Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

no kick bar here …find they just drive heifers mad …..big battery clamp high up on tail quietens most ….if she’s still acting the …. Just leave them off till next milking …beteeeen. Busting with milk and clamp usually fine ….worst thing with heifers if there pissing u off is to get frustrated

Have a really good method here using a ratchet strap for tying them up, any kickers get tied up till they get out of the habit usually takes 2-3 milkings

If you let a heifer get into the habit of kicking of clusters your in bother

98% of it is the breeding. If farmers breed the kickers. Kickers you shall milk. Thought most farmers had their breeding strategy not to be having replacements out of these. Had bulls from a farm that thought nothing of kickers. Progeny then had half those traits. Had another bull from a different farm. Heifers never lifted a leg.

Run heifers through the parlour first before calving and have them used to the noise and meal in troughs. Then squeeze between cows when calved.

Dairying is a right lark..😎

Their back left leg our right depending on what side of parlour, make a loop in strap like a calving rope tie it above the middle hock, loop rope around leg give it a tighten, repeat a second/third time depending how flighty a heifer she is the idea is to lift the leg up of the ground heifer can't kick with only one leg on ground, would do the above aswell when you get a cranky cow at drying off

I put on cluster straight after meal and hold cluster between legs and move it while she kicks the rail. When she calms down I rub her or hold the tail and twist it a little. Works for most. I could put 24 in a 20 row at times and not milk the heifer the first time or two. Maybe 1 out of 20 I'd use the bar(a very tight one) I remember forgetting to take it off and the heifers came in the following milking with it on!! I d be on my own so have no one to hold the tail etc

And u c some lads say heifers never kick the biggest issue is too much room.Straight feed trough means heifers can be tightened by adding xtra.I suggested to him when he bought individual but he didnt listen.

I see Hennessey's auctions Portlaoise have a 2017 milking parlour, Cotswold heater, Dairymaster milk tank for auction on a timed auction from up Ballybay, Monaghan.

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Other thing is if you stop the bitch at the gate and someone stand in front of her and other person put cluster on her have rest of row in behind her

Just a thought here. Run a rotary in the place I work and we calve down anywhere from 70 to 80 heifers a yr and never have any trouble with heifers kicking. I reckon it must be the motion of the rotary that distracts them and that they each have their own stall. Baffles me every spring how little hardship they are (thankfully).

and we are the same… have a rotary 10 years now and i could count on one hand the number of heifers that have given us bother over those 10 years…

dont know why but i do think the movement of the table has something to do with it…

..TB probs

This is the only year you'll have it like this. Once heifers are in with cows they're much less likely to act up and settle down quicker.

Like G2M said, patience is key

Ya, you can breed it out. Have 3 heifers calved here and their all a pleasure so far. There was a bull in Munster AI for years called AAC. The father used some of him here and I'm still trying to cull them out. It's the only bull I went into ICBF and hit him on temperament. It didn't do much good anyway because the EBI still said temperament was good.

Calmness. Just be calm. Be over generous with nuts. Press the nuts, put the cluster on straight away. If there is a bit of kicking, rub the cow intensely. Then more nuts. Usually works. If it doesn’t, repeat in the evening. Don’t stress. Never heard of a clamp, I may have to use a kick bar as a last resort sometimes.