10 in 7 milking + summer diet

[Tirglas]

bit of research reassurance

 

[frederick]

I'm getting twitchy I won't lie, and am now wondering what the hell I've done...

For f sake stop over thinking it.

You had a plan to implement 10in 7. Due to circumstances it's happened by accident.

Either implement your plan or don't. It will take you 12 months to find out wether it was a good idea or not. Tomorrow's milk ticket is completely irrelevant because it will only tell you litres which will be bad and not solids which will be better.

If your following your plan, quietly check the calvers in the minute. If not go and bloody milk them now and remain tad.

I really want to help by offering constructive comments but your constant changing of direction like the wind is beginning to make it pointless.

I understand you need a sounding board and you use the forum but you might as well use a dice and make decisions based on odd or even how you are currently carrying on

 

[O'Reilly]

Someone else I've seen, is Wicton Farm on faceache, reckon they have gone from feeding 7kg cake per day to zero, grass and silage only and I think once a day, all in the space of a year. I think @newholland might be something to do with it but could be wrong. Anyway, the cows look like Holsteins to me, certainly something interesting to look at.

 

[Beef farmer]

Someone else I've seen, is Wicton Farm on faceache, reckon they have gone from feeding 7kg cake per day to zero, grass and silage only and I think once a day, all in the space of a year. I think @newholland might be something to do with it but could be wrong. Anyway, the cows look like Holsteins to me, certainly something interesting to look at.

Supplying omsco, I'd imagine dropping the cake was an easy decision

 

[dinderleat]

Supplying omsco, I'd imagine dropping the cake was an easy decision

Yeah 32.5ppl makes the mind focus I should think

 

[Beef farmer]

Yeah 32.5ppl makes the mind focus I should think

With 450/ton cake it will

 

[dinderleat]

With 450/ton cake it will

That’s conventional cake ………….

 

[Jdunn55]

For f sake stop over thinking it.

You had a plan to implement 10in 7. Due to circumstances it's happened by accident.

Either implement your plan or don't. It will take you 12 months to find out wether it was a good idea or not. Tomorrow's milk ticket is completely irrelevant because it will only tell you litres which will be bad and not solids which will be better.

If your following your plan, quietly check the calvers in the minute. If not go and bloody milk them now and remain tad.

I really want to help by offering constructive comments but your constant changing of direction like the wind is beginning to make it pointless.

I understand you need a sounding board and you use the forum but you might as well use a dice and make decisions based on odd or even how you are currently carrying on

Sorry I don't mean to be changing my mind all the time, I just lack confidence in myself, there's very few things I can say I know what I'm doing, it's why I like my genetics so much - I'm actually half decent at that!

I'm not going back out, if I do I'll turn the parlour on, I've got a camera up in the calving pen now so I can check them without disturbing the other gang

I'll try and give it a week or two and see what happens before sticking with it or changing my mind but no promises and I may well need some reassurance because quite frankly I know 0 people doing it and perhaps that's for a reason...

 

[ridger]

Am I missing something here? If a dairy farmer can't be bothered to milk should he or she not be at something else? I sell potatoes and veg at a market, a girl comes to help me, she is 15, this morning she had milking done before she came in, at 9 o'clock.

 

[som farmer]

putting in 24 acres of corn in, l know we should cost it out at mkt price, wherever that might end up. Looks like a good move. At least it won't be full of cheap fillers ! And will save a lot of cash going out. And, if straw is short, because growers chop it, we shall have plenty.

@Jdunn55 you really do need to make your mind up, and stick to it, you haven't been farming on your own, long enough to keep changing things. Get a system going, kick your relief out, and get someone to do a lot of your outside work. What will happen, when you are baling for someone else, stop, and run back to milk ? That would be popular.
But, if you don't sort things out, it could well end up badly for you, and that is the last thing we want to see happen.

 

[frederick]

Am I missing something here? If a dairy farmer can't be bothered to milk should he or she not be at something else? I sell potatoes and veg at a market, a girl comes to help me, she is 15, this morning she had milking done before she came in, at 9 o'clock.

