Dairy Chitchat 3

whelan2 wrote: »

First autumn calver calved this morning. Set of dead fr bull twins. Not due for a couple of weeks. Big enough all the same. Had another set of twins yesterday in the sucklers. All good there.

Jaysus after the year we’ve put down so far it’d be hard face back into calving and calfcrearing again

mahoney_j wrote: »

Jaysus after the year we’ve put down so far it’d be hard face back into calving and calfcrearing again

Was saying that yesterday when I was tagging yesterday's twins

Forage has gotten scarce here. The Germans are taking it by the train load.
Two trains today, two more on Saturday and one on Tuesday. That’s a lot of fodder....

If the backend doesn’t come kind for ye there could be trouble...

jaymla627 wrote: »

Pretty pathetic reasoning by the farmer journal trying to dress up the 150k loss by greenfields, going by their reasoning their still a profitable enterprise once you don’t have to pay back capital repayments/wages /land rental....
Almost seems like they reckon we should place no value on our own labor/asset value of land if rented/and any capital investment paid back on loans should be seen as “profit” to help bolster the fantasy land profit monitor figures

Full agreement from me on that,they can dress up figures whatever way they want

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

It would have to be put through a feeder. Adds to any forage.
Easy as any other forage on the feeder. Bales are already chopped with 32 wraps of plastic.

Don't put silage bales here thru feeder, old keenan paddle, only likes pit silage really. Most lads in our group are sorted. Have sourced or pitted wholecrop etc and some getting westerwolds. Others ok but worried beet would be too far back in yield.
Walking farm later on will hope to make more bales this week, pit 20 acres of lighter stuff the first of sept, as a slight change in rain would run the risk of not getting in there any later, and 25 acres more will be pitted mid Sept. Maize could nearly be coming in the same time.

Someone asked the question about the greenfield 20% dip in production in the letters section, that's the one issue that they should not try sweep under the rug and shrug off against the snow etc. Bought in meal, in as expensive as it is should result in an increase in production, certainly not a dip of 20%! We are consistently getting some period of poor weather in the late spring that will seriously hinder milk production, I think it's critical to have some sort of backup in place for then moving forward, that's both in having a bank of milker quality fodder, and having suitable accommodation, their outdoor cubicles I'm OK with, except for the fact that they are far far too exposed.

Timmaay wrote: »

Are you gonna turn off the parlour over dec/Jan? Ditched all the autumn calvers here 2yrs ago and zero regrets, but fair few april/may calvers and it definitely still pays to milk on the 2or 3rows into Feb. I certainly take my lie in then tho, rarely bother starting before 9am, 2 rows done in 20mins ha.

Depends on scanning. If I have a few empties and late calvers will milk on, which will likely be the case. Had eyed up drying off whole herd in Dec 12 months time.
Must have 2 clear tests for tb yet so hoping first week of Dec may be clear so will see what's in the market then, possible if I can find 30 proper autumn calved cows I may buy in then, get the milk going out the gate without the extra calves. Either that or buy Feb calving cows but I be afraid the better stock and choice will be gone come Dec

Timmaay wrote: »

Someone asked the question about the greenfield 20% dip in production in the letters section, that's the one issue that they should not try sweep under the rug and shrug off against the snow etc. Bought in meal, in as expensive as it is should result in an increase in production, certainly not a dip of 20%! We are consistently getting some period of poor weather in the late spring that will seriously hinder milk production, I think it's critical to have some sort of backup in place for then moving forward, that's both in having a bank of milker quality fodder, and having suitable accommodation, their outdoor cubicles I'm OK with, except for the fact that they are far far too exposed.

Perhaps under estimating what cows actually eat.? You'd see it with the wagon and tested silage , you'd put out 23kgs dm and it'll all be gone and that's prob with some eating more.

whelan2 wrote: »

Any idea what fresh calved dairy stock are making?

Haven't heard. So much depends on tb test here no point looking at the minute as couldn't commit to buy anything.

If a lad was thinking of buying a diet feeder and extra tractor i think the robot from lely would be worth a look. I know a guy that put one in a few years ago for 100k and running costs would be very low. They might be a bit cheaper now.

