10 in 7 milking + summer diet

Jdunn55

Member
So, following on from my posts in all things dairy I'm considering 10 in 7 milking for a variety of reasons. As of now I think it could solve a lot of my problems, even as a temporary solution (may go back to 2 x a day in a couple of years time when I have enough cows to pay someone full time).
Is anyone on here doing it?
The claim is that it doesn't reduce milk yield at all, is this true (in my head it doesn't make sense)?
What is the best milking interval? I have seen conflicting times, some saying 12 - 18 - 18 then, 10 - 19 - 19, or even 8 - 20 - 20?
I was aiming for 7000litre average this year for my spring(ish) calving cows from 1.5t of cake, is this still realistic? Do I need to feed less cake? More cake? I've been offered 40t of barley from a friend so was thinking of just rolling and feeding this through the parlour for the summer when the cows are grazing.
How would feeding work? I would need to feed to yield because I'm ayr calving really (I just pretend to block calve...) some days they would be fed twice but other days only once? Maybe feed to yield in the morning and just a kg in the afternoon milking? should hopefully have my oopf working soon so could top up the high yielding cows with a nut?
On the day they're only milked once, should I still move the fence twice?
At the moment I'm thinking it could be perfect for me, less electric, less labour, less chemicals, less scraping etc, but IF I'm going to do it I want to do it right. So any answers to the above would be appreciated.

My current thinking is the following:
Average 3.5 kg of barley (3kg am + 1kg every other day in the afternoon)
15?kgdm of grazing a day, on a 25 day average round would be 375kgdm/cow/round so for 75 cows average so about 30tdm every rotation so working off 500kgdm available per acre I would need 60 acres of grazing for the cows which is fine.
Obviously feeding fresh grass after milking but on the day they get milked at 11am, should i move the fence again at say 6pm?
Milk at 5am and 5pm then 11am the next day? Any other suggestions to milking times? I would still have calves to feed so would probably feed them at 8am and maybe 6:30pm?

Sorry for the long winded post, just want to get it right and not spend the rest of the year moaning about things going badly!
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
So, following on from my posts in all things dairy I'm considering 10 in 7 milking for a variety of reasons. As of now I think it could solve a lot of my problems, even as a temporary solution (may go back to 2 x a day in a couple of years time when I have enough cows to pay someone full time).
Is anyone on here doing it?
The claim is that it doesn't reduce milk yield at all, is this true (in my head it doesn't make sense)?
What is the best milking interval? I have seen conflicting times, some saying 12 - 18 - 18 then, 10 - 19 - 19, or even 8 - 20 - 20?
I was aiming for 7000litre average this year for my spring(ish) calving cows from 1.5t of cake, is this still realistic? Do I need to feed less cake? More cake? I've been offered 40t of barley from a friend so was thinking of just rolling and feeding this through the parlour for the summer when the cows are grazing.
How would feeding work? I would need to feed to yield because I'm ayr calving really (I just pretend to block calve...) some days they would be fed twice but other days only once? Maybe feed to yield in the morning and just a kg in the afternoon milking? should hopefully have my oopf working soon so could top up the high yielding cows with a nut?
On the day they're only milked once, should I still move the fence twice?
At the moment I'm thinking it could be perfect for me, less electric, less labour, less chemicals, less scraping etc, but IF I'm going to do it I want to do it right. So any answers to the above would be appreciated.

My current thinking is the following:
Average 3.5 kg of barley (3kg am + 1kg every other day in the afternoon)
15?kgdm of grazing a day, on a 25 day average round would be 375kgdm/cow/round so for 75 cows average so about 30tdm every rotation so working off 500kgdm available per acre I would need 60 acres of grazing for the cows which is fine.
Obviously feeding fresh grass after milking but on the day they get milked at 11am, should i move the fence again at say 6pm?
Milk at 5am and 5pm then 11am the next day? Any other suggestions to milking times? I would still have calves to feed so would probably feed them at 8am and maybe 6:30pm?

Sorry for the long winded post, just want to get it right and not spend the rest of the year moaning about things going badly!
Look at the ludf stuff (lincoln university) below are their times which seem quite sensible 18 hour intervals will do your head in.
Cows are milked at 5.00am and 2.30pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but only once every other day - mostly 8.30am but 11.30am on Saturdays.
 

Tirglas

Member
Location
West wales
Try the 16 / 8 split first to shorten your day say milk at 7am and 3pm or 6am 2pm then maybe drop a milking on a weekend to see how your cows adjust?

Main problem might be Bertha, or possibly your conflicting interests in milk yields too???
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
On your other questions.
Feed to yield am and 1 kg on pm makes sense but you will be limited to 4kg of cake.

On fences this might allow more flexibility. In the perfect world a fence should be moved when cows need more grass not at milking times. There is nothing wrong with 36 hour breaks in a month or so. So only five fences a week but they will probably need moving at odd times.

It is stated that it has no yield effect. Lincoln cows produce fair solids but your hoped for yields maybe impacted by things like limiting the cake you can feed them.
 
Location
southwest
Idiocy.

Either milk 2x day or 1x time, not some half arsed compromise. Sods Law will say that the days you are milking twice will be when everything else needs doing-grass to cut silage to bale, youngstock get out etc. etc. The days you only milk once, it'll be raining, you won't be able to do anything else and by 3 o'clock you'll be itching to fire up the parlour.

Feeding straight barley will knock your solids for 6, but then aiming to feed 1.5 tonnes to spring calvers isn't a bright idea anyway.

With the way costs are rising, you're not the only one who needs to get out of high costs mindset. Try seeing just how little you need to spend without it slashing your income.
 
