Dairy Chit Chat- Please read Mod note in post #1

Greengrass1 · 31-10-2015 03:23PM

trixi2011 wrote: »

Would your grass be an early heading variety .??

Yep. Half is hybrid

Sacrolyte · 31-10-2015 03:33PM

I have a cow here that from time to time when given the opportunity will steal a bucket of milk. Now the question I have is if she drinks a bucket of milk from a cow that has being tubed with penicillin will this then render her milk as inhibitor milk?

freedominacup · 31-10-2015 04:19PM

Timmaay wrote: »

Wagon or PC silage? And how much does the contractor charge (does it include mowing?). Ie any discount for cutting that early before the bulk of work comes in? I'd give an arm and a leg to be taking a 1st cut that early and go straight in for a 2nd cut early July, bulky dry cow feed (before a drought hits ha), but even getting my dad to cut the last week of may now is like drawing blood from a stone.

Showed him which fields were for cutting and came back with plastic and tyres when he was finished. Used to mow but oul boy was on radiotherapy foe first cut this year and right in the middle of breeding season I couldn't have given the bones of two days mowing. All tedded at least once apart from third cut which was dry enough. 75/acre incl vat approx. Second cut was a bit dearer as there were a lot of paddocks and smaller blocks on it and he lost a good bit of time. Wagon cut.

Timmay if you're not going to cut earlier give the oul boy his choice. Cut in time to make decent quality or forget the winter milk. I wouldn't mind but the real exponents of this type of silage making are in your neck of the woods. Their name escapes me but they've been producing silage of this quality since the late eighties. All we ever did was copy their methods directly with one or two tweaks to account for the slightly earlier start to the growing season down here. Apologies to anyone of the orange persuasion but the family I'm thinking of had a protestant surname if anyone can put the clues together.

the_blue_oval · 31-10-2015 06:19PM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Nope in full time. Little bit of an increase. I thought by look of there bags in parlour they were at least doing 20 +

How much area per cow on the straw greengrass? Ever have any problems with cows teats being stood on?

whelan2 · 31-10-2015 07:42PM

Did cows this evening for salmonella. I had a positive on milk test earlier in the summer. Next test was negative. A second calved came in with cleanings hanging this evening. I isolated her. Will get vet to blood her on Monday. How long would it take for blood results to come back and would the fact she was vaccinated today affect the results? I am hoping it's a one off

frazzledhome · 31-10-2015 10:18PM

visatorro wrote: »

go easy on the wine or you'll be making cold bottles of formula again!!

Lol, no danger but the thoughts just gave me a spine chill!!!!

danjoe · 01-11-2015 08:47AM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We cut 20th May this yr. Got 3 x 18 6 12 around 1st wk if april and it's only 66 dmd

Gg, do you still put out phioslith ? , and what time of year

Greengrass1 · 01-11-2015 09:57AM

danjoe wrote: »

Gg, do you still put out phioslith ? , and what time of year

Yes. Supposed to be done in November. Depends what funds are like if we do it later on this month or wait till jan

stanflt · 01-11-2015 10:03AM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Milk recorded last night and this am. Winter milkers only av 17.5 l. Still have spring calvers doing an easy 20l.
We just can't get the yeilds of if them in the shed. There getting 4 kg meal and 78 dmd paddock bales. I'm fcuked if im giving another 2 kg like the bloody meal rep wants us to do.
If they were spring milkers they would prob be at 27l for same stage of lactation

Gg your silage isn't up to scratch for winter milk- me needs to be 12
What amount of meal are you feeding?
This was the first 20 cows milked here this morning with some spring Calvers in the mix and a good few heifers

Dawggone · 01-11-2015 10:17AM

No rain for weeks and temps around 22/23degrees. Grass is showing a bit of drought stress so off now to give it 25mm....sure way for getting the weather to break!

stanflt · 01-11-2015 10:19AM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Milk recorded last night and this am. Winter milkers only av 17.5 l. Still have spring calvers doing an easy 20l.
We just can't get the yeilds of if them in the shed. There getting 4 kg meal and 78 dmd paddock bales. I'm fcuked if im giving another 2 kg like the bloody meal rep wants us to do.
If they were spring milkers they would prob be at 27l for same stage of lactation

Silage not good enough- first 20 milked this am

danjoe · 01-11-2015 10:20AM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Yes. Supposed to be done in November. Depends what funds are like if we do it later on this month or wait till jan

2 bags / acre ??

whelan2 · 01-11-2015 10:23AM

stanflt wrote: »

Silage not good enough- first 20 milked this am

would be interested if he is vaccinating for ibr, someone mentioned it earlier, made a hell of a difference here

Greengrass1 · 01-11-2015 10:24AM

danjoe wrote: »

2 bags / acre ??

