lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
Have often thought. A 100 cow blocked calved herd with a large parlour and little machinery would in affect be a part time job for someone who liked outside work as well.
All things Dairy
- Thread starter Cows 'n grass
- Start date
Have often thought. A 100 cow blocked calved herd with a large parlour and little machinery would in affect be a part time job for someone who liked outside work as well.
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
I think if I crossed these cows to jerseys the prior owner would be loading them into a cattle box before my very eyesNeed some xbred bloodyesterday s sample 4.76 off of 23 litres just feed in the parlour.
@Friesianfan Mine should do better next year as an average as I have a fair few autumn calves who havent calved since last autumn that are being bought round to calve this coming spring, I also am running at 40% heifers wheres in future I'm aiming for 10-20% so that should make a fairly big difference to averages
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Unfortunately holsteins would melt on this farm, far too much difficult walking for them imo and I like cows to graze anyway but even if I housed all year round, half of the farm I cant cut
I do like holsteins but I like mu friesians and am very happy with them (apart from when they escape...)
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
Don’t forget your autumns are helping your milk qualityI think if I crossed these cows to jerseys the prior owner would be loading them into a cattle box before my very eyes
Mine should do better next year as an average as I have a fair few autumn calves who havent calved since last autumn that are being bought round to calve this coming spring, I also am running at 40% heifers wheres in future I'm aiming for 10-20% so that should make a fairly big difference to averages
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Mine have gone noticeably looser without the buffer feed, spent yesterday milking trimming their tails as they were beginning to get increasingly dirty and wiping teats was taking longer and longer
Yes planning on buffer feeding 2kgdm/cow of wholecrop all next year, that's been in my business plan from the start as I'm a firm believer of cows needing fibre, im also going to top dress it with 2kg of barley to reduce cake cost and then the cows can all have 2-3kg of a decent cake in the parlour and anything high yielding can have extra cake via the oopf which will have megalac in it as well
Might work might not, I'll keep you all updated either way but I want to try and do things the way I want atleast 1 year
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
They are but they arent, percentage wise they are but they arent really doing enough litres to bring the average up that much, some are got a couple still doing 18litres and at 4.5%bf, also got 1 doing 4l with a scc of 500... she needs drying off
More to life
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Re whole crop you will need a very small pit face to do that without spoilage.
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
Yes I've got to be careful, it keeps crossing my mind to do maize as well and then should i do some fodder beet etc but I'm going to stick with my original plan and grow good grass, some forage rape/stubble turnips as a break crop and then wholecrop undersown with ryegrass in the spring
I can grow lots of good quality wholecrop quite cheaply, just counting trailers this year, as a conservative figure I averaged 13t/acre of wholecrop but probably more like 15t imo
All it had was some barley and oat barn sweepings (no expensive seed!), 200kg of fertiliser, dung, no spray, didn't plough just cultivated in the spring, broadcast the seed and rolled
So cost per acre would be,
£120 rent
£60 fertiliser
£8 seed
£10 to spread fertiliser and seed
£25 additive
£10 cultivating
£5 rolling
Not sure on harvesting costs yet as will have to wait for everyone to turn their Bill's in but I'm hoping for a total cost of £350/acre which over 13t is £27 so good feed for a good price when you consider a bale is £25 for a 500kg bale normally
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
We've made the pit as thin as we can, think its about 15'wide
- Location
- Shropshire
The right Holstein will stick the walking no problems we still got a few here from before the cross breeding that have stuck the system no problem and I’m fairly ruthless with culling probably 10 percent of the herd is Holstein still and they are all over 7 lactations
- Location
- Shropshire
All this talk of buffer feeding forgets the cost of labour. I'm not worried about feeding a bale of silage, I do get fed up with having another job to do. You say you're rushed off your feet, make life simple for yourself, then you can do your fencing, so the cows don't get out, and you're on top of your farm assurance.
- Location
- Shropshire
Come off it a bale doesn’t take 2 minutes
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
He does is own bales so mowing , tedding ,raking etc etc
Is that 2 minutes
Is that 2 minutes
- Location
- Shropshire
No but you will be making them anyway nearly always a surplus
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
But it’s all in with the job
Put a bale in cows on yard longer = more sh!t and any waste to move
More sh!t = more tankering
Oopf means cows on yard longer = less time at grass and cows not grazing properly
It’s a vicious circle
Jdunn has only been milking for 2 years and has now bought his own dairy herd
Rather than keeping it simple he’s trying to make more and more work for himself which in turn has got to cost him more
Put a bale in cows on yard longer = more sh!t and any waste to move
More sh!t = more tankering
Oopf means cows on yard longer = less time at grass and cows not grazing properly
It’s a vicious circle
Jdunn has only been milking for 2 years and has now bought his own dairy herd
Rather than keeping it simple he’s trying to make more and more work for himself which in turn has got to cost him more
- Location
- Shropshire
Which is fine as long as you get the results
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
There’s also other potential costs and pitfalls
Crop failure and then the big one
Cows on slippery yards eating cake /silage and bulling
Bang !!! One slip £2000 worth of cows dragged on a lorry
I’m autumn calving and I dread bulling time with cows on concrete
Crop failure and then the big one
Cows on slippery yards eating cake /silage and bulling
Bang !!! One slip £2000 worth of cows dragged on a lorry
I’m autumn calving and I dread bulling time with cows on concrete
- Location
- Shropshire
Perhaps more an issue with a Holstein than a Frisian
- Location
- Shropshire
We autumn calve and never had one bust itself in the yard bulling