Once a day milking

I thats it

Member
Depends on the stocking rate and how much grass the permanent pasture can grow through the grazing season.
Plenty of ground to go at so they would have plenty to eat but it certainly won't be rye grasses. Just thinking about alternative options to sheep and store cattle on the further rented ground.
 

Aircooled

Member
Location
co Antrim
Options for a northern location. Calving Oct-dec, tad milking from 1st of Nov to end of April. This would allow 6 months oad over the summer to allow extra time for harvest work etc but doesn't help much with the spring workload. The main concerns I would have attempting this would be the potential milk loss in May especially and the lack of a solids contract up here. As a one man band with cows crossing main road, there would be significant advantages also...comments welcome!
 

Manney

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
I've now completed my first full year of oad milking.

We went oad on 1st nov 2019, dried off mid dec 2019 and calved in 1st feb 2020 and milk oad for the full season.

To date we have averaged 4199 litres at 4.83 bf and 3.77 pro so 361kg solids per cow. I've fed just over 500kg conc which has cost me just over 3ppl. I think there is scope to cut conc use but I do use it as a comfort blanket!

Scc has been much lower than expected, well below 100 in early lactation and even now around 170 but dry of is only weeks aways. Had a few cases of mastitis early lactation but nothing all summer and autumn. Cow health is incredible and feet noticeably better.

6 week in calf rate is higher, tighter block overall and more incalf to the point I now have cows to sell.

Obviously feed costs were the biggest saving but I've seen small savings across all variable cost even though we are carrying 20% more cows. Made a similar cash surplus to previous years on tad.

Did 24hr grazing allocations so that cut a huge amount of fencer moving out and made the platform much easier to manage.

2 cows got culled out of 200. One with chronic mastitis and the other went fat and dried herself of in october, she made £1045 as a cull so not all bad!

So in summary it's gone bloody well for my first year oad with a bunch of british fr's!
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
I've now completed my first full year of oad milking.

We went oad on 1st nov 2019, dried off mid dec 2019 and calved in 1st feb 2020 and milk oad for the full season.

To date we have averaged 4199 litres at 4.83 bf and 3.77 pro so 361kg solids per cow. I've fed just over 500kg conc which has cost me just over 3ppl. I think there is scope to cut conc use but I do use it as a comfort blanket!

Scc has been much lower than expected, well below 100 in early lactation and even now around 170 but dry of is only weeks aways. Had a few cases of mastitis early lactation but nothing all summer and autumn. Cow health is incredible and feet noticeably better.

6 week in calf rate is higher, tighter block overall and more incalf to the point I now have cows to sell.

Obviously feed costs were the biggest saving but I've seen small savings across all variable cost even though we are carrying 20% more cows. Made a similar cash surplus to previous years on tad.

Did 24hr grazing allocations so that cut a huge amount of fencer moving out and made the platform much easier to manage.

2 cows got culled out of 200. One with chronic mastitis and the other went fat and dried herself of in october, she made £1045 as a cull so not all bad!

So in summary it's gone bloody well for my first year oad with a bunch of british fr's!
Who do you sell your milk to?
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
I've now completed my first full year of oad milking.

We went oad on 1st nov 2019, dried off mid dec 2019 and calved in 1st feb 2020 and milk oad for the full season.

To date we have averaged 4199 litres at 4.83 bf and 3.77 pro so 361kg solids per cow. I've fed just over 500kg conc which has cost me just over 3ppl. I think there is scope to cut conc use but I do use it as a comfort blanket!

Scc has been much lower than expected, well below 100 in early lactation and even now around 170 but dry of is only weeks aways. Had a few cases of mastitis early lactation but nothing all summer and autumn. Cow health is incredible and feet noticeably better.

6 week in calf rate is higher, tighter block overall and more incalf to the point I now have cows to sell.

Obviously feed costs were the biggest saving but I've seen small savings across all variable cost even though we are carrying 20% more cows. Made a similar cash surplus to previous years on tad.

Did 24hr grazing allocations so that cut a huge amount of fencer moving out and made the platform much easier to manage.

2 cows got culled out of 200. One with chronic mastitis and the other went fat and dried herself of in october, she made £1045 as a cull so not all bad!

So in summary it's gone bloody well for my first year oad with a bunch of british fr's!
Sounds like a good result for you. What's not to like?
 

Aircooled

Member
Location
co Antrim
I've now completed my first full year of oad milking.

