs ago. Tbh I've never regretted it. I only zg on the shoulders of the year and the ground goes for 2 or 3 cuts.

On the time it takes, it's not bad. Most of the ground is 7kms away, there's a tractor on the grazer permanently when I'm using it, 1 hour would have a load back in yard.

Its great in the spring if conditions are broken, cows never have to be out in poor conditions to get grass into them. Does away with alot of the hardship of poaching and spur roads. Much much easier on cows.

The meal is bought here (particularly in spring) based on energy and acidosis prevention. This spring was so bad I gor beet pulp into the 2nd bin and that was fed with the nuts in the parlour. Worked very well with the zg.

The other thing about owning one is, you'd be surprised, even on a wet day, 1 dry hr makes a massive difference to the dm in the load, so you can pick your times.

Someone mentioned compaction, not an issue at all, right tyres on ground that doesn't be grazed. It does no damage (here anyway) whatsoever. A Slurry tank is 10 times worse.

It will lift your solids, there's no milk produced here off silage, makes a big difference. Its not time consuming if you can leave a tractor.on it when you're using it, and it saves time and messing in spring. Big time.

I guy near me is zging all summer, small meal bill, savage solids and production. Cows will put away some amount while they're waiting to be milked. Oh and last thing, you will grow more grass with lower fert if you can keep the watery Slurry in behind it, and plenty of K

She’s from bergamo in Italy and her grandfather is a tillage and dairy farmer.

her parents came to visit during the summer and her father told me my cows would be killed in Italy because they don’t do 40l 😂😂😂

Same story around here the father of kids was carrying on with the au pair

in fairness an easy thing to happen it's a dicey one at times a young one around the house all day !

Got to love F&F at times.

Where you start a thread on the pros and cons of buying a zerograzer and it morphs into a discussion on riding your Au pair

@GrasstoMilk

I just came across this thread. Trying to get to 90-100% efficiency takes more effort than getting from 50-80%. Now technically you may not think you are pushing the boat out and everything looks great.

It's not the time on the zero grazer that will catch you it's the slurry, agitating, pushing in grass the second time cleaning the feed face etc.

This work is not spread out over the year. It will be in 3-4 weeks bursts. When you have to Zero every day for adding 1-2 hours onto the day and then agitating spreading slurry on it.

If @mahoney_j is correct and it causes feet issues as well then it will add more complications. You are looking at adding 2.5% to your protein figures to really justify it. The extra cows will probably not justify it.

Labor is the killer on dairy farms. Ya you have a couple of young lads at present but they will need constant replacing. It's easy when you have good help.

The other factor is your children. I see a few lads with no successors, the main reason is children grow up to hate it because they see there father trapped by it or they themselves get to hate it because of the workload

Tbf MJ those issues are largely associated with Holsteins aswell as that type of cow not being able to deal with lush grass and getting acidosis

we don’t suffer from acidosis in our cows and they’d be getting fair lush grass, don’t suffer from low bf due to lush grass either

I do agree feet issues from being at the barrier might be an issue but I don’t agree our cow will be worse off from eating lush grass.

I accept your opinion on it but we are on a different cow type and I don’t intend to go away from what we’re breeding

I’ve been talking to 6 different ppl about it over the last month. None of them were recommended by any of the zero grazing companies

they all felt the benefits out weighed the negatives of it.

I don't know lads. I was thinking of building more cubicles, shed and storage here but I have enough cubicles for 170KgsN at the moment. It's hard to know what way things will pan out but I might let things settle here around the 170kgs for a while and work on removing the bottom 5 or 10%. Kinda suits anyway with the price of building and all.

Ya. But have 92 cubicles. Kinda stuck for a shed for in calf heifers but not sure about building if it is going to be moth balled in 2026 with the loss of derogation.

More I think of this …..more the thought of more hassle ,work and complication for what is marginal milk ….de stress yourself and uncomplicate your system and milk a few less cows ….your already feeding strong and buffering strong through stages of year on top of having a heavily stocked milk block ….only my thoughts but a z grazer will do nothing for you only give headaches and your return v neglible

It's not in the sellers interest to split off part and lose a potential bidders.

Now depending on the otherenter that may be an option but some people have been known to have someone else buy land for them while they claim no interest.

Tanks have accelerated capital allowances so could put in the storage in a place that suits the yard if you were to go ahead with more cubicles. That can then be done at a later date If needed

As far as I remember you said you have land about 30 km away. Would you shift a portion of that to buy beside you? I have land 9 miles away and I'd jump at the chance.