All things Dairy

[pine_guy]

yes, I seriously think the beef is missing a trick, on uniform size, but very few farmers would accept that, and grass utilisation, if properly used, on many beef units, has the ability to really increase profit, and from a dairy farmers standpoint, we need them, to be profitable, to buy our beef calves. But, as is happening, and will increase, is the number of 'crap' calves coming into the mkt. We cannot stop that, that is our milk buyers demand, and it will happen.
It's what will happen to those calves, because, we will have to find a mkt for them, at some stage, Tesco is at 8 weeks at the moment, but, it is easy to see that age will increase, but where do you go with them ?
The solution, has to be the beef farmer, most dairy farmers could not keep all their calves to finishing, not enough labour, land, buildings or money. We dairy farmers, should be working hand in hand, with beef farmers, to find a way through this, because, it's not going to be either nice, or easy. One way, that might help, is producing a 'standard' size calf, which is why I have strongly suggested it, but, would beef farmers agree ? Working together, doesn't seem to happen, in the UK. My view, would be, a lighter animal, which will cause less damage to soil, a more efficient animal, which should, or nearly, finish off grass, that is where I see the future.

Just a couple of points to think about when grazing sucklers, the calves mean you need at least to wires as they just rub on the posts of just one.
You can not use fields with foot paths in them.
there are beef heards out there grazing well, just as there are dairy farmers still set stocking, or heaven forbid, housing 24/7

 

[som farmer]

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#grasstomud

didn't know you were helping Jeremy Clarkson, with his new farm shop !

 

[Courier]

Agree with your later post. Cull after two years, the US cull price makes this possible.

Anything to do with McD’s taking whole carcasses to grind up ? ?

 

[Scholsey]

a while back, I posted a thread, re the dairy bull calves, that will come on to the market, when euthanasia was no longer allowed, replies went from 'not our problem', it's the beef farmers problem, they will have to get more efficient, to straight ridicule, because it's never going to happen. Solutions were pretty well sexed semen, will be the magic cure.
But, it will not, all you are doing, is replacing calves, that never came on the market, ie shot, with a large number of lower value beef calves, again ridiculed, as you say, beef consumption is going down, huge environmental pressure to reduce consumption, with an increased supply of 2/3 quality beef calves, granted, some will be ok, but a lot won't be.
No idea of the answer, but really hope someone has.

Move to a breed/system that only requires a calf every 2 years, the egg industry is pushing crop lengths and male chick euthanasia will be banned sooner rather than later, can’t see this calf issue going away, the intensive cereal rearer beef finishers are on their arse with prices where they are.

 

[Headless chicken]

Move to a breed/system that only requires a calf every 2 years, the egg industry is pushing crop lengths and male chick euthanasia will be banned sooner rather than later, can’t see this calf issue going away, the intensive cereal rearer beef finishers are on their arse with prices where they are.

It’s quite an interesting turn because we are potentially now looking more towards a high production cow potentially meaning housing for longer periods or atleast feeding more. Which is almost the direct opposite of what we’ve been pushed for until now

 

[som farmer]

It’s quite an interesting turn because we are potentially now looking more towards a high production cow potentially meaning housing for longer periods or atleast feeding more. Which is almost the direct opposite of what we’ve been pushed for until now

shows how farmers can change, but to extend lactations, this must be done without hormone/drug use, otherwise that will be wrong. also the spr grazers won't be able to extend their lactations.

 

[Headless chicken]

Pinched from Facebook. I thought we could all do with a laugh

 

[Headless chicken]

shows how farmers can change, but to extend lactations, this must be done without hormone/drug use, otherwise that will be wrong. also the spr grazers won't be able to extend their lactations.

exactly my point. My sheds have been setup to allow us to house cows comfortably Ayr (once we’ve a roof on before someone says it) we could’ve gone down a cheaper route that would’ve been sh!t for everyone if we did house them AYR. I don’t really want to milk cows like that but it’s handy to have options open to us.Maybe we could graze in the second year just before calving or something.

