Cows gorging cake

[davidroberts30]

Yes I can only imagine what the next morning would have been like, trouble is heavy duty gates cost an absolute fortune at the moment

Milk was up tonight
sh!t was loose tonight

Going to have to give in and see if I can find some spare change in the cash flow forecasts for some part time help I think

how are the cows today?

 

[milkloss]

You're 100% right, the problem is this farm needed and still needs a lot of work to get it to being functional, I've spent an absolute fortune on it so far and just can't afford anymore, I'm paying a massive rent on the place under the condition that everything would work correctly but it's not, the landlord has said they'll sort the major issues in the next tax year so it's just trying to get through until then, an example being the parlour feeders either don't work at all or else work for about a week and then need to be taken apart and put back together, which I'm having to do weekly on most of them, the ones that don't work at all, I asked venture to look at and their exact words were that they're beyond repair and need replacing, this is one of the things the landlord is sorting in April but have to wait until then

The annoying part about last nights antics is I spent all day yesterday working on the electric fencing and by milking time I had it kicking around the yard brilliantly (I know it was working because I got belted turning the dirty water system off), the reason they got out was because my bull took a fancy to a heifer and just obliterated anything in his path to get to her (2 broken feed barriers this morning as well) the cows know where the feed shed is as they have escaped into their twice before, after the first time I ordered 2 custom 20' gates at £250 quid each to stop the gap thinking I was being clever (they escaped again inbetween the gates arriving though) fast forward to today and the gates proved to be no obstacle for them

Watch him: he’s done it once and will do it again or keep trying. Had a Sussex bull a few years back that learnt he could belly flop a field gate flat so he could walk through. Did 4 gates twice and then we put the electric out which slowed him till his head got chopped off.

feel for your troubles, can be hard but think of the good things and push on.

 

[Jdunn55]

Just got to keep plugging away at it eventually you will get on top of things

how are the cows today?

Alive and well thanks, looks like it's just my sanity and wallet that will be affected long term

 

[Jdunn55]

Would you give every cow a kexxtone bolus though? Probably work out cheaper to use the bolus least you can target individual cows then.

Depends on who you speak to really, a lot on here were saying anything fat ought to have one in which case 95% would be bolused

Even if you only bolus a quarter of them it's still cheaper to feed the coline to all of them
Who knows, once I've done a year or two I may be brave enough to change things but right now I need my cows to fly and don't want to mess the dry period up as that's what sets the tone for the rest of the lactation imo so sticking with what works for now atleast, anyone that had the dry cow rolls didn't have any milk fever, any retained afterbirth, ketosis etc

 

[Jdunn55]

Watch him: he’s done it once and will do it again or keep trying. Had a Sussex bull a few years back that learnt he could belly flop a field gate flat so he could walk through. Did 4 gates twice and then we put the electric out which slowed him till his head got chopped off.

feel for your troubles, can be hard but think of the good things and push on.

In hindsight I'm wondering if I blamed him too quickly, the heifer in question is known for being a pita when it comes to electric fencing because she's tiny, she was in-calf (5-6 months) but aborted the other day so am wondering if she's actually a bvd pi which would explain her size going to have to cull her and am going to tag and test the calves to see what's in them before doing anything else, atleast it's only more money and I have loads of that laying around

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Glad your cows are ok. A serious worry when something big like that happens.

 

[coomoo]

Good to hear cows are fine. With a large rent and your effort to improve the farm @Jdunn55 hopefully it’s a long term agreement. The parlour feeders sound a real pain created by landlord, I’d put them in now at own cost and see if landlord would spend money on lime or something else come April.

 

[Jdunn55]

Well the results are in, milk is up 300 litres this collection, which equates to 2l a cow per day...

Can't think why

 

[Beef farmer]

Well the results are in, milk is up 300 litres this collection, which equates to 2l a cow per day...

Can't think why

Is that what you call marginal liters?

 

[Jdunn55]

Is that what you call marginal liters?

What do you mean?

 

[som farmer]

What do you mean?

marginal litres are something the cake reps tell you, so you buy more cake, must admit, never heard of marginal, ad-lib cake, litres though. And sure their figure of 1kg cake = 2 litres of milk, is some exaggeration.
Just to cheer you up, chap in the trade, told me today, milk will be close to 40ppl, by the end of feb, which l will believe, when/if it gets there. But with arla at 36.69 for dec, it's not a million miles away. Spot is 44/46, if you can get it, which would indicate production is falling, throw in N price, with fuel and conc, it really needs to be close to that. Processors and their customers, need to be looking forward, not till the spring, but next winter, that's when the shortage will occur, that would be against s/mkts policy, that's a 6 month lead. Interesting times.

 

[Fedupfarmer]

What do you mean?

