All things Dairy

[In the pit]

I’m not having a dig but when I started running a spring calving herd the first thing we did was sell machinery and put the money into cows, and then got people in (a New Zealander) to teach us how to grass the best we could ,then discussion groups to carry that on

 

[Sid]

So question for you all how often should @Jdunn55 revise his budgets?

 

[Headless chicken]

My feed rep, I've known him for years and trust him, hes not a typical sales rep in that he doesnt want to screw me over to earn himself extra commission. Hes done me various diets as weve been playing around trying to get the cows to do better.
Hes been out and done loads of sampling for me along with another rep from the same company who is cow signals trained

is he out with you once a fortnight testing things? We used to have plenty of salesmen here. Not so many who pull their wellies on and walk the cows. Ask another company for a price. If you really don’t want to leave them Atleast it’s leaverage

 

[In the pit]

What is he testing???

 

[Cowmansam]

What is he testing???

The strength of his pants elastic

 

[Rossymons]

So question for you all how often should @Jdunn55 revise his budgets?

Never a better time than now especially as he's planning more cows.

Question is which budget is he sticking to currently - his or the one submitted to the bank which he didnt write?

 

[Martyn]

So question for you all how often should @Jdunn55 revise his budgets?

I would be doing a simple calculation at the end of every week of total milk sold + calf use divided by number of kg of cake fed. Then divide by 7 to give you a Figure for volume of concentrate per Litre of milk produced per day.

Need to find out current performance befor settings some targets.

 

[Headless chicken]

What is he testing???

grass this time of year, silage during the winter, looking at cow condition looking at dung, looking at cow performance etc etc. I realise there are plenty of people who don’t need or want to see them but your paying the same either way and you can’t manage what you don’t measure so it’s a dam good start

 

[lazy farmer]

Don’t know any herds spring block calving doing the yields you are talking about.
what worries me more is your talking about litres when your not paid for them.
Join a discussion group. In fact join 2.

 

[In the pit]

Yes I would be testing grass but he’s a cake rep and I’ve not met many cake reps who know anything about grass
Grass at the moment will be 12 me high sugars and probably 18%+ protein so you need a low protein high energy cake to utilise that fully ,fed at 3/4 kgs per cow per day and tat should get you to 25/26 lts cheaply

 

[lazy farmer]

I get on well with my cake rep. He’s very helpful. But I get multiple quotes and he knows I wouldn’t hesitate to move.
paying £209 here plus minerals

 

[frederick]

So question for you all how often should @Jdunn55 revise his budgets?

Everytime his plan changes and every month when things didn't go to plan.

 

[In the pit]

@Jdunn55 would you be willing to put up some of the test reports on here
Blanking out names

 

[pappuller]

You make do in 12hrs

6 till 6 yes, but a lot of freetime in between

 

[Sid]

Everytime his plan changes and every month when things didn't go to plan.

Budgets are a guide, mustn't get too over worried if things don't goto budget. But you need them. Anyone without a reasonably up to date one is flying blind.

Frivolous spending is a no no.
Planned and thought out maybe OK.

 

[Farmer Keith]

You don’t really need to be testing your grass every few weeks, your cows test it daily and give you results in the form of the milk ticket every other day, if it’s not right it’s usually weather related and you have absolutely no control over that, it’s certainly not worth paying a premium on your cake to get a few forage sample reports.

 

[pine_guy]

Heifer calved this morning. Easy enough calving, but calf not very responsive. Heifer went a bit nafta the calf every time it moved. Not bothered about me, but played it safe and retreated to the ring feeder to get it going.

struggling to stand, but getting better all the time.

cows are on some rubbish grazing. This hay meadow one end of day

and finally got eaten to this hay meadow with a good bottom of clover, the muck is returning to green rather than brown and hopefully we can pull a few more litres back.

we are in need of some rain or will have to move onto silage ground before third leaf. Even docs are starting to feel it.

thought we might get a thunder splat, but think it’s past.

 

[Farmer Keith]

Heifer calved this morning. Easy enough calving, but calf not very responsive. Heifer went a bit nafta the calf every time it moved. Not bothered about me, but played it safe and retreated to the ring feeder to get it going.View attachment 968778

struggling to stand, but getting better all the time.View attachment 968823

cows are on some rubbish grazing. This hay meadow one end of day
View attachment 968825
and finally got eaten to this hay meadow with a good bottom of clover, the muck is returning to green rather than brown and hopefully we can pull a few more litres back.
View attachment 968824
we are in need of some rain or will have to move onto silage ground before third leaf. Even docs are starting to feel it.View attachment 968826

thought we might get a thunder splat, but think it’s past. View attachment 968827

I’m not far away from you and I put the cows into grass shut up for hay last night, premowed a 5000 cover. Cumbria was always a wash out but it’s getting worryingly dry at times over the past 5 years.

 

[pappuller]

Heifer calved this morning. Easy enough calving, but calf not very responsive. Heifer went a bit nafta the calf every time it moved. Not bothered about me, but played it safe and retreated to the ring feeder to get it going.View attachment 968778

struggling to stand, but getting better all the time.View attachment 968823

cows are on some rubbish grazing. This hay meadow one end of day
View attachment 968825
and finally got eaten to this hay meadow with a good bottom of clover, the muck is returning to green rather than brown and hopefully we can pull a few more litres back.
View attachment 968824
we are in need of some rain or will have to move onto silage ground before third leaf. Even docs are starting to feel it.View attachment 968826

thought we might get a thunder splat, but think it’s past. View attachment 968827

the southern bretheren do seem to be catching more rain than us norvern boys

 

[Ducati899]

the southern bretheren do seem to be catching more rain than us norvern boys

we’ve just had another storm the last 20 minutes or so,decent amount now since Friday morning and tomorrow looks plentiful as well