Would you say the same for a moderately stocked spring calving middle band herd with little to no buffering bar in exceptional periods?
Higher yielding herds will always require a higher level of management no matter what way you dress it up.
are all the shed structures done in timber. He has great cows.
Jesus grass will you give over. your going to be doing twice the buffering of any of us at least. in a poor or dry year your going to be doing more than that high yielding cows don't need that much extra once you can have enough quality grass on farm. It's not very complicated you know.
These Hol heifers are bawling every time I appear in the yard. The cousin said he was only giving them 1kg meal so I'm giving them the same.
It must be a while since he checked his weighing scales 😂
They'll take feeding anyway, that's for sure!
I know this lad. Originally Dutch but here 25yrs. Started with very little. Now has his own farm. About 20km from me.
https://youtu.be/X0MbjZ19zYY?si=z3hoqZB5La8fR6-m
Firstly no fences. Secondly I wouldn’t like poaching ground etc. Normally I’d have lots of acres of cover crops available for grazing but open country with no fences doesn’t help.
Size doesn’t have any impact on management..feed ‘‘em and keep them going in-calf, otherwise factory.
I’ve 18 crossbreds here. 16 are Holstein x Swedish red. Good cows, good mobility and health. Also have 2 holxbb!! (Long story…bought cows in-calf to BB, so you can guess the rest) and they’re every bit as good as the Swede cross.
I couldn’t care less about how much fodder a cow consumes once she holds her own in the herd. The BB cross may have some merit…😀
Was just wondering if there would be any advantage in soil fertility or organic matter. Not a tillage man so only asked as I don't know
No. Why bother?
Cows are dried off 60 days before calving or when they hit 16L…whatever comes first. If not in-calf they’re burgers when they hit 16L.
The one and only reason I want smaller cows is because I reckon they’ve better feet. No science behind that whatsoever only my quare brain.
That's a fact about the imported stock and the factories riding lads on them.
Sold an imported polled holstein bull in the mart last year. Had bought him in Germany.
Got about half what an Irish cull bull would have made. Was sorry to see him go but we got 3 years out of him, still quiet and left some lovely heifers.
Would young stock and outdoor fodder crops aid in the tillage rotation or would the numbers be too small to bother with the effort?
Yeah for you, by profile just mean when do you determine end of production, a healthy cow may be empty and still milk away fine if milking all year round so what yield would be low enough for you to give her the road etc? On the cow with 9k litres and good solids you've kinda answered thet yourself, the "medium" sized cow you have can do what those larger cows are doing so no need to change, the larger cow would eat more and so they are currently more efficient, saving feed costs, and possibly easier managed
Just to add, the reason that I’m thinking of producing my own replacements again is that there’s been such an exodus from dairying here, the availability is bound to fall. They’re predicting that France will have to import milk to meet demand within 3yrs.
I’ve no idea Jay. I think that if you import from another country into Ireland the factories absolutely fla you on price when killing them.
The vast majority of ich here go to Morocco and Algeria. They must come from herds that haven’t had any disease issues with 5yrs, and they mustn’t be more that 5mts in calf.
Question directed at me?
Profile of the herd? I don’t really understand the question. All cows are offloaded to factory at end of production. Whether that’s because not in-calf or health issues, they’re burgers. Cull cow sales returned €1800 on average last year…you’d nearly get 2 ich for the price of a cull cow. If you’ve a herd producing 9000L with good solids why be concerned about how much fodder she consumes?
Cubicles would be large already to accommodate large Holsteins. I’ve been concentrating on only buying ‘medium’ sized cows with a few years now. Cows are noticeably smaller and I’d like to keep it that way.
Once feed to yield is in place- I only buffer when there’s not enough grass or when milk price is strong
What would it cost to get a lorry load of good quality incalf holstein heifers landed to a irish yard from France, would 250 euro a animal cover it?
How do you manage the profile of the herd when it's flying, is empty cows the main reason for offloading or is it mainly health reasons or have you an age cut off? When off loading is it to the factory then? would bigger cows have much of a return that way or would the extra they eat on maintenance or changes to cubicle size etc come against em?
Here. All you want of them. The Brune breeder offered to sell 5 ich heifers, calving late March. Bunch of 15, take your pick…€1000/hd.
17-18mts. Just grass and hay. No target weights, AI, dosing, bolus etc. To inseminate a bull is run with them.
Can’t find a polled herd of Brunes. The guy selling yesterday gave up milking because he makes good money with the contract rearing. The breeder of the bull that is for sale was only a half hour away, so I rocked over to him. I wouldn’t be a lover of his herd principally because of their size. They were enormous. They hit 380-400kg for the factory, whereas mine would be 320-350kg. His average yield across the whole herd (milk delivered) is 9100kg with 4.0pr and 5bf. They’re just huge!
your cow could survive on a grass based diet with 800-1000t of meal and no buffering ?
Oh I know 😏. That is of course if you're cow is balanced and not an extreme cow (as in conformation wise)but there is a huge amount of lads milking cows for good money that I wouldn't let anywhere close to a cow here om blessed at the moment I've one good lad does a fair share of milking for me it's a serious help
They don’t need much more looking after
Jasus
By what bit
You’d be suprised
Ya but you have to remember it's not actually what most outfits want especially bigger numbers where there's hired help too much work, and staff not capable of managing that type of cow .you can't work less hours than a civil servant and have high output cows 🐄. Or so teagasc tell me anyway
Kerry milk price still stuck at 36 for December.
