All things Dairy

[Cows 'n grass]

Last week i upgraded my phone from a Nokia nearly as old as me to the cheapest smartphone on the market so now i have the TFF App and find myself taking photos of everything.

So i thought I'd start a dairy specific picture thread where people can post pics of cows, calves, bulls, parlours, machinery that's never seen a grease gun or any thing else you might find on a dairy farm.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

A couple of pics of milking cows about 10 mins ago whilst out looking for anything bulling.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

The type of cow I'm trying to breed. Ideally not a lot taller than she is wide.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I put these in another thread a few days ago but I'll put them in again.

The old (current) parlour, a Fullwood 8:16 circa 1990

And the new one that's going up at the moment.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

The only flay spot in yesterdays paddock.

 

[borderterribles]

The type of cow I'm trying to breed. Ideally not a lot taller than she is wide.

Very nice! What is she by? Looks" Ferdon" type , What Jerseys looked like before they decided to spoil Holstein-ize our lovely breed!

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Very nice! What is she by? Looks" Ferdon" type , What Jerseys looked like before they decided to spoil Holstein-ize our lovely breed!

I'll be honest i'm not pedigree and my breeding records are pee poor. I've just started putting sire name of the passports but for old cows i need to go through old diaries for service records. I'd say she's a Williams minstrel, i know that quite a lot of her age group are and they're bullet proof little cows.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Shutting the cows out tonight

Currently going into covers of 3200 - 3400.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Walked back over where they were 3 nights ago. A pre - mown cover of 4100. It was looking very uneven but they tidied up 90℅ of it which I was pleased with.

 

[Eminus]

What's the grass seed mix in that?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

The pre-mown one is a 70% matrix lay that went in very late autumn 2010 and had 6 inches of snow on it very soon after emergence. Its got very little clover and has never performed brilliantly until this mild winter just gone when it was last grazed on Dec 15th down to 1800 then the cows were back in to a cover of 2900 in the last week of February.

The one where the cows are tonight was in continuous maize for a decade until dad went organic in 98/99. It went into grass then and has basically been untouched since. No idea of the mix I'm afraid. Its had 80 units of N so far this season. Not organic any more.

 

[Eminus]

Be nice if that grass would work here

 

[KJL]

Super pics! Hope you post a lot more. Lovely looking herd you have. What are your solids if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Super pics! Hope you post a lot more. Lovely looking herd you have. What are your solids if you don't mind me asking?

Thankyou

Our annual average is usually 5.8 bf and 3.9 p, but at the moment they're down to 5.3/5.4 bf and 3.7 p.

 

[newholland]

Good Afternoon, What make is the new parlour and feed troughs? any more pictures please!

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Good Afternoon, What make is the new parlour and feed troughs? any more pictures please!

The parlour is a bit of a mishmash. It is being fitted by Venture Dairy Services and they sourced the stallwork from a chap called Brain Elkins who i think is based in Wales somewhere. Its very nicely made, the feed troughs are his own design and the rump/kick rails are either imported from Milfos in NZ or are an exact copy. The scissor gate at the front that haven't been fitted yet are genuine Milfos ones.

The actual workings of the parlour will be mostly Waikato except the ACR swing arm which will again be a Milfos stainless one

I'll get a few more pics up later on. Nothing much has happened on it this week, I suspect all of the fitters have been down at the Royal cornwall show.

 

[Cowabunga]

Here are some of mine

 

[York]

Very nice! What is she by? Looks" Ferdon" type , What Jerseys looked like before they decided to spoil Holstein-ize our lovely breed!

very even dung distribution
can we get a couple of young female calves? Looks like a cow which can heat herself in the winter, small enough, and which is a gras utilises.
York-Th.

 

[Cowabunga]

Equipment


New barriers at home last Autumn

New rotary being installed on a farm not far away

Thought you might like a nice monochrome of livestock trailer etc

 

[multi power]

Shutting the cows out tonightView attachment 49425

Currently going into covers of 3200 - 3400.

nice grass there