Northern Ireland Milk Price Tracker

[it's not over]

IF your not on a liquid contract then you have a massive opportunity to increase your milk price.

Yes but how . All I'm told is feed more. I'm at 2000kg each.That's it. No more. .
My set up is old

 

[lazy farmer]

forgive me if I am wrong here but from what I recall your breeding is an area that I would seriously look at.we had 650kg non extreme Holsteins back in the day and have changed to a much smaller cow but the amount of solids we sell per cow as hardly changed.

 

[Aircooled]

Yes but how . All I'm told is feed more. I'm at 2000kg each.That's it. No more. .
My set up is old

If you have plenty of grass why not reduce the meal. If they eat more grass it might lift protein, and if you're getting near 30l then maybe you're just expecting too much?

 

[Wee Willy]

My winter ration was soya,maize,wheat plus byproducts as I call them. Fed the recommended rate,never got above 3.05 usually below 3. Neighbour is regularly 3.3 on the same feeding system but he feeds a hell of a lot of meal. His cows cannot walk with their feet and the AI man is there every day doing repeats. I'm in negative energy but cows are holding to service and have excellent feet. Need to do something regards protein.

 

[lazy farmer]

ours are doing 29 litres at 3.54 protein. your southern friends do have some more quality based stock.it is what your paid for after all.

 

[it's not over]

And with the grass my bf is going to plunge. I've seen me lose a penny on quality but an extra litre makes up a lot of ground

 

[lazy farmer]

And with the grass my bf is going to plunge. I've seen me lose a penny on quality but an extra litre makes up a lot of ground

that's not an issue with a more suitable cow.

 

[Happy at it]

Was looking at buying a bull from down south to run with heifers and got talking to a man with a hols/fries herd that averaged 6500lts, at 4.33 bf 3.57prot and all on half a ton of meal. His main aim was breeding foe solids over the past 20 yrs. guess it shows what can be done.

 

[The Agrarian]

Had to make the decision last Monday Eve to start mowing as rain was in the forecast for mid next week at that time. It was more or less ready, bar some lighter places, but they usually make up for it next cut. Last load in mid afternoon Friday.

I wasn't disappointed with the bulk. Pit looks fine, and it won't go down much I reckon.

Some rain definitely required sharply now to get the manure in. Will be another busy week with bag and slurry!

I'd think there will be a lot of grass put in this week. I'd even venture to say that it will probably set records for average first cut silage quality next winter. Even five years ago, cutting in the second week of May, or earlier, was the preserve of us lunatics. But it's gradually becoming more socially acceptable.

 

[Wee Willy]

@lazy farmer what is your breeding?do you feed meal at grass? Do you do winter milk and if so what's the feeding regime?
Only asking cos I'm v v jealous of your yield +protein.

 

[lazy farmer]

we started breeding our own stock when I was 10 uncle was an AI man and we choose the bulls(mainly him I suspect) we always went for + % on both fat and protein. after vesting day we worked out we needed to lower our costs so decided to go block calving and started using LIC friesians then as time went on we started using there jerseys and now we use 80% kiwi cross.15% irish Friesian and a few fleck. we have dabbled with other stuff along the way like Swedish reds, flecks etc always looking for the smallest of the breeds we have been using.
our april to april av is now 6000 sold litres at 4.8 and 3.7. or 510kgs of solids.
we do not do winter milk though are December av was 5.65 4.24
yes we do feed at grass just a very basic 13 me 14 protein blend with minerals around the yard current price £175.we feed around 1.2 tons basically 4kg flat rate.though by accident this season we have only been feeding 3 quite successfully so far.
would add finally there are herds on this forum with much better figures than ours what we are doing is very easiy replicated the only difference now is the stock we have taken a long time to breed as they didn't exist 20 yrs ago are widely available and autumn calvers like @Beef farmer @farmer on a bike @frederick are using them for winter milk with great success.
hope that wasn't to dull.
lazy

 

[Davy]

Recorded growth of 87.3 here this past week. Almost has doubled since the previous week, if there's rain at the weekend the grazing land will need carefully managed.

 

[crabbitfarmer]

Mowing here today, hopefully get started lifting tomorrow, couple or three days should clear it up

 

[jockthethistle]

How many acres

 

[thunderballs]

Starting to think there's a north / south split. Ground down here is very dry and growing has almost stopped. Hate to say it but could soon do with a wee bit of water.

 

[The Agrarian]

It wouldn't take too much of that weather to become a problem. But I've always blamed the wet weather for that more than the dry. Our grasses normally don't have to root any deeper than a couple of inches to get food and water, so when an unusual dry spell of two or three weeks comes, the root structure isn't in place to be able to cope with it.

 

[it's not over]

No fxxking rain. I will try a dry year for a change

 

[yin ewe]

No fxxking rain. I will try a dry year for a change

I agree, we can stand a right bit of dry weather round here. Talking about rain at weekend so that should calm the grass fever and put an end to the lawn clippings.

 

[Davy]

I'd be looking through the paper for pits of silage to buy come Christmas if i clamped crops like the ones I've seen mowed out this week! Certainly is mighty stuff this early silage if you've enough acres of it mind

 

[The Agrarian]

The whiter the stubble, the slower the recovery. Given normal growing conditions, my grass will be ready again between 10th and 20th June.