New Zealand dairy

[Beef farmer]

Like this, Sacrilege??

Is he feeding liquid nuclear waste. He also seems to be weighing in his ingredients like I would. on and a dairy disaster

 

[stewart]

Feeding whey. He had a Dairy Master in UK, liked it so went for one here, good sheds.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Like this, Sacrilege??

Same wagon as here. And the same inefficient way to load it

 

[multi power]

Same wagon as here. And the same inefficient way to load it

What is inefficient about the loading ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Out of interest on New Zealand system do dry cows graze stubble turnips

I personally have not seen a crop of what you guys would call 'stubble turnips'.
Maincrop turnips are quite often used for summer crops, for the same reasons - quick to grazing and cheap.
Main winter crops down south here would be fodderbeet, swedes, kale, and often HT (Herbicide Tolerant) brassica varieties are used. There was an issue with HT Swedes killing dairy cows when they were introduced so many went back to kale.
Generally what I see on my tours are bales of haylage set out in double rows in the crops, ready to be fed with the crop on winter (to ease workload and reduce compaction, take them straight from where they were baled and set them out where they'll be fed, in the summer).

Also, on more alluvial (stony) soils many farms grow forage cereals and strip-feed it off (but not around here, usually only youngstock or small mobs of bulls etc) it really depends on soils and your microclimate as to what you can do.
We usually split our herd into mobs of 90-100 based on expected calving date and kept heifers separate right through to spring, to keep the potential replacement calves and jersey bobby calves separate.
Then closer to calving we'd run them back to the yards and take out those closest and calve down on grass with some causmag and silage to reduce pasture intake (to reduce swelling of the udder)
Hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs, @holywell farmer but that is our basic system, in many instances.

 

[sofyan33]

Anybody.....
Are you know about New Zealand dairy farming which can cooperate or collaborate with Indonesia dairy farming?

Sincerely,

 

[Dead Rabbits]

What is inefficient about the loading ?

Using a small bucket with no grapple. Although if you don't feed much silage it won't matter

 

[holywell farmer]

I personally have not seen a crop of what you guys would call 'stubble turnips'.
Maincrop turnips are quite often used for summer crops, for the same reasons - quick to grazing and cheap.
Main winter crops down south here would be fodderbeet, swedes, kale, and often HT (Herbicide Tolerant) brassica varieties are used. There was an issue with HT Swedes killing dairy cows when they were introduced so many went back to kale.
Generally what I see on my tours are bales of haylage set out in double rows in the crops, ready to be fed with the crop on winter (to ease workload and reduce compaction, take them straight from where they were baled and set them out where they'll be fed, in the summer).

Also, on more alluvial (stony) soils many farms grow forage cereals and strip-feed it off (but not around here, usually only youngstock or small mobs of bulls etc) it really depends on soils and your microclimate as to what you can do.
We usually split our herd into mobs of 90-100 based on expected calving date and kept heifers separate right through to spring, to keep the potential replacement calves and jersey bobby calves separate.
Then closer to calving we'd run them back to the yards and take out those closest and calve down on grass with some causmag and silage to reduce pasture intake (to reduce swelling of the udder)
Hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs, @holywell farmer but that is our basic system, in many instances.

Don't dry cows do better on kale/ big bale silage system

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Don't dry cows do better on kale/ big bale silage system

Yes.. with not much to compare the system with.
We can usually put plenty of condition on them over 10 weeks or so ready to calve - dry cows seem to be more efficient feed converters than when they are lactating, so the dry period is a good time to get them in the right condition.

 

[Clay52]

Yes.. with not much to compare the system with.
We can usually put plenty of condition on them over 10 weeks or so ready to calve - dry cows seem to be more efficient feed converters than when they are lactating, so the dry period is a good time to get them in the right condition.

Dry period in general is too late to be putting condition on them. Dry cows gaining weight puts them at greater risk of metabolic problems after calving. From memory their feed conversion efficency even goes down a little while dry.

Ideally you want them to be maintaining weight over the dry period. For dry cows, ad lib access to palatable but lower energy, high fiber diets encourage very high dry matter intakes which allow big intakes of forage after calving. This is especially benifitial in grazing systems where after calving cows are not fed high amounts of grain to keep energy up to fresh cows.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thats quite an interesting take.
I wouldn't agree based on our own experiences but thats not to say you aren't correct - likely by dry-off time we are fresh out of pasture so cows are possibly only at or even below maintenance rations.

There's only so much you can do in these systems, not as simple as making a phonecall to get more food!
End of lactation pasture management really sets you up for calving and I personally think many farmers drop the ball at that stage.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Dry period in general is too late to be putting condition on them. Dry cows gaining weight puts them at greater risk of metabolic problems after calving. From memory their feed conversion efficency even goes down a little while dry.

Ideally you want them to be maintaining weight over the dry period. For dry cows, ad lib access to palatable but lower energy, high fiber diets encourage very high dry matter intakes which allow big intakes of forage after calving. This is especially benifitial in grazing systems where after calving cows are not fed high amounts of grain to keep energy up to fresh cows.

Surprisingly, that is the strategy here with dry cows. Although it is not necessarily ad lib the entire time

 

[Clay52]

Thats quite an interesting take.
I wouldn't agree based on our own experiences but thats not to say you aren't correct - likely by dry-off time we are fresh out of pasture so cows are possibly only at or even below maintenance rations.

