Is it only lately you bought the 500 acres or is it poor land? Just that you said here a while back you were milking 150 cows. Seems like a lot of land for them few cows.
I am in awe.awe.awe.awe.500 acres by my calculations is a repayment capacity of roughly 400,000 a year
24% calved ….75% of heifers since last Sunday .all fr calves so far and all heifers thanks to sexed semen …one casualty a calf with no tail and no arsehole which I got vet to put asleep ….great to get good start
What vaccinations are you using for calves? Did rota and crypto here and pi3 for calves when born. Calves seriously flying this year with 50% calved since September
bovipast at 5 days and booster 3 weeks later ….dont use rota or crypto vaccines and so far so good ….find jackets for calves …loads of straw 7 litres transition milk daily for week then onto feeder where they are built up to 10 litres and 1.2 kg powder daily is great barrier to illness
Its nearly all paid for cost about 5k per acre some as low as 3k
Its mixy land some very gd some very poor not easy to farm ud want to be a serious operator like me to farm it i planted 220 acres of the poor bits in each farm ive a serious tax free income to pay repayments il have clear fell in 18 years another windfall
Different scale here but I’ve 25 acres of wet ground in forestry too.
It’s gone forever now but it wasn’t ground you could graze much either. Always soft and plenty rushes. Draining it would have been difficult due to where the nearest river is. And even then it’d still be naturally wet ground that’d need managing.
The tax-free money every January makes a difference too.
I wouldn’t plant good ground but if the location is right, then planting a few boggy fields is not the worst thing in the world.
I hope u planted spruce alot of lads planted ash oak never be a clear fell market your 25 acres of spruce would be worth some money in a clear fell
Half is spruce but the other half is alder. Not sure the alder will be worth much beyond firewood, but there’s always a pick of grass in it for calves in late summer
Oh I see.does that leave you with pockets of land all over the place now so
Yeah there big enough blocks but to try and buy one block back then youd be looking at estates and competing with celebrities and high flyers some of the land is awkward to get into which is also why it had little intrest but i see plenty of lads renting similar but wont buy
All whole milk here, might be wrong but just labour and layout. Do you feed young calves almost adlib to get those intakes or find them reach it ordinarily by themselves?? Usually 6 litres here
Could you outline your feed plan on the auto feeder ie how long to build to max intake and length of weaning period etc?
To gather 280 acres of good land though is good going.how have you stocked these outside blocks
from birth to day 2/3 transition milk daily/beastings…..then 4/5 days on transformula (7 litres per day 750 grams powder ….then onto feeder .day 0 to day 10 start on 750 grams of Volac flourish staring at 7 litres per day building up to 10 litres and 1 kg powder by day 10,then day 10 to 40 max of 1 kg powder to give 10 litres fed….slow wean then from day 10 to 70….calves would be eating at least 2 kg meal and hay and maize to appetite by then
Anyone else using the YMCP bolus from World Wide Sires. Apparently it helps cows get back on feed faster, produce more milk and boost blood calcium levels.
It contains life yeast, calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Curious for people's opinions?
I’m trying a few this year ….was big fan of kextone but banned now 🙄…..anything with twins ,older milky cows or anything I feel needs one for whatever reason
Alder is a great ground conditioner in term of natural drainage and Nitrogen fixation - spruce on the other hand poisons the soil in terms of acid run off, biological activity etc. I have small plots of willow and alder sown in my wettest few fields and they have definatly improved grazing performance, utilization etc. in these areas
Feck soil conditioning id rather have a crop of spruce to clear fell and get a heap of cash to buy more land.
Alot of spruce grown on poor peaty land is of poor quality(not even decent firewood) and prone to windthrow and other issues(as storm Eoghan proved), serious amount of damage done here in North Mayo and the NW in general on that front- but each to their own I guess🙄 I was talking about small and linear in field plots anyways which serve different purposes as I outlined in my previous post
yes on them here for 5 years you will notice cows will hit peak a lot faster ,
Sound, I must set up my machine this week and definitely need to wean them off more gradually to help prevent issues with summer scour. 10 litres sounds alot though, ever any problems with nutritional scours?
quite the opposite but I’m feeding a high skim content powder which is key ….personally think 6 litres isn’t enough ….most of calves would drink the 10 every day ,feeder is a great job to rear calves I think ,lots of benefits to them but shed is key
I’m going to feed whole milk this year. Do you reckon they’d manage 6-7 litres of that at a week old?
I'd classify spruce as an invasive species…hateful stuff that should have never been promoted here
No issue. But you need to feed twice a day for min 6 weeks.
I know calves will drink cold milk,but hot milk is way better. Take it off the milk line or just at tank,turning off plate cooler while filling the calf milk trolley.
havnt reared calves on whole milk for years …probably better answered by someone else but up to 6 I’d say is fine but add acidified ….problem with whole milk is with cows been in/out and not on fully consistent diet the solids of milk will differ daily and that could lead to digestive upsets
More like 5 for a week old calf.
Use the powder in water type YMCP. Cows like it and it's nicer on hee than sticking a bolus gun down her throat.