 

[som farmer]

exactly my point. My sheds have been setup to allow us to house cows comfortably Ayr (once we’ve a roof on before someone says it) we could’ve gone down a cheaper route that would’ve been sh!t for everyone if we did house them AYR. I don’t really want to milk cows like that but it’s handy to have options open to us.Maybe we could graze in the second year just before calving or something.

helping son move the elec fence on the kale yesterday, right up on the top of our farm, with amazing views, which translates to f'ing windy. Thinking, we used to cut kale, load, by hand, then chuck off in field for the cows, then got modern, cut the kale (fingerbar mower) and elec fence. We could only house 1/2 the cows, yoked in shed. In a wet/cold time, it was awful, mud on roads, complaint's etc, we would never be allowed to do it today. The first winter with self feed silage, and housing (courtesy of CAP), was sheer bliss, cows still went out on kale by day, but. new h/bone parlour, ooh lovely. And now, gone full circle, looking to out winter, at least, with climate change, the weather isn't so cold, just wet.

 

[Spear]

Funny how only last year everyone was telling me I was wrong letting cows go 2-3,yrs in some cases before calving them again.

 

[Manney]

Day 26 of calving and we are now 58% calved and finally got some out!

 

[dinderleat]

Funny how only last year everyone was telling me I was wrong letting cows go 2-3,yrs in some cases before calving them again.

It’s still nuts even if some advisers think it’s suddenly a great idea.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Day 26 of calving and we are now 58% calved and finally got some out!

View attachment 860614View attachment 860615

Cows look good. Are you going to stay predominantly BF with move to OAD?

 

[Manney]

Cows look good. Are you going to stay predominantly BF with move to OAD?

This year is very much an experiment to see how both the cows and myself will cope with oad so no breeding changes planned. Still early days but so far feb year on year looks like bf is up 8% and protein 4.5%. Yeild down about 25% and conc use down 75%. Cows have recovered so much better from calving on oad. Scc is the only issue so far as its higher than I would like at around 200 but hoping this will settle once most are calved in.

 

[lazy farmer]

100 up here. Or 37% on day 10.
not sure why but we have managed to calve 56% of our heifers already. Very very few problems so far apart from Bacto and scc
I wish I had some pictures of grazing cows to show....

 

[Milkcow365]

It’s quite an interesting turn because we are potentially now looking more towards a high production cow potentially meaning housing for longer periods or atleast feeding more. Which is almost the direct opposite of what we’ve been pushed for until now

Go on, enlighten us to why your going to push for more milk?

 

[Headless chicken]

Go on, enlighten us to why your going to push for more milk?

just to be clear I’m certainly not planning to push for more milk per cow. I’m comfortable / uncomfortable enough at our current levels of feeding and return BUT I can see the potential for the market to go either way. either towards customers wanting a pasture fed and bred cow that they will pay a premium for. Or a system where by we need to drastically reduce our beef production number. I hope im building a system that can achieve either if it’s required.

crazy suggestion maybe we should all be looking at mixed farming again. Its something I’ve attempted but far from refined yet. If I could get many hands on a couple hundred acres of fence ground though Rotational grazed beef is a go.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

100 up here. Or 37% on day 10.
not sure why but we have managed to calve 56% of our heifers already. Very very few problems so far apart from Bacto and scc
I wish I had some pictures of grazing cows to show....

Based on a 282 gestation length we are on day 10 too and passed the 200 mark today which is about 35%. I wouldn't have had 30% of my heifers calve yet though, perhaps your heifers are trying to make up for their forebears poorer performance.

 

[pine_guy]

Heifer number 12 pushed this bruit of a heifer calf out this evening.

 

[it's not over]

just to be clear I’m certainly not planning to push for more milk per cow. I’m comfortable / uncomfortable enough at our current levels of feeding and return BUT I can see the potential for the market to go either way. either towards customers wanting a pasture fed and bred cow that they will pay a premium for. Or a system where by we need to drastically reduce our beef production number. I hope im building a system that can achieve either if it’s required.

crazy suggestion maybe we should all be looking at mixed farming again. Its something I’ve attempted but far from refined yet. If I could get many hands on a couple hundred acres of fence ground though Rotational grazed beef is a go.

I hope you're not suggesting a premium price for milk from grazing cows. Some over here will go bonkers at that