All year round housing costs

[Jdunn55]

I've got some high yielding, special cows arriving with me at the end of this week, once here they will be housed day and night for now, I also have some heifers from woodmarsh to calve next spring who were also high yielding.

I am contemplating keeping them in ayr next year and was just wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to how to work out how much extra it would cost me to keep them in as opposed to grazing them.

I will have maize, grass silage and wholecrop available to feed them and will be looking at a group of about 30ish to begin with.

Thanks

 

[jondear]

It's a slippy slope .They will all be in soon I bet !

 

[dinderleat]

They would be ideal on a robot, at 50ppl you can do what you like with in reason just your work load that might be an issue. To get the most out of them being inside you would need a mixer wagon really

 

[Beef farmer]

2 separate groups of cows? You nuts?

 

[Jdunn55]

They would be ideal on a robot

That is the eventual long term plan

 

[Jdunn55]

2 separate groups of cows? You nuts?

Was that not obvious

 

[Jdunn55]

It's a slippy slope .They will all be in soon I bet !

Possibly, but would that be the end of the world?
If I did go down that route, I could graze my youngstock around the yard so they're nearby grow my silage/maize/corn on offlying ground and dads

Want to dip my toe in the water rather than jump head first, might find after 2 or 3 months/weeks they're all in one group, be it outdoors or in depending on how much of a success/failure it is...

 

[dinderleat]

Housing now is hardly radical

 

[Jdunn55]

Housing now is hardly radical

That's kind of my thinking

Realistically I've got to factor in

Extra scraping (about 30 mins daily)

Extra slurry to spread (not sure how much but could argue that considering the price of p + k this isn't such a negative?)

Extra time to feed up (30 mins - no fences to move so not too much extra time but obviously diesel + tractor wear and tear)

Extra cake to hit higher yields

Extra cost/time of making silage (be it maize, grass or wholecrop) vs grazed grass being cheap to get into the cow - this is the one I think is harder to budget?

Anything else I've missed?

Plan was to try it with the group and see how I get on - might find it a nightmare!
Would need to work out what yields I would need to achieve to make it worthwhile, odd the top of my head I'd be thinking 9000 minimum?

 

[jondear]

Housing now is hardly radical

I'm going to do it as a last resort !

 

[dinderleat]

That's kind of my thinking

Realistically I've got to factor in

Extra scraping (about 30 mins daily)

Extra slurry to spread (not sure how much but could argue that considering the price of p + k this isn't such a negative?)

Extra time to feed up (30 mins - no fences to move so not too much extra time but obviously diesel + tractor wear and tear)

Extra cake to hit higher yields

Extra cost/time of making silage (be it maize, grass or wholecrop) vs grazed grass being cheap to get into the cow - this is the one I think is harder to budget?

Anything else I've missed?

Plan was to try it with the group and see how I get on - might find it a nightmare!
Would need to work out what yields I would need to achieve to make it worthwhile, odd the top of my head I'd be thinking 9000 minimum?

You won’t do it straight away takes a while to find what works for you, your farm and your cows, I’m sure you feed a fair amount of cake anyway. You want to run a hiho system so just do it

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

I thought your supposed to buy cows to suit your system not change the system to suit the cows. . For me it would be keep things simple. Life can be hard enough sometimes without trying to make it complicated.

 

[More to life]

This isn't going to be popular with reilef milkers

 

[In the pit]

Work work and more work

 

[Barmyfarmer]

Just let them mix with your normal cows, you look to feed them well anyway, make them graze and if they go to cr@p while grazing just cull them out and concentrate on the ones that do there job without been molly-coddled

 

[DairyNerd]

That's kind of my thinking

Realistically I've got to factor in

Extra scraping (about 30 mins daily)

Extra slurry to spread (not sure how much but could argue that considering the price of p + k this isn't such a negative?)

Extra time to feed up (30 mins - no fences to move so not too much extra time but obviously diesel + tractor wear and tear)

Extra cake to hit higher yields

Extra cost/time of making silage (be it maize, grass or wholecrop) vs grazed grass being cheap to get into theL cow - this is the one I think is harder to budget?

Anything else I've missed?

Plan was to try it with the group and see how I get on - might find it a nightmare!
Would need to work out what yields I would need to achieve to make it worthwhile, odd the top of my head I'd be thinking 9000 minimum?

The P and K is still spread if you graze them, just without the cost of a tanker. There isnt much P or K in water.

You could find fertility would suffer, most high yielding housed herds do, though the most profitable ones manage to get it right. But that and higher feed costs are the main reasons why it will increase your COP. How many do you milk? Not saying it can't work in principle but i feel you are just adding more complication for a small proportion of your herd. I think it would add more time to your day than you think. I also think if you have sufficient land round your buildings and graze the rest of your herd you would be mad to not try and get grass in the diet even with a 9000 litre cow.

 

[Martyn]

You are officially the worlds of salemen golden egg 🫣

 

[Beef farmer]

Just let them mix with your normal cows, you look to feed them well anyway, make them graze and if they go to cr@p while grazing just cull them out and concentrate on the ones that do there job without been molly-coddled

Buying cows for 3k and having their heads off for 900 quid is a bad business model

 

[Wesley]

Maybe you should work out how much extra it will cost you to let the others out to graze. If you’re gonna scrape 30 might as well be the lot, time to move the fence, getting cows in & out, faffing around with 2 groups, lower yield...go on, you know you want to shut them all in

 

[Beef farmer]

Anyone who houses cows 365 and milks cows in a parlour is also nuts.



Tin hat on