There's only so much you can do in these systems, not as simple as making a phonecall to get more food!
End of lactation pasture management really sets you up for calving and I personally think many farmers drop the ball at that stage.

To be honest it’s not really that interesting a take on dry cows. It has plenty of research backing it. Gordie Jones that was mentioned on this form before pushes this sort of diet for dry cows in his talks and gets great results on the farms he works with. Think he even does some organic herds and maybe even grazing.

Diets high enough in energy to put weight on dry cows are shown to have many more metabolic problems and lower dry matter intakes after calving. Exactly what you don’t want. Skinnier cows are better off staying the way they are over the dry period.

 

[holywell farmer]

Think trouble with New Zealand dairy systems in uk, some farms wouldn't be able to graze for 9 months of the year,

 

[lazy farmer]

Think trouble with New Zealand dairy systems in uk, some farms wouldn't be able to graze for 9 months of the year,

some can though. work to your farms advantages.

 

[holywell farmer]

I personally have not seen a crop of what you guys would call 'stubble turnips'.
Maincrop turnips are quite often used for summer crops, for the same reasons - quick to grazing and cheap.
Main winter crops down south here would be fodderbeet, swedes, kale, and often HT (Herbicide Tolerant) brassica varieties are used. There was an issue with HT Swedes killing dairy cows when they were introduced so many went back to kale.
Generally what I see on my tours are bales of haylage set out in double rows in the crops, ready to be fed with the crop on winter (to ease workload and reduce compaction, take them straight from where they were baled and set them out where they'll be fed, in the summer).

Also, on more alluvial (stony) soils many farms grow forage cereals and strip-feed it off (but not around here, usually only youngstock or small mobs of bulls etc) it really depends on soils and your microclimate as to what you can do.
We usually split our herd into mobs of 90-100 based on expected calving date and kept heifers separate right through to spring, to keep the potential replacement calves and jersey bobby calves separate.
Then closer to calving we'd run them back to the yards and take out those closest and calve down on grass with some causmag and silage to reduce pasture intake (to reduce swelling of the udder)
Hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs, @holywell farmer but that is our basic system, in many instances.

Out door parlours popular in your area ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Out door parlours popular in your area ?

Nobody is that sick!!
Most parlours down south here are about as enclosed as can be, the odd swing-over (what we'd call a herringbone cowshed, btw) is only a roof and a wall, but the rotary ones are almost all covered on 3 walls.
Nothing like the pit being half full of snow in the morning that sucks, for man and beast!
A couple of early rotaries are the 'floating on water' type, but they don't like earthquakes!
Modern ones are all clad in that alloy/polystyrene sandwich stuff for insulation, and I have set up a mist setup in most of the ones I've been in for keeping the cows cool, with that cheap garden-grade stuff

You get to deal with most weather extremes down here, -10° to 35°, floods, droughts, snow so it can be quite a testing place to run a dairy.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Nobody is that sick!!
Most parlours down south here are about as enclosed as can be, the odd swing-over (what we'd call a herringbone cowshed, btw) is only a roof and a wall, but the rotary ones are almost all covered on 3 walls.
Nothing like the pit being half full of snow in the morning that sucks, for man and beast!
A couple of early rotaries are the 'floating on water' type, but they don't like earthquakes!
Modern ones are all clad in that alloy/polystyrene sandwich stuff for insulation, and I have set up a mist setup in most of the ones I've been in for keeping the cows cool, with that cheap garden-grade stuff

You get to deal with most weather extremes down here, -10° to 35°, floods, droughts, snow so it can be quite a testing place to run a dairy.

Child's play down there Pete!

 

[holywell farmer]

Nobody is that sick!!
Most parlours down south here are about as enclosed as can be, the odd swing-over (what we'd call a herringbone cowshed, btw) is only a roof and a wall, but the rotary ones are almost all covered on 3 walls.
Nothing like the pit being half full of snow in the morning that sucks, for man and beast!
A couple of early rotaries are the 'floating on water' type, but they don't like earthquakes!
Modern ones are all clad in that alloy/polystyrene sandwich stuff for insulation, and I have set up a mist setup in most of the ones I've been in for keeping the cows cool, with that cheap garden-grade stuff

You get to deal with most weather extremes down here, -10° to 35°, floods, droughts, snow so it can be quite a testing place to run a dairy.

In farmers guardian last year it featured a big dairy farm near Anglesey running on New Zealand system, parlour outside with no cover and think cows were fed on big bale silage,

 

[holywell farmer]

Nobody is that sick!!
Most parlours down south here are about as enclosed as can be, the odd swing-over (what we'd call a herringbone cowshed, btw) is only a roof and a wall, but the rotary ones are almost all covered on 3 walls.
Nothing like the pit being half full of snow in the morning that sucks, for man and beast!
A couple of early rotaries are the 'floating on water' type, but they don't like earthquakes!
Modern ones are all clad in that alloy/polystyrene sandwich stuff for insulation, and I have set up a mist setup in most of the ones I've been in for keeping the cows cool, with that cheap garden-grade stuff

You get to deal with most weather extremes down here, -10° to 35°, floods, droughts, snow so it can be quite a testing place to run a dairy.

Would say New Zealand systems aren't or could be for every dairy farmer