All things Dairy

[vantage]

I hate selling fodder too! as it stands I’ve circa 3000 tonnes clamped still and poor cow performance has ruined my budgets.

Just been told maize £90 a tonne delivered from Bristol

Put it on the Ring, now you’re a mover and shaker!

 

[In the pit]

View attachment 1160184

Been looking at one of these, fields are pretty rough to walk on from grazing hard, there all in a 8-10 year reseed program anyway but inbetween feel they would benefit from a spring roll. Id also like to overseed some grass and maybe herbs in the odd paddock too. is this the machine for me? needs to be 6 metre theres 1500 acres to cover

One here and does all the seeding with it ,used on ploughed ground ,min till and put clover/grass seed on patches when rolling in spring

 

[In the pit]

About 10 in 1100 cows. I don’t think anyone knows why they really do it, we’ve done multiple feeding systems. One thing I do know is that the ones sucking generally grew up in the same group and when my dad reared calves in individual pens it wasn’t an issue

Calves that suckle other calves is a sign that there hungry ,don’t know if that is true or not

 

[vantage]

Calves that suckle other calves is a sign that there hungry ,don’t know if that is true or not

Could be. @lazy farmer doesn’t seem to have trouble on ad lib.

 

[som farmer]

Calves that suckle other calves is a sign that there hungry ,don’t know if that is true or not

l think its more of a boredom thing, that and many more calves are reared on teats, rather than from a bucket. And of course, we have to rear them in groups, so they can interact with other calves, so they can lick/suck navels, ears etc, after feeding.

 

[som farmer]

on the grass drilling, we bought a 3m rapid vaderstaat drill, used but tidy, £7,500.

we can overseed, d/d, min-til or conventional drilling. From rapeseed to beans, with accuracy.

saved ourselves £thousands. Neighbour used it to drill cover crop behind maize, saved £1,000 on contractor bill, for just his time and diesel.

the real saving comes from not only the ability to get timing right, but also in 'dealing' with small patches, gone wrong, which you wouldn't call a contractor in to do.

plus for stock farmers, its built like the proverbial shite house, so difficult to break.

 

[Headless chicken]

If you've built 10 ton per cow surplus, is that sustainable in 1 year? Made with 700 quid fert

Been building for a few years, we’ve rotated round where we’ve fed from to clear older silage first but an exceptionally heavy maize crop this year has pushed us way past sensible levels.

Good cash injection sell some keep enough plus 20% for good measure

Agreed, 500-1000 tonne sold will still leave a

Put it on the Ring, now you’re a mover and shaker!

Already got it up with the ring. Meeting there tomorrow so will stick the silage on too

 

[In the pit]

l think its more of a boredom thing, that and many more calves are reared on teats, rather than from a bucket. And of course, we have to rear them in groups, so they can interact with other calves, so they can lick/suck navels, ears etc, after feeding.

Never seen calves suckle each other here ,fed 5/6 litres of milk and then they all lay down

 

[Grassman247]

on the grass drilling, we bought a 3m rapid vaderstaat drill, used but tidy, £7,500.

we can overseed, d/d, min-til or conventional drilling. From rapeseed to beans, with accuracy.

saved ourselves £thousands. Neighbour used it to drill cover crop behind maize, saved £1,000 on contractor bill, for just his time and diesel.

the real saving comes from not only the ability to get timing right, but also in 'dealing' with small patches, gone wrong, which you wouldn't call a contractor in to do.

plus for stock farmers, its built like the proverbial shite house, so difficult to break.

Trouble is that won’t roll the paddocks, you break your ankle on my paddocks currently and when doing a grass walk that isn’t much fun

 

[som farmer]

Trouble is that won’t roll the paddocks, you break your ankle on my paddocks currently and when doing a grass walk that isn’t much fun

at 2.4 ton, and a drill wide set of tyres behind the seeders, it surprising how much it pushes down.

we like to roll behind, this last year not always possible ! Rolling is better, but not a 'must do' action.

to be honest, its shocked us, at how many things it can do well. DD barley into r-up grass, no problem, no yield reduction.

 

[Maxxum120]

Has anyone bought or sold any maize and grass silage this year? I have Ofcourse done my costs and it won’t leave unless it turns a small profit but no point trying to sell if the market isn’t there

Buying maize from around Chepstow, £78 a tonne on the yard. We are not too far away from you I don’t think

 

[Beef farmer]

1st grass drive done. If the truck and road tyres can travel, so can cows

 

[Wesley]

1st grass drive done. If the truck and road tyres can travel, so can cows View attachment 1160622

If I tried that here I’d be taking the photo while waiting to be towed out from a few yards inside the gateway. Walked across a field earlier & you could hear every footstep I took.

 

[Beef farmer]

If I tried that here I’d be taking the photo while waiting to be towed out from a few yards inside the gateway. Walked across a field earlier & you could hear every footstep I took.

Didn't have you down as a big chap like that.

 

[Wesley]

Didn't have you down as a big chap like that.

I had very good DLWG when I was younger & carry it around on size 12 feet…or is it robot life
If we burn up in a hot summer most of you don’t stand a chance.

 

[mixed farm]

I'd a heifer bulling this morning at 6am, was planning on serving at 6pm this evening but ai man couldn't call. She was still standing heat at that stage but it was going off her. So now I'll AI at 9am tomorrow. Would you go sexed or conventional?

 

[epfarms]

I'd a heifer bulling this morning at 6am, was planning on serving at 6pm this evening but ai man couldn't call. She was still standing heat at that stage but it was going off her. So now I'll AI at 9am tomorrow. Would you go sexed or conventional?

Our Sensehub system has a later service window for sexed and so I would go sexed. Usually serve 24ish hours for sexed from when heat first observed/ she comes up on Sensehub.

 

[TheRanger]

Our Sensehub system has a later service window for sexed and so I would go sexed. Usually serve 24ish hours for sexed from when heat first observed/ she comes up on Sensehub.

And quite often they’re clearly bulling 6+ hrs before the collar flags it up I find. So they’re often still in the green window for sexed semen 30+ hrs from onset of standing heat.

Quite a change from the AM/PM rule we used to abide by.

 

[frederick]

The sexed window is later but that's because sexed in theory dies off a bit quicker. The cow will have an equal chance of conception to sexed or conventional if served 24hours after the start of heat. It's just if she was served 3 hours after the start she would have a higher chance of holding to conventional.
It's just the sexed service window is smaller.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

And quite often they’re clearly bulling 6+ hrs before the collar flags it up I find. So they’re often still in the green window for sexed semen 30+ hrs from onset of standing heat.

Quite a change from the AM/PM rule we used to abide by.

First year using the datamars system here and I reckon I'm serving 6-12 hours later than when using the am/pm rule, can't believe how good fertility has been either, great improvement