OAD milking for dairy entrant

[Swaley]

Hello all,
After wanting to go into milk for a few year I've eventually hit the age I could start up. The family where not wanting to start up again for the reason of it being hard to get relief milkers and not wanting me to knacker myself milking twice a day all year. So after seeing a few things about OAD milking they seemed to be able to be talked round. We've got the land the cubicles which are still good condition and got 2 milking byres and a 12 stall herringbone still in and the farm is a dry sandy farm. I was wondering for a young lad like myself how i can start a 60-70 cow herd spring calving put the best cows to sexed semen and everything else to beef bulls and milk OAD. If anyone could give me some helpful advice that would be much appreciated, also if you just want to say don't waste my time and get job elsewhere don't bother commenting. Thankyou

 

[onesiedale]

Get yourself a milk buyer sorted, and make sure they offer a solids type contract.
Start now in getting your paddocks/grazing infrastructure sorted
Get out and visit some OAD herds ask plenty of questions (@easy farming )
Start to get numbers in your head for cashflow.
don't lose sight of the fact that on OAD, whilst being resilient, you will always make the best profit by not spending money!

Good luck!

 

[DairyNerd]

Hello all,
After wanting to go into milk for a few year I've eventually hit the age I could start up. The family where not wanting to start up again for the reason of it being hard to get relief milkers and not wanting me to knacker myself milking twice a day all year. So after seeing a few things about OAD milking they seemed to be able to be talked round. We've got the land the cubicles which are still good condition and got 2 milking byres and a 12 stall herringbone still in and the farm is a dry sandy farm. I was wondering for a young lad like myself how i can start a 60-70 cow herd spring calving put the best cows to sexed semen and everything else to beef bulls and milk OAD. If anyone could give me some helpful advice that would be much appreciated, also if you just want to say don't waste my time and get job elsewhere don't bother commenting. Thankyou

We started a year ago milking 45 on 65 acres, about 55 acres of good free draining ground, 10 steeper. 55 cows next year, 5000-ish litres is the target. Spring calving though slightly late as we have very harsh seasonality with Wyke. Solids contract, flying herd, bought jersey cross irish/NZ fresian mainly for high solids.

You are not wasting your time whatever anyone says, don't think we do anything groundbreaking or particularly well but it is profitable. We went OAD about a week ago until dry off but you can definitely milk 70 OAD full time if you like, no problem producing a small amount of milk, we are sending 950 every other day from 41 cows at the moment, but your mindset needs to be firmly on cost reduction as well as milk production.

 

[Swaley]

We started a year ago milking 45 on 65 acres, about 55 acres of good free draining ground, 10 steeper. 55 cows next year, 5000-ish litres is the target. Spring calving though slightly late as we have very harsh seasonality with Wyke. Solids contract, flying herd, bought jersey cross irish/NZ fresian mainly for high solids.

You are not wasting your time whatever anyone says, don't think we do anything groundbreaking or particularly well but it is profitable. We went OAD about a week ago until dry off but you can definitely milk 70 OAD full time if you like, no problem producing a small amount of milk, we are sending 950 every other day from 41 cows at the moment, but your mindset needs to be firmly on cost reduction as well as milk production.

Could I ask if it was hard to get a contract sorted out and how you come about it

 

[Martyn]

The key is not spending, and expect cows to perform differently than twice a day, we have seen a lot of positive health improvements for the herd & some cows that were nothing special on twice a day, are now really performing well. Our top cows peaked at early 30l, Scc seam to be sensible.

 

[onesiedale]

Could I ask if it was hard to get a contract sorted out and how you come about it

what's your location?

 

[Swaley]

what's your location?

Cumbria

 

[onesiedale]

Cumbria

First call as your benchmark should be to Carl Woodcock at Yew Tree.
Get the contract side of it sorted, then you can start making real plans for things to happen

 

[Swaley]

Also what sort of price would everyone pay for the cows for the OAD system I was thinking 50%jersey 50%friesian.

