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

C0N0R · 13-04-2016 10:28PM

Matt Ryan in Irish farmers monthly suggesting that for April we feed no meal, grass in plentiful and will support 27 litres. No idea where he is but it's not Monaghan and not this April either.

mahoney_j · 13-04-2016 10:40PM

C0N0R wrote: »

Matt Ryan in Irish farmers monthly suggesting that for April we feed no meal, grass in plentiful and will support 27 litres. No idea where he is but it's not Monaghan and not this April either.

Lives a few miles from me ,good quality grass in good dry warmish weather will supportn26/27 litres but that's dangerous advice for a new entrant /low experience dairy farmer as by putting no meal or at least not making a strong point of the importance to get cal mag into cows he could arrive out to find cows belly up hit with tetany .

jack o shea · 13-04-2016 10:41PM

He must have been listening to ur one on the farming weather last Sunday, what a tosser, no meal and the weather we are having.

whelan2 · 14-04-2016 06:13AM

C0N0R wrote: »

Matt Ryan in Irish farmers monthly suggesting that for April we feed no meal, grass in plentiful and will support 27 litres. No idea where he is but it's not Monaghan and not this April either.

Got a teagasc newsletter the other day with something similar

C0N0R · 14-04-2016 07:45AM

mahoney_j wrote: »

Lives a few miles from me ,good quality grass in good dry warmish weather will supportn26/27 litres but that's dangerous advice for a new entrant /low experience dairy farmer as by putting no meal or at least not making a strong point of the importance to get cal mag into cows he could arrive out to find cows belly up hit with tetany .

You would want all your ducks in a row for it to be worth 27 litres, perfect Graze out on first round, perfect allocation, perfect cover and perfect weather to get dry matter intakes. Not this April and certainly not the whole month. Magnesium flakes were mentioned to cover the tetany side of things. It's dangerous advise for the ill informed, you mess up April and your looking at problems for breeding then.

jaymla627 · 14-04-2016 08:37AM

C0N0R wrote: »

You would want all your ducks in a row for it to be worth 27 litres, perfect Graze out on first round, perfect allocation, perfect cover and perfect weather to get dry matter intakes. Not this April and certainly not the whole month. Magnesium flakes were mentioned to cover the tetany side of things. It's dangerous advise for the ill informed, you mess up April and your looking at problems for breeding then.

What's happening in kildalton dairy herd at the minute re grass/yield/meal fed really blows the whole grass based minimal/no meal thinking out of the water and this is a Teagasc farm with a lad over it who detests feeding meal....
Current yield their is 22 litres of silage, 6kgs meal and grass where's it all going wrong their on what would be a realitively dry farm with great infrastructure/grass swards.....
Their own farms don't even back up the ludacris statement about grass supporting 27 litres at the minute, it's like he got lazy and just rehashed a article from last spring by the looks of it

Milked out · 14-04-2016 09:26AM

In fairness most of the advisors have more cop on. Facilitator at group walk was advising with current conditions that even if feeding silage and meal with grass that the allocated amount of grass may not be utilised could be walked or whatever anf that more meal or silage may have to go in. He also said to wtach covers as as soon as weather picks up grass may well take off and be quick to cur back on meal amd silage but only when conditions are with you.
Agree carte planche advise like that printed is useless for most

alps · 14-04-2016 11:16PM

Rang the vet today to fertility check 4 bulls...was quoted €360, but I feel that's terribly expensive....Anyone got any experience/contacts/advise?

Milked out · 14-04-2016 11:51PM

alps wrote: »

Rang the vet today to fertility check 4 bulls...was quoted €360, but I feel that's terribly expensive....Anyone got any experience/contacts/advise?

What's that €50 call out and €75 a bull after or so. Seems dear alright when all.that need doing is collect a sample and look at it there and then. Dunno any other crowds that may do it will ask my own vet tomorrow if I think of it. Could check with your Ai company?

alps · 15-04-2016 01:57AM

Milked out wrote: »

What's that €50 call out and €75 a bull after or so. Seems dear alright when all.that need doing is collect a sample and look at it there and then. Dunno any other crowds that may do it will ask my own vet tomorrow if I think of it. Could check with your Ai company?

Spotted ad on done deal...says 25€..will enquire more..

bogman_bass · 15-04-2016 10:58AM

Dawggone wrote: »

Doesn't matter if you're a Martian.
A qualified farmer is a qualified farmer no matter what nationality Trixi.

Edit. Forgot to say that young farmers must get first refusal (by law) on all land for sale/lease.

Mores the pity we Dont have it over here

Milked out · 15-04-2016 11:11AM

alps wrote: »

Spotted ad on done deal...says 25€..will enquire more..

Rang vets there for one bull they are113 including call out, didn't haggle as not looking for it straight away. Mentioned it being cheaper on done deal, the one in office said to check that they are certified as some aren't

farmerjj · 15-04-2016 12:25PM

Milked out wrote: »

Rang vets there for one bull they are113 including call out, didn't haggle as not looking for it straight away. Mentioned it being cheaper on done deal, the one in office said to check that they are certified as some aren't

€25 is the go of it with cert,s, think your vet must see $signs around you.

alps · 15-04-2016 12:27PM

Milked out wrote: »

Rang vets there for one bull they are113 including call out, didn't haggle as not looking for it straight away. Mentioned it being cheaper on done deal, the one in office said to check that they are certified as some aren't

Good man MO....Hope you told her all you wanted to know if his mickey was working, not to give him a day out in a massage parlour....

