All things Dairy

Blue. · Oct 27, 2021

Dry cow management/diet is one of those things that does and doesn’t work on different farms,I had 12 months of feeding chopped hay with a percentage of my milk cow diet,it worked a treat then when the hay was replaced it all went wrong

Everything scraped onto slats here so I chop it mainly to keep it in the trough and keep intakes up,I recently bought a herd that was averaging 12,500 litres so they do deserve a little tlc,if I was milking grazing rats I’d have a slightly different view on my dry cows needs.

Barmyfarmer · Oct 27, 2021

eulb said:
Dry cow management/diet is one of those things that does and doesn’t work on different farms,I had 12 months of feeding chopped hay with a percentage of my milk cow diet,it worked a treat then when the hay was replaced it all went wrong
Everything scraped onto slats here so I chop it mainly to keep it in the trough and keep intakes up,I recently bought a herd that was averaging 12,500 litres so they do deserve a little tlc,if I was milking grazing rats I’d have a slightly different view on my dry cows needs.

Are you a flying herd eulb?

Jdunn55 · Oct 27, 2021

Guess who's scraper tractor won't work....

Sid · Oct 27, 2021

Farmer Keith said:
Completely agree with @Beef farmer about over complicating the dry cow but if you insist on chopped straw why is somebody not chopping it through the Baler in the field?

High risk, arable fields ,stones, knives,dry straw.
Insurance companies nightmare I would imagine!

Ducati899 · Oct 27, 2021

One of my cows from @dinderleat popping out a twin

Blue. · Oct 27, 2021

Barmyfarmer said:
Are you a flying herd eulb?

Yes,calved the last of my heifers in earlier in the year.

DairyGrazing · Oct 27, 2021

eulb said:
Yes,calved the last of my heifers in earlier in the year.

What was the reason for moving to a flying herd?

Whitewalker · Oct 27, 2021

Stuart1 said:
I did see that, however the price tag is the stumbling block. Don’t know of one over here in NI either that would do contract work.

Tinsleys in dromore had a straw grinder I think

puppet · Oct 28, 2021

puppet said:
Good turnout of dairy cattle tonight in Castle Douglas for the south west dairy show. Foul night of weather didn't seem to deter spectatorsView attachment 993985 View attachment 993986

Moved from the milk tracker thread

upnortheast · Oct 28, 2021

puppet said:
Good turnout of dairy cattle tonight in Castle Douglas for the south west dairy show. Foul night of weather didn't seem to deter spectatorsView attachment 993985 View attachment 993986

Did you happen to get a decent pic of the Ayrshire heifer with the old fashioned headgear

Tim G · Oct 28, 2021

Just ordered 4t of 18% dairy cake. Usually the prices are done on a 3 month review depending on how well they buy/bought ingredients for the next 3 months. New price (£309/t

) is Oct '21 to April '22. Not sure why they are fixing for so long.
Tried to explain that all our costs are going up ridiculously fast to a customer, and that we will be putting up the price of our milk to reflect it. He got quite arsey about and said he wouldn't be able to afford it so wouldn't be coming if we did. He's one of these flashy types who pays by waving his watch over the card reader and drove of in his merc.

upnortheast · Oct 28, 2021

Tim G said:
Tried to explain that all our costs are going up ridiculously fast to a customer, and that we will be putting up the price of our milk to reflect it. He got quite arsey about and said he wouldn't be able to afford it so wouldn't be coming if we did. He's one of these flashy types who pays by waving his watch over the card reader and drove of in his merc.

Some you are not sorry to see the back of.

Have tried to keep our milk price stable.. Been the same for 5 years. (cream up a couple of times ) Had to put the price up about 6% couple of months ago. About 150 customers & not one query or complaint.
The way poly bottles, diesel & labour are going we are looking at another lift 1st dec

Tim G · Oct 28, 2021

upnortheast said:
Some you are not sorry to see the back of.

