Dairy Farming General

freedominacup wrote: »

Cow that calved yesterday evening down with milk fever this morning. Two bottles into the vein and thankfully she was up in five minutes. I need a kick in the hole though. She's a good cow but inclined to be troublesome around calving.

Mornings like this the wholecrop comes into it's own. I threw a strong buffer feed into the feeder before milking. The buffer is just finished now as the rain is stopping. They'll mosy off now and won't miss a beat performance wise or plough any paddock. If there was only grass silage available they'd be blowing for road straightaway or if they were made stay in and eat it performance would suffer big time. It's a good feed when fully housed but on the shoulders of the season it's very valuable.

Have you used maize as a buffer? How do they compare, giving up on maize this year as stocking rate dropping for a bit due to extra land so have plenty forage and more so cos it's working out well over 55 a tone and waste on top of that, doing diets this year and it was same cost to include maize or just add barley, wheat, maize meal blend to mix, extra soya in maize mix was killing it to even bring it to 14% crude protein , way I see it now is your just paying for the feed before the winter vs paying through the winter by adding barley wheat and maize meal. (where are prices for these heading though)

Opened maize when they went to grass to buffer but wonder if I didn't have it would dry silage and something like soya hulls and barley do the trick?? Maize just costing too much at this stage and doing extremely well to get 18-20 ton crop

Crows are the real nuisance in a yard tho, **** made of grass silage pit here cos they think it's maize underneath after netting the maize pit

freedominacup wrote: »

Cow that calved yesterday evening down with milk fever this morning. Two bottles into the vein and thankfully she was up in five minutes. I need a kick in the hole though. She's a good cow but inclined to be troublesome around calving.

Mornings like this the wholecrop comes into it's own. I threw a strong buffer feed into the feeder before milking. The buffer is just finished now as the rain is stopping. They'll mosy off now and won't miss a beat performance wise or plough any paddock. If there was only grass silage available they'd be blowing for road straightaway or if they were made stay in and eat it performance would suffer big time. It's a good feed when fully housed but on the shoulders of the season it's very valuable.

Agree with u on wholecrop ,perfect foil for grass I think maby maize might be better but more expensive .mixing mine with hi quality wraps and cows fully content with neglible drop off in production during stages of poor weather and on/off grazing

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Cows usually go out here fairly quick full time most yrs.
will have to change tack next yr more cows.
will more than likely have to stay in at night for a good while.
I'll hopefully have a good bank of quality silage and just feed that.
can't afford to buy or grow maize :D

Look at wholecrop gg considering where u are and one cruical bit of advice don't go loading on a heap of cows just to say your carrying extra nos.from what we can gather u need more slurry storage,cubicles milk tank etc.chasing nos is a dangerous game a bit more dangerous than chasing production if u ask me.with ur sr moving up you'll need space to buffer cows and space for drys to accommodate poor spells of weather early and late in year.slow steady growth is my advice and sort above issues along way.if you've lots of stock u could offload some to part finance it

keep going wrote: »

No manure out here due to weather and busy and starting to panic. Lads that have it out are ye getting a response

Can definitely see a response now from urea spread about a month ago, all field have a good green colour and growth definitely coming along, of course paddocks that got slurry after grazing before the weather went to sh!t down here are really motoring

whelan2 wrote: »

water is all leaking out of the bottom of the water heater i have in dairy, its not that old and only put a new element in it before christmas:mad: what water heater do ye use?

We got a stainless last year. Can take a pressurised feed. Pricey enough but should last. Bil goes for cheap and nasty and hopes to get two years out of them. I'll check make later.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Doubt I'll milk 110 next yr if I milk 90-95 ill be doing well.
Id stick it for a yr
it'll be a decision between slurry storage and some cubicles or the parlour.
I want slurry storage and some cubicles dad is more inclined to go for parlour

15/16 rows so, if it was say you the am your dad at night perfectly fine but if your always in the pit like me, give the parlour a 2nd thought ha. Barebones frazz style will do fine ha.

frazzledhome wrote: »

Stay going with what you have. Get compliant, get boots on the ground and get cash flowing. Get a local young lad to do Sun pm milking €50, he'll be delighted and you'll get out of the place from 8am sun am till 6 on Mon am.

Lifestyle is some thing you can only consider when you can afford it. Lifestyle can be very expensive.

ill be putting 150 through 10units here this year and maybe up to 200next

parlour is 3years away-if milk price stays above 32c this year i might start the shed next year as i can afford it

relief lad is a better option than spending 250k at the moment imo