Non return rates

[More to life]

Barely worth getting out of bed to milk at that level, you might as well just dry off and have a nice holiday.

Imagine if he fed them how much milk they would give

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Barely worth getting out of bed to milk at that level, you might as well just dry off and have a nice holiday.

Good chunk dry now, will be below an hour for milking soon hopefully.

Best thing I think I adopted from the southern hemisphere is having a feed pad out in the field. I can just adjust access to buffer accordingly.

 

[Headless chicken]

We have a consultant that we use 4 times a year but rarely get nutritional advice, too many people trying to sell you something these days and if it makes no difference they don’t give you back the money you’ve spent. Would rather push on and work harder at doing a better job ourselves

I fully agree but my point is if someone sells something into me I hold them accountable. It’s not just a sell it and sod off. My nutritionist/ cake rep would’ve been on me way before 4 years investigating that

 

[O'Reilly]

We have a consultant that we use 4 times a year but rarely get nutritional advice, too many people trying to sell you something these days and if it makes no difference they don’t give you back the money you’ve spent. Would rather push on and work harder at doing a better job ourselves

On the other hand if good advice leads to more cows in calf it's a good thing, even at the expense of more cake.

 

[som farmer]

Imagine if he fed them how much milk they would give

we have bought loads of out of pattern cows over the years, either dry, or stale. virtually all responded to better feeding, as in autumn block, I would think that they would average 7500 litres, fair few would be 8/9000, the longer established spring herds, would give us a decent sized cow, cull value, and a decent calf, I accept some calves will cr#p- its easy calving i'm more interested in. and a decent milk yield, and at a price which is much lower than rearing a lot of hfrs. we do rear our own hfrs as well. so to answer the quote, presumably, you could end up with a good yield say 8000 liters, but the ethos is milk from forage, so where do you draw a line?

 

[lazy farmer]

God people love complication. Without much benefit

 

[More to life]

we have bought loads of out of pattern cows over the years, either dry, or stale. virtually all responded to better feeding, as in autumn block, I would think that they would average 7500 litres, fair few would be 8/9000, the longer established spring herds, would give us a decent sized cow, cull value, and a decent calf, I accept some calves will cr#p- its easy calving i'm more interested in. and a decent milk yield, and at a price which is much lower than rearing a lot of hfrs. we do rear our own hfrs as well. so to answer the quote, presumably, you could end up with a good yield say 8000 liters, but the ethos is milk from forage, so where do you draw a line?

Yes I think @buffalo_soldier would have one or two doing 9000kg

 

[More to life]

God people love complication. Without much benefit

Your yields and system wouldn’t be that different from @Grassman247 would they ?

 

[Beef farmer]

1

Yes I think @buffalo_soldier would have one or two doing 9000kg

I actually doubt he would

 

[More to life]

1

I actually doubt he would

I think so but he’s very modest

 

[lazy farmer]

Your yields and system wouldn’t be that different from @Grassman247 would they ?

Our yield is 2000 litres or 25% less. That’s massive when relying on grass. Replacement rates can soon gobble up that difference.

 

[dinderleat]

1

I actually doubt he would

Of solids??

 

[RJ1]

Our yield is 2000 litres or 25% less. That’s massive when relying on grass. Replacement rates can soon gobble up that difference.

Would that difference be solely or mainly down to breeding?
I.e. one herd doing 8000 off 17kg grass and 4kg cake and another doing 6000 off same grass and maybe a little less cake?

But it seems the 8000l herd needs a bit more to hold. I.e. those cows can't turn down production, they just milk off their backs?

 

[Grassman247]

I fully agree but my point is if someone sells something into me I hold them accountable. It’s not just a sell it and sod off. My nutritionist/ cake rep would’ve been on me way before 4 years investigating that

I guess so, but we aren’t actually heading in the wrong direction, calving pattern hasn’t slipped, replacements outweigh the empty cows and the herd has been very profitable.

I’d just like to get fertility back to where it was before the yield increased

 

[Beef farmer]

Grass man. You selling your mts to wanna be autumn calvers? If so, what you making of them? If its 800 quid or north, wouldnt worry about it and charge on.

 

[iitc123]

What weight are your cows? And whats your breeding strategy to get that sort of yield from a nz friesian?

 

[Grassman247]

What weight are your cows? And whats your breeding strategy to get that sort of yield from a nz friesian?

Cows will be 650kg plus, heifers tend to bull around the 390kg mark

As for breeding, have never touched genomics and never will especially after working for a fella in NZ called Leo donkers back in 07,

Always use a proven bull, 1 maybe 2 per year with 90% plus reliability and plenty of daughters and every trait needs to be a positive.

Moved away from NZ genetics as we felt some of the cattle were becoming “inbred” teats pointing every direction, twisted front feet and the odd calf with a twisted face or funny tail. Switched to Norwegian red and have used some Holstein this year on the smaller reds.

Will probably head back to the NZ catalogue next year

I think better management of the cows and grass probably has more to do with the yield increase. We aren’t afraid to use the topper and are happy not to make the cows eat the bogs.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Cows will be 650kg plus, heifers tend to bull around the 390kg mark

As for breeding, have never touched genomics and never will especially after working for a fella in NZ called Leo donkers back in 07,

Always use a proven bull, 1 maybe 2 per year with 90% plus reliability and plenty of daughters and every trait needs to be a positive.

Moved away from NZ genetics as we felt some of the cattle were becoming “inbred” teats pointing every direction, twisted front feet and the odd calf with a twisted face or funny tail. Switched to Norwegian red and have used some Holstein this year on the smaller reds.

Will probably head back to the NZ catalogue next year

I think better management of the cows and grass probably has more to do with the yield increase. We aren’t afraid to use the topper and are happy not to make the cows eat the bogs.

Yeah turns out the kiwi cross udder is less than ideal, especially at higher yields. Allegedly CRV is better than LIC.

 

[In the pit]

The size of your cows is huge
Are cows are 480/500 kgs which is a better size for spring calving
We have two big indoor herds not far from me (2000+ cows) and they buy up all the grass ratsput them indoors 24/7 and they'll do 9000 lts a year and get back in calf on a yearly basis
You just have to feed them

 

[Davy]

Have you tried any of the Irish High ebi bulls @Grassman247?