No,have some 9miles away.
Power and machinery costs
- Thread starter Jdunn55
- Start date
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
We farm 260 acres but nearly 100 acres of that is no-input flood plain in stewardship, used only for dry cow, in-calf heifer and sheep grazing. The sheep are seasonal - here from March to Nov, so eat no conserved forage. Other than an occasional top for thistles, that land has no tractor work at all. Roughly 60-70 acres silage ground, 25 acres wheat plus 12 acres fallow (stewardship) although going forward we will be all grass. The rest is permanent pasture used for grazing the dairy herd (rig and furrow so no silage), the 12 acres of stewardship hay (actually a bit more last year) and first season heifer grazing.
Autumn calving but not a tight block, 1/3 of herd calve in Aug, 1/3 in Sept and the remaining 1/3 calve in a long tail through to Feb. All non-replacement calves sold at 5 weeks. 20-25 heifers as replacements each calving season.
Last edited:
buffalo_soldier
Member
- Location
- cumbria
Had diesel use to hand, carbon footprint assessment 
126L/ha. For all operations.
Which works out at >0.01 litre per kg FPCM, if anybody knows what that means
126L/ha. For all operations.
Which works out at >0.01 litre per kg FPCM, if anybody knows what that means
Was that part of your Arla garden 360
buffalo_soldier
Member
- Location
- cumbria
Arla yes, not 360 though. We are all doing it in the drive to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Not that it's my thing though, I will be sat sipping pinacolas in the Carribbean long before then.
Holsteinfriesian90
Member
- Location
- Cornwall
Thats great thankyou, I think my fuel bill is currently forecast at £14,000 which is a fair chunk
Just thinking out loud do you need wholecrop maize and fodder beet? Could you drop the maize? You could combine the wholecrop and crimp the grain then have the straw for bedding would save buying straw.
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
Only dries and in calf heifers, although our land is in a block we are only 2 fields wide and 2 miles long, this is at the other end of the farm and there are silage fields in the way too, so not used by milkers. Just put a photo up of it in All Things Dairy as we were down there in the rain today. It's a lot greener now than it was 3 weeks away, we were really struggling for grass down there.
That would also be a big difference between our farms - our average annual rainfall is only 650 mm so grass crops presumably lighter, we rely heavily on getting a good first cut. When we have a wet summer we have grass that we can't believe and don't bother to put any more fert on!
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
The fodder beet is only for heifers to out winter on as theres a 19 acre field and if I put 3 acres in fodder beet every year the field gets reseeded every 5 years if that makes sense.
The cows would have forage rape which would be high protein at the end of their lactation to keep yields up.
Is fodder beet as good as maize for milkers? Can you store it is the other thing? Could I replace the maize with fodder beet but lift it all and then store it until the next year? How many acres would be needed for 15kg/cow (150 cows) for 6 months?
The wholecrop couldnt be combined as it needs to be harvested by the end of july so that I can get rape in, and I want it for straw, if I comvined it I would need something to replace it if that makes sense
Have you got a clamp on the milking farm? Would make things much easier in winter if all forage was on hand instead of messing around bringing bales back all the time. Try and keep things as simple as possible then you can concentrate on things that matter most, I've found it's often not worth getting too bogged down and spending extra time/energy on things which only have a marginal difference on cop.
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Theres a clamp there which could be split in two halves which was my plan, one half for maize one for wholecrop.
So either bring the bales back as they're made or else clamp the grass as well?
Holsteinfriesian90
Member
- Location
- Cornwall
Personally I think keeping things simple is best the more crops you grow the harder they are to manage in spraying etc. If you got British friesian they are great at grazing so why not make good use of grazing in the summer? You’ve got a good farm for growing grass. Make good silage fodder beet in winter wholecrop if needed.
Farmer Keith
Member
- Location
- North Cumbria
Is 150 cows too many if you’re having to cart forage and slurry long distances? Maybe there’d be a better margin in 100 with an extended grazing season and shorter winter...
jimmer
Member
- Location
- East Devon
3.2ppl for contracting here
Multicut with wagons, all fert applications, all slurry work, all cultivations etc etc
300 cows 300 acres
Multicut with wagons, all fert applications, all slurry work, all cultivations etc etc
300 cows 300 acres
Year ending Dec 2019 our power and mech costs inc contractor costs was 3.92ppl.
Contractor picks up silage, provides trailers, buckrake, rake, baling silage and some slurry spread with umbilical.
I do fert, reseeds, mowing, hauling bales, fym spreading, 80% of slurry, topping etc.
I like to tinker with machinery so a fair amount of the bill is self inflicted.
Interestingly since going OAD we have slashed our power and mech costs. Repairs and spares has halved, fuel use down, electric use down. Contractor cost similar and tax and insurance similar as we have the same amount of kit. I seem to be using machinery less since going OAD.
Think i'd look at simplify your system. We put paddocks in, water troughs, better tracks and field to yield in parlour. That does keep the yields going to end of september. Split block calving with a autumn biase. My top cows were doing 10,000 litres 370 CI off about 3 ton of cake. Protein and energy i want to grow and can buy in sugar and starchs. New grass varieties and clovers for me. Yes standing hay grass for dry cows had been amazing this year. 5 minute fence moves rather than 30 mins dry cow mixes. Challenge your ideas keep it simple stupid. Hope that helps. I'm running nearly 300 cows on less time than i was 180 cows. With this
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Thanks for all the advice, the thing I'm limited by is grazing ground around the parlour. Theres 86 acres of grazing ground around the parlour theres another 34 acres but its across the road and is over half a mile away.
Of the 86 acres 26 acres is going grazing that could be stocked at 2 cows/acre and the remainder is a bit poorer and maybe only 1.5 cows/acre which would allow me to run 142 cows on just grazing only but that doesnt include any winter grazing or the ability to reseed anything.
The thing I was looking at by having more cows is my fixed costs are the same
Do you run all your cows as one group like the high yielder with the others?
How many cows and acres are you a block calving?