Farming Chit Chat

vanderbadger · 23-01-2013 12:38PM

whelan1 wrote: »

had a guy ring me last night looking for biestings, i keep some in the freezer, he said he had a heifer calved yesterday morning and the calf hadnt drank yet, he said he would get the biestings this morning, so calf wont have had a drink for a full 24 hours after it was born:eek::eek: not a great start for it

i had a calf born monday morning off a springer, he was very small and weak, wouldnt suck and she was an easy heifer to manage but no way would he suck, i feed him myself but he seemed to get worse at the day went on, went to vet got vit shot for him and they gave me another injection, the one that incourages them to suckle, didnt seem to make any odds, his heart was racing and id say his lungs were under pressure, he wouldnt take anything that evening and if you tried to tube him he would go into convultions, same yesterday morning, i would put him standing and he would lie down again after a min, literally had to force about half L into him, was testing later in day and asked vet to take alook, he gave him a shot into neck of cloudy stuff, cant remember name, 9 o clock last night he still wouldnt drink and i was thinking he was a goner..
put him up this morning and shoved him under heifer and low and behold he started to nuzzle the cow, she gave him a good kick not being used to be sucked but he came back and within a few mins he was tearing into her..hard to believe sometimes how easy they can die and sometimes how they stay alive

just do it · 23-01-2013 08:08PM

vanderbadger wrote: »

hard to believe sometimes how easy they can die and sometimes how they stay alive

Your husbandry skills were the difference. He'd have died on a lot of farms.

whelan1 · 23-01-2013 08:16PM

have laugh, the guy who got the biestings went through chapter and verse about the calf, a bit of effort like vanderbadger would go along way, we all know how important it is to get biestings into the calf asap after birth

whelan1 · 23-01-2013 08:18PM

anyone see the weather forecast on the six 1 news, feck sake turn out wont be for a long time around here if we get the rain thats forecast

Bizzum · 23-01-2013 08:43PM

reilig wrote: »

He'll be dead this morning so. Remember as a young lad of 8 or 10, my parents were gone to a wedding and we had a heifer calved out in the field. Calf was up and sucking after 20 minutes. But about 12 hours later he was down. Put the heifer into a crush to see what the milk was like and it turned out that she had none at all. Calf died. Expensive lesson for a young lad, but a valuable one too. Always get the beastings into the calf asap.

Jaysus Reilig you were the plucky young fella;)

1chippy · 23-01-2013 09:03PM

this year we have started giving everything 2 litres of biestings after calving. within 20 mininutes. so far so good, vaccinated all cows a while back and everything when they hit 7 days or batches of 5 is done for pneumonia and at 3 weeks the ibr and whatever else is in it at that stage. it really has made a huge difference compared to last year. all new stock ar being done aswell before they get mixing with the rest.
Reilig i wass down your way yesterday, i really dont envy you farming on leitrim ground, even the snipe were wearing wellies.

Timmaay · 23-01-2013 09:40PM

whelan1 wrote: »

anyone see the weather forecast on the six 1 news, feck sake turn out wont be for a long time around here if we get the rain thats forecast

Just looked at it now, got 7loads out of the tank today, I may the same again tomorrow when I have the chance!

whelan1 · 23-01-2013 09:52PM

Timmaay wrote: »

Just looked at it now, got 7loads out of the tank today, I may the same again tomorrow when I have the chance!

got 15 loads out on our "driest" fields, 2600 gallon tanker, took the pressure off a bit

delaval · 23-01-2013 10:03PM

We were spreading from early am till 6 no damage done TG. Hope to repeat tomorrow and then concentrate on calving.

Grass also measured today AFC 600, we were a bit disappointed grass looks like it grew a lot it's green but didn,t grow as much as we expected. Calving next week so we'll make the most of what we have.

simx · 23-01-2013 10:39PM

hugo29 wrote: »

thats good if you know how to tube em, never really learned that art, is it a difficult procedure, id be afraid to do it , prob see the tube coming out the calves ass:D, suppose it would be time to stop then,

i had to learn very fast,no one around,vet just gave me a description how to do it- hold head up,put tube in at the side of the mouth ,then while still keeping up the head rub the calfs neck,you should feel the tube going down ,then open the valve while still holding up calfs head and less than a minute later 2l are gone, alot handier than messing around with teat box, i was wary of doing it at first for fear of drowning but would be my first choice now

Timmaay · 23-01-2013 10:47PM

I need to replace the feeding tube with a bag I have at the minute, http://www.magentadirect.ie/proddetail.php?prod=MAE0025&cat=12 this one is cheap and looks easier to operate on your own, anyone used this type before, and major downsides?

delaval · 23-01-2013 11:00PM

freedominacup wrote: »

Why?
I've never given concentrate to milking cows any other way

We diet fed here for 20 yrs sold feeder 2 years ago put pig reeders in you would not believe how much more time we have:D:D

td5man · 23-01-2013 11:18PM

Timmaay wrote: »

I need to replace the feeding tube with a bag I have at the minute, http://www.magentadirect.ie/proddetail.php?prod=MAE0025&cat=12 this one is cheap and looks easier to operate on your own, anyone used this type before, and major downsides?

Have used them but with a flexible tube,theyre ok but break around the cap.
Using a channelle bag at the moment vet was saying he had the tube break on one killing the calf.

td5man · 23-01-2013 11:19PM

delaval wrote: »

We diet fed here for 20 yrs sold feeder 2 years ago put pig reeders in you would not believe how much more time we have:D:D

More time and less diesel burnt id say.

