We’ll see about the meal. The plan is cut it back a bit any way because we are feeding a bit extra for stocking rate reasons
I’ve no issue having to feed a bit of silage at stages but having to start feeding in September the last 2 years is what I don’t like. With the grazer and with how much land is away now I could have the cows on full grass well into November
what is the link between zero grazing and a higher risk of going down with tb? Never heard that before so just interested to know
the one thing I see with the zero grazers is the alarming risk in tb break downs with lads that have one
Anyone here involved in the Munster Dairy Producer Organisation.
Have we found middle ground …..you want more cows but need more toys and investement in machinery to keep it whilst some of us want less cows or hold nos but breed a cow that will efficiently produce more milk and solids ….are you planning on not having derogation going forward and ending up somewhere in beteween 170 and 220 …..and don’t tell me you think we’ll keep 220…….best of luck with z grazer ….still think your mad going that route😀 ….you’ll still end up feeding a tonne plus of nuts and still end up feeding silage at stages of year …if home block is under pressure for grass in droughts or crap weather ….your z grazing block will also suffer
Daughter came home from spain with me yesterday and gone to krakow this morning
Milking less cows here atm, sending more milk
Grazeout isn’t breed specific, it’s down to the management. I find that you can get them to skin the ground especially when buffer feeding. First few rounds graze hard and no bother for the rest of the season.
Livestock sheds are often timber. No idea why.
My point about going down is that the income is lost and it can be hard to get back up once the income is gone with the way the land market and costs are atm. If you maintain the cows by taking extra land at least you can absorb it somewhat
I could be completely wrong on that but that’s just my opinion
Im
After a long day yesterday I said I’d get a good start to the day
Best of luck with it Grass. Each to their own lads. If guys are making money and aren't tied to work i say keep doing what your doing. Nitrates and banding is putting a big spanner in the works so its about each of us making our systems as resilient as we can.
Best of luck with it.
I'm just puzzled by your assertion that "if you're going to reduce them you’ll never get them back".
Why not? Going up or down 25% is not a big deal or hard to do is it?
It’s nearly costing that per head to get sheep to or from France at the moment, cattle would be more per head.
If it goes badly I’ll post the DoneDeal add of the grazer up and you’ll know exactly
to me it’s either drop cow numbers or at least try and maintain them.
If you’re going to reduce them you’ll never get them back and with the way the economy is were hurting ourselves the most by reducing. If the cows are reduced what hope has the next generation
I hope im wrong there on that one
if you’re going to maintain them you have to do your best to get value out of the extra land taken on. Cutting silage to feed it back out a few weeks later isnt the answer for me going forward, it suited fine to keep things moving on a bit but i always wanted to be as grass based as possible
so hopefully this will get me back there and get as much utilisation out of the ground as possible and luckily the draw isn’t very far from the yard
Don’t mind the begrudgers lad…. Best of luck with the zero grazing… looking forward to reading your feedback on how it went for you later on in the year….
I suppose its probably as I'm in winter milk an already have a block calved in October/Nov..... I'd consider it a pain to be at it that week .....I've no problem with Jan calving but it would be a bit too early for me to get to grass I'm nearly always march turn out
Always start calving here January 1st… might be 1 or 2 between xmas any the 1st Jan… have almost 80 calved… not too sure why you think it’s torture…
At those high 570kgms per cow you must have a heap of cows doing 750kg ms plus- why don’t you put up a few pics of your best performing animals please
It's not you I'm worried about 🙄🙄🙄for God's sake calving cows Christmas week even I think that's torture
Don’t worry yourself over me lad, I’ll be fine
Reducing sr a bit ….and sparing the time and expense of a z grazer and all it entails still better option …..and far easier
My good sweet Jesus us all I can say to that.
Nope I’ve done the figures lots of times.
Money in it because we’re getting the milk solids. If we were down at 500 kgs of milk solids it wouldn’t pay whatsoever
For me now it’s a matter of trying to reduce the cost of what the cows are eating and not let the milk solids slip
Would you be better off not getting the z grazer and cutting sr to a level which will sustain the cows ……those extra cows bumping sr sound like there just producing marginal milk ……for more work and expense
y
I wouldn’t say I am. We were full time grass on second rotation in the 1st week of April last year when no one else was and we’re stocked a fair bit higher than the majority
going forward I’d expect milking cows to be on a full grass diet from late Feb /early March but a portion of it will be zero grazed grass instead of silage
my reason for buffering is to maintain a stocking rate. Has very little to do with trying to push cow production, it was more to push production /ha.
guys I know fairly well with hols start calving Christmas Day so they can feed them indoors while they’re peaking in March while they’re being ai’d. Wouldn’t be stocked nearly as high as me and graze outs are shocking. Cows be waiting at the gap at 1pm
difference with us is I make sure we get the graze outs from the start of the year and the cows continue it for the year.
There’s an Awful lot of underutilisation going on with grass to project cow yields in my opinion
Really strong trade for milking cows in Carnaross today- sale avg 2200 for fresh cows
This has come in handy again today around the farm
if you know you know!
There's actually very little difference between the higher end middle band cows and the higher band looking after wise. A thing I've said before but will repeat is that a very large amount of the Holstein bulls used in this country going back over 30 years should never ever have been brought into the country near mind used on cows
I would I don't buffer feed my cows only in exceptional exceptional circumstances why would I 🤔 once a cow is bred properly and correctly (I'm talking about the functionality of the cow) no matter the cow she should be able to produce to her full potential off grass and meal. I've no other choice I've grass silage in my yard and that's it nothing else. the rest comes in on a lorry.I don't have the ground or labour for growing crops of anything . 1.4 ton fed last year that's it
