Friday 26 October 2012
Cows Inside
When I say that words fail me to describe the type of year its been for cattle , I will use it as the excuse for not keeping this blog up to date . The Spring started off so promising , with an early turnout for the herd . March 21st saw the cows out through the day, and out night and day a month after that. It was the earliest turnout for a few years , and all was looking well. After that , the weather has pretty much gone downhill. Constant rain through out the spring/summer, and a pretty lousy Autumn has been hard on the girls to say the least. I have been surprised at just how well they performed this summer, although yields have been hit a little. Silage stocks are ok for the winter, first cut quality is again, surprisingly good, the same can't be said for 2nd cut , which , quite frankly is closer to youngstock fodder than milk cow material. However , it will have to do as a buffer fodder for next summer.
Feeding the dairy cows is always a challenge , keeping an eye on quality but also cost. This years feed bills seem to be going through the roof, but they need fed, and the worst thing we could do is to skimp on quality, although I do sometimes feel I am struggling to get this message across ! ! ! We are on the lookout for a new nutritionist to guide us through the next few months. It's very easy to get the basic feeding correct, it's just the nitty gritty details that need that little bit of expertise.
At the moment the cows have been averaging around 28.5 ltrs/day which I feel is quite respectable , but there's always scope for more !
Plenty calves have been born throughout the summer,sire being Emerald, Twist, Teirgan, Gold Crown as well as Hereford calves from our heifers.
Service sires at the moment are Toc-Farm Duplex Glauco , Morningview Apprentice, Pirolo Goldwyn Wyman, Siemers Atwood Allthat, Hydaways Goldmine, and Charolais and Limousin on the lower end of the herd.
The Gracious family are doing away quite nicely, with two new members , Chloanne Emerald Gracious( Emerald X Hanno X Addison ) and Chloanne End Story Gracious ( End Story X Goldwyn X Hershel )
Pregnancies lined up from the family include sires Stanley Cup, Currajugle Gonzo, Synergy Always Red and Artes.
Its good to see daughters now on the ground from Chloanne Lowick,hopefully breeders are happy with the calves so far.
More importantly , heifers by Chloanne Gallagher are now being classified. I am fairly pleased with scores so far, we even have a VG85 on farm here.
The cows finally came inside on September 24th , much earlier than usual.It all happened very quickly. One minute the weather was fair, the next absolutely foul, leaving me with no option but to house them. As it turns out , this has been the best thing we have ever done . The cows responded well to their new surroundings and have rewarded us with increased yields.
The dry cows and youngstock are still outside, bit with colder weather forecast , its only a matter of time before all sheds are full , and winter will be well and truely here !
Friday 20 January 2012
Keeping Cosy !
Well, we are half way through January now , and the weather this winter has really been exceptionally kind , if you discount a couple of extremely windy days. Worth remembering though that the Winter still has a good few weeks to run its course so best to stay on the wrapped up side of things, as these two young trendy girls are demonstrating. Blue is just SO their colour.
I am using these jackets to keep the calves just that little bit warmer and hopefully the will convert their food into growth more than just trying to stay warm.
The two "glamour" girls are the newest members to the Chloanne herd.
Chloanne Twist Gracious is out of Chloanne Moscow Gracious and is by Cogent Twist.
She was born on the 6th January.
Close behind her , being born on the 8th January is Chloanne Doberman Gracious, out of Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2, and sired by Coppertop Doberman.
It is unreal the amount of grass that grew last year , and also the amount of grass that was still in the fields after the cows had grazed them . We have been wintering sheep for the last month and they will stay here till the end of January. They really do have their work cut out for them , as there is acres of the green stuff to get through. Another few weeks and we shall be looking towards this years grazing and before you know it the fields will be getting rolled etc etc.
The cows are milking fairly well with some of the fresh calvers now up to the dizzy heights of 55 ltrs/day. Always great to see cows doing yields like that effortlessly.
Cow fertility too, has been on the up side lately, hopefully as a result of the feeding they get . We have some good pregnancies lined up for through the year , to bulls like Ralma Gold Crown, Hydaways Goldmine, Chloanne Lowick, Bomaz Marion Emerald, Regancrest Clinton, Coldsprings Garner and some young bulls too.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Busy Autumn
As usual I have left it FAR too long to post an update as to what has been happening here. 3 months nearly. The only excuse I have is that it has been busy, busy, busy !