Bizzum · 24-01-2013 12:28AM

Timmaay wrote: »

I need to replace the feeding tube with a bag I have at the minute, http://www.magentadirect.ie/proddetail.php?prod=MAE0025&cat=12 this one is cheap and looks easier to operate on your own, anyone used this type before, and major downsides?

I've only ever used the flexible ones. After a bit of use they harden up a bit and generally leak. In fact the last one we had I now use the tube to wash out cows with a dosing syringe on the end of it.

I'd be nervous using the rigid one, but maybe when ya get going at it, there'd be no probs. As said earlier, you can feel it going down.

Rovi · 24-01-2013 12:36AM

I put a awful lot of colostrum through the collapsible/flexible ones, and found them to be invaluable at calving time:
http://www.magentadirect.ie/proddetail.php?prod=MAE0023

They get chewed up and leaky after a while, but we'd always have a new one on hand for whenever it was needed.

bob charles · 24-01-2013 03:49AM

its a goodie

bob charles · 24-01-2013 04:29AM

whelan1 wrote: »

anyone see the weather forecast on the six 1 news, feck sake turn out wont be for a long time around here if we get the rain thats forecast

will ye let it rain when its supposed to rain and hope that the seasons get back into kilter. Dry weather in January is shag all of a help, if its pissing come May

C0N0R · 24-01-2013 05:32AM

Timmaay wrote: »

I need to replace the feeding tube with a bag I have at the minute, http://www.magentadirect.ie/proddetail.php?prod=MAE0025&cat=12 this one is cheap and looks easier to operate on your own, anyone used this type before, and major downsides?

Only ever used this one, never had any problems with it, simple and effective. Can't get the bag ones out here! (Nz)

redzerologhlen · 24-01-2013 03:26PM

simx wrote: »

i had to learn very fast,no one around,vet just gave me a description how to do it- hold head up,put tube in at the side of the mouth ,then while still keeping up the head rub the calfs neck,you should feel the tube going down ,then open the valve while still holding up calfs head and less than a minute later 2l are gone, alot handier than messing around with teat box, i was wary of doing it at first for fear of drowning but would be my first choice now

I agree its a lot handier and safer when done right than trying to bottle milk into a dopey weak calf. My auld fella let milk into a calfs lungs years back and wont do it since. I think the biggest danger rather than putting the pipe into the calves lungs is if the tube comes up the calves neck and it isint able to take the milk to its stomach fast enough so it flows into the lungs instead, I always make sure there is no milk in the tube when I am taking it out to avoid this.

funny man · 24-01-2013 07:30PM

bob charles wrote: »

will ye let it rain when its supposed to rain and hope that the seasons get back into kilter. Dry weather in January is shag all of a help, if its pissing come May

yea if it rains now will we be garunteed that it will be sunny and dry in the summer; like last year!.

reilig · 24-01-2013 09:18PM

funny man wrote: »

yea if it rains now will we be garunteed that it will be sunny and dry in the summer; like last year!.

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I believe that we get roughly the same amount of rain every year. In the few wet summers gone by we got dry springs and wet summers. I'd like to think that if spring isn't as dry this year, we stand a better chance of getting drier weather in the summer.

simx · 24-01-2013 09:53PM

reilig wrote: »

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I believe that we get roughly the same amount of rain every year. In the few wet summers gone by we got dry springs and wet summers. I'd like to think that if spring isn't as dry this year, we stand a better chance of getting drier weather in the summer.

id be hoping that too along with many many more

Username John · 24-01-2013 09:55PM

reilig wrote: »

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I believe that we get roughly the same amount of rain every year. In the few wet summers gone by we got dry springs and wet summers. I'd like to think that if spring isn't as dry this year, we stand a better chance of getting drier weather in the summer.

Yeah, I'd agree with that Reilg.

delaval · 24-01-2013 10:29PM

We record rainfall here
2008 949mm
2009 1084
2010 720
2011 864
2012 936
As you can all can see nothing excepional about 2012. I think you will all agree that the timing was the problem.

bbam · 24-01-2013 11:13PM

delaval wrote: »

We record rainfall here
2008 949mm
2009 1084
2010 720
2011 864
2012 936
As you can all can see nothing excepional about 2012. I think you will all agree that the timing was the problem.

Problem was WHEN it came OK...
Torrential rain during the "summer" and then just ordinary rain in the months either side of the summer... Nov/Dec were actually drier here in Cavan than "normal"

just do it · 24-01-2013 11:43PM

reilig wrote: »

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I believe that we get roughly the same amount of rain every year. In the few wet summers gone by we got dry springs and wet summers. I'd like to think that if spring isn't as dry this year, we stand a better chance of getting drier weather in the summer.

It's a bit like drinking. Regular drinking in moderation does you no harm. It's binge drinking that causes the damage

lakill Farm · 25-01-2013 11:00AM

just saw a pic from Co Louth, up your neck of the woods Whelan1

and

he had the cows out yesterday

whelan1 · 25-01-2013 11:03AM

lakill Farm wrote: »

just saw a pic from Co Louth, up your neck of the woods Whelan1

and

he had the cows out yesterday

alot of people very short on feed around here....

bbam · 25-01-2013 11:21AM

Horrible morning here.
Hammering rain and snow is melting away. Rivers well burst their banks last night.
Have fella coming tomorrow to suck a few loads out of slatted tank, it'll have to go into an open pit for the moment.

Heading to Cork later for a few nights. What's the chances of seeing cattl out down there near the real Capitol.

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