Dairy Farming General

freedominacup · 23-04-2014 9:26am

frazzledhome wrote: »

July and housing with a follow up for fluke after 6 weeks housed

About a month after turnout and the end of August.

Greengrass1 · 23-04-2014 9:34am

Might do them today then when I put kamars on

mahoney_j · 23-04-2014 9:39am

Turn them out in feb,give them Bvd shot,late march Bvd booster and Ibr shot and all trace bolus.worm dose early July and then do them for worms and fluke depending on faceal sample at housing.

Greengrass1 · 23-04-2014 10:46am

Let the last 20 calves out today. Happy out running around the spot. I'll bring them in tonight because its supposed to rain. Youngest are 4-5 weeks old so still soft

whelan2 · 23-04-2014 10:48am

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Let the last 20 calves out today. Happy out running around the spot. I'll bring them in tonight because its supposed to rain. Youngest are 4-5 weeks old so still soft

letting out the autumn calves today, no more cattle left in now apart from calves and dry cows

freedominacup · 23-04-2014 10:55am

Any glanbia suppliers out there? How have ye gotten on over the past few years with the fixed price scheme? Form just arrived in the post. Yer man the dairy board chairman was talking down milk price in the indo yesterday but was looking forward to years of gravy in the Sunday Times business section last week. Hard to know which set of views to take on board esp since they were both expressed by the same guy.

He said traditional Irish produce such as Kerrygold butter would be limited to niche markets.

"They don't have the ability to produce enough dairy," he said. "They have land problems, they have water problems and they have very fast growing populations."

The second quote is from the Sunday Times where he spent a couple of paragraphs explaining on some detail why the IDB would have no need of an IPO to fund their expansion plans, very much in the vein of a premiership football club chairman declaring his undying support for his under fire manager on the Friday before what everyone recognises as the last chance saloon match for said manager.

conor t · 23-04-2014 11:28am

sheebadog wrote: »

Crimp and feed out to stock. Trying to add value to the soya as yields are low.

Did u ever grow lupins?

sheebadog · 23-04-2014 12:37pm

conor t wrote: »

Did u ever grow lupins?

No I never did grow lupins, but I'm told they need a good sup of water.
What % protein are lupins?

conor t · 23-04-2014 1:06pm

sheebadog wrote: »

No I never did grow lupins, but I'm told they need a good sup of water.
What % protein are lupins?

Not sure but think there similar enough to soya, there is winter varieties to as far as I know

Base price · 23-04-2014 7:43pm

A question for you dairy famers. We bought a FRxJe cow last week. She is on her 4 lactation. We were buying calves from the farmer (a friend) and he told us about this nice quiet cow the he was going to get rid of because he was concerned about one of her quarters. He suggested that she would be suitable for rearing a few calves.
Anyway when we got her she was milking 35l a day. I had been giving her calf pencils up till now as I could only get dairy nuts yesterday.
How much dairy nuts should I feed her. I am giving her three quarters of a 13 gallon bucket twice a day. She is on limited grass cover as we didn't get slurry out on time. She is feeding 5 hex bull calves twice a day.
Oh I decided to name her as she is the only cow in the village, sorry farm.
Her name is Biddy :-))

farmersfriend · 23-04-2014 8:16pm

Base price wrote: »

A question for you dairy famers. We bought a FRxJe cow last week. She is on her 4 lactation. We were buying calves from the farmer (a friend) and he told us about this nice quiet cow the he was going to get rid of because he was concerned about one of her quarters. He suggested that she would be suitable for rearing a few calves.
Anyway when we got her she was milking 35l a day. I had been giving her calf pencils up till now as I could only get dairy nuts yesterday.
How much dairy nuts should I feed her. I am giving her three quarters of a 13 gallon bucket twice a day. She is on limited grass cover as we didn't get slurry out on time. She is feeding 5 hex bull calves twice a day.
Oh I decided to name her as she is the only cow in the village, sorry farm.
Her name is Biddy :-))

U should give that pup a dish of it tonite to celebrate his survival!

Base price · 23-04-2014 8:20pm

farmersfriend wrote: »

U should give that pup a dish of it tonite to celebrate his survival!

That same pup spends most of her time in with the calves licking up milky shi.......

Anyway, am I giving the cow too much, just enough or not enough nuts. It looks an awful lot in the bucket but I don't want her production levels to fail due to lack of grass.
Dairy cows nowdays are not the same animals that I looked after in my teenage years.

Greengrass1 · 23-04-2014 8:34pm

Can ye weigh the nuts to see what kg you ate giving. 35 l of milk for aJEX is exceptional

Base price · 23-04-2014 8:58pm

I will weigh them in the morning with a old fish weighing scales that I have in the jeep. She is slightly larger than medium cow but with a lovely elder.
This guy has been using JE for years on his FR/HO and visa versa. He has excellent dairy calves and I should know as I have bought, reared and seen lots of them over the years.

