All things Dairy

[som farmer]

good trade for med to good calves today, at holsworthy, shite was £1 to £10.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

I’ve become very disillusioned with dairy farming. Was going to sell calves and was told by my man that takes them to the mart that he wouldn’t be able to get rid of them, never mind sell them. Angus and friesian’s. No jersey in the mix. All of thought about since is I want out. Will spend the summer now looking after calves and planning some sort of exit strategy, will probably be drawn out. Society wants people to work less but farmers are expected to work more in order to stand still while people in Brussels comes up with more rules to boot, rotten.

Where are you based? What have you got?

 

[Conrod96]

good trade for med to good calves today, at holsworthy, shite was £1 to £10.

That’s shocking sell all ours Angus calf’s out of the yard at a month old could sell double the calf’s we have demand is such for them

 

[vantage]

Il give you a 5er and some ginger biscuits in exchange for your calves.

You’re flush down in Cornwall!

 

[som farmer]

That’s shocking sell all ours Angus calf’s out of the yard at a month old could sell double the calf’s we have demand is such for them

the clue was in the word 'shite'.

we were only down there with some stirks, odds and sods, which sold well, all singly, as they matched nothing in our sheds.

then went and picked up 30 off farm all jabbed v pneumonia

if you want good money for your calves, you have to put something in the ring, that dealers or farmers, actually want to buy.

if you put a small very plain calf, out of a xbred cow, who wants it ? The skin, and dog meat, and they go through the ring for not a lot. There were some seriously good calves there today, a lot of care had gone into them, and they made serious money.

 

[sidjon]

the clue was in the word 'shite'.

we were only down there with some stirks, odds and sods, which sold well, all singly, as they matched nothing in our sheds.

then went and picked up 30 off farm all jabbed v pneumonia

if you want good money for your calves, you have to put something in the ring, that dealers or farmers, actually want to buy.

if you put a small very plain calf, out of a xbred cow, who wants it ? The skin, and dog meat, and they go through the ring for not a lot. There were some seriously good calves there today, a lot of care had gone into them, and they made serious money.

Ours are mostly out of xbred cow's, but will top sedgemoor, just because we'll grow them well

 

[Yourgoddamnright]

Think you need to find another man.

It’s a woman I’m after, not a man lol. I’m based in Ireland. Apparently weather you can sell calves these days is based on if theirs a boat sailing to mainland Europe on the day. I’m really just tired of working from 6 till 10 or 11 at night. This not being able to sell calves is the final insult after 20 years. Only milking 50 cows. Kerry Co op aren’t going to miss me. Sorry I wasted best year of my life slaving and that’s all I consider my job these days. If we grew veg and no one wanted them we wouldn’t grow them again next year. It was friesian bulls and Angus I was only trying to sell, 3-5 weeks old. Funny I sold 14 month Angus bulls that made 1100 the same day yet apparently my calves were worthless. My head has checked out with farming. Calving pressure, calf rearing, breeding, silage making, list is endless.

 

[Wee Willy]

It’s a woman I’m after, not a man lol. I’m based in Ireland. Apparently weather you can sell calves these days is based on if theirs a boat sailing to mainland Europe on the day. I’m really just tired of working from 6 till 10 or 11 at night. This not being able to sell calves is the final insult after 20 years. Only milking 50 cows. Kerry Co op aren’t going to miss me. Sorry I wasted best year of my life slaving and that’s all I consider my job these days. If we grew veg and no one wanted them we wouldn’t grow them again next year. It was friesian bulls and Angus I was only trying to sell, 3-5 weeks old. Funny I sold 14 month Angus bulls that made 1100 the same day yet apparently my calves were worthless. My head has checked out with farming. Calving pressure, calf rearing, breeding, silage making, list is endless.

Sorry you're feeling this way. It's the weather. The sun will shine another day.

 

[som farmer]

Ours are mostly out of xbred cow's, but will top sedgemoor, just because we'll grow them well

l reckon the question asked was, 'its cheaper to sell for a couple of quid, in mkt, than pay fallen stock to take them away'.

which is a shame, some of those calves could have looked a lot better, with a bit of effort.

Its that obvious lack of effort that seals the low price, have they had their colostrum , and enough milk ? Which leads to mortality rate, if you buy them, high.

pretty certain a lot of farmers read the top prices for calves, in the mkt report, and expect theirs to be near it, and moan when it isn't. That's the biggest drawback to buying calves ex farm, farmers think all their calves, are top dollar.

there's a huge amount of money, needlessly thrown away, by calves not being given the right care and attention, at birth, or simply die, in their first few weeks. Only need to look at the store cattle price, to realise the potential.

 

[Mr Mackay]

It’s a woman I’m after, not a man lol. I’m based in Ireland. Apparently weather you can sell calves these days is based on if theirs a boat sailing to mainland Europe on the day. I’m really just tired of working from 6 till 10 or 11 at night. This not being able to sell calves is the final insult after 20 years. Only milking 50 cows. Kerry Co op aren’t going to miss me. Sorry I wasted best year of my life slaving and that’s all I consider my job these days. If we grew veg and no one wanted them we wouldn’t grow them again next year. It was friesian bulls and Angus I was only trying to sell, 3-5 weeks old. Funny I sold 14 month Angus bulls that made 1100 the same day yet apparently my calves were worthless. My head has checked out with farming. Calving pressure, calf rearing, breeding, silage making, list is endless.