The main work has been in getting the straw all baled and led in , getting more silage bales made , to make best use of the large quantities of grass we have had , and keeping a close eye on milk production.
Silage stocks seem to be a bit on the lean side this year , and that's a bit of a worry . You never know just what the British winter is going to throw at you , and the silage shortfall could really come and bite us in the Spring .We are now going to start and incorporate big bale silage into the ration in an attempt to slow down the rate of usage in the main silage clamp. hopefully this won't have too much of an impact in yields.
The cows have really eaten large quantities of buffer feeding throughout the summer, but this has, I think, paid for itself in better condition scores and generally healthier cattle . I can honestly say that on the whole I have never seen the cows looking as good.Fingers crossed they can make the transition to winter housing with little upset. The cows have actually been in at night for the last 2 weeks and I'm sure they have appreciated it just as much as I have . It's no fun walking the dark fields at 3.30 in the morning trying to find cows.
One of our main "projects" for the summer was to put cubicle mattresses down. These have been a great success with the cows taking to them instantly. They always had rubber mats before , but they had a tendency to move about a bit, so these are far better.
I too have found the mattresses to be so much easier to work with , no more pushing and shoving mats back on the concrete twice a day , so it's a win win situation .
Last month we also upgraded the pulsation in the milking parlour. This was a job that was well overdue , in fact should probably have been done about 10 years ago when we last did a bit of work in the parlour. We have taken out the old Fullwood pulsation with the old master relays and now each unit has it's own pulsation , which only works when the cow is actually getting milked . it takes a little getting used to a first , when all the units are off and there is no sound of the thump thump thump of the old pulsators. The benefits to the cow are that that we should have eliminated any variation in the vacuum levels that the old set up might have had , and indeed , so far , the vacuum level gauge never moves at all during milking. The other benefit that all milkers are noticing is that the milkings do seem to be quicker, so that's got to be a good thing for both animal and operator .
Chloanne Lowick finally went on sale from Cogent breeding last month .He is available as a young sire at the moment.
It's always great to see a bull that you've bred go on to be used in other breeders herds. I'm sure he will do some good in their herds.
Soon it will be time for all the youngstock to come inside and then it truly will feel like winter. Surely we can't have as bad a time as we have had the last couple of years. It would be nice just to have as good a winter as we have had autumn. Fingers crossed !
The main work has been in getting the straw all baled and led in , getting more silage bales made , to make best use of the large quantities of grass we have had , and keeping a close eye on milk production.
Silage stocks seem to be a bit on the lean side this year , and that's a bit of a worry . You never know just what the British winter is going to throw at you , and the silage shortfall could really come and bite us in the Spring .We are now going to start and incorporate big bale silage into the ration in an attempt to slow down the rate of usage in the main silage clamp. hopefully this won't have too much of an impact in yields.
The cows have really eaten large quantities of buffer feeding throughout the summer, but this has, I think, paid for itself in better condition scores and generally healthier cattle . I can honestly say that on the whole I have never seen the cows looking as good.Fingers crossed they can make the transition to winter housing with little upset. The cows have actually been in at night for the last 2 weeks and I'm sure they have appreciated it just as much as I have . It's no fun walking the dark fields at 3.30 in the morning trying to find cows.
One of our main "projects" for the summer was to put cubicle mattresses down. These have been a great success with the cows taking to them instantly. They always had rubber mats before , but they had a tendency to move about a bit, so these are far better.
I too have found the mattresses to be so much easier to work with , no more pushing and shoving mats back on the concrete twice a day , so it's a win win situation .
Last month we also upgraded the pulsation in the milking parlour. This was a job that was well overdue , in fact should probably have been done about 10 years ago when we last did a bit of work in the parlour. We have taken out the old Fullwood pulsation with the old master relays and now each unit has it's own pulsation , which only works when the cow is actually getting milked . it takes a little getting used to a first , when all the units are off and there is no sound of the thump thump thump of the old pulsators. The benefits to the cow are that that we should have eliminated any variation in the vacuum levels that the old set up might have had , and indeed , so far , the vacuum level gauge never moves at all during milking. The other benefit that all milkers are noticing is that the milkings do seem to be quicker, so that's got to be a good thing for both animal and operator .