Timmaay · 23-04-2014 9:56pm

Be careful about overfeeding her, at one sitting 4kg is enough, say twice a day 8kg max, even at that you are risking acidosis, and her milking her back off if the nuts are too high in protein. She will need a reasonable % of her diet in fodder, likes of grass, silage, maize etc.

Hangon, 3/4 of a 13gls bucket? Thats like 45l in volume, sounds like wayyy too much?

C0N0R · 23-04-2014 10:19pm

Went to an open day yesterday that was on an indoor farm here. Something a bit different to the usual nz grass based system! Didn't hear how many cows it was but must have been 800 plus. Lovely sheds they were in, all year round calving, first 50 days of lactation are three times a day milking and then depending on yield they go back onto twice a day. First year of conversion now and costs looking at $5.50 a solid before debt management but hoping to get it down to $4.60 next year. Diet fed on 4kg grass silage, 4kg maize silage, 4kg lucerne silage, 6kg wheat, small bit of soya, canola and palm kernel and straw as well I think. Was interesting to see.

Cubicles all with mats and limed after cows removed for milking.

The shed, roughly 40 cubicles a bay and roughly 20 bays long.

Nice concrete turning circle at the end of the shed for the diet feeder!

trixi2011 · 23-04-2014 10:28pm

C0N0R wrote: »

Went to an open day yesterday that was on an indoor farm here. Something a bit different to the usual nz grass based system! Didn't hear how many cows it was but must have been 800 plus. Lovely sheds they were in, all year round calving, first 50 days of lactation are three times a day milking and then depending on yield they go back onto twice a day. First year of conversion now and costs looking at $5.50 a solid before debt management but hoping to get it down to $4.60 next year. Diet fed on 4kg grass silage, 4kg maize silage, 4kg lucerne silage, 6kg wheat, small bit of soya, canola and palm kernel and straw as well I think. Was interesting to see.

Cubicles all with mats and limed after cows removed for milking.

The shed, roughly 40 cubicles a bay and roughly 20 bays long.

Nice concrete turning circle at the end of the shed for the diet feeder!

what sort of solids per cow were they doing ? is that the rel farm on tomsons track. would of loved to have that shed last week:D

C0N0R · 23-04-2014 10:32pm

trixi2011 wrote: »

what sort of solids per cow were they doing ? is that the rel farm on tomsons track. would of loved to have that shed last week:D

It was aimed towards crop farmers so wasn't to much spoke about milk production! There doing 2.2 at the moment but that's with all year round calving and it's the first year. I'll let you know more when I get the details emailed out. Conversion cost was $25-30000 a hectare as apposed to the usual $10000! Ya was Willys place just of thomsons track. I'd say the cows would have loved it last week to!

Milked out · 23-04-2014 10:36pm

Nice set up there, would love to build a on a greenfield site like that as opposed the fitting extensions on older buildings. Got a shot of those easyfix cubicles for one of the dry cow pens, they're a grand job. Was talking to the advisor later on about them as he had been in the states for a bit and the opinion of the farmers he had spoke to about them was that cows tended to lie a bit too diagonally hence making them a bit dirter than the steel ones, esp for milkers. He didn't mention anything about injuriers or otherwise. I think one of them had a cubicle which was a combo of plastic and steel which gave enuv flexibilty but obv less that the easyfix ones

C0N0R · 23-04-2014 10:38pm

Milked out wrote: »

Nice set up there, would love to build a on a greenfield site like that as opposed the fitting extensions on older buildings. Got a shot of those easyfix cubicles for one of the dry cow pens, they're a grand job. Was talking to the advisor later on about them as he had been in the states for a bit and the opinion of the farmers he had spoke to about them was that cows tended to lie a bit too diagonally hence making them a bit dirter than the steel ones, esp for milkers. He didn't mention anything about injuriers or otherwise. I think one of them had a cubicle which was a combo of plastic and steel which gave enuv flexibilty but obv less that the easyfix ones

I was very impressed with them, they would be a lot cheaper I'd imagine? There was the odd one sitting a bit bent but nothing major, how well do they last??

trixi2011 · 23-04-2014 10:45pm

Milked out wrote: »

Nice set up there, would love to build a on a greenfield site like that as opposed the fitting extensions on older buildings. Got a shot of those easyfix cubicles for one of the dry cow pens, they're a grand job. Was talking to the advisor later on about them as he had been in the states for a bit and the opinion of the farmers he had spoke to about them was that cows tended to lie a bit too diagonally hence making them a bit dirter than the steel ones, esp for milkers. He didn't mention anything about injuriers or otherwise. I think one of them had a cubicle which was a combo of plastic and steel which gave enuv flexibilty but obv less that the easyfix ones

MMost farms over here don't have any buildings to start with so most building work would be greenfield site. They startedto built the parlours and sheds on that farm in march and were milking in early may I think

Milked out · 23-04-2014 10:54pm

C0N0R wrote: »

I was very impressed with them, they would be a lot cheaper I'd imagine? There was the odd one sitting a bit bent but nothing major, how well do they last??

