frederick
Member
- Location
- south west
Thats a silly comment. If it economically improves efficiency we should all do it.
However it might be more economic if yields increased by 5% to decrease cows by 5%
Compact Feeding
- Thread starter Bald Rick
- Start date
Thats a silly comment. If it economically improves efficiency we should all do it.
However it might be more economic if yields increased by 5% to decrease cows by 5%
Ain't never going to happen!
Actually, the guys who were doing it at the event I went to all mentioned that the cows were healthier as they were getting a more consistent diet. Any uplift in milk was secondary ....... although having said that, we were told that after all costs compact feeding could be worth an extra £93/cow/lactation at a milk price of 26ppl. Not to be sniffed at
Our litres sold per cow per day are 10litres up on this time last year at the same dim, we've changed alot of things but we're definitely sticking with compact feeding
Horn&corn
Member
What’s your top recommendations for the extra 10 litres then? Also how has your costs been effected?
Seems only fair to put my details if I’m asking yours so:
180 cows organic all yr round calving. White water contract. 29.5l per day av. partial tmr. Maize, barley soya straights in 2 Group’s all year. Parlour top up. Purchased Feed cost about 12p per litre (organic)
Seems only fair to put my details if I’m asking yours so:
180 cows organic all yr round calving. White water contract. 29.5l per day av. partial tmr. Maize, barley soya straights in 2 Group’s all year. Parlour top up. Purchased Feed cost about 12p per litre (organic)
Multicut silage has probably made the biggest difference to yeilds but historically we've always grazed cows from April to October with no buffer feed just cake in the parlour and this year we've housed cows as they calve (calve from June to December)
We also started milking 3x at the start of October, last year our we were 29-30 litres per cow and we're now around 39 litres per cow. Feed cost today is 9ppl and last year was around 8.5ppl but we were feeding more forage and a higher quality blend last year. This year the blend is 25% Rape 25 wheat 17 barley 17 sugarbeet 16 soya hulls.
Were on an arla contract so paid for solids and this time last year we were at 2.28kgs of milk solids per cow/day and this year were at 2.86
I'd say multicut silage is the best place to start if your not already doing it but you could try compact feeding today if your silage is fairly dry and think your cows are sorting. Just put your blend in the feeder with a 1:1 ratio of water (were currently at 1kg of blend to 0.7litres of water) and give it a gentle mix for a couple of mins and then leave to soak until you feed up
Weather has knackered multi cut for us with 5th 53 days after 4th..... and the use of forage wagons.
Can soak blend overnight but one critical thing is to avoid heating so the Danes are using acid in the summer. Also, a mixer wagon with a back door would be useful as could wet all the blend needed for the day and bale it out. Would save on mixing time for subsequent mixes
What's wrong with the wagons? We're getting away with soaking for a couple of hours but longer would be better
stablegirl
Member
- Location
- North
What are you all considering as Multi Cut? Crusty what were you between cuts before and now?
Baldrick, do you need all 5 cuts for milkers? Surely Quick cuts for 3/4 then leave the last one longer for youngstock and far drys?
Crusty that is a remarkable up turn in yield but also a lot of changes!
What DIM are you?
Baldrick, do you need all 5 cuts for milkers? Surely Quick cuts for 3/4 then leave the last one longer for youngstock and far drys?
Crusty that is a remarkable up turn in yield but also a lot of changes!
What DIM are you?
Nothing if they are working with leafy material but once you get any heading, the chop length goes to pot.
Next year we're going to try 30 day intervals to see if that makes a difference. Weather is key though ... and a wizzle with the tedder right behind the mowers
We were told that the Danes had taken chop length down to 8mm to see what effect that had but the conclusion was, although it worked fine, there was no point in moving away from the more traditional 12-15mm (I should coco with a wagon)
I don't know what the industry standard is for multicut but we did 5 cuts last year at around 30-35 day intervals and we're disappointed with quality and consistency so this year we basically grazed with a mower, we did 7 cuts 2 at 23 days apart and the longest between cuts was between 1st and second and 4th and 5th at 34 days.
Were 135 dim at the moment so cows are pretty fresh
farmer1989
Member
- Location
- cumbria
Thinking of trying compact feeding have a 20cube tub with rear door currently mix our own straights make a blend call it pre mix then add chopped straw grass silage wholcrop caustic wheat stock mol protected fat mix 15 mins feed highs and lows 2x a day if I try compact feeding do I just soak the pre mix part over night add rest of ration mix for 30mins do I feed 2x a day or 1 also wee feed into troughs does this create allot of work ?
Soak overnight then mix the rest as normal and feed out,I wouldn't feed 2x ,try it but not worth the extra hassle.
- Location
- somerset
is complicating the ration, taking extra time to feed. is it not more profitable to simplify the system?
Horn&corn
Member
Over the winter we put all the straights and mineral in the night before and 1:1 water. Mix few few mins and switch off. Chuck out half in morn and add silage. Sped up morning feeding considerably, made pm feeding easy for student if I wasn’t around, easy to do in couple of mins while waiting for dump milk. Takes the same total amount of time basically as long as your silage not too wet. We just found it reduced the sorting while eating but no significant difference in yields
Sambo
Member
- Location
- South Derbys/Staffs
At work after morning feeding I put the premix, caustic wheat, pot ale, ruminate and water in the mixer for the 2 milker loads the next day. Mix for a few minutes then the next morning empty half the mash out. We found there's less sorting, the tmr isn't drying out as much through out the day at the fees fence and the soaking of the caustic softens it for easier digesting.
farmer1989
Member
- Location
- cumbria
We have a very good system we double up the ration in 2 fedder wagons put half of each out at night then other half out in morning highs and lows then dry cows get fed and yougstock all fed before end of milking
mixed farm
Member
After reading the complete thread the conclusion I've come to is that people love to make work for themselves!
As long as it’s rewarded then yes. I don’t care what kind of extra work i do for 30 min a day as long as it pay, and waiting for the mixer is an easy workload..
