All things Dairy

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
after l had posted, remembered that for years, a steel 'bull mask' was hung up in a corner, l can never remember it used, but was always told it was bought for a really nasty Ayrshire bull, we used to milk a lot of ayrx cows, from the new forest, they were cheap, and there was some nasty buggers amongst them.
The ones we have now, bear little semblance to them, they would be 'determined' but not nasty. l hope they do hold, as they are nice cows, but a line has to be drawn somewhere, really just disappointed.
 
Location
southwest
I had two Ayrshire X cows. One didn't get in calf last spring but did when we put bulls back in Oct, she (531) has since gone on to another forum members farm. I don't know if she's still going?. The other lost her calf in Jan shortly after drying off and never came into milk so her and a couple of mates are running with a bull and tidying up some steep orchards.

They were both 2008 born though and had 10 good lactations though so I can't complain too much. I've got a bunch more to calve next spring.
View attachment 967160

Keeping an empty barrener? You're as bad as @Jdunn55 !
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
8 days sown and its come up for air, liquid fert applied on Thursday, be interesting to see its progress.
20210612_072037.jpg
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Just added mine up. 15 % of my herd are in their tenth lactation or more. Think I’m going to have to start thinning them out before winter😞
it's quite a shock sometimes, when you realise that old girl, never a problem, is an oap. The ones that give problems, go. Our processor is starting down the carbon foot print line, one question is, av age of dairy, the older that is, more points, followed by, age at first calving, then sexed semen, dairy bull calves etc. We haven't had any problem with fh bull calves, more fr than ho, selling them private, to repeat customers, even took the few jerx, and paid £30 each !
But this is the road we will all have to follow, unless events alter that, and we will have to adapt, it's pretty obvious that euthanising calves at birth, doesn't sit well with the public, nor does milking cows being bred to give huge volumes of milk, but don't last long, egged on by those, who claim they are pumped full of drugs. The vision many people have about farming, is not what actually happens, but, they are the people that buy our product, and we should not ignore them.
 
Location
southwest
Just added mine up. 15 % of my herd are in their tenth lactation or more. Think I’m going to have to start thinning them out before winter😞


I think the number of replacements you rear has a lot to do with it.

Do farmers cull cows purely on production criteria-mastitis, fertility, lameness etc. or is it influenced by how many hfrs you have in the pipeline got 20 hfrs to calve this autumn, better sell 20 culls!

I bet flying herds don't cull as hard as those that rear replacements.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,292
  • 1
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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