Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

I’m assuming land is at index 4 for P & K, is free from compaction and is 4% or over of OM.

‘Toes in water, head in sun, feet in organic matter’..rough translation of a French saying about maize. And it’s correct!

33uN per acre is loads to grow a good crop. Cobs are formed from leaf 6-8. Too much N available for the plant at that stage will just drive extra cobs out through it.
E.G Mahoney gave an estimated 150uN too much assuming 7uN/1000g slurry. Ginger gave 70uN more than is needed. Don’t jump down my throat..fagbox figures.

A source of readily available P is vital until leaf 8.

If ye feel a strong obligation to throw Gouldings at it, wait until after leaf 10 and go out with the spinner to your hearts content.

Ginger, you grow wwheat..you wouldn’t plant at 20st/ac, because all you’d have is a crop of biomass (straw) with feck all grains.
Maize is no different.
Cut back on seed rate, and stop talking about the height of it. Starch content is all that matters. You guys plant at 115k grains per hectare…that means the drill is actually open to the last!
I’m planting at low 70k grains per hectare and I’m going to up it next year because I’m getting 47-52% starch which is too strong for dairy cows. There was a variety of grain maize years ago called Pinocchio, it would only grow to the height of your pocket, but it would have a huge cob. That’s what you should be aiming for.

Saying all that..with the price of plastic etc, I’d think you’d be better off buying rolled maize.
Maize is by far the easiest crop I’ve ever grown. Just stick it in the ground and add water.

Edit.
Maize needs loads of OM, not N.
It’ll absolutely eats OM from the soil and will drain it in a short period of time.
Fym is much better than slurry because of OM content.

With your access to humates, 7kg/ha placed beside the seed does a fantastic job and removes the need for a source of soluble P.
Highly recommended.

I grow maize for the forage as much as the starch. We have a share of land on year to year and it’s the best crop to grow to get tonnes of high quality feed off

To really save us from ourselves we needed to stop producing milk as a bulk commodity and focus on value added products. We haven't done that so we might've been better of going full on expansion "BIG AG" to try and compete with the US/NZ exports. Europe simply can't compete with US now, they are Increasing production and exports and not slowing down so more exports, they have better margins now with lower feed prices and cheaper exports from a weakning dollar. Maybe this is all intentional from the EU, so we can all quit and rely on imports like the way everything else is going.

Exactly that .... but i think to be fair he's been reeled in by the better half if she thinks he's any spare time she will find something for him to do. I've found age family and spouses usually change the outlook fairly quickly

What happens the plastic after the maize is cut

ours tested 38% for starch last year and av 22t in a poor growing year. It’s a better crop this year

Maize is simple to grow and store. It goes well with autumn and spring grass and cows still have there appetite to graze grass.
I’ve no shed to tip an article load of feed which is what you need to get good value if buying straights. I’ll be sticking with the maize.

It’s beyond incredible that the drill operator doesn’t know how to reduce seed rate!! Speaks volumes.
Phoscalia is supposedly a top product for soluble P, so you’ve left no stone unturned bar seed rate.
With the price of plastic etc it would pay better to grow good crops of wbarley. Wbarley seems to produce a reliable 4t/ac every year now..and much less expensive to grow than maize under plastic.

Good man, well spotted!

I was wondering when someone would cotton on.
The price is correct. Thats for French grade1, non-gmo maize. Imagine what grade 3-4 gmo crap from Ukraine or S. America is costing into Irish ports..sub €100/t??

The importers are creaming it, not the merchants. Merchants are paying the same price as French grade1 maize. Nice touch if you can get it!

Hi-pro, gmo soya is sub €300 here. What are ye paying??

More importantly, what the fcuk are the IFA doing about it?

Stupid question from a lad not yet milking..what are lads doing with the maize?..buffer feeding high yielding spring cows or feeding winter milkers?

High input system mostly buffering cows at grass and during spring calving.

Small issue..with the new Mercursor deal, being signed today, certification is the responsibility of local (S.A) agronomists with no certification of provenance etc. Therefore they can call anything grade1 organic, and the EU take their word for it!

These are the same crew that agreed à tariff deal with Trump yesterday. Bunch of incapable fools.

I was milking this morning.

I’d a few rounds milked and a fella aged about 21 with an English accent came into the parlour. I’d never seen him before.

He looked like he’d been on an adventure — clothes covered in mud.

Asked to use my phone. He was talking to his mother; he told her he didn’t know where he was, which is never a good start 😂😂

He then told her he was in Tarbert, which would be about 10 miles away. I had to take the phone off him and give his mother directions. She started asking me what was he doing in my milking parlour — you’d swear it was my idea 😂😂

We’d had all the cows in last night. He had to jump over a lot of gates etc. to get into the yard. I’d say he’ll be getting some flashbacks whenever he wakes up today, of wandering around a few hundred cattle.

Seemed like a nice young fella to be fair — very clean-cut. His mother seemed a nice woman. It’d make you think though — you’d hear of people going missing on nights out and never again being seen or heard of.

His phone was dead — probably dead a long time. If he’d stumbled into a deep dike even, just and banged his head or whatever, he’d never again be seen or heard of, and you’d never in a million years be able to guess where he was.

I’d be guessing today is a day that a lot of people in my county will be missing from work after yesterday’s football match. Drink is a terrible thing.

Why had ye the cows in?

Agreed.
Quality ingredients make quality feed.

Small problem with importing your own grains..you’ll need to buy a boatload and the importers won’t unload you.
Importers are buying the worst (cheapest) shyte and charging Paris Matif prices plus €40/t.
So Blackdogs quotes of €265 were very keen indeed.
Halls, Arkady etc are making an absolute fortune importing shyte and charging class1 prices.
Native wbarley should be a far superior feed this year than imported shyte maize.