David's going Dairying.

davidk1394 wrote: »

A small update for everyone. Breeding is coming to an end here. It went well and the majority of the heifers were served on their natural heat. There's been a few repeats alright.
We've been busy at paperwork the last few weeks but everything is moving along. I got the herd number in my name, bank applications are gone in and TAMS is applied for. Sorting out paperwork is the slowest part so far. Grass is still growing for the moment but rain is needed.

How many weeks breeding did you do?
Heifers gone quiet here too, apart from the biggest one in the batch. She got her 3rd serve this morning!

davidk1394 wrote: »

It's being playing around in my head for a few years. I suppose I mase up my mind when I bought the first calves. But I knew it was really for me just before Christmas. I gave 2 months non stop relief milking for a near by farmer and I really enjoyed it.

I have been thinking about it for a while,always had an interest in it,do you mind me asking how many you are hoping to milk? And also did you go the grant route when doing sheds and equipment?

davidk1394 wrote: »

I will start with 70 next year, 100 the second year and work towards 120 at max. I am drawing the grant on the parlor, bulk tank, gas heating and an auto wash system. I'm converting and adding on to an existing shed for 124 cubicles and a new build for the parlor.

Will you be starting with 70 of your own reared heifers or will you buy a few parlour experienced cows?

tismesoitis wrote: »

Just catching this thread now. Best of luck David. We are 4 months into dairying and no regrets. Like yourself the target was 70 in year 1. We bought 71 bullers last march/ april 2019 and were lucky to get them all in calf albeit 2 calved fairly late (end april and early may). Ai'd them all to angus kya then let out angus and limo bulls. Ran them all through the parlour for a couple pf weeks before calving started and fed them precalver through the feeders. Was great help settling them in. Calving went very well had a couple of real tough pulls and one section( the limo bull was probably not a great idea). Had arranged a man to buy all calves out of the yard at 2 weeks which was a massive advantage to us. Lost one heifer with gangerene mastitis so ended up with 70 which is exactly 5 rows in the parlour. Have 19 more heifers bought and served for next year and will buy another 10 or 12 incalf in the back end.
Like yourself the aim is 100ish.....98 is 7 rows so that'll do nicely .

What farming system were you doing before you entered dairying ?

OffalyMedic wrote: »

Following this thread from the start but following even closer now that I'm thinking of getting into dairy. The max we can have on our land is around 70 I'd look to start off at 40/50 and increase then to 70 by year 3. Currently have a 7 unit parlor that won't cost an arm and a leg to get running again and will extend once set up is the plan if we go ahead

Back down our way it’s the same, lads that got out of cows going back in, how much land would you want to graze 70 cows and how many acres of silage would you need?

OffalyMedic wrote: »

@morph87 my aul lad gave up dairy in 2007 I was only 13 so after working in health service for last 9 years or so and the father pushing on I'm looking to go make a living from the farm and seems only way of doing that at the moment seems to be through dairy. I've done some relief milking and loved it so now decisions need to be made. Have a thread here too. I'm not sure exactly land to stock and silage etc were very early stages but I've seen the general consensus is 2-2.5lu/ha.

Read your thread their now,looking back our way any one that was farming full time years ago were all dairying or else very large beef farmers, the majority of the herds back our way are around 70 90 cows and all these people are going well,

Young95 wrote: »

I’d do nothing till the new cap comes in . 2 to 2.5 lu/ha might be a thing of the past if you looked at the journal on Thursday!!

So what happens then for anyone above these limits at present?

I, having gone from dairying to beef and now organic, see your difficulty as I'm building my knowledge on the other side. All these are ball park;
Lets take the 100 cows needing the 100 acres.
Silage cut would be 40 acres X 12 ton = 480 ton
60 acres for grazing at that point. You could go to 2 cows/acre, but with grass growth variable, best simply to bale strong paddocks. Could have 150 bales.
Rotation of about 21 days, less at peak grass growing.
Paddock size. Many now prefer 36 hours grazing in a paddock. So every third milking, cows have to clean out a paddock. Moving every 12 hours can make cows very restless if that routine is changed for any reason.
60/22 = 2.7 acres, Between a hectare and 3 acres for three grazings.
Roadway essential and don't make paddocks too deep from the roadway as, in wet, poor weather and spring, you may need to subdivide and leave cows different access points after each milking. Good water system, adequate pipe size and large troughs with full flow ball cocks.

cute geoge wrote: »

Forget about paddocks ,have a central roadway fenced off with water troughs spaced out and buy 20 rolls of strong polywire and 200 pigtails and you can give the cows extra ground when growth is slow !!!