Chloanne Lowick finally went on sale from Cogent breeding last month .He is available as a young sire at the moment.
It's always great to see a bull that you've bred go on to be used in other breeders herds. I'm sure he will do some good in their herds.
Soon it will be time for all the youngstock to come inside and then it truly will feel like winter. Surely we can't have as bad a time as we have had the last couple of years. It would be nice just to have as good a winter as we have had autumn. Fingers crossed !
Monday 8 August 2011
Who's The Daddy ?
I have had a few recent discussions on Twitter about bulls, good ones , bad ones, why I use particular ones, what I'm looking for in a bull, which bull has done good , and which ones have done harm . It did kind of get me thinking as to some of the answers to these points.
In these days of maximising profit, longevity has to be the key to any breeding policy . Replacing animals has to be one of the most costly things you can do , so the less often you have to do this the better. So a bull that has a positive lifespan score is always going to be a step in the right direction.
But this has not always been the case. I remember many years ago when the main objective was to get as much milk from the cows and therefore keep using bulls with high milk figures and you were onto a sure fire winner. Problem was these cows just didn't last , they were literally being milked to death. Over the years , breeders have come to realise that whilst milk production figures are important in a bulls figures , so too is the need for the milking daughters to last as long as possible in order to contribute to the farms profit for as long as possible.
Looking back over the last 14 years to the bulls we have used in the herd , it is a real who's who of the Holstein breed , with many popular names and also a few names that have come and gone , never to be heard of again.
Singingbrook NB Mascot was a bull that came onto the scene in a big way , he was THE bull to be seen using and we in turn used him , looking back at how his daughters milked , they milked fine , but their mammary systems left much to be desired .
Pirocco Magnitude I can remember as being an easy calving bull and we used him our heifers. He left some cracking daughters that had some fairly tidy udders on them .
One bull that really did leave his mark on the herd was Hairybriez, he was a Mascot son. We had many daughters by him , each one instantly recognisable by the distinctive "dotty" markings .I don't think we had a really bad daughter by him and his influence is probably still felt in the herd today . Certainly the markings are still here.
Young bulls have always been used here , as mentioned in other posts here on the blog. Many from Cogent and many from Genus alike . In all , I would say that they have not done us much harm at all . In the early years of using young bulls , it was the young bulls that had the highest index figures , and often it would be daughters of those bulls that went on to be our highest index cows.
Etazon Lord Lily and Eastview Meadowlord have easily given me some of the nicest cattle I've milked. We still have 6 Meadowlords around now.They are tall, graceful and very black cattle , they certainly stood out from the herd.
Urnieta Zelati was an interesting bull when I first used him , and I always wish I'd used him more heavily .Looking back we were using him in July 2003 , so that was quite early for him . His daughters were milk machines and we still have 5 milking in the herd today.
Two bulls which I acquired were Conant Acres Alonzo and Silvershade Saunders. We has many many daughters of these bulls and on the whole they have done us no harm at all . We still have 5 Saunders milking and 3 Alonzo's.
Another bull worthy of a mention has been Hanno, a very under rated bull in my opinion. With 6 daughters still on the go , they just keep going , and never really show themselves to you for anything untoward. They're the best kind of cow .
For more up to date bulls , we have youngstock on the ground from bulls such as Alpag Iron Active , Cogent Loader, Chloanne Gallagher, Wa-Del Hayden, Dalbytop Phil, Cogent Desmond, Chloanne Hannover ,Go Farm Pitbull and Bangaro Red to name a few.
Current service sires for the herd are Ralma Gold Crown and Bomaz Marion Emerald.
Current service sires for some of the Chloanne girls have included End Road Oman Bronco , Cogent Twist and Coppertop Doberman.
Today we are looking for the bull which will leave a truly "Long Life cow" .
They must be capable of passing on sound feet and legs , a mammary system that is both functional and can handle the quantities of milk expected from a modern Holstein. Calving ease and somatic cell counts are now even more important in a bulls proof as these traits should hopefully contribute to a cows profitability.
