Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Definitely, you have to be a good farmer, when all you have is heavy ground. The wetter ground around here is only starting to grow grass now. You have to push the first rotation out to the 10th of May this year. I'd gladly put up with a couple of weeks of drought.

Another big difference is whether ground is north or south facing. Makes a big difference in spring

that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it

As I said in my post I have my criteria set, I picked the bulls I picked because they suited my criteria and what I’m picking for is coming through in the herd and I’m happy with the type of stock coming through. You mightn’t like them if they were your cows, like wise I mightn’t like your choice of cow or anyone else’s choice of cow

I didnt pick a bull because he had super duper high ebi and I didn’t pick the amount I picked because ICBF said so, it’s just the way it ended up being

If you don’t want to use Irish bulls that’s fine, but they’re working for me plenty of other ppl.

Grass getting tight here now. Bit of heat needed and -3 forecast tonight. Silage going back into the diet this evening.

Anyone know anything about how good an electric golf cart would be for cow work? You can get a lift kit for them which would get over any low/small tyre issue.

I see a number of electric agricultural carts lately but they're not cheap. Plenty of second hand electric golf carts for sale for very small money.

I'd be concerned with them on hills.

Any views appreciated.

If they were doing 510kg on a delivered basis would it change your opinion on the validity of their system advice? Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the 600kg claim would have paid the bills.

It seems strange to me to base any future direction on somebody else's stated targets, especially if those targets aren't verified, or indeed even being met.

That goes for every claimed "system" , not specifically UCD Lyons. Unfortunately I think this happens a lot in farming.

What was his opinion on summer scour syndrome?

The summer scour work is a veterinary research issue and is separate from dairy systems work. Progress in one does not validate results from the other.

I don't see who is arguing for not feeding cows right in the spring so not sure about the novelty of 'feeding cows right'??

This year I'd say cows were underfed mostly because lads kept them in on poor silage on inadequate meal feeding instead of either increasing meal rates or putting grass in the diet.

The irony of course is that cows who went to grass this spring were probably 'better fed' even though there was plenty of negative comment about this approach. You can see it now, the farms with cows out a long time are seeing cows flying toward or at peak now. Early grass equals better fed.

Ya, finbarr is an associate professor in the vet school I believe. The man is really worthwhile listening to imo. That was my point.

Read the journal or listen to teagasc and you will see plenty about keeping cows "keen" or "with an edge" on them. I was on a walk the other day with a top teagasc man and it's clear the guy is just a spoofer. The back calculations never work in grass measuring because teagasc are under allocating grass at 18KgDM. The same hero advised me before to mow a field because the calculator said that my heifers wouldn't eat the field in 3 weeks. One week, I said. They had it cleared in 5 days.

They keep changing their mind about clover, MSS, sulphur, etc. They seem to be trying to learn from emailing and googling European and NZ systems.

Alot of their research seems half baked to me and printed as fact. They should be run over and over and across different land type and conditions. Like the not feeding cows by day "research" so they will calve during the day or the mats on slats "research" which was redone recently but with different results. That's after every salesman in the country quoting their "research" as fact.

They are such money grabbers now. I give them 700 euro or something every year and they want 375 euro to apply for a tams grant on a new milk tank. I think it was even more for a grant on my dribble bar.

I don't come on here to whinge about teagasc but the point I was making was I found the UCD man so knowledgeable and capable in comparison.

I'm farming 7 years and I've had seven different advisors of varying levels of helpfulness and knowledge. No continuity from them. I never considered a private advisory service until recently.

Do you think? I'd say I'll manage it myself..... Anyone I do business with play ball and there's some give and take. I don't bother with grabbers in general.

They did their economic comparison based on physical outputs that weren't achieved. Even at that the proposed system didn't stand out financially.

Think you'd be better with a diesel utility vehicle like an rtv or gator with 4wd. Worth the money you can do a lot more work with them. Wouldn't fancy a golf cart in wet or bumpy conditions. You'd see the odd few clean utv'son DD less than 5k at times.

Gators etc are not reliable. They seem to give a lot of trouble. My grandfather had a golf cart with quad tyres for bringing in the cows and fencing. It was ideal for what it did. Silent behind the cows, safer than a quad and gave zero trouble.

Id love to get one.

Both Kubota and Kawasaki are very reliable. John Deere can be hit & miss. You're limited with a golf cart is my point compared to an utv. To say they're all unreliable is a bit of a wide sweeping statement.

we only get paid for the milk we sell