Recent content by Farmer_1994

I would stick with the same one as you have if it gets the job done and you are happy with it. You know how it works and have a routine from working with the first one. It took months for me to get used to a new routine on a new machine when we upgraded. I would be worried for myself that by...

Can you afford the milk cheque to go down realistically? Cut costs not income. Sounds to me like you are trying to make a go of it with the pedigree cattle and having some success but I truthfully think the youngstock have to go (for now) can always get back in when your situation is more...

@Jdunn55 have you set on selling out yet?Doesnt seem like you have by admitting that your system needs to change and probably other things as well. If you want to keep milking and it seems you do, I would really take a hard look at the numbers if you could make a go of it running as a flying...

Which make of scrapers are you using? as to the OPs question, I would stick with tire scraper. We milk 300 on sand bedding for 10 years now, been with tire scrapers the whole time; they just hold up the best and can take some abuse. Have seen other herds go to sand with an adjustable scraper...

Bit lower feed cost, reduced bedding cost, better utilization of land, cows off concrete more, etc.

The consistency is also my worry, to me the system you suggested seems simple enough and much more manageable than what I had gone to see. I also thought that instead of lowering the amount of tmr fed, the dm equivalent of grass that they are eating by grazing should be taken out of the tmr...

That is roughly the same idea that we were tossing around. Just wanted to know if it can be done. Sounds like we’d be best off going to see a few operations across the pond to better understand it before trying ourselves. Like I said, very few people are grazing here and the producer I talked to...

Tossing the idea around for next year of giving the cows free choice access to pasture and feeding tmr still as the available acres for grazing is not enough to fully supply enough forage for the herd. My question is how do you go about keeping a “balanced ration” in that situation? This is a...

Fairly common practice to get a cover crop in right after maize harvest in slightly milder climates than where we are. Would think if the weather is ok to get in you should have no problem, it will be very slow coming in the beginning due to temps like you said. I would consider doing maybe...

110 cows to start, hopefully can bring it down a bit with increase in production. We milk 2x right now through parlour. Most herds around us on robots are doing 2.8-3.5 milkings per day so hoping to see a minimum 10% increase in production but not figuring on any more. We’d be going delaval as...

Those that have and are doing it why did you go that route? Anyone doing it on robots? Thinking about going that route in the future on robots. Little bit of background, father is wanting to retire soon and my brother and I would like to go our separate ways, Currently we are raising enough...

The ones I’ve seen that footbath consistently well seem to have them located after the robot as well, don’t like the idea of running the whole herd through a footbath somewhere in the barn once a week or something.

Hello everybody, getting in to this forum as in the next few years we will be going to robots on half the herd. We will be fully housed and calving ayr. Looking at delaval and gea currently. No interest in lely as dealer support is poor. Everyone around with delaval is fairly pleased with the...

We do full prep currently with two people in the parlour, hoping one of these systems could reduce a labour unit completely. How are peoples experiences with either system? Many known problems? Cost of each and replacing liners? Did you see noticeable difference from your previous method of post...

between the red lines is where we would want to keep the animals, the corners are thick bush not worth much of anything. We are not allowed to have cattle drink from the ditch but can pull water out from it to put in stock tanks off the bank. Well and power and a dilapidated shed located by the...