There is no one bull that will deliver all things to all herds in one generation, no matter how good his figures look in the catalogue!
It's a simple matter of keeping on breeding the best cattle you can and as long as you see some progress in either the classification results, the herd averages in milk production or the average number of completed lactations in the herd , these are steps in the right direction
In these days of maximising profit, longevity has to be the key to any breeding policy . Replacing animals has to be one of the most costly things you can do , so the less often you have to do this the better. So a bull that has a positive lifespan score is always going to be a step in the right direction.
But this has not always been the case. I remember many years ago when the main objective was to get as much milk from the cows and therefore keep using bulls with high milk figures and you were onto a sure fire winner. Problem was these cows just didn't last , they were literally being milked to death. Over the years , breeders have come to realise that whilst milk production figures are important in a bulls figures , so too is the need for the milking daughters to last as long as possible in order to contribute to the farms profit for as long as possible.
Looking back over the last 14 years to the bulls we have used in the herd , it is a real who's who of the Holstein breed , with many popular names and also a few names that have come and gone , never to be heard of again.
Singingbrook NB Mascot was a bull that came onto the scene in a big way , he was THE bull to be seen using and we in turn used him , looking back at how his daughters milked , they milked fine , but their mammary systems left much to be desired .
Pirocco Magnitude I can remember as being an easy calving bull and we used him our heifers. He left some cracking daughters that had some fairly tidy udders on them .
One bull that really did leave his mark on the herd was Hairybriez, he was a Mascot son. We had many daughters by him , each one instantly recognisable by the distinctive "dotty" markings .I don't think we had a really bad daughter by him and his influence is probably still felt in the herd today . Certainly the markings are still here.
Young bulls have always been used here , as mentioned in other posts here on the blog. Many from Cogent and many from Genus alike . In all , I would say that they have not done us much harm at all . In the early years of using young bulls , it was the young bulls that had the highest index figures , and often it would be daughters of those bulls that went on to be our highest index cows.
Etazon Lord Lily and Eastview Meadowlord have easily given me some of the nicest cattle I've milked. We still have 6 Meadowlords around now.They are tall, graceful and very black cattle , they certainly stood out from the herd.
Urnieta Zelati was an interesting bull when I first used him , and I always wish I'd used him more heavily .Looking back we were using him in July 2003 , so that was quite early for him . His daughters were milk machines and we still have 5 milking in the herd today.
Two bulls which I acquired were Conant Acres Alonzo and Silvershade Saunders. We has many many daughters of these bulls and on the whole they have done us no harm at all . We still have 5 Saunders milking and 3 Alonzo's.
Another bull worthy of a mention has been Hanno, a very under rated bull in my opinion. With 6 daughters still on the go , they just keep going , and never really show themselves to you for anything untoward. They're the best kind of cow .
For more up to date bulls , we have youngstock on the ground from bulls such as Alpag Iron Active , Cogent Loader, Chloanne Gallagher, Wa-Del Hayden, Dalbytop Phil, Cogent Desmond, Chloanne Hannover ,Go Farm Pitbull and Bangaro Red to name a few.
Current service sires for the herd are Ralma Gold Crown and Bomaz Marion Emerald.
Current service sires for some of the Chloanne girls have included End Road Oman Bronco , Cogent Twist and Coppertop Doberman.
Today we are looking for the bull which will leave a truly "Long Life cow" .
They must be capable of passing on sound feet and legs , a mammary system that is both functional and can handle the quantities of milk expected from a modern Holstein. Calving ease and somatic cell counts are now even more important in a bulls proof as these traits should hopefully contribute to a cows profitability.
There is no one bull that will deliver all things to all herds in one generation, no matter how good his figures look in the catalogue!
It's a simple matter of keeping on breeding the best cattle you can and as long as you see some progress in either the classification results, the herd averages in milk production or the average number of completed lactations in the herd , these are steps in the right direction
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Marley and Me
As quick as one bull has left the herd , another has arrived in the shape of Chloanne Marley . He is sired by End Road Oman Bronco and is out of a cracking little heifer Chloanne DP Gracious , who herself is out of Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious , the dam of the two bulls that have already gone down to Cogent Ltd. Its never an easy decision to make as to whether I keep a bull or not . Sometimes it's because of the cow family , sometimes it's because of the sire , or even just because he looks a tidy calf that will develop into a stunning bull (hopefully). I have kept this one because of his breeding , on both sides , and also because there is only one other Bronco bull registered at the moment(29/6/11) so it's nice to have an early son from a sire .