We went oad on 1st nov 2019, dried off mid dec 2019 and calved in 1st feb 2020 and milk oad for the full season.

To date we have averaged 4199 litres at 4.83 bf and 3.77 pro so 361kg solids per cow. I've fed just over 500kg conc which has cost me just over 3ppl. I think there is scope to cut conc use but I do use it as a comfort blanket!

Scc has been much lower than expected, well below 100 in early lactation and even now around 170 but dry of is only weeks aways. Had a few cases of mastitis early lactation but nothing all summer and autumn. Cow health is incredible and feet noticeably better.

6 week in calf rate is higher, tighter block overall and more incalf to the point I now have cows to sell.

Obviously feed costs were the biggest saving but I've seen small savings across all variable cost even though we are carrying 20% more cows. Made a similar cash surplus to previous years on tad.

Did 24hr grazing allocations so that cut a huge amount of fencer moving out and made the platform much easier to manage.

2 cows got culled out of 200. One with chronic mastitis and the other went fat and dried herself of in october, she made £1045 as a cull so not all bad!

So in summary it's gone bloody well for my first year oad with a bunch of british fr's!
Sounds as if it went like a dream. Well done. At least you have a year under your belt for when problems do arise.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
I've now completed my first full year of oad milking.

We went oad on 1st nov 2019, dried off mid dec 2019 and calved in 1st feb 2020 and milk oad for the full season.

To date we have averaged 4199 litres at 4.83 bf and 3.77 pro so 361kg solids per cow. I've fed just over 500kg conc which has cost me just over 3ppl. I think there is scope to cut conc use but I do use it as a comfort blanket!

Scc has been much lower than expected, well below 100 in early lactation and even now around 170 but dry of is only weeks aways. Had a few cases of mastitis early lactation but nothing all summer and autumn. Cow health is incredible and feet noticeably better.

6 week in calf rate is higher, tighter block overall and more incalf to the point I now have cows to sell.

Obviously feed costs were the biggest saving but I've seen small savings across all variable cost even though we are carrying 20% more cows. Made a similar cash surplus to previous years on tad.

Did 24hr grazing allocations so that cut a huge amount of fencer moving out and made the platform much easier to manage.

2 cows got culled out of 200. One with chronic mastitis and the other went fat and dried herself of in october, she made £1045 as a cull so not all bad!

So in summary it's gone bloody well for my first year oad with a bunch of british fr's!
What did SCC do?
 

Green Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall
Good stuff Manney. You should be pleased. Any cows took to it better or worse than others? Any changes to breeding policy in the future?
I think there will be a lot more interest in this type of system on your avg size family farm in the future.
 

Manney

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
The older british fr cows have put on more weight than I'd like but have milked ok. Younger fr cows have done ok and are looking good. The jersey crosses that I have have milked really well but I think the stars are the handful of jerseys that I have that look the best they've ever looked and have milked well.

I did put all my fr hefs to irish fr this year rightly or wrongly. Might look at a kiwi cross for them in the future. The jerseys and jrx work great on oad but cull and calf value is poor. I'm still very much weighing it all up tbh.
 
Location
Cornwall
The older british fr cows have put on more weight than I'd like but have milked ok. Younger fr cows have done ok and are looking good. The jersey crosses that I have have milked really well but I think the stars are the handful of jerseys that I have that look the best they've ever looked and have milked well.

I did put all my fr hefs to irish fr this year rightly or wrongly. Might look at a kiwi cross for them in the future. The jerseys and jrx work great on oad but cull and calf value is poor. I'm still very much weighing it all up tbh.

What made you choose the Irish friesian over the British friesian? I’m using a bit of both at the moment. Not fully convinced on the Irish friesian ye. I’m pretty chuffed with the friesians coming in this year though.
 

Whitewalker

Member
The older british fr cows have put on more weight than I'd like but have milked ok. Younger fr cows have done ok and are looking good. The jersey crosses that I have have milked really well but I think the stars are the handful of jerseys that I have that look the best they've ever looked and have milked well.

I did put all my fr hefs to irish fr this year rightly or wrongly. Might look at a kiwi cross for them in the future. The jerseys and jrx work great on oad but cull and calf value is poor. I'm still very much weighing it all up tbh.
Suppose I think what are they like fresh calved milked once a day ? Is there less of a flush because they are only milked once ?
 

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