1 here because we're at it last few yrs. 1st application is 2 bags

Greengrass1 · 01-11-2015 10:25AM

whelan2 wrote: »

would be interested if he is vaccinating for ibr, someone mentioned it earlier, made a hell of a difference here

Yes ibr vaccinating here for last 4 yrs using live one.
Getting 4 kg stan

darragh_haven · 01-11-2015 10:52AM

Dawggone wrote: »

No rain for weeks and temps around 22/23degrees. Grass is showing a bit of drought stress so off now to give it 25mm....sure way for getting the weather to break!

We are about 1000kms apart but we are world's apart in terms of weather. Could do with 2 dry weeks to keep animals out. Sea mist and drizzle is a curse here

Timmaay · 01-11-2015 11:00AM

darragh_haven wrote: »

We are about 1000kms apart but we are world's apart in terms of weather. Could do with 2 dry weeks to keep animals out. Sea mist and drizzle is a curse here

Ground still surprisingly perfect here, incredible back end this year, this is where we make up for them summer droughts over the last 3yrs

.

Timmaay · 01-11-2015 12:03PM

Some of the autumn milkers back up to 35l after they nosedived to 25l afew days ago, think I've finally nailed this winter diet. Last 2 bales they have got are pure leafy excess paddocks from may, alongside about 6kgDm maize, and 4kgs of a 16% nut. I'd say thoses bales must be much higher in protein, have to be well over 80dmd also. Only annoyance is I only got about 25 of them in total. Rest of the excess Paddock bales were cut later and some bit of steam was unavoidable. I'd have to rethink my feeding strategy and try to feed them 25 bales to only the 14 group of highs, currently they eat about 1/2 the bale a day, and spring ladies finish it off in the afternoon.

stanflt · 01-11-2015 01:03PM

Timmaay wrote: »

Some of the autumn milkers back up to 35l after they nosedived to 25l afew days ago, think I've finally nailed this winter diet. Last 2 bales they have got are pure leafy excess paddocks from may, alongside about 6kgDm maize, and 4kgs of a 16% nut. I'd say thoses bales must be much higher in protein, have to be well over 80dmd also. Only annoyance is I only got about 25 of them in total. Rest of the excess Paddock bales were cut later and some bit of steam was unavoidable. I'd have to rethink my feeding strategy and try to feed them 25 bales to only the 14 group of highs, currently they eat about 1/2 the bale a day, and spring ladies finish it off in the afternoon.

Some fresh ones this am

mahoney_j · 01-11-2015 01:11PM

Thank god I've none of that Craic to worry about .one mob of cows ,one maidens one heifer calves and a few Bulls .go hell for leather calving in Feb March and breeding in late April to mid June ,keep grass right for year ,bale as much quality silage as possible and feed costs around or below 5 cent for year .5?weeks out of parlour in Dec Jan and start again

Greengrass1 · 01-11-2015 01:19PM

freedominacup wrote: »

Everything grazed at least once in spring. Fertility is good. Generally no slurry on silage ground after January. All grassland blanket spread with bag and a half of ASN first week of April. Only out farm approx half first cut area stopped at that stage. Paddocks then skipped hopefully in reasonable sized blocks as surpluses appear as gr increases through April. Another 40 units applied to all grass around 20th of April. Your 15-10-10 gave a nice boost early on this year and is something we'll continue doing. Only around 70-80 units N applied max for first cut. Don't apply p and k directly for silage. Prefer to keep it topped up as and when it suits best.