If you have been on the dairy thread for long the one thing you will no about @jdunn is the comment can't be bothered is certainly not applicable. If anything he is overcommitted to his cows

 

[Jdunn55]

Am I missing something here? If a dairy farmer can't be bothered to milk should he or she not be at something else? I sell potatoes and veg at a market, a girl comes to help me, she is 15, this morning she had milking done before she came in, at 9 o'clock.

I can assure you it's not because I can't be bothered or that I'm lazy, I've just added up and I've done 92 hours work so far this week and am running on an average of 5 hours sleep, I've had lunch twice this week and only stopped for it today
Im realising it's not sustainable and just looking for ways to help it

 

[dinderleat]

I can assure you it's not because I can't be bothered or that I'm lazy, I've just added up and I've done 92 hours work so far this week and am running on an average of 5 hours sleep, I've had lunch twice this week and only stopped for it today
Im realising it's not sustainable and just looking for ways to help it

As long as you don’t stop it’s fine

 

[Jdunn55]

I think systems like 10 in 7 will have a significant part to play in the dairy industry going forward but I don't think it's for you right now. It will bugger up your Tuesday and Thursday so that you lose productive time in the morning and you will definitely lose yield if you're aiming for 7500. 13 milkings a week could well suit you though, just milking once at 8/9am on a Sunday will give you a lie in and a bit of time off on a day that shouldn't be productive anyway.

There seems to be a misconception on here about grazing cows all being 'grass rats'. It's completely possible to run a low cost system with pedigree or crossbred cows that are functional, profitable and also easy on the eye. It's a shame you couldn't have done a season in NZ before you settled down, there are 1000s of pedigree herds out there with breeders who's passion in life is dairy genetics yet the cows are run on a 100% commercial basis with a focus on profit from grazing cows on a no frills system.

In hindsight I should have probably gone to New Zealand after leaving college, which is the same as what Ross was saying to do now
Regarding yield I'm happy to lose a bit of yield as long as it is in proportion
If I could get them to be milking 6500 litres from only a tonne of cake I'd be very pleased but maybe 6000 litres could be more realistic to budget off? Plus if it raises my butterfat and protein % I may well be yielding the same kg of constituents as if I was doing 7500litres?

On the days when I only milk late in the morning I can feed all the calves bed them down, check the heifers etc before milking and then on the days where I milk 2x I can do all that after milking so I shouldn't be any worse off, the only difference being on the 1 x a day in theory I'll have the entire afternoon to do whatever the hell I want to do

 

[Jdunn55]

Ffs, got a cow calving that'll stir the rest of them up

 

[Jdunn55]

Ffs, got a cow calving that'll stir the rest of them up

All is well

 

[bigw]

I'm getting twitchy I won't lie, and am now wondering what the hell I've done...

Your cows will adapt far better than you. I remember an Australian farmer being here a lot of years ago and he said he had his water allocation cut overnight and went from 10k litres to OAD, he said the cows adapted no bother at all.

 

[Jdunn55]

Your cows will adapt far better than you. I remember an Australian farmer being here a lot of years ago and he said he had his water allocation cut overnight and went from 10k litres to OAD, he said the cows adapted no bother at all.

I hope so, I'm wondering if I've made a massive mistake I didn't dare turn the parlour on to milk the heifer, left them all quiet and gave the calf some frozen colostrum
Just in case anyone was wondering colostrum does not taste good...

 

[Cowwilf]

I hope so, I'm wondering if I've made a massive mistake I didn't dare turn the parlour on to milk the heifer, left them all quiet and gave the calf some frozen colostrum
Just in case anyone was wondering colostrum does not taste good...

How are your cows this morning? chilled out and full of milk? fair play for giving it a go its the sort of thing you could spend years pondering but wont know if it suits you until you try it.

 

[Martyn]

Supplying omsco, I'd imagine dropping the cake was an easy decision