How many cows are you milking?

[dinderleat]

Yeah, well it's 7.5p and not all out of pocket so to speak.

Anyhow it's amazing what a good accountant can get through.
View attachment 819802

Taken me 5hrs to feel normal today, just off to track now

Perhaps you’d be better to invest in thatchers

 

[bigw]

So 1260 acres and a cracking veiw.

Yeah I don’t have much to moan about.

 

[Bald Rick]

Don’t milk a single cow myself but I wonder what the motive of the OP is/was?

 

[Lewis]

110 ish Holstein Frisians closed herd Av round 8000ltrs , grass / silage / concentrates 2 fulwood robots and oopfs , grazed from March - October everything reared, all heifers as replacements, continental calves reared and sold fat or stores , hf bulls sold 2weeks old. All grass 240ish acres split by farm and small lane but all in one block, me & dad full time with mother on hand at any time.
as said machinery generally bought good second hand

id say calf and dry cow accommodation needs investment in and added comfort for the dairy cows,

Land and only being single phase is probably our limiting factor now

 

[Manney]

180 milkers, spring calving start 1st Feb, mostly British fr but some jr and jrx.

Milk through a 20:40 Delaval herringbone, direct to line and no acrs.

Very simple system, grazed grass Feb onwards with silage fed on the shoulders of the grazing season. Cows housed for about 60 days during winter. 1.2ton conc fed, 550kg milk solids sold per cow. Good housing and general infrastructure. Plenty of shiney gear but its older, looked after and paid for.

Labour wise there is myself, my dad who is 69 and a have a chap in that does 10hrs a week.

Busy from Feb to June and after that it's a doddle.

Profitable, yes.

What would I change:
Milk another 20 cows but that's in the pipeline
Better water system and more troughs but again that is being delt with.
Regular reliable relief milker to take some of the workload off me.

 

[vantage]

Regular reliable relief milker to take some of the workload off me.

I had that issue. We now can call on three if needed,all do a couple of milking a week.

 

[jendan]

180 milkers, spring calving start 1st Feb, mostly British fr but some jr and jrx.

Milk through a 20:40 Delaval herringbone, direct to line and no acrs.

Very simple system, grazed grass Feb onwards with silage fed on the shoulders of the grazing season. Cows housed for about 60 days during winter. 1.2ton conc fed, 550kg milk solids sold per cow. Good housing and general infrastructure. Plenty of shiney gear but its older, looked after and paid for.

Labour wise there is myself, my dad who is 69 and a have a chap in that does 10hrs a week.

Busy from Feb to June and after that it's a doddle.

Profitable, yes.

What would I change:
Milk another 20 cows but that's in the pipeline
Better water system and more troughs but again that is being delt with.
Regular reliable relief milker to take some of the workload off me.

That seems like an ideal system.

 

[Cowcorn]

As a herd have you cows with more jersey or more ho fr than you would like. what bull would use on say 50 fr 25 ho 25 je.

The last bunch of heifers that calved were half friesian quarter holstien and quarter jersey . Very good milkers not huge but not as small as jersey cross either . Still have a good few holstien cows left and am breeding them to jersey bull . I think we bred the heifers to a holstien friesian bull will have to check the AI chart . The only bunch of cows that failed to impress me were a bunch of three quarter jerseys that i bought when we started to go the high solids route . The were not great milkers and were to.small for the cubicles and seemed prone to bloat . The i mprovement in feet when jersey blood enters the herd is a really big plus also the lighter cow will graze in wetter conditions than the big holstiens who would need four leg drive to graze in early spring break.

 

[Grassman247]

I’ve 960hp between my tractors and 2 telehandlers for 1100 cows and 600 youngstock I feel very under powered compared to you happpy hillbilly

 

[celtis man]

80-85 Pedigree HF through a 12/12 herringbone, currently 60 in milk. Grazed 6-7 months, grass silage + straights on top in winter, inc fodder beet, parlour fed all year. Mainly autumn calving but a long tail of older cows to start of March. Closed herd, sexed semen for replacements, then beef AI then beef sweeper.
25 acres wheat, plus a loss-making 'flying flock' sheep enterprise (don't ask) on distant flood fields. Big HLS scheme.