Last edited:

Cowwilf

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
12hr splits make a long day, good for getting jobs done but can be tiring. Milking at 11 am breaks the day up to much for my liking, when I was 3x I hated the lunchtime milking didn't mind late night milking always found it the most peaceful. I feed calves after morning milking and before afternoon milking so when the parlour goes off I'm done for the day if I want to be. I wouldn't worry about times on twice a day been set in stone on those yields I flexi time on 2x milking and the cows don't mind.
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
Why. Leading change is normally the most profitable outcome if you choose the right changes.
Ludf would be one of the foremost grazing herds in the world and it seems to be working for them.

Oad isn't idiocy. This is perhaps a middle ground that many of us might head to with increasing labour shortages.

If @Jdunn55 gives it a go good on him but it has risks.

Your one word statement is no help to anyone.
 
Have you thought about changing milking times?

I know a dairy farmer that was made a widow with 3 young kids and was really struggling to get relief milkers until he changed his milking times to 10am and 8pm. He has the pick of the litter for the 2 slots as the full-time relief milkers just come after they have finished another job at a more typical milking time.

I do find it surprising how many ridicule him for starting to milk at 10am but it works
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
Why. Leading change is normally the most profitable outcome if you choose the right changes.
Ludf would be one of the foremost grazing herds in the world and it seems to be working for them.

Oad isn't idiocy. This is perhaps a middle ground that many of us might head to with increasing labour shortages.

If @Jdunn55 gives it a go good on him but it has risks.

You're no help to anyone.

Fixed it for you.
 
Last edited:

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
@Jdunn55

We've tried in the past to help you but you always seemed blinkered on one idea or another. I've been there where you've been you've got your plan and you're bloody going to make it work and that you know best. Trust me, i've been there.

But it seems the penny has dropped now and that you're happy to be helped so go through this thread and listen to some of the advice given. Not all of it will appeal to you but some of it will.

If it was me doing this I would ditch the idea of 7000l cows especially with the cost of various inputs. Why spend so much money making it? Staff are causing you an issue, you have the gear to make silage plus whatever else you need to do. Ditch that extra 1000l thats TAD will give you, make life easier for yourself and learn to chill out a bit.

Would be my advice for you. You're only your age once and trust me - there is more to these summers on earth than worrying yourself milking cows.
 

Tirglas

Member
Location
West wales
Idiocy.

Either milk 2x day or 1x time, not some half arsed compromise. Sods Law will say that the days you are milking twice will be when everything else needs doing-grass to cut silage to bale, youngstock get out etc. etc. The days you only milk once, it'll be raining, you won't be able to do anything else and by 3 o'clock you'll be itching to fire up the parlour.

Feeding straight barley will knock your solids for 6, but then aiming to feed 1.5 tonnes to spring calvers isn't a bright idea anyway.

With the way costs are rising, you're not the only one who needs to get out of high costs mindset. Try seeing just how little you need to spend without it slashing your income.
Some OAD legends in NZ doin TAD twice a week or 9 in 7 and getting a huge uplift, some dudes even looking at 6 milkings a week so they can chill on Sunday 😎

Or OAD over calving TAD till after serving over peak then 10 in 7 till last couple months on OAD save a few hours over the year if you can remember WTF your meant to do today
 

coomoo

Member
So, following on from my posts in all things dairy I'm considering 10 in 7 milking for a variety of reasons. As of now I think it could solve a lot of my problems, even as a temporary solution (may go back to 2 x a day in a couple of years time when I have enough cows to pay someone full time).
Is anyone on here doing it?
The claim is that it doesn't reduce milk yield at all, is this true (in my head it doesn't make sense)?
What is the best milking interval? I have seen conflicting times, some saying 12 - 18 - 18 then, 10 - 19 - 19, or even 8 - 20 - 20?
I was aiming for 7000litre average this year for my spring(ish) calving cows from 1.5t of cake, is this still realistic? Do I need to feed less cake? More cake? I've been offered 40t of barley from a friend so was thinking of just rolling and feeding this through the parlour for the summer when the cows are grazing.
How would feeding work? I would need to feed to yield because I'm ayr calving really (I just pretend to block calve...) some days they would be fed twice but other days only once? Maybe feed to yield in the morning and just a kg in the afternoon milking? should hopefully have my oopf working soon so could top up the high yielding cows with a nut?
On the day they're only milked once, should I still move the fence twice?
At the moment I'm thinking it could be perfect for me, less electric, less labour, less chemicals, less scraping etc, but IF I'm going to do it I want to do it right. So any answers to the above would be appreciated.

My current thinking is the following:
Average 3.5 kg of barley (3kg am + 1kg every other day in the afternoon)
15?kgdm of grazing a day, on a 25 day average round would be 375kgdm/cow/round so for 75 cows average so about 30tdm every rotation so working off 500kgdm available per acre I would need 60 acres of grazing for the cows which is fine.
Obviously feeding fresh grass after milking but on the day they get milked at 11am, should i move the fence again at say 6pm?
Milk at 5am and 5pm then 11am the next day? Any other suggestions to milking times? I would still have calves to feed so would probably feed them at 8am and maybe 6:30pm?

Sorry for the long winded post, just want to get it right and not spend the rest of the year moaning about things going badly!
But still doing all the milking’s yourself? Is a nonesense chuck some cash at someone and leave them well alone to do a few milking’s. Until you learn how to deal with people none of this will settle down.
 

Happy at it

Member
Location
NI
What is the major problem you find milking twice a day? Surely milking irregular times in the summer would hinder your ability to plan your daily work?

Is there any way you could receive a little help from family members that you could trust, until things get easier for you, don't be to proud to ask. Even someone doing the paperwork or to kick about and wash the parlour to help speed you up.
 

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