If you get the complete set of them, as in uprights and all, they are similar in price to a standard cubicle. I had cows housed at the time and this was an old shed with the old short cubicles and came out to find an incalf cow stuck in them, ended up cutting her out and she never got up again so ripped out the old ones, put up two horizontal box iron bars between the uprights and fitted in the easyfix ones to those as opposed to standin the vertical for each cubicle as they do with the whole set as the concrete base is old and a bit short anyways. They are only in two years but i saw one over a wall pointed straight up over it thinking there goes the first one but it was grand, didn't snap. Cant comment too much on cleanliness as the bed is short so i have them wide enough that they can lie at a slight angle, but no prob really. If you could find out the type of plastic used twud be handy enough to fit them to anything really yourself

Milked out · 23-04-2014 11:03pm

Lads how is your end of season going over there? How's your lastose holding in the wet weather, or what are ye feeding with the grass? Had lactose problems last oct/nov myself and looking to prevent the same problems happening again this year as I'm trying to keep fresh winter calvers to a minimum, supply a bit more from later spring ladies but lactose limit pm is 4.5

Timmaay · 24-04-2014 12:05am

BF dropping off a cliff here, gone from 4 to 3.6 in 10days. Aside from using an acid buff on the nuts, should I offer the cows hay/straw?

trixi2011 · 24-04-2014 12:33am

Milked out wrote: »

Lads how is your end of season going over there? How's your lastose holding in the wet weather, or what are ye feeding with the grass? Had lactose problems last oct/nov myself and looking to prevent the same problems happening again this year as I'm trying to keep fresh winter calvers to a minimum, supply a bit more from later spring ladies but lactose limit pm is 4.5

Never realy look at lactose to much has dropped from 4.95 to 4.85 since the wet weather started, feeding only grass to the majority of the cows have about 270 cows on once a day milking and getting 3 kg of wholecrop barley. What feed helps to hold lactose levels ?

trixi2011 · 24-04-2014 12:38am

Timmaay wrote: »

BF dropping off a cliff here, gone from 4 to 3.6 in 10days. Aside from using an acid buff on the nuts, should I offer the cows hay/straw?

Some people may not agree but the only time I think a non tmr feed milking cow should be offered straw or hay is when your drying her off. Straw is only taking up room in the rumen that could be better filled with high me feed.

mahoney_j · 24-04-2014 9:10am

Timmaay wrote: »

BF dropping off a cliff here, gone from 4 to 3.6 in 10days. Aside from using an acid buff on the nuts, should I offer the cows hay/straw?

Mine has dropped from 3.97 to 3.8 also,grass is very lush at the moment ,I tried straw,put a round feeder in yard with good oaten straw and they aren't interested.grass quality is simply too good.they aren't scoured or very loose in the dung though.use a nut with a hi maize content 35%) and a high ufl.its just a lack of fibre.acid buff will help

Timmaay · 24-04-2014 10:25am

Grandos wont bother with the straw so, the JEx are the ones who'd probably go for it ha. But I've afew bales of hay if they would be any more appetizing? Cows all still getting up to 6kg (fed to yield) of a high maize 16% nut so not much I can do there. Some cows are very loose, which makes milking fun ha!

freedominacup · 24-04-2014 10:33am

Timmaay wrote: »

Grandos wont bother with the straw so, the JEx are the ones who'd probably go for it ha. But I've afew bales of hay if they would be any more appetizing? Cows all still getting up to 6kg (fed to yield) of a high maize 16% nut so not much I can do there. Some cows are very loose, which makes milking fun ha!

Cut the protein. 2 to 1 mix of maize meal and soya hulls here. Less than 2 kg/hd @27l still rising strongly. Hoping they'll hit 30 which wouldn't be too bad with the mix we have of autumn(plus a few carryovers) and spring with almost 30 heifers.

frazzledhome · 24-04-2014 10:46am

12-14% p is what ye need

freedominacup · 24-04-2014 10:50am

frazzledhome wrote: »

12-14% p is what ye need

There's enough N around for them to make enough protein to cover any slight defecits in the grass them selves. If you're going to feed meal energy is the only thing to look at currently.

mf240 · 24-04-2014 11:03am

Grass can be anything up to 30 % Protien. So there well covered.