Cutting aimed for 10th of May. No focus on getting silage dry at all. Dmd beats the hell out of dm. Won't cut in rain but once it stops raining we'll be mowing within half a day. Pick up directly if the window is small. Contractor got one other job done in the window we cut in this May before rain hit again. At least a week of a break before he was going again from memory. Dm in that sample is probably higher than it should be. Core sample so a certain amount of moisture will have been compressed out during sampling.

edit. Usually book contractor in early April and confirm around first of May.

How many acres are you cutting per cow for first cut free? I couldn't see us cutting silage 1st week of May. We would need a big area to get that quality for a whole 1st cut.

mahoney_j · 01-11-2015 01:24PM

Greengrass1 wrote: »

How many acres are you cutting per cow for first cut free? I couldn't see us cutting silage 1st week of May. We would need a big area to get that quality for a whole 1st cut.

Why not just close a smaller area gg,,say just enough to get your winter milkers through winter.ive such a wedge of silage at moment that I'm considering closing no area for silage next March/april and just keep fertiliser out and bale like fook from early May whenever surpluses occur .

Greengrass1 · 01-11-2015 01:56PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Why not just close a smaller area gg,,say just enough to get your winter milkers through winter.ive such a wedge of silage at moment that I'm considering closing no area for silage next March/april and just keep fertiliser out and bale like fook from early May whenever surpluses occur .

I remember that was all the rage up to 09 and then lads didn't get enough fodder as a result.
That's what I'll have to do. Tried my best this yr to get the hybrid cut around 1st wk of may but didn't happen

degetme · 01-11-2015 01:58PM

what are incalf spring calving heifers making?

mahoney_j · 01-11-2015 02:00PM

degetme wrote: »

what are incalf spring calving heifers making?

11/1200 but more for wuality with good ebi ,breeding etc

Deepsouthwest · 01-11-2015 02:16PM

degetme wrote: »

what are incalf spring calving heifers making?

Cross breds making €1400, have had 3 lads in the few wks trying to source them. But finding it v hard to get them. Apparently most of the sellers, myself included, are holding them and all plan on milking more cows nxt yr.
Maybe I should be taking the €1400

Deepsouthwest · 01-11-2015 02:21PM

whelan2 wrote: »

Did cows this evening for salmonella. I had a positive on milk test earlier in the summer. Next test was negative. A second calved came in with cleanings hanging this evening. I isolated her. Will get vet to blood her on Monday. How long would it take for blood results to come back and would the fact she was vaccinated today affect the results? I am hoping it's a one off

Hops it's only a hurt and a one off. Nov 1st is v late to be going in with the salmonella vaccine, I learned this at this exact time last yr, at great expense. It takes around 3 wks after getting the booster is given before the immunity is back to where u need it to be

mahoney_j · 01-11-2015 02:34PM

Advice from my vet is first shot early August and booster 01 September

whelan2 · 01-11-2015 02:38PM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Advice from my vet is first shot early August and booster 01 September

ye i had to do for ibr first . will see how it goes

freedominacup · 01-11-2015 03:40PM

In total over the three cuts around 1.2 acres per lu plus around 2.5 bales per lu. You have your own gear gg. Nothing to stop you taking three cuts in the same time frame as you made two cuts this year. Wagon and loader by the hour with our contractor, mowing tedding and raking. Generally shifts over two acres per load.

Baling contractor gets a couple of days notice and gets us coming or going from other jobs. He's guaranteed no access problems and plastic waiting at first paddock. Min charge for arriving so if numbers really small can be very expensive.

Walking twice per week at that time so you will see the surpluses appearing well in advance. I think baler was in almost every week unless the wagon was in from late April until late July.
Delaying cutting paddocks unless it's pi#% ing down is completely self defeating. You don't get the quality and you don't get the paddocks back in production. Most of the bales we fed so far had water flowing out of them. I seemed to pick the wrong day to cut almost every time this year. Cows still went well on them. Doing 20l all through Oct with half their forage at least from bales. Didn't hit the high spots with pr alright. Never broke 4%, running around 3.8% for the month. Dmd over dm everyday. If you can get high dm as well as dmd brilliant but dmd first imo.

Dairy Chit Chat- Please read Mod note in post #1

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