Very good idea as you can dictate the size of your paddocks depending on growth and demand

morphy87 wrote: »

So what happens then for anyone above these limits at present?

I’d say they will have to reduce stock or plant trees would be the two major things . But there another few things as well like planting hedgerows etc .

All the straw can be non organic on organic farms. Good way to import carbon. Buying ration is very dear, double the price. One has to use other strategies for energy and protein as much as possible.
The price for organic milk would need to improve. Certainly Glenisk's price wouldn't be groundbreaking.

Up to now most dairy farmers would have used one or two tetraploid grasses and the bag (artificial fert). That doesn't look like the recipie for the future. As poster above says look at multi species and incl white clover.
Very handy if you are able to cut silage on all the farm. If not and there is dedicated ground then that sward can be different. Use upright open varieties.
Really do your research on the type of cow you want.

Delighted to see some 70/120 herds being envisioned. Not all should be aiming for 3/400 cows. Whatever way you skin it, a 100 cows requires a labour unit.
I'd prefer four farm families with an avg of 100 cows, instead of one owning 400 cows and employing three (non Irish) people.

Mixed Farmer wrote: »

Only found this thread v interesting. Similar situation myself(as our many on this forum). What can I expect too pay for a new (installed- excluding building work, just plumbed and wired) 14/16 a side swing over parlour. ACRs and auto wash?

Approx 60000 id be saying although you will get your 40% grant on that and your vat back , Just a note acrs and autowash are both things that can be added on after easily I wouldnt be going straight into dairying and trying to put in the bells and whistles while taking the money away from somewhere else. Autowash is about 5000€ and ACRs at 1000€ a unit Could likely put in a simple 16 unit for 35-40K and it will do the exact same job.

We got into cows in 2018 bought a second hand 12 unit parlour with a dumpline for 8000€ took out and fitted it ourselves. We only put in feeders last spring as our main priority was to get milk in the tank on low cost and getting our paddocks roadways and water system up to scratch first. The luxuries can come after that. Just my opinion no point working for the bank and putting yourself jnder too much debt

Mf310 wrote: »

Approx 60000 id be saying although you will get your 40% grant on that and your vat back , Just a note acrs and autowash are both things that can be added on after easily I wouldnt be going straight into dairying and trying to put in the bells and whistles while taking the money away from somewhere else. Autowash is about 5000€ and ACRs at 1000€ a unit Could likely put in a simple 16 unit for 35-40K and it will do the exact same job.

We got into cows in 2018 bought a second hand 12 unit parlour with a dumpline for 8000€ took out and fitted it ourselves. We only put in feeders last spring as our main priority was to get milk in the tank on low cost and getting our paddocks roadways and water system up to scratch first. The luxuries can come after that. Just my opinion no point working for the bank and putting yourself jnder too much debt

After vat and grant that 60K parlour would be costing 31K , however you would have your application costs on top if that. In Tams you have grant limits on overall TAMS grants so it important to priotize your spending.

As Mixed Farmer says he is in NI so he has to see grant and spending limits. However in your case on the 8K there was no vat to be reclaimed I imagine. But a proper set up with a warranty for a few years along with a good chance of no added cost is an advantage as well

Question for those more experienced

Between reseeding, one cut of silage and selling on suckler herd I’ve had a load of grass all summer. I’ve been giving the heifers the pick of it, am I in danger of over feeding them and putting on too much conditioning?

Dairy heifers spend the summer growing not fattening. As David said, no risk, but watch and condition score as they go into the winter and feed accordingly.

davidk1394 wrote: »

So demolition has begun. Full planning has been granted and finance has been sourced. I am just going to do the parlor and crush facilities for the moment and put cows on straw for the first year or two.

Best of luck David. Hope it all goes to plan for you.

Lovely old house there. Pity u had to knock the wall for the expansion.

Are u going to do up the old house or is doomed?

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

The old order changeth yielding place to new.

Busy few months ahead, best of luck to you.

davidk1394 wrote: »

So demolition has begun. Full planning has been granted and finance has been sourced. I am just going to do the parlor and crush facilities for the moment and put cows on straw for the first year or two.

Are the sheds not suitable for cubicles, you'd imagine that you'd have teh cubicles done for the price of the straw to bed them for two years.
Bedding cows sounds an awful job

Dozer1 wrote: »

Jesus wept flatten the old house as quick as u can. Bloody Hoover money up trying to modernize em and they are still not up to a modern house standard.

If you had to apply for planning around me you wouldn't knock a house in that condition.