Milked out · 15-04-2016 12:31PM

alps wrote: »

Good man MO....Hope you told her all you wanted to know if his mickey was working, not to give him a day out in a massage parlour....

I told her something similar alright, I can knock em back on most things and get some jobs lined up for the one day to make most of call out but she got the message won't be done at that price .

bogman_bass · 15-04-2016 12:37PM

Dairy proofs are up http://www.icbf.com/?p=5267

whelan2 · 15-04-2016 01:22PM

Let out heifers to aa bulls this morning, great to see an empty shed and to see them doing laps of the field too

mickey1985 · 15-04-2016 05:44PM

What price are pedigree calved heifers worth at the moment to buy?

Limestone Cowboy · 15-04-2016 07:29PM

alps wrote: »

Rang the vet today to fertility check 4 bulls...was quoted €360, but I feel that's terribly expensive....Anyone got any experience/contacts/advise?

Sent you a pm there Alps!

alps · 15-04-2016 08:06PM

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Sent you a pm there Alps!

Cheers ...you're a gent..

Buford T. Justice XIX · 16-04-2016 10:42AM

I came across this link last night talking about how NZ could/should deal with milk price.

http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/business/milk-tanks/

Interestingly, the section on marginal milk and how farmers would make more profit by reducing cow numbers is being discussed there.

whelan2 · 16-04-2016 06:11PM

What a long crap day, cow down in cubicle shed this morning. Heifer calving calf coming backwards, young calf dead with bloat.

freedominacup · 16-04-2016 07:48PM

whelan2 wrote: »

What a long crap day, cow down in cubicle shed this morning. Heifer calving calf coming backwards, young calf dead with bloat.

Always happens when the winter drags on like this one.

Base price · 16-04-2016 09:54PM

whelan2 wrote: »

What a long crap day, cow down in cubicle shed this morning. Heifer calving calf coming backwards, young calf dead with bloat.

Hard luck Whelan.
You know that we had a problem with bloat in calves this year. As a matter of interest was your calf on milk replacer?
I'm still trying to get to the bottom of what our problem was considering we never had it before. I have a theory but it could be way off the mark.

alps · 16-04-2016 10:28PM

Base price wrote: »

Hard luck Whelan.
You know that we had a problem with bloat in calves this year. As a matter of interest was your calf on milk replacer?
I'm still trying to get to the bottom of what our problem was considering we never had it before. I have a theory but it could be way off the mark.

HaD too much bloat this year...calves on milk replacer and I'm just suspicious of a connection.

It's a well known high protein low fat ratio powder, "specially formulated" at heifer replacements. Some of my colleagues have had similar issues to some degree. Internet prowling there is some suggestions of these high protein powders fed at high dilution rates can sometimes cause problems.

Can I just ask are those that are having bloat issues using high protein heifer powders?

keep going · 16-04-2016 11:11PM

Had a lucky one with bloat in a calf on Wednesday. I was going dehorning a few calves in the hutches otherwise I wouldnt have gone near them when I heard a gasping noise from one of the hutches and there was a calf gasping for air swelled up like a balloon.on whole milk and crunch

Base price · 17-04-2016 12:23AM

alps wrote: »

HaD too much bloat this year...calves on milk replacer and I'm just suspicious of a connection.

It's a well known high protein low fat ratio powder, "specially formulated" at heifer replacements. Some of my colleagues have had similar issues to some degree. Internet prowling there is some suggestions of these high protein powders fed at high dilution rates can sometimes cause problems.

Can I just ask are those that are having bloat issues using high protein heifer powders?

I don't know how many calves you rear but over the last 12 years we would rear between 100 to 300 annually. The majority would be FR bull sucks bought directly ex farm at 10+ days old. We buy the majority of calves from the same 4 or 5 dairy farmers every year. We never had a single problem with bloat in a suck calf until this year. Off the top of my head I reckon we dosed 40 calves with bread soda and brought 7 extreme cases to the vet out of 168 calves.
We do not live in a "dairy" county but our vet has never seen such a multitude of bloat in calves.
She knows the set up that we have and cannot figure out what is going on. We have been using the same milk replacer for the past 12 years. When the bloat issue arose and on her recommendation, I contacted the manufacturers in Holland to check if the had changed the ingredients and they assured me that they hadn't.

whelan2 · 17-04-2016 06:22AM

Base price wrote: »

Hard luck Whelan.
You know that we had a problem with bloat in calves this year. As a matter of interest was your calf on milk replacer?
I'm still trying to get to the bottom of what our problem was considering we never had it before. I have a theory but it could be way off the mark.

no, on whole milk here

Injuryprone · 17-04-2016 04:37PM

How long do people generally keep calves on starter crunch for? It's expensive stuff. And what type of nut (protein/ingredients etc) do ye progress them onto?

Base price · 17-04-2016 05:00PM

Injuryprone wrote: »

How long do people generally keep calves on starter crunch for? It's expensive stuff. And what type of nut (protein/ingredients etc) do ye progress them onto?

We start them on a calf crunch for about a week and gradually add a pencil 18%. When they are eating a kg of pencil we then gradually add a calf nut 16% and wean them off the pencils.
We continue to give them the calf nut while on grass but they would only get a taste.
Crows are not a problem when feeding pencils/nuts in the shed.

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

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