The family line has proven itself time and time again and I'm confident that Chloanne DP Gracious will out perform her herd mates to stand out as the rest have done.
Chloanne Webster Gracious is due to calve this week too , she is in calf to Morningview Legend . This will be her 7th calving and she has an impressive lifetime yield so far of 88,374 ltrs. A nice easy calving will see her well on her road to getting near being a 100t cow.
Another exciting pregnancy is Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2, who is now safely in calf to Coppertop Doberman. This is a mating that was suggested to me by ABS Genus, and it would be nice to get a heifer calf off her for me , but also if it were a bull then if Genus were at all interested then that would be ideal too . It's left with them that I will keep them informed as to how she is doing . At the moment she has a lactation yield of 10,865 ltrs in 201 days and she's still milking around the 38 ltrs mark every day.
Some of the girls will be getting classified at the end of next week so with any luck they will move up a point or two.
The family line has proven itself time and time again and I'm confident that Chloanne DP Gracious will out perform her herd mates to stand out as the rest have done.
Chloanne Webster Gracious is due to calve this week too , she is in calf to Morningview Legend . This will be her 7th calving and she has an impressive lifetime yield so far of 88,374 ltrs. A nice easy calving will see her well on her road to getting near being a 100t cow.
Another exciting pregnancy is Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2, who is now safely in calf to Coppertop Doberman. This is a mating that was suggested to me by ABS Genus, and it would be nice to get a heifer calf off her for me , but also if it were a bull then if Genus were at all interested then that would be ideal too . It's left with them that I will keep them informed as to how she is doing . At the moment she has a lactation yield of 10,865 ltrs in 201 days and she's still milking around the 38 ltrs mark every day.
Some of the girls will be getting classified at the end of next week so with any luck they will move up a point or two.
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Chloanne Lowick
At the end of last week , our young Holstein bull , Chloanne Lowick , was finally picked up by Cogent Breeding to be taken down to their premises to begin being tested as a young sire for them! He is by the sire Morningview Legend and is out of the truly great cow Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious.
This is the second bull to be tested from the dam , who is sadly not with us due to complications after calving last year .
It's an amazing feeling when a company is interested in some of the animals and genetics that you are working with , topped only by the news that they will indeed take an animal .
If all goes according to plan , then semen should be ready from him later in the year, with the first offspring being born late summer next year .It really is a waiting game to see just how well the farmers and breeders who used the bulls liked them , or indeed didn't like them. It is the information supplied by them to the AI company that will determine whether the young bull will go on to bigger and better things , or simply not be good enough for their exacting standards.
The first bull , Chloanne Gallagher, now has 61 registered daughters in around 30 herds. I don't have figures of how many daughters could be in commercial herds but do still milk record.Our first daughters are now at the age to be running with the bull , and hopefully over the next few weeks and months more daughters will get in calve.
It is once these daughters start to calve down themselves that their figures will contribute to a young bulls proof. Getting a bull to the point of him having a proof takes a very long time and bucket loads of frustration.
We use plenty of young bull semen throughout the herd as well as using proven bulls . I feel very strongly that more farmers should use some young bull semen , even if it was only 10 or 20 straws.The genetics available now from all studs are the best on offer from around the world, and by using young sires it is a chance to get the very best from the best cow families available . With young bull semen being available from some companies for as little as £3 or £4 a straw, it really is an ideal chance to better your herd for little cost. All proven bulls have started off life as a young bull , and farmers who refuse to use young bull semen on grounds of low reliability etc should think to themselves that if we all took that attitude then no bull would get a fair chance at all .
This is the second bull to be tested from the dam , who is sadly not with us due to complications after calving last year .
It's an amazing feeling when a company is interested in some of the animals and genetics that you are working with , topped only by the news that they will indeed take an animal .
