Dairy Chitchat 3

Timmaay wrote: »

An frs milker here forgot to close the tank valve here many yrs ago with my dad, and I don't think he had any success getting anything towards the lost milk! Not closing the tank valve, not turning the tank on, or letting a red tape cow into the tank are the big 3 absolutely NO NOs here and all milkers get told that fairly clearly at the start, never been an issue with any of the lads I've had thankfully.

Check the dairy after first row goes out is the main point here

Anyone know how much meal and what % protein you would need to feed maiden heifers if they were just fed straw for the winter?

Mooooo wrote: »

I think it's something like .5kg for every 50kg liveweight, would want good ingredients too soya as protein source etc. Not sure what you would have to make it up to, 20 +% maybe?

That's probably about 2.5 kg then fir 220 kg heifers? We usually feed that much with silage most winters but it would be an 18% nut. I have silage in there yard but I'd like to keep it for milkers if I could

orm0nd wrote: »

it's going to a costly winter one way or another

On hindsight last winter was incredible cheap for us here, for the milkers maize and leafy paddock bales which woulda both cost about 13c/kgdm, alongside the bare 3kg of a 24% protein balancer nut, and the incalf heifers were out strip grazing an outside block up until Jan. All went tits up from mid Feb onwards obviously tho ha.

I'm working out that between feeding the winter milkers and bridging the gap in my fodder deficit I'll need another 70tons dm, and as things stand energy will cost at a minimum 20c/kgdm, and more like 25 to 30c if it's all bought in concentrates.

freedominacup wrote: »

From memory heifers need 70-80mj per day. Roughly equivalent to 6.5kg dm of good quality feed. Protein needs to be good quality rather than a %. Half a kg of soya goes a long way to supplying this. 10 kg silage fresh, 2kg of straw and 3kg of meal incl .5kg of soya would be a reasonable mix. A 120 day winter for 40 heifers would be covered by 60 bales of silage with that diet.

They're on an outfarm with 2 lean twos and ring feeders. Not able to make up a diet like that for them. Thanks for that though

P at 3.6 here bf stubbornly staying below 4 at 3.9. Doing between 24.5 and 25 litres. Had a high urea result at 49 as are in leafy covers, thought the fert would be ok but this is drier ground where growth has come in more of a burst whereas the heavier ground had recovered faster so perhaps used up the n more gradually.

awaywithyou wrote: »

Just wondering lads has the deadline for spreading FYM been extended as well as the slurry/fert??

Yes 2 weeks aswell I believe

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

What sort of money are contractors charging for second cut SP silage?

Same as first cut

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Usually 30% less but depends on how heavy it is

Not a hope of that around here

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

What sort of money are contractors charging for second cut SP silage?

If it's a light cut a wagon could make sense?

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Comment section with 'Coconut milk is a good choice':pac:

How many times a day do they milk the coconuts

Reggie. wrote: »

Or a baler

Plenty of room in pits in nearly every yard here...

Reggie. wrote: »

Yeah but from a costing point of view it might be cheaper

Deciding that here today...costing 8.50 bale, wrap and stack, plus 3 to haul, now and rake myself...reckon beyond 6 bales per acre the pit is cheaper.

In a bit if a bind in that our hybrids have headed. Only grazed 5 weeks and got 100N 3and a half weeks ago, but it has not grown that well and looks completely stressed for water...

Was talking to a neighbour who was interested in the Glanbia extended credit scheme, he is at his credit limit and therefore will not qualify for the extended credit scheme. So this scheme will not help those who really need it, who is it for then, is it a publicity exercise? On a 30k credit limit a farmer would be paying 900 euro a month interest. I know most credit limits would be much higher than that.

Was there an announcement earlier in the summer that credit limits were being extended?

whelan2 wrote: »

Was talking to a neighbour who was interested in the Glanbia extended credit scheme, he is at his credit limit and therefore will not qualify for the extended credit scheme. So this scheme will not help those who really need it, who is it for then, is it a publicity exercise? On a 30k credit limit a farmer would be paying 900 euro a month interest. I know most credit limits would be much higher than that.

To be fair interest doesn’t kick in till amounts owed on 4-6 month plus and is knocked of here once it’s cleared within 6 months owed, in cases where accounts are being left run and no concentrated effort of knocking of 4-5k month on a account like the above you wouldn’t expect them to keep extending credit
If a free for all was left develop re credits limits, massive bills would be run-up resulting in farmers having massive amounts of money been took of milk Cheques through contra and then of course Glanbia would be the big bad wolf taking half the farmers milk Cheque without warning

alps wrote: »

Deciding that here today...costing 8.50 bale, wrap and stack, plus 3 to haul, now and rake myself...reckon beyond 6 bales per acre the pit is cheaper.

In a bit if a bind in that our hybrids have headed. Only grazed 5 weeks and got 100N 3and a half weeks ago, but it has not grown that well and looks completely stressed for water...

We were all set to go mow ours this afternoon but a we're after getting a down pour of rain here so it on hold for today
Reckon it's about 7 bales per acre on what we have. Going to put it into the pit even though we have all the gear for bales, just don't have the time and our trailer wont be able for the distance they have to be drawn.
Letting half of it up again for a third cut in 6 weeks

alps wrote: »

Taken from a NZ article...

An analysis of DairyNZ’s Economic Farm Survey data by Ian Williams of Pioneer indicates that over the last 12 years (since the 2005-06 season to 2016-17) average profit per hectare, return on assets, and equity growth has been higher for system 4-5 (inputs and high stocking rate) than 1-2 (all grass and low stocking rate). Closing term debt per kgMS has been lower for system 4-5 than 1-2.

Economically the higher stocking rate systems have paid off.

Do the Nz Government throw money at them when the green stuff doesn’t grow?

blackdog1 wrote: »

what is that?

Westershyte and redstart...:)
Joking!

Alexandria and squarrosum clovers, moha and sorghum. The sorghum seed was in a moha bag so was included by mistake. NO FERT added!!
A neighbor is pitting maize today and I said he could have it for free to clean off the field for osr. The kemper header wouldn’t cut it so they had to change headers and mow it...

Nothing grows in drought they said...

Shows what the savants in Teagasc know about drought.

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Westershyte and redstart...:)
Joking!

Alexandria and squarrosum clovers, moha and sorghum. The sorghum seed was in a moha bag so was included by mistake. NO FERT added!!
A neighbor is pitting maize today and I said he could have it for free to clean off the field for osr. The kemper header wouldn’t cut it so they had to change headers and mow it...

Nothing grows in drought they said...

Shows what the savants in Teagasc know about drought.

For arguments sake if that was set here for harvest in September? after a winter crop, what way would it be if it was harvested in wettish conditions which would most likely be the case? And would you get much more of a yield in normal rainfall conditions here? Perhaps where Timmay and freedom are where they seem to suffer drought like conditions for some bit of every summer something such as that may suit but for those of us which 90% of the time get more rain would there be much point in setting that?

freedominacup wrote: »

I'll get back to you on that. Might have fcuked it up by including too much hybrid grass.

How are you getting on now, did you get enough rain?