All things Dairy

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
View attachment 1039943
bit of a plantain ley, on a very dry south facing slope, sown with a prg/clover +plantain and chicory, aut 20, prg died off last year, plantain self seeded, and took over. However, the cows love it, as above, only 1 problem, they didn't want to move, completely stuffed.View attachment 1039945
and this is same field, but not so exposed, same ley mix, definitely not pulled out the same, and plantain not so dominant.
this field used to make the 'calves' hay, in dads time, get a dry spell, with some wind, often baled it next day, after cutting, if not, the next.
That grass looks 4 ton + cover so your doing extremely well to get them to milk and get in calf of that. But I assume 50% of it gets eaten by the cow and the rest gets trampled in and then the cows are moved on
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
Unreal how well you lot get your cows to graze, how much corn you feeding for the 19 litres @In the pit ?
Key to grazing properly is the first rotation which sets your farm up for the year
Get out as early as you can (feb/mar) and get the grass down to 1500 or below and cows will graze to that level everytime
Best covers are 2600/3200 so I always graze 2800/2900 to get best results
Below 2600 and you’re not growing the grass you should be
Above 3200 and I think you struggle to get it grazed to 1500/1600 so you’re ending up with dead crap in the bottom and shelters the grass plant and hurts the tillering process
 
2nd cut didn't like the sun and heat. Maize after 1st cut loves it.
20220602_084631.jpg
20220602_090530.jpg
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
That grass looks 4 ton + cover so your doing extremely well to get them to milk and get in calf of that. But I assume 50% of it gets eaten by the cow and the rest gets trampled in and then the cows are moved on
well autumn calvers are still giving 29 litres, and 80% calve in 6 weeks, so don't think we are doing to badly, only get a bale of hay, if weathers shite, they will average about 9500 litres, and still getting a small + on constituents.
On the residual, bit to tight for us, we leave longer residuals, if it comes in dry, that suits us best.
but on that, the cows just love herbs, so nibble them down.
In farming, there is never a right, or wrong way to graze, each farm faces different conditions, and with 50 yrs of messing about on this patch, got used to farming it reasonably well.
 
Location
Cornwall
well autumn calvers are still giving 29 litres, and 80% calve in 6 weeks, so don't think we are doing to badly, only get a bale of hay, if weathers shite, they will average about 9500 litres, and still getting a small + on constituents.
On the residual, bit to tight for us, we leave longer residuals, if it comes in dry, that suits us best.
but on that, the cows just love herbs, so nibble them down.
In farming, there is never a right, or wrong way to graze, each farm faces different conditions, and with 50 yrs of messing about on this patch, got used to farming it reasonably well.

How many kgs of cake?
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
How many kgs of cake?
fresh calvers, very few, 6kg, higher aut 6 or 4 kg and the rest 2kg. total use/cow is looking like 1.75t/cow.
looking back over the years costings, milk price apr last year, 28.95ppl this april 40ppl
cake was £269 now heading towards £400 !
we made some excellent silage last year, which pushed milk, just hoping this years the same.
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Whenever pics are posted on here I always look at the countryside in the background
From the length & bredth of the UK almost every one shows hedges , trees, rougher areas among the productive land in abundance.

Then you read of our critics who claim the UK is a wildlife desert due to lack of habitat..
The polite response is - should have gone to specsavers. or maybe ventured out of their urban based offices
 
Whenever pics are posted on here I always look at the countryside in the background
From the length & bredth of the UK almost every one shows hedges , trees, rougher areas among the productive land in abundance.

Then you read of our critics who claim the UK is a wildlife desert due to lack of habitat..
The polite response is - should have gone to specsavers. or maybe ventured out of their urban based offices
I think these people are from the south east And east anglia and think it’s all arable !
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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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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