So lad for the last 10 weeks if you were facing SW and it was p!ssing in on top of your silage, the cattle were leaving a lot of waste after them what did you do.
Do you face your shed to a once in twenty year weather event or to one that happens for 90+% of the time they are inside.
Which side of the ditch do you stand behind when it raining
So lad when the next beast from the east comes whats going to happen east facing shed fill with snow
That is where you are wrong. Worst positioning for a shed is SW that is where our prevailing winds come from 90%+ of the time. Therefore NE is the best option, North is next best after that East. However NE or N should be the chosen options if leaving a feed face open.
MMine Is North the silage hardly gets wet 1-2 a year. A bit of a balls the day it's snowing but that is only a couple days every 3ishbyears
The greatest stupidty face sheds east or north teagasc advice is north east so i definetly know its not right.The damage done from north and east wind is lethal the snow filled east facing sheds in 2018 but still lads never learn south is the only way yes the rain comes here but can be blocked east wind cant
The rain is coming on and off this last few weeks from an eastern direction more than other years, it bucked us with open sheds
Great to hear it being easier in the parlour and it's just weather complaints like everyone else. A small bit of thinking could sort the calf shed easily and cheaply
Having everyone on board and a good backup plan, be that hired in labour, neighbours etc in the case of an emergency. Is something we all have to take care of, just more with cows.
Best of luck with the cows this year, the hard work was last year and it's onwards and upwards
Spring here is the same as everywhere else - wet, wet, wet. Slatted tank is full and I've realised where I have the calves (pic I put up here the other day) isn't suitable for calves - it's too open and there's a spit of rain gets in on some of the pens.
No comparison between this year with cows and last year with heifers in the parlour. It took 3 of us to milk them last year. No bother at all this year. I can even bring milk out to calves while they're milking.
I'm on OAD at the moment but the plan is to switch to 10-in-7 in a few weeks. I have someone half lined up to do a few relief milkings every week, but I don't know yet if that'll work out. If it does, then TAD might be on the agenda. If it doesn't I've a plan-b for relief milking, and if that doesn't work, then I've a decision to make.
I want to stay milking, but it's not just about what I want. I have to be a small bit sensible when it comes to the wife and young lads. We have family in England and Spain, and if anything happened I need to be able to go.
There’s several other moving parts too including the money I’d need to spend but being stuck to the cows is the first thing I need to sort out.
A
And I'd scan them after too to make sure
Three weeks is the general rule
I discovered this morning that one of my bullocks mixed in with a pen of yearling heifers has one stone left. I'll squeeze him later and put him in with a pen of bulls to cool off.
I guess I'll go into the vets for a shot of PG for each heifer? Do I need to wait some time..
Impossible though. Gave up trying to predict the future years ago after constant failure in trying to do so. All I try to do now is be as sustainable as possible and try to foresee risks like loss of derogation, etc.
I was discussing something the other day and he asked the question where did i see this panning out in 20 years,that you always got be thinking 20 years ahead.i thought it was a good approach
dairyedge2 is taking a week off for constant borderline trolling.
GDT up 14% over the last 3 auctions. We have hit the bottom I'd say and another rise in the next auction might put a little pressure on co-op boards.
There is still lots of ducks to get in a row for me to convert yet.
We will know out planning situation 100% in early March.Until then ill keep pondering and doing the sums
@Siamsa Sessions how this spring going. Must be a lot easier without a parlour of heifers to train and less building work. If the weather would play ball now it would be great
Are you planning on staying OAD for the year. Could be more margin per litre in a low price year, with better solids, less ration and a reduction in variable costs.
I could say the same about dairy farmers. Do not let me get started about them. There is a few going around chasing there tails, over complicating a system chasing numbers and not having factored in the labour and more specifically the labour costs involved. The look like marathon runners…and like they have just run a marathon all the time.
This is a discussions form. Lads give an opinion. @Siamsa Sessions put himself out there and is telling it as it is. @weatherbyfoxer the same. In poker terms he is going all in.
Me I am just too stupid and lazy to go milking I run a beef system take my very modest margin half watch my costs and carry on. Some day soon I will fo broke and have to sell the lot.
Look yesterday was a bad day.....well around here anyway. I did not have a great night's sleep either but we will see how today goes and tomorrow is another day
your the Hannah Quinn mulligan of the dairy thread. Don’t get me started on beef farmers. Any beef farmers I’m bounding has his cattle in every year and they get paid more direct payments then me, special breed. They have a lot of free time to do up the figures, sure what else is there to do.
Everybody has to make there own decisions. The investment needed to start up farming where you have no infrastructure, stock, machinery is significant. You are looking at 5-7 years before you start to even see a return in investment. Doing this with a young family and holding down a full time job takes a lot of commitment
The investment need for to go milking cows is even more significant and the fact it's an all week commitment a lot of the time has to be factored in as well. The important thing if you decide it's a mistake is to change course fast. The person who never makes a mistake never dose nothing.
The reason lads were paying 5 euro for calves was that was all they were worth at the time. Teagasc admitted that in there advocating crossbred cows they failed to factor in calf prices. You failed to remember up on 30k a year of calves did not even achieve that 5 euro bid. They were being send for slaughter.
Are you feeling the pressure a bit. Join the club a lot of us have been there before. In any farming enterprise the numbers have to stack up for the business to survive longterm. Actually it's the same in any enterprise full stop.
The SFP subsidised a lot of beef farmers and hid the flaws in there operation.As it was spread around a bit those with more viable systems were able to survive better. The expansion in dairying reduced dairy farmers control over calf prices. You will be glad to know is this beef farmers is not going milking cows any time soon.
As you are a committed regular contributor I will just presume you had an off day
It will it will 😄😄🤦🤦🤦🤦. Jesus wept is it any wonder the general public think we're much savages with some of the stuff posted on here
That's some pile of scutter ted.
Tax returns being released tomorrow on this thread. It will blow your mind. I hope it will satisfy my dairy credentials for you. And you, what will you realise?
That's nice.
Excuse me. A dairy thread hijacked by current or very recently past beef farmers or so called dairy farmers complaining about house letting everyday complaints. Same lads happy out buying calves 2 years ago for 5 euros bitching about dairy farmers. Not ones in it as business manager’s as some knob phrased it a few days ago. Real dairy farmers are in it for the love it, animals, traditions. Fect the annual dairy co op report. And **** your company.
Completely. And from a poster who has never shared or showed any interest in contributing productively to the thread edit just to clarify not you grueller
Wow. Such bitterness.
Quick query regarding in calf cows for sale. The animals are 2 months from their annual test will this affect the sale price achievable. Family member wishes to sell and the new rules never applied as culls are normally sold.
You should check out Sullivan’s farm on YouTube. Spend 300k for yourself by all means. Milk cows once a day for a year and then plan your exit strategy while trying to keep your self respect at the same time. All those posts complaining about lads not coming on doing his parlour etc for a 12 month lifespan. 38 is not young starting milking in my opinion let alone 50 second time asking.
but the top 105 may have advantages in land, breeding over decades, scale etc that may not be applicable in other situations. as well it may not factor in workload.
Were the tubes in their best before date? They do go off and then cause cow killing mastitis. You'd want to be sure tubes weren't used from the year before that actually were out of date.
