All things Dairy

I thats it

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Just a second calved Angus and a 5th calved Simmental
 

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Conrod96

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co. Antrim
We could do with nice drop over here which isn’t a common here growth noticeably back 2nd cut in below the sheet on Friday night so some nice steady rain for a day or 2
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
How do you find yours? our 3-5 lactation fleck crosses are beyond doubt the most difficult stock to have ever had to deal with.what I mean by that is they are soo laid back it’s difficult to get them
To do anything!
Try putting them on robots,our robot cows are laid back.....some of them are positively vertical!
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Following on from all the digi chat does anybody know where it lives through the summer? I’d assume the cow as it’s often the same ones that are troubled with it each winter but they never show symptoms through summer and you can’t see any lesions etc on them. I never foot bath from April to September and things like the auto scrapers have definitely slowed it down in winter but maybe the summer is the time to be bathing if you could kill any residual infection off? That said Im sure there’s a genetic component and those cows are simply picking up new infections from the buildings as plenty of cows here would never get it regardless of footbathing I’m sure.

We were a flying herd and it’s fair to say we bought everything in going over the years, I’m not sure anybody that buys in can ever claim to be of high health status, whatever that is, even a closed herd using contract foot trimmers, vets, slurry contractors etc etc etc is at risk every time these guys come on farm when certain diseases like Johnes and digi are all over the place.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Following on from all the digi chat does anybody know where it lives through the summer? I’d assume the cow as it’s often the same ones that are troubled with it each winter but they never show symptoms through summer and you can’t see any lesions etc on them. I never foot bath from April to September and things like the auto scrapers have definitely slowed it down in winter but maybe the summer is the time to be bathing if you could kill any residual infection off? That said Im sure there’s a genetic component and those cows are simply picking up new infections from the buildings as plenty of cows here would never get it regardless of footbathing I’m sure.

We were a flying herd and it’s fair to say we bought everything in going over the years, I’m not sure anybody that buys in can ever claim to be of high health status, whatever that is, even a closed herd using contract foot trimmers, vets, slurry contractors etc etc etc is at risk every time these guys come on farm when certain diseases like Johnes and digi are all over the place.
as a lad, we used to get johnes cows, usually in channel island cows, then it sort of stopped, for 30 yrs, never really used think about it, looking back, an odd 'non-doer' may have had it, then 10/12 yrs ago it started to get talked about, and now we 1/4 ly test, very very few reds, a few orange, but basically not a problem, we try and cull them asap. If we get a cow that starts to scour, and starts to go back, culled straight away, in case it is johnes. As it never really showed up in the younger cows, as cows are lasting much longer, perhaps that is the reason for actually seeing more of it.
 

LTH

Member
Livestock Farmer
Following on from all the digi chat does anybody know where it lives through the summer? I’d assume the cow as it’s often the same ones that are troubled with it each winter but they never show symptoms through summer and you can’t see any lesions etc on them. I never foot bath from April to September and things like the auto scrapers have definitely slowed it down in winter but maybe the summer is the time to be bathing if you could kill any residual infection off? That said Im sure there’s a genetic component and those cows are simply picking up new infections from the buildings as plenty of cows here would never get it regardless of footbathing I’m sure.

We were a flying herd and it’s fair to say we bought everything in going over the years, I’m not sure anybody that buys in can ever claim to be of high health status, whatever that is, even a closed herd using contract foot trimmers, vets, slurry contractors etc etc etc is at risk every time these guys come on farm when certain diseases like Johnes and digi are all over the place.
It’ll still be there, field gateways and areas around water troughs, if they’re outside I just assumed that the feet getting cleaned off in the grass is what reduced it. I think it is down to genetics as it’s usually the same cows which will need treating in winter and others never get it. I was going to say about contractors because they don’t wash the tanker out between farms and then your spreading BVD , johnes, dermi onto your land from god knows where
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
It’ll still be there, field gateways and areas around water troughs, if they’re outside I just assumed that the feet getting cleaned off in the grass is what reduced it. I think it is down to genetics as it’s usually the same cows which will need treating in winter and others never get it. I was going to say about contractors because they don’t wash the tanker out between farms and then your spreading BVD , johnes, dermi onto your land from god knows where

I think If you’re serious about high health you do your own slurry.
 
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Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
as a lad, we used to get johnes cows, usually in channel island cows, then it sort of stopped, for 30 yrs, never really used think about it, looking back, an odd 'non-doer' may have had it, then 10/12 yrs ago it started to get talked about, and now we 1/4 ly test, very very few reds, a few orange, but basically not a problem, we try and cull them asap. If we get a cow that starts to scour, and starts to go back, culled straight away, in case it is johnes. As it never really showed up in the younger cows, as cows are lasting much longer, perhaps that is the reason for actually seeing more of it.

maybe on your farm but the vast majority of cows don’t last as long as they did 30 years ago.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
maybe


I think If you’re serious about high health you do your own slurry.
we have a lagoon, and wouldn't have the kit to empty ourselves, we use top fill tankers, and a pump, and we specific uses for the slurry, biggest application, is maize ground, between rye/vetch and maize, where time is crucial, and again on aftermaths, neither of which we could do, in the timescale. Plus we run a semi, flying herd, so health is compromised from the onset. Though fully admit, in an ideal world, everything in house, would be great.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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