Aidan Brennans piece in the business of farming section in the comic contains some real gems of wisdom this week. A couple of real classics.

freedominacup wrote: »

Aidan Brennans piece in the business of farming section in the comic contains some real gems of wisdom this week. A couple of real classics.

I’d pay very little attention to his supposed words of wisdom .........u just can’t farm from a textbook

Mooooo wrote: »

Don't put silage bales here thru feeder, old keenan paddle, only likes pit silage really. Most lads in our group are sorted. Have sourced or pitted wholecrop etc and some getting westerwolds. Others ok but worried beet would be too far back in yield.
Walking farm later on will hope to make more bales this week, pit 20 acres of lighter stuff the first of sept, as a slight change in rain would run the risk of not getting in there any later, and 25 acres more will be pitted mid Sept. Maize could nearly be coming in the same time.

Maize coming on nicely.

Timmaay wrote: »

Mooooo any guess on how the maize will yield by you? It's the one big saving grace here this winter, if the 10ac I have yields 20t/ac that's say silage 315bales equivalent, or 32bales/ac, I'd be fairly screwed if I didn't have it.

20t gross?
12-13tdm/ha?

In fairness there were those on here that said you’d be better off buying maize meal...with the way maize prices are going you made the right choice.

boggerman1 wrote: »

Goes to show college degrees are really useful.

They’re no burden either...

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/expanded-national-dairy-herd-may-be-behind-e-coli-outbreak-1.3597435?mode=amp#.W3VzJilH2_8.twitter

Crap, everywhere.

Was it the same when the herd was larger in the years pre quota? Testing water here very year with bord bia has come back fine. Not saying there are or are not links but prefer whole pictures to be looked at before blaming any particular area, which seems to be lacking in a lot of areas these days.

Mooooo wrote: »

Was it the same when the herd was larger in the years pre quota? Testing water here very year with bord bia has come back fine. Not saying there are or are not links but prefer whole pictures to be looked at before blaming any particular area, which seems to be lacking in a lot of areas these days.

Ah it's the West and Midlands.
Those sheep and suckler farmers will get the blame.
And sure them folk don't know what a bar of soap is..

Is it that time of the year when the council's want to test all the wells?

Plus Irish Times...enuf said.

Mooooo wrote: »

Was it the same when the herd was larger in the years pre quota? Testing water here very year with bord bia has come back fine. Not saying there are or are not links but prefer whole pictures to be looked at before blaming any particular area, which seems to be lacking in a lot of areas these days.

Probably rivers and lakes more than wells, apparently one of the ingredients of dockspray is turning up in waterways too,
Anyway something's happening, around 750 cases ecoli this year compared with around 150 last year. we'll be blamed anyway, I wonder is there many inefficient town sewerage works around now.

Mooooo wrote:

River was regularly checked here upstream of the villages on it, amazingly not done downstream of the villages......

They have to cover there own arse. Testing the river is one thing, knowing where to test for the right results is another.

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/expanded-national-dairy-herd-may-be-behind-e-coli-outbreak-1.3597435?mode=amp#.W3VzJilH2_8.twitter

Crap, everywhere.

Lots of waving fingers looking for somewhere to point. All of the latest research in the river basements study point to bad weather events raising pollution levels in the rivers. Hence the up coming changes to Nitrates where there will be much greater protection of run off water.

We had none of these rainfall events this summer, as most will have noticed, and to blame dairy farmers for what the quality of water that vegetable farmers use is obscene..

The point of responsibility has to lie with those preparing the food..and it's preservation, which of course may have been quiet difficult on such a hot summer..

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Same in the local waste treatment plant in the local village. Doubled in size during the boom and no increase in treatment. Council sample below the discharge point and it's farm pollution.

Coz urban pollution doesn't warrant headlines...

You can't fine yourself though. :pac:

Don't mention houses in the towns plumbing their sewage into the stormwater drains either. Or water from car washing sites full of phosphorus detergent in the storm drains. Oh it's all perfect in the concrete jungle.