Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

yeah sure I worked away for 10 years and I’m glad I did- no regrets about not doing something different

I however am lucky to be farming with my brother and my father- I couldn’t do it on my own and tbh I wouldn’t want to- fair play to all the individual farmers flying the flag on their own- ye are a credit to yourselves

I’ve had many visitors to our farm over the years but one thing I haven’t been able (too young and arrogant) to convey is that it’s much easier for us to to things as we are a team on the same wavelength

What you’re saying is true, every man to his own. Land is the biggest factor in cows, have enough of it yourself and how good it is etc, the rag every week has to have something to write about and Teagasc lads the same to keep them in jobs, the family is the most important thing on the farm to help out, our two women from the age of four were doing small jobs every evening in the winter feed the dog, fill meal buckets, fill water etc and when I came home from work this all saved me time which is priceless, there is no point having a load of machinery tractors in a yard with only one lad to drive them, help is the success of any farm.

The biggest proeblems around farms is auld lads if they gave control to young people the farm wud be better of big or small.Most succesfull farms had young people making decisions from a young age youd see them auld lads limping around yards and at the mart whinging no one to help them

Anyone thinking of housing at night? Floods here now but not ready to leave them inside yet. I hate this time of year, hard to mentally transition to liming cubicles and all the extra work feeding.

end of next week …slats to replace in cow shed early next week ..scrapers serviced yesterday ,few new lights put in ,cubicles tightened water troughs cleaned ….will have grass by day for guts of 3/4 weeks then …

Cows in since last night. Terrible forecast for today it made sense to keep them in. Five month slog of it ahead. Worst part is not being able to fully switch off until the night check is done. And that hold your breath moment when you round a corner to see if they're all standing and lying correctly in their cubicle.

Going to start feeding silage next week. Have work to do on a couple of loose mats and cubicles to fix. I find when I start feeding silage because cows aren't locked in paddocks, if I start the tractor at all the bastards come in looking for feed. Last year was fully housed by Nov 1st. Left heavy covers behind. **** graze outs this spring. Cows are in last of the heavy covers for next 5-6 days. Will fly around block then.

Things still motoring along niceley in our part of the country, we seem to have missed the extreme weather other parts got, no drought or floods. I think this advice by Teagasc regarding extending the rotation for the end of the years is a bad idea, trying to force cows to graze out heavy covers. What we do is start feeding bales at milking time from end of August and leave a good risidual in the paddock then, it is amazing how quickly the paddocks recover after grazing if not skinned. We keep the rotation as normal until housing. Keeps milk supply up and cows fully fed. looks like cows will stay out full time until at leaset the end of October and hopefully well into November.

more /less same here …pure madness building big covers grass for October /november ….ill be in at night next weekend but that’s more a reflection of milk block sr than anything …will have grass br day till early November then ….cows back out by day middle janurary