Solids contract: calving pattern, total solids

[DairyNerd]

Targeted at anyone on a cheese contract or constituents to an extent but anyone's views welcome.

We calved late March to ĺate June this year, first year farming on own account, doing the same next year. The hot summer has made me question it but not going to change everything after 1 year of hot weather, just want to know what systems others run on solids contracts and why. Reason for calving then for us was calving outside, flexibility over late winter with lower production as our housing ok but not great, also to target higher solids and seasonality through summer and Autumn on grass. Some things have worked well, some things haven't.

I guess my specific questions are:

When do you calve and why? Does your contract influence this or are you just trying to produce milk as cheaply as possible?

What solids production do you target off how much cake? Measured however you want per cow/ per hectare or just milk fat/protein %.

 

[Bald Rick]

Cheese (ish) contract and 6 miles from processor
AYR with slight autumn bias to hit winter bonus on offer then drop production slightly to try and avoid spring penalties.
Pay close attention to CoP but quality forages key to give day on day level profile both litres and solids (subject to variations of seasonality as detailed above) throughout year with running ave solids at 10.2%
Find jerseys ultra responsive to inputs so can tweak rations at will provided the mills etc can deliver on their promises

But don‘t take any notice of what we do as it’s a housed herd ….

 

[Manney]

Cheese contract paid on solids basis here.

Planned start of calving 1st Feb. Aim for as many days in milk as sensibly possible. Calving starts when it does to match grass growth curve.

Milk once a day and achieve 375kg solids per cow but would like to get to 400kg solids. Do this on 500 - 600kg conc. Stocked at just over 3 cows per ha on the grazing platform.

My system is all about simplicity and low cost yet seems to achieve a better than most producers milk price. So I guess I'm aiming to be on higher end of the milk price scale and the lower end of the cost of production scale.

I like a simple life and a good margin.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Arla solids contract here

Planned start of calving is based around not having to AI cows on the kids birthdays so I start just after my daughter's birthday which is May 8th. This gives a PSC of around the 20th Feb. If we went much later we could struggle to keep on top of grass and I like to have calving wrapped up by the end of April. I've always found May June cows to be a massive disappointment.

4500litres, 450 kg solids last year from 900 kg cake. Still plenty of room for improvement.

 

[In the pit]

Surely you’re milking cows indoors for the last 100 days of there lactation which must be a big cost for not a lot of milk

 

[DairyNerd]

Arla solids contract here

Planned start of calving is based around not having to AI cows on the kids birthdays so I start just after my daughter's birthday which is May 8th. This gives a PSC of around the 20th Feb. If we went much later we could struggle to keep on top of grass and I like to have calving wrapped up by the end of April. I've always found May June cows to be a massive disappointment.

4500litres, 450 kg solids last year from 900 kg cake. Still plenty of room for improvement.

Was a bit worried about solids percentages over Spring as my price is just multipliers of fat and protein. Also seasonality going Spring calving (12p swing from Spring to Autumn). Worked on a 300 cow Spring calving unit before going alone, outwintered on beet so used to and like the system, totally agree with other comments that it is the cheapest way to produce milk, just not sure it suits this farm and contract. Would be interested if anyone on a Wyke cheese contract finds Spring calving works well

 

[Hill Dairy]

Targeted at anyone on a cheese contract or constituents to an extent but anyone's views welcome.

We calved late March to ĺate June this year, first year farming on own account, doing the same next year. The hot summer has made me question it but not going to change everything after 1 year of hot weather, just want to know what systems others run on solids contracts and why. Reason for calving then for us was calving outside, flexibility over late winter with lower production as our housing ok but not great, also to target higher solids and seasonality through summer and Autumn on grass. Some things have worked well, some things haven't.

I guess my specific questions are:

When do you calve and why? Does your contract influence this or are you just trying to produce milk as cheaply as possible?

What solids production do you target off how much cake? Measured however you want per cow/ per hectare or just milk fat/protein %.

We run a very simular calving pattern to yours pland start of calving 20 march 90% + calved outside. We house by night around the start of November and all in mid December if weather allows. We drop all the covers low in the back end as half our first round will be with drys. Everything goes out around start of march.
Key seems to be keeping cows well fed into the backend , We try and make a high quality first cut and find cows hold onto there lactation well. We may not peak quite as high as some of the February calvers but it's a flatter curve.

+ is
Level seasonality
Good fertility, cow condition stays very even through the year.
Calving outside is healthy less than 1% Johne's.
- ivs
Around half of first round goes into drys.
Relys on some summer rain, this year didn't suit it.
Average last five years have done 470kg ms 6000ltrs off just over a tonne of cake.

Last year was great 497kgms off 960kg concs
This year won't be.

I'd definitely give it another year or two. What's your typical rainfall?

 

[lazy farmer]

Spring block here. Heavyish farm . So calving is supposed to start 20th of February. Seasonality costs us about 1p a litre overall as we feed to produce a good amount of solids as the back end. Currently we are still running at over 80% of peak production.
yield is around 570 kgs of solids from a 520kg cow on Normally 1.3tons of hard feed. This yr I’m not sure I can count high enough.
love the simplicity of block calving love having two months off.
love being able to keep a fair share of the income. Love the tax bill.love the lifestyle.
I think we would continue with spring block even if the seasonality got a lot harsher. Spring block makes it much easier for the mediocre to make profit. Im
Living proof.

 

[DairyNerd]

Surely you’re milking cows indoors for the last 100 days of there lactation which must be a big cost for not a lot of milk

See your point, obviously higher costs than dry cows; make more silage, slightly more muck etc... but we self feed, cubicle housed on unchopped straw and stack the muck up, would do that with dry cows too so from that point if view its quite cheap.