Good luck with finding a woman, a good woman is worth its weight in gold , as my other half has been !! ( maybe not Baldricks variety )

Dont let them beg your calves ,hopefully someone on here can point you to a possible puchaser !!

Keep smiling

 

[Ed @ Farmdeals]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to put a message on here. As a buying group, we've substantially grown our offering out in the past few months (specifically for dairy farmers).

Here's a bit of a rundown of just some of the products you can get with Farmdeals.

-Milk powder
-Parlour, tank, cluster and system wash
-Disinfectant
-Teat dip
-Hoof care products
-Minerals
-Protected fats
-Vet meds
- and much more

Any questions feel free to ask me on here, direct message me or email me on [email protected]

 

[Happy hillbily]

Have you looked at cluster flush yet?

Cluster flush wouldn't work here, clusters are removed and taken to the dairy for the washing cycle.

It's not much bother dipping the clusters, a bucket in-between each two, doesn't take long.

 

[Manney]

Took a walk with the mini boss this afternoon. Amazing how quickly things have dried up.

 

[Beef farmer]

Took a walk with the mini boss this afternoon. Amazing how quickly things have dried up.

View attachment 1176781View attachment 1176782View attachment 1176783

Fair poached that 1st paddock on the left.

 

[Manney]

Fair poached that 1st paddock on the left.

Was in a kale/stubble turnip mix for out wintering youngstock on. About to be ploughed over and reseeded in to a herbal ley.

 

[Jdunn55]

Just had my spot inspection
Different inspector
1 non-conformance fingers crossed that gets me off the naughty list

 

[Grassman247]

Well today was finally the day

To be able to milk cows on your own farm really is a great feeling. Been a long hard winter but this has made it all worth it

I’ll try and take some better pictures at some point

 

[JES]

Strep ubris.
I've a serious outbreak here since the end of december, and can't get on top of it. Cell counts have been sky high since December, but had very little clinical signs, no warm swollen quarters, no clots etc. Been stripping cows and CMT but couldn't find anything. So tested whole herd (I didn't routeenly milk record) found the culprits, but nearly 75% of the herd had a high celcount. The really high ones were either dried off, or milk used for the calves. Every so often it would turn clinical, the cow would be treated with tubes and would clear it no problem. But would find those cows would get mastitis in another quarter a week or so later, a few cows had it in all 4 quarters over 4-5 weeks. I re tested the cows mid Feb, celcounts some were better some were worse , but no pattern.
Beds were fairly cleanb Bedded with powderbed but with all this wet weather they weren't always dry. So I've been liming the cubicles every day, I've put new liners in (just in case) dipping clusters between cows with peracetic acid, making sure teats are preped properly , plant is washed with temps and chemicals correct etc, basically doing everything by the book , no short cuts.
There's been 18 clinical cases since late December, that's nearly 50% of the herd ATM, found another the other day, both quarters on the right with mastitis. .
I'd not had any test results for 9 days since the end of march as someone had forgot to notify NMR that transport had left the yard in Denbigh, so had no barcodes to put on the sample pots, after I had run out so have been in the dark on what's going on for a week and a half.
We had a party last night so milked early, and have stayed over and only going to milk once today when we get back this evening. So when my phone pinged with the results this morning, I wanted to cry, tank was over 950.
Has anyone else had an outbreak like this, and any tips on sorting the problem. It's really getting me down now. I've lost a fortune in penalties, and lost milk, never mind the treatments since the begining of the year
I'm going to put my phone down now and bugger off for lunch somewhere with the family to try and forget about this for a few hours. But any tips comments etc will be gratefully accepted to help me sort this. Thanks

We have had this problem a few times. When we used to graze we always had a problem during heatwaves when cows lay in the shade most of the time.
When It hit during the winter we did everything we could think of including killing cows, dried cows off for six months, listened to every expert we could find. Finally had a very plausible chap from genus who convinced us to try the full valiant regime of foam pre dipping and post dipping from a dipper. Within a fortnight the problem cleared but got fed up with the protocol and thought it cost too much, so stopped.
Problem gave back six weeks later!!!

 

[Dead Rabbits]

We have had this problem a few times. When we used to graze we always had a problem during heatwaves when cows lay in the shade most of the time.
When It hit during the winter we did everything we could think of including killing cows, dried cows off for six months, listened to every expert we could find. Finally had a very plausible chap from genus who convinced us to try the full valiant regime of foam pre dipping and post dipping from a dipper. Within a fortnight the problem cleared but got fed up with the protocol and thought it cost too much, so stopped.
Problem gave back six weeks later!!!

Valiant works, great product. Premium price and dip cups are horrible things

 

[som farmer]

rolled some barley in, dust behind the roller, first time seen dust since aug/sept.

drought starts next week, hosepipe ban first may .........