1) Pay to close the lane that the cows have to cross every day which would make our life SOOO much easier (there is alternative access the neighbours can use).
2) New youngstock & dry cow sheds with concrete apron.
3) Pay a hit man to take brother-in-law out.
No seriously for no 3, I think expand slurry storage. We're legal for NVZs, but could do with more because the ground is often not fit to drive on until April and we don't really want to spread it that late before silage and grazing.
Husband is more than full time, no other job. Brother in law is supposed to be full time but is a waster, takes half the profits. I'm about 3/4 full time and have a small amount of self employed income from consultancy (< £4k profit).
Prince and Princess do have a wind turbine but it's still in payback phase not profit phase.

My other half said she would go halves with you on the hit man [emoji848]
She enjoys a similar relationship with my brother (they haven't spoken much since last summer)

 

[Happy hillbily]

I’ve 960hp between my tractors and 2 telehandlers for 1100 cows and 600 youngstock I feel very under powered compared to you happpy hillbilly

Having a fleet of classic Fords is better than money in the bank

 

[Cows 'n grass]

are the jerseys proving to be more profitable than arable? youll be milking once a day?

I never had anything to do with the arable or sucklers. I managed the conversion and now contract farm the dairy unit.

 

[Jamer]

240 cows HF crossed with BS and various Scandi Reds moving to autumn calving on a liquid aligned contract. Profit is good but not so clever when looking at hours worked hence looking to simplify. Regular investment on and off farm to secure the future with a degree of flexibility.

 

[Grassman247]

Having a fleet of classic Fords is better than money in the bank

Haha snap all classic fords here!

 

[rusty]

330 Autumn block (5 month) 7500 litres through a 20/40 with all the bells and whistles. Financially it's good.
Would like 2 under passes so didn't have to walk cows through village every day. My away block of 120 acres to be next door and no TB.

 

[holywell farmer]

My cousin is milking 170 on around 380 acres off owned and rent land, swing over parlour cows wintered from November onwards if grazing season allows,

 

[Martyn]

Milking at the moment about 80 fresian through 20/40 swing over that's far past its best. Cows on 4kg a day all year round, round bale silage in the winter, try and close the door for 30-50 days if we can, cows giving 5-6000l upping numbers this Autumn with first new block of heifers joining. Renting 360 acres, carrying 100 beef 80-100 arable and 150-200 Dorset sheep, very low input/output.

Stock look well, making a profit but cash flow often a nightmare. Want to get upto 140 cows in next 3 years. Myself, a relief milker 2 milkings a week, and a Saturday helper (16 year old who's great)

Looking forward to August 2020 will be first time to turn parlour off for a month. Lots of small projects always on the go, lots of fencing needs doing!

 

[happycows]

Milking 75 at the moment with 90 in total on 100 acres, predominantly Fleckvieh X and procross averaging 9200l at 4.1 bf and 3.7ptn. Calving from April to August to maximise Arla contract.
First year with no youngstock since moved to flying herd.
2 bought and paid for robots. Housed herd but Zerograze as long as i can. started february the 10th this year and will aim to keep going to October.
I do quite a lot of the work myself. Other half does calves mostly. Sons giving me days or afternoons off. Make 8/900 bales myself but friend does my slurry 6 hours a month as i hate the job. Daily routine usually no more than a hour each end on the day.

 

[Nearly]

0

 

[Bossfarmer]

Milking 75 at the moment with 90 in total on 100 acres, predominantly Fleckvieh X and procross averaging 9200l at 4.1 bf and 3.7ptn. Calving from April to August to maximise Arla contract.
First year with no youngstock since moved to flying herd.
2 bought and paid for robots. Housed herd but Zerograze as long as i can. started february the 10th this year and will aim to keep going to October.
I do quite a lot of the work myself. Other half does calves mostly. Sons giving me days or afternoons off. Make 8/900 bales myself but friend does my slurry 6 hours a month as i hate the job. Daily routine usually no more than a hour each end on the day.

is zerograzing not quite an expensive system?