All things Dairy

Jdunn55

Member
What does you price end up at with fats that low?
I dunno
What's the point in looking? Nothing I can do to change it unless I change their diets but I've been told by everyone on here numerous times that I'm better off accepting a lower milk price than feeding to increase it

Spring cows are averaging 31 litres from 8kg so making up for it in volume. They'll be up over 5% fat in the winter so average across the lactation will end up being 4.5%

Edit: I expect it'll be up over 4% tomorrow as they started having bales a couple of days ago due to grass growth slowing (lack of rain)
 
Last edited:

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
A cow has a rumen which means she can eat spicy grass this time of year and headed dry stuff later on in the year and the cow just alters herself to this
A lot of farmers then start feeding different stuff to help the cow along , straw or crappy hay in spring and good silage blend later on in the year
The cow will adjust herself without throwing money at her
 
Finally their out !
Yes, late even for me, it's been cold and dry, even the trees are late.
View attachment 1034151
But I've little fert, and no slurry, so going to be a challenging year.
But fmp what an anti climax, no rush to the field, no prancing about, just heads down and started eating.
View attachment 1034153

It's only had a dose of very old fym, more like black compost, my indexes are rather high , so we shall see how I go, plenty of this though
View attachment 1034154
How's the slurry store coming along?
 
I dunno
What's the point in looking? Nothing I can do to change it unless I change their diets but I've been told by everyone on here numerous times that I'm better off accepting a lower milk price than feeding to increase it

Spring cows are averaging 31 litres from 8kg so making up for it in volume. They'll be up over 5% fat in the winter so average across the lactation will end up being 4.5%

Edit: I expect it'll be up over 4% tomorrow as they started having bales a couple of days ago due to grass growth slowing (lack of rain)

Running a very short grazing round will hit fats because of a complete lack of fibre in the grass. I think you said last week that you were already on your forth round. I haven't finished second round here, I would have skipped several fields for bales if there was any rain in the forecast but there still isn't. Short round lengths also mean you're carrying less total cover in the farm which means you will run into trouble more quick in dry times. I've turned the cake up from 2.5 to 4kg for mine today but even with no rain I won't be feeding silage for several weeks yet.
 

Jdunn55

Member
Running a very short grazing round will hit fats because of a complete lack of fibre in the grass. I think you said last week that you were already on your forth round. I haven't finished second round here, I would have skipped several fields for bales if there was any rain in the forecast but there still isn't. Short round lengths also mean you're carrying less total cover in the farm which means you will run into trouble more quick in dry times. I've turned the cake up from 2.5 to 4kg for mine today but even with no rain I won't be feeding silage for several weeks yet.
I was just going off what I've been told to do on here, I thought I should be grazing covers when they hit 2800-3200kgdm/ha?
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
Finally their out !
Yes, late even for me, it's been cold and dry, even the trees are late.
View attachment 1034151
But I've little fert, and no slurry, so going to be a challenging year.
But fmp what an anti climax, no rush to the field, no prancing about, just heads down and started eating.
View attachment 1034153

It's only had a dose of very old fym, more like black compost, my indexes are rather high , so we shall see how I go, plenty of this though
View attachment 1034154
I’d say you just need sun. Soil temp probably low
 
I was just going off what I've been told to do on here, I thought I should be grazing covers when they hit 2800-3200kgdm/ha?

Some would say so, my preference is more for 3200-3500.

If you have fields that have hit 3000 for a forth time this year and you've taken then down to 15/1600 then you should have grown over 4tDM already which would be very impressive for this time of year.
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
Running a very short grazing round will hit fats because of a complete lack of fibre in the grass. I think you said last week that you were already on your forth round. I haven't finished second round here, I would have skipped several fields for bales if there was any rain in the forecast but there still isn't. Short round lengths also mean you're carrying less total cover in the farm which means you will run into trouble more quick in dry times. I've turned the cake up from 2.5 to 4kg for mine today but even with no rain I won't be feeding silage for several weeks yet.
Mole Valley have reduced my supplemantary feeding to zero, as of Monday. Feed promised today has still not arrived, never mind , think of the saving!:mad:
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I dunno
What's the point in looking? Nothing I can do to change it unless I change their diets but I've been told by everyone on here numerous times that I'm better off accepting a lower milk price than feeding to increase it

Spring cows are averaging 31 litres from 8kg so making up for it in volume. They'll be up over 5% fat in the winter so average across the lactation will end up being 4.5%

Edit: I expect it'll be up over 4% tomorrow as they started having bales a couple of days ago due to grass growth slowing (lack of rain)
I’d be mid to high 20s in liters from 3.5 kg grain and 4kg corn silage, rest is grass. It’s been a very slow spring for us here. Normally we would have had massive growth starting 3 weeks ago but it’s never come.

With feed prices where they are it’s going to change how things are done a bit. We can’t buy in any quality forage here, it does not exist. So if we can’t make any grass silage we are in big trouble. I could easily drop the corn silage and speed my round up. I wouldn’t get any more milk, wouldn’t have any more grass and would not be able to make any bales. I’m just saying this as an example to show that everything is not as simple as some might make it seem and I’m not confident I have my rations figured out all the time either.

If you get caught feeding purchased protein for long periods of time in the foreseeable future it could become very difficult to have a consistent margin. Always something to consider.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Soil temp today 12.2 degrees ,last week 10 .6 degrees so even though clover is moving it will be supplying little if any at all nitrogen to the ground .as my pictures show clover nodules still white,when they start producing nitrogen they will turn a lovely pink colour
Anyone putting clover in now will not see any benefit of that before next year and only then if you’re ph is above 6.2 and your p&k are above 2
IMG_0657[1].JPG
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first 2 coming back for 2nd grazing, 25 units N after 1st round, N went on 7 days ago.
next, red clover ley, 40 units N, grazed till 3rd march, with sheep
next, cutting ley, slurry, and 40 units of N, grazed by sheep till 12 march, lot of clover in the bottom of the sward.
last one, should be grazing, but will now be cut, no slurry, no fert, sheep off mid feb, the chicory went a bit mental here, plenty clover though.
don't know about temp for clover, it hasn't stopped growing all winter, and the grass is getting its N from somewhere, because we haven't used very much.
 

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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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