 

[jerseycowsman]

Targeted at anyone on a cheese contract or constituents to an extent but anyone's views welcome.

We calved late March to ĺate June this year, first year farming on own account, doing the same next year. The hot summer has made me question it but not going to change everything after 1 year of hot weather, just want to know what systems others run on solids contracts and why. Reason for calving then for us was calving outside, flexibility over late winter with lower production as our housing ok but not great, also to target higher solids and seasonality through summer and Autumn on grass. Some things have worked well, some things haven't.

I guess my specific questions are:

When do you calve and why? Does your contract influence this or are you just trying to produce milk as cheaply as possible?

What solids production do you target off how much cake? Measured however you want per cow/ per hectare or just milk fat/protein %.

Grazed grass cost about half as much as any other feed, there’s your answer. So they’d have to knock off 50% of my spring price before I’d consider changing from spring calving

 

[DairyNerd]

We run a very simular calving pattern to yours pland start of calving 20 march 90% + calved outside. We house by night around the start of November and all in mid December if weather allows. We drop all the covers low in the back end as half our first round will be with drys. Everything goes out around start of march.
Key seems to be keeping cows well fed into the backend , We try and make a high quality first cut and find cows hold onto there lactation well. We may not peak quite as high as some of the February calvers but it's a flatter curve.

+ is
Level seasonality
Good fertility, cow condition stays very even through the year.
Calving outside is healthy less than 1% Johne's.
- ivs
Around half of first round goes into drys.
Relys on some summer rain, this year didn't suit it.
Average last five years have done 470kg ms 6000ltrs off just over a tonne of cake.

Last year was great 497kgms off 960kg concs
This year won't be.

I'd definitely give it another year or two. What's your typical rainfall?

Sounds good, in East Devon so fairly dry, only been here 1 year but i think about 30-35 inches a year. This year this area had basically nothing all summer, been feeding silage since mid-July, not much now but were on full ration for about 6 weeks, but that would have been the same with Spring calving. Got possibility of buying some maize from neighbour for next summer. Fairly dry farm, last farmer here kept cows out until December most years.

 

[sidjon]

Sounds good, in East Devon so fairly dry, only been here 1 year but i think about 30-35 inches a year. This year this area had basically nothing all summer, been feeding silage since mid-July, not much now but were on full ration for about 6 weeks, but that would have been the same with Spring calving. Got possibility of buying some maize from neighbour for next summer. Fairly dry farm, last farmer here kept cows out until December most years.

Would suggest end of January into February to calf if you're on east devon dry soils, most spring calvers are early in that area, to get maximum out of grass before it goes dry, I calf 1st of March, because I need to calf outside too, but we get 68 inches of rain and can snow in March, in a 10 week block (aiming for 8 week next)

 

[jimmer]

Spring block, cheese contract, 5 miles from you
15th Feb 10 weeks flying herd
450 ish kg solids off 1 ish tonne of floor sweepings
Your sized herd you could put in 5 acres of winter crop out winter dry cows, put maize back in to buffer
You've other threads about dealing with slurry and dirty water, easy answer is not produce it
Pop in any time, half price milkshakes are available at owners discretion

 

[DairyNerd]

Spring block, cheese contract, 5 miles from you
15th Feb 10 weeks flying herd
450 ish kg solids off 1 ish tonne of floor sweepings
Your sized herd you could put in 5 acres of winter crop out winter dry cows, put maize back in to buffer
You've other threads about dealing with slurry and dirty water, easy answer is not produce it
Pop in any time, half price milkshakes are available at owners discretion

Thanks. What fats and proteins do you get through the Spring and also later in the year? Do you lose much on seasonality?

 

[sidjon]

Thanks. What fats and proteins do you get through the Spring and also later in the year? Do you lose much on seasonality?

What is Wyke seasonality? Whole of the months on it or just the extra?

 

[som farmer]

returned to aut calving, 3 dry summers, had to buy grub, for the spring calvers, to feed them through the summer, isn't the idea.

Aim to calve mid oct, till xmas, cows housed at calving, and pushed for max milk, turn out, expect them to be i/c, and produce milk off grass, with lower cake use. Still room to tighten the block, still have a few feb/march calvers, will either run round, or barren.

Labour big issue, there isn't any locally, so hols giving just under 9,000, bf 4.3, and protein 3.5, cake would just top 2 ton, fed more, because of drought.

Quality fodder, is the key, with maize, and some own cereals fed.

 

[jimmer]

4.6 - 3.9 in the spring drop a bit mid summer to 4.5 - 3.6 back up to 4.9 - 3.9 now, be over 5 and over 4 hopefully mid Oct till dry off

 

[som farmer]

What is Wyke seasonality? Whole of the months on it or just the extra?

we are not actually sure, as we were changing sprg to autm, they would ignore seasonality, for year 1, and it hasn't changed, which suited us, so haven't enquired.
Calving oct, +seasonality isn't much, no - seasonality, in the spring, is nice, until there is a need to alter, we are not going to rock the boat, by asking.

 

[DairyNerd]

4.6 - 3.9 in the spring drop a bit mid summer to 4.5 - 3.6 back up to 4.9 - 3.9 now, be over 5 and over 4 hopefully mid Oct till dry off

That's exactly the same as here this year for Summer and Autumn so i potentially wouldnt lose a lot basically.

 

[DairyNerd]

What is Wyke seasonality? Whole of the months on it or just the extra?

Up to -7p March to June. Up to +5p Aug to Nov. Paid on whole of months milk and worked out on how much over or under the rolling 12 month average you are.