Have tried to keep our milk price stable.. Been the same for 5 years. (cream up a couple of times ) Had to put the price up about 6% couple of months ago. About 150 customers & not one query or complaint.
The way poly bottles, diesel & labour are going we are looking at another lift 1st dec

When we first started we charged £1.20 a litre whether it was in 1litre polys or 2. We found that people were taking 10 litres in 1l bottles because they felt they were getting more value. We adjusted the price of the 1l bottles to £1.40 and it cut out the silly behaviour in a heartbeat. That's now three and a bit years ago so I think it's fair to put the price up now, trouble is it will be a biggish jump.

upnortheast · Oct 28, 2021

Tim G said:
When we first started we charged £1.20 a litre whether it was in 1litre polys or 2. We found that people were taking 10 litres in 1l bottles because they felt they were getting more value. We adjusted the price of the 1l bottles to £1.40 and it cut out the silly behaviour in a heartbeat. That's now three and a bit years ago so I think it's fair to put the price up now, trouble is it will be a biggish jump.

We are probably wrong to try & keep the price level
A modest annual increase is a better business policy

Bongodog · Oct 28, 2021

Tim G said:
Just ordered 4t of 18% dairy cake. Usually the prices are done on a 3 month review depending on how well they buy/bought ingredients for the next 3 months. New price (£309/t ) is Oct '21 to April '22. Not sure why they are fixing for so long.
Tried to explain that all our costs are going up ridiculously fast to a customer, and that we will be putting up the price of our milk to reflect it. He got quite arsey about and said he wouldn't be able to afford it so wouldn't be coming if we did. He's one of these flashy types who pays by waving his watch over the card reader and drove of in his merc.

Shouldn't have mentioned it to him, the types who casually wave their card over a reader never ask for a receipt and don't generally even keep track of how much they have spent.

som farmer · Oct 28, 2021

contactless payment must be shopkeepers heaven, not only does it cave some money, it increases the urge spend, it's so easy, some don't keep a 'tally' on their spend.
It really shows how far we have come, l remember the old card systems, your card, into a manual machine, paper in triplicate, one for you, one for the shop, and one to the bank, who transferred the money, before that, cheque guarantee cards, written manually. Now, 1 quick flash, job done.

borderterribles · Oct 28, 2021

Tim G said:
Just ordered 4t of 18% dairy cake. Usually the prices are done on a 3 month review depending on how well they buy/bought ingredients for the next 3 months. New price (£309/t ) is Oct '21 to April '22. Not sure why they are fixing for so long.
Tried to explain that all our costs are going up ridiculously fast to a customer, and that we will be putting up the price of our milk to reflect it. He got quite arsey about and said he wouldn't be able to afford it so wouldn't be coming if we did. He's one of these flashy types who pays by waving his watch over the card reader and drove of in his merc.

Probably still owes on the Merc, and the watch

lazy farmer · Oct 28, 2021

Really excited tho see what this lot do. Our most uniform group ever and first group to include selected sexed heifers. In theory some classy high solids individuals in there

Tim G · Oct 28, 2021

borderterribles said:
Probably still owes on the Merc, and the watch

True.
When I first left school and worked on a farm, one of the guys I worked with said
'Just because they drive it, don't mean they own it.'
Often think that with flashy motors.

Blue. · Oct 28, 2021

DairyGrazing said:
What was the reason for moving to a flying herd?

We lost some land we’d tenanted for nearly 30 years,after losing the land I decided it wasn’t happening again,so we now own everything except 7 acres.
Had a terrible run of heifers coming in with blind quarters,no signs of summer mastitis just blind,infuriating because our youngstock was always spoilt,cubicles cleaner than most milk cows etc.
Easier just milking and not having youngstock to look after,either myself or wife milks so we both see ever animal on the farm at each milking,only have milking assistants so semi skilled etc.
We carried on serving to the black and white so if we changed our mind we were 9 months ahead,we had great prices for heifer calves but the amount served to sexed means the price has now dropped,fortunately I swapped to serving with the blue so only a few left to the b/W now.

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