You not used to Beef farmers sense of humour yet

 

[Farmer Fin]

It's the same as using kexxtone bolus's, from memory the kexxtones cost £30/cow and the coline costs £7 per cow and does exactly the same thing

You might just want to revisit this with someone in the know. Protected Choline is good but only in the dry period does very little, to have a proper effect it needs to be fed for the first 60 days of lactation as well.
Probably worth re doing the maths with a cheaper roll and kexxtone for at risk cows only.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

You might just want to revisit this with someone in the know. Protected Choline is good but only in the dry period does very little, to have a proper effect it needs to be fed for the first 60 days of lactation as well.
Probably worth re doing the maths with a cheaper roll and kexxtone for at risk cows only.

Kexxtone will sort any ketosis issues out almost instantly, choline in the dry cow roll will do naff all in my experience for a fat cow once she's calved

 

[Jdunn55]

You not used to Beef farmers sense of humour yet

I thought I was but that one went over my head

 

[Jdunn55]

You might just want to revisit this with someone in the know. Protected Choline is good but only in the dry period does very little, to have a proper effect it needs to be fed for the first 60 days of lactation as well.
Probably worth re doing the maths with a cheaper roll and kexxtone for at risk cows only.

Hmm, I knew that there was an added benefit to feeding it for the first 60 days after calving but have heard varying degrees of how necessary it is.. some say that just feeding in the dry period will do the job, others have said it needs to be fed for 20-60 days after calving like you said I know I america they feed it but they're big enough to warrant a separate fresh cow group

All my cows are at risk, they're friesians and I'm yet to see a friesian calve at less than 4 bcs

 

[Farmer Fin]

Hmm, I knew that there was an added benefit to feeding it for the first 60 days after calving but have heard varying degrees of how worthiness it is

All my cows are at risk, they're friesians and I'm yet to see a friesian calve at less than 4 bcs

Sounds like your managing them like Holsteins though!
The only benefit I can see would be to the feed rep.

 

[Jdunn55]

Sounds like your managing them like Holsteins though!
The only benefit I can see would be to the feed rep.

Possibly going ott just scared that I won't do them well enough, I've had a sh!t year and the cows haven't done as well as I had hoped and just want them to fly with me next year

I can remove the coline without a problem, I'll still feed a roll but without the coline which will drop it to £400/t, the problem is if I have to kexxtone at risk cows I will literally be doing 95% of them, they all seem to go fat after about 200 days, got 1 still doing 25l who needs to go dry in 2 weeks time only having a kg of cake and she's fat having done 9000l in well under 300 days as she got in-calf to first service, calved in April and now due in February! I'd they were all like her I would be thrilled!

 

[Farmer Fin]

Possibly going ott just scared that I won't do them well enough, I've had a sh!t year and the cows haven't done as well as I had hoped and just want them to fly with me next year

I can remove the coline without a problem, I'll still feed a roll but without the coline which will drop it to £400/t, the problem is if I have to kexxtone at risk cows I will literally be doing 95% of them, they all seem to go fat after about 200 days, got 1 still doing 25l who needs to go dry in 2 weeks time only having a kg of cake and she's fat having done 9000l in well under 300 days as she got in-calf to first service, calved in April and now due in February! I'd they were all like her I would be thrilled!

I understand you are trying to do your best. Unfortunately it’s to easy for people to sell you a solution at times.
If your cows are calving in well and fresh cow health is good then the dry cow nutrition / calcium control is probably good so by all means feed the same rolls but drop the Choline.
Pick the top 25% at risk cows (or what ever number you and your vet are happy with) and treat with kexxtone. In fairness if you have had no issues without kexxtone and just Choline I doubt you will have too many issues dropping the Choline.

 

[som farmer]

hols and fr's, can be very different animals, needing different management.
hols stay thin, quite easily, just as frs get fat, very easily, just need to work out a happy medium, and stop listening to your friendly feed rep, he isn't, he makes his living, by selling as much as he can, to all his customers. For transition cows, there are well established diets, that work very well, and are relatively cheap. Fat cows, on straw and water, a punishment for being fat, till getting closer to time -3 weeks, thin cows on a better one, and get the right minerals into them.
But, you are just starting out, desperate to get things right, without spending much, carefully hoarded slim reserve of cash, most of us have been there, and been through it, it does get better, as you learn on the job, it's hard, sometimes frightening, but it's a rite of passage, we all have to do.
The best bit of advice l was given, and often ignored, was, 'keep it simple'. As l ungraciously age, it appears to me, farmers, including me, have been experts, at complicating the job.
Barbers, cheese makers, feed 8 herds, with silage, by one man, on one big loading shovel, in about 3 hrs a day, only grass silage, into racks, cake in parlour, nothing simpler, and they have all the profit per litre. Rumour say's they are growing maize, next year.
Friends son, works on robots, and tells me, there are some very high yielding herds, just on high quality grass silage, and blend, and cake in the bot. Simple system.