If all goes according to plan , then semen should be ready from him later in the year, with the first offspring being born late summer next year .It really is a waiting game to see just how well the farmers and breeders who used the bulls liked them , or indeed didn't like them. It is the information supplied by them to the AI company that will determine whether the young bull will go on to bigger and better things , or simply not be good enough for their exacting standards.
The first bull , Chloanne Gallagher, now has 61 registered daughters in around 30 herds. I don't have figures of how many daughters could be in commercial herds but do still milk record.Our first daughters are now at the age to be running with the bull , and hopefully over the next few weeks and months more daughters will get in calve.
It is once these daughters start to calve down themselves that their figures will contribute to a young bulls proof. Getting a bull to the point of him having a proof takes a very long time and bucket loads of frustration.
We use plenty of young bull semen throughout the herd as well as using proven bulls . I feel very strongly that more farmers should use some young bull semen , even if it was only 10 or 20 straws.The genetics available now from all studs are the best on offer from around the world, and by using young sires it is a chance to get the very best from the best cow families available . With young bull semen being available from some companies for as little as £3 or £4 a straw, it really is an ideal chance to better your herd for little cost. All proven bulls have started off life as a young bull , and farmers who refuse to use young bull semen on grounds of low reliability etc should think to themselves that if we all took that attitude then no bull would get a fair chance at all .
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Perfect Grazing . . . . . .So Far !
With us now into mid-June , silage is now a distant memory , and we are now watching the grass growing (all be it slowly)ready for 2nd cut . The ground is very dry and we have really only had one day of any real rain . On the grazing side of things the cows are keeping on top of all the grazing strips this year . I have never seen them eat the grass the way they have this year , no waste at all so far. Obviously this is a great sign , it means they are utilising the grass very well , but it also means that I have not had any strips to cut and bale , and this in turn will have an effect as to how much extra grass we will need to find to bale later on .We had a bountiful supply of bales just before turnout , but these were sold . . . . . a decision that could very well come back to haunt us .It is now looking like we may have to open up our silage pit quite soon , to ensure that we can continue to buffer feed the cows through the summer.
With all this food that the cows are eating , it is pleasing to see positive results, not just in the bulk tank, but also in the condition of the cows and also in the fertility of the herd , which has remained fairly high. Also our nutrition advice is spot on at the moment , and we are achieving FCE figures of 1.5 , which at this time of year and for a herd grazing outside , isn't too shabby.
We are focusing more and more on the state of grazing grass , and trying to tackle any weed issues we have . These tend to be field specific , and we are trying to get rid of the dreaded Chickweed , easy to kill but at the expense of the clover in the sward. Some of our fields will have been in the same grass for quite a number of years now , and that is something we may have to address, obviously newer and better varieties come along , and it is unrealistic to expect a 4 or 5 year ley to last 6 or 7 years without some form of drop in quality and performance.
Overall the cows have had the best Spring/Summer that I can remember , nice and dry , no mud to have to contend with , and I really think this has all had a knock on effect to the cows health . Somatic cell counts continue to be the lowest we have had , and that too is a general indication of the status of the herd health. Long may it continue . Rain at night , heat in the day , surely not too much to ask for ?
With all this food that the cows are eating , it is pleasing to see positive results, not just in the bulk tank, but also in the condition of the cows and also in the fertility of the herd , which has remained fairly high. Also our nutrition advice is spot on at the moment , and we are achieving FCE figures of 1.5 , which at this time of year and for a herd grazing outside , isn't too shabby.
We are focusing more and more on the state of grazing grass , and trying to tackle any weed issues we have . These tend to be field specific , and we are trying to get rid of the dreaded Chickweed , easy to kill but at the expense of the clover in the sward. Some of our fields will have been in the same grass for quite a number of years now , and that is something we may have to address, obviously newer and better varieties come along , and it is unrealistic to expect a 4 or 5 year ley to last 6 or 7 years without some form of drop in quality and performance.
Overall the cows have had the best Spring/Summer that I can remember , nice and dry , no mud to have to contend with , and I really think this has all had a knock on effect to the cows health . Somatic cell counts continue to be the lowest we have had , and that too is a general indication of the status of the herd health. Long may it continue . Rain at night , heat in the day , surely not too much to ask for ?
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