Mine are picking at a bale of straw at milking time. Just taking a small bit but they will take it if they need it. I find it helps them make better use of the grass and they cud it a bit more. And not scuttered to death.

Timmaay · 24-04-2014 11:05am

There was feckall price diff between 14 and 16%p (265 v 270) last load which was why I stuck with the 16%. Milk Urea still in the low teens here so I'm not too pushed either way.

Timmaay · 24-04-2014 11:06am

mf240 wrote: »

And not scuttered to death.

Like your tomcats after the SL ha?

Greengrass1 · 24-04-2014 11:20am

opt_IMG_20140424_111513.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/gd8e.jpg
Best place for calves
Happy as Larry in the sun

sheebadog · 24-04-2014 11:29am

Timmaay wrote: »

BF dropping off a cliff here, gone from 4 to 3.6 in 10days. Aside from using an acid buff on the nuts, should I offer the cows hay/straw?

Fibre. Soya hulls would be a good source as hay and straw won't be consumed by all of the cows.

sheebadog · 24-04-2014 11:35am

frazzledhome wrote: »

12-14% p is what ye need

Totally agree IF milk urea is around 28 to 32. If it's higher than 32 cut out the protein as you could end up with a lot of cows repeating.
Cows on grass don't need protein as much as energy.

stanflt · 24-04-2014 11:42am

Cows doing 33 litres on 4kg 13% hi maize hi energy nut

Milk urea 17
Scc234
3.52 p
3.64 f

Never had p this high this time of year

freedominacup · 24-04-2014 11:59am

Booked silage contractor this morning. Hopefully around 10th of May. He's after buying a tedder so hopefully we'll be able to get dm up a nice few points. He's really after setting his stall out to target farmers aiming to make top quality silage with an hourly rate and the tedder.

Greengrass1 · 24-04-2014 12:05pm

freedominacup wrote: »

Booked silage contractor this morning. Hopefully around 10th of May. He's after buying a tedder so hopefully we'll be able to get dm up a nice few points. He's really after setting his stall out to target farmers aiming to make top quality silage with an hourly rate and the tedder.

Just walked my silage. Really after powering on in the last week with the rain will be 1week of July before it will be fit to cut though

Deepsouthwest · 24-04-2014 1:12pm

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Just walked my silage. Really after powering on in the last week with the rain will be 1week of July before it will be fit to cut though

1st week of June surely?

sheebadog · 24-04-2014 1:14pm

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Just walked my silage. Really after powering on in the last week with the rain will be 1week of July before it will be fit to cut though

Quantity over quality?

Greengrass1 · 24-04-2014 1:30pm

sheebadog wrote: »

Quantity over quality?

Sorry June.

freedominacup · 24-04-2014 2:46pm

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Sorry June.

Same difference. I thought ye had ye're own gear.

Greengrass1 · 24-04-2014 2:51pm

freedominacup wrote: »

Same difference. I thought ye had ye're own gear.

Ye we do. Need to start getting them ready. ****ing pain in the hole us all it is having machinery

Base price · 24-04-2014 3:40pm

Timmaay wrote: »

Be careful about overfeeding her, at one sitting 4kg is enough, say twice a day 8kg max, even at that you are risking acidosis, and her milking her back off if the nuts are too high in protein. She will need a reasonable % of her diet in fodder, likes of grass, silage, maize etc.

Hangon, 3/4 of a 13gls bucket? Thats like 45l in volume, sounds like wayyy too much?

Sorry that should have been a 13 litre bucket :eek:
Weighted the bucket this morning and it is about 6kgs.

mf240 · 24-04-2014 4:19pm

freedominacup wrote: »

Booked silage contractor this morning. Hopefully around 10th of May. He's after buying a tedder so hopefully we'll be able to get dm up a nice few points. He's really after setting his stall out to target farmers aiming to make top quality silage with an hourly rate and the tedder.

Cut most of my first cut in late may last year, spurred on by advice on here and ended up cutting a lot of it three times ( up to three miles away so can't graze it with cows)
Never had such good silage, will be cutting as early as possible again this year.

stanflt · 24-04-2014 4:36pm

mf240 wrote: »

Cut most of my first cut in late may last year, spurred on by advice on here and ended up cutting a lot of it three times ( up to three miles away so can't graze it with cows)
Never had such good silage, will be cutting as early as possible again this year.

I hope to have the silage cut by mid June

mf240 · 24-04-2014 4:40pm

stanflt wrote: »

I hope to have the silage cut by mid June

Mid may?

stanflt · 24-04-2014 4:42pm

mf240 wrote: »

Mid may?

No mid June

Six weeks after first cut

Dairy Farming General

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