 

[DairyNerd]

Could I ask if it was hard to get a contract sorted out and how you come about it

Wyke happened to be wanting milk and have two local pick ups, I am also fairly near a main road. I just rang round a few processors to be honest, a few said no first. Google search gets you most contact numbers but speak to local farmers preferably on similar systems to see who picks up from them if you already live locally.

 

[FarmerWasty]

If you're in the Lake District go contact a fipple officer to help fund stuffs.

Charlie Payne looking for milk I hear.

 

[easy farming]

Also what sort of price would everyone pay for the cows for the OAD system I was thinking 50%jersey 50%friesian.

3/4 Jersey best for OAD but the Irish make 50/50 work and some use BW.
Unless you can get an OAD herd or buy from, just buy Kiwicross and milk record, nothing fancy a BF, protein and SCC from NMR or CIS plus yields and a spread sheet will do the calculations. A number will just go fat and dry themselves off. Be careful on TB history on where you buy from.

 

[Swaley]

3/4 Jersey best for OAD but the Irish make 50/50 work and some use BW.
Unless you can get an OAD herd or buy from, just buy Kiwicross and milk record, nothing fancy a BF, protein and SCC from NMR or CIS plus yields and a spread sheet will do the calculations. A number will just go fat and dry themselves off. Be careful on TB history on where you buy from.

What sort of price would you say a kiwi cow would cost me its just for writing up a few numbers of course I could buy something not so fancy and breed up to something better thanks

 

[easy farming]

What sort of price would you say a kiwi cow would cost me its just for writing up a few numbers of course I could buy something not so fancy and breed up to something better thanks

Try "pasture to profit" on Facebook and ask there, just seen Gordon Tweedie selling some cows. Bess Jowsey the LIC consultant covers your patch, she will be more in touch with prices in your area.

 

[Swaley]

Try "pasture to profit" on Facebook and ask there, just seen Gordon Tweedie selling some cows. Bess Jowsey the LIC consultant covers your patch, she will be more in touch with prices in your area.

Thanks alot

 

[DairyNerd]

What sort of price would you say a kiwi cow would cost me its just for writing up a few numbers of course I could buy something not so fancy and breed up to something better thanks

Mine varied from 600 quid for 6th lactation at a dispersal sale to 1250 for irish FR/jersey including haulage from Ireland both about 12 months ago, so totally depends what you want. I wouldn't discount going flying herd to start with if you want to lessen your workload, having said that I can totally see the reward in breeding your own.

 

[Swaley]

Mine varied from 600 quid for 6th lactation at a dispersal sale to 1250 for irish FR/jersey including haulage from Ireland both about 12 months ago, so totally depends what you want. I wouldn't discount going flying herd to start with if you want to lessen your workload, having said that I can totally see the reward in breeding your own.

We where a flying herd here before and always said about no breeding replacements but with wanting a OAD herd thought breeding my own would be best I could he wrong. Was there much difference in the £600 to the 1250 apart from age? Thanks

 

[DairyNerd]

We where a flying herd here before and always said about no breeding replacements but with wanting a OAD herd thought breeding my own would be best I could he wrong. Was there much difference in the £600 to the 1250 apart from age? Thanks

Bought 30 cows at 1250 from Ireland, very happy with them, very low SCC, high solids, great feet. Had their solids data before buying. Only two that cheap from market but both in calf, 1 dry now neither been any problems and one is my sons favorite now . I have no milk meters so can't tell you exact yields and don't milk record apart from twice for SCC before dry off but i think the full OAD guys would recommend recording monthly. I would buy the right cows with proven solids production and low SCC and save your money elsewhere.

 

[More to life]

@Beef farmer how do you buy cheap cows?

 

[onesiedale]

mature cows will put milk (and solids) in the tank. Heifers on a OAD system need to be kept to a minimum. They will affect herd productivity dis-proportionately