Today is my last day at work before an extremely well earned break of 7 days . Prior to this I was last off in February , and prior to that , God knows when . I am scheduled to take 28 days holiday a year , last year I ended up carrying 5 days over and got paid for 14 , so in reality I only took 9 days . So I started this year with 33 , and ended up carrying over 24 . I'd like to think that in the weeks and months to come , this shortfall in time off can be reversed . It's certainly not good for anyone to work these types of shifts , especially when a working week can easily be in excess of 75 - 80 hours !
Anyhow , hopefully when I come back I will find the herd in a content and happy mood . They are now in at nights , whilst still grazing what grass is left through the day ! This is just an exercise project rather that anything else . Most of their feed is now getting fed through the Keenan mixer wagon . The milk has really dropped sharply this autumn , I think they really were out for too long at nights , and this lost milk is proving really hard to get back on them . Hopefully , by the time I come back , they might even be in through the day and then they will be on a totally balanced diet for the rest of the winter !
The new cubicles got finished on time , and I am so pleased with them . the cows have been exploring them , and so far most seem to be prepared to try them without much fuss. The main things I am noticing about them is that the cows are lying far better than they did in the old style cubicles that we had , and this in turn is helping to keep the beds so much cleaner . Hopefully this will continue through the winter too .It would have been nice to have posted a few pictures of them on this site , but , alas , my digital camera is broken , and my phone is away getting repaired too , so I can't even post anything on Twitter . As soon as one of them is fixed I will post some pic's of the cubicles and other projects that we have being doing through the summer !
Showing posts with label cubicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cubicles. Show all posts
Friday, 15 October 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Changes !
Well since my last post , I feel that many things have changed or are about to , on the farm. The silage was got in , all in reasonable condition , we could certainly have done with a bulkier crop , but by the way the silage fields have come away already , I think we will more than make up any short fall with the second cut.
With silage out of the way , I can now turn my attention to other jobs and projects , mainly the complete refit of the cow cubicles , ie, the beds that they lie in through the winter . I have no idea how old the ones that i am taking out are , but they are well past they're "sell-by date" and are basically just falling to bits . So bit by bit I am cutting out the old and making way for the new .We have nearly decided which company to pick , after viewing different manufacturers products on various farms .it's so interesting to see just how much min/max dimensions have changed over the years with regard to cattle housing , so much so that we are able to put an extra cubicle in every row , as by today's standards our old cubicles are too wide !
In the last couple of weeks we have been advertising for a new relief milker to cover alternate weekends for me and also holiday cover (I must look up the dictionary definition of holiday 'cos I don't come across THAT word too often here !)
With the advert put in the Farmers Guardian and Scottish Farmer, we have had a good response , with applicants from all over .It's always interesting interviewing people and reading CV's . I suppose if I had any comment to make on this subject it is that I wish people would read the advert properly , we had a lot of calls about the job and people were asking about hours/pay etc , when it clearly stated PART TIME. Clearly the job market is still a mine field out there . Hopefully by this time next week we will have the post filled .
To help with the day-to-day management of the herd I use a computer system called Uniform, I doubt i could run the herd as effectively without it . We have just upgraded to "Pro" package , sounds very grand , but basically it gives me way more information than i had in the past and enables me to keep tighter grips on output , fertility, feeding etc . It's fun at the moment , still working out everything it can do that the last one can't . I'll soon get the hang of it soon .
Cow wise the herd have had a very good summer out at grass , with the weather being unkind really only in the last few days . They are going to be spoiled soon as they will eventually find themselves grazing lovely new grass that is surplus to silage requirements , so hopefully that will boost the milk . At present they are averaging 28.6 litres /day, with only a token gesture of buffer ration in the trough , and on the whole i feel they are a much "happier" , more content herd than last year .
Later in the summer we are about to extend our straw bedded cattle court , which will give us nearly double the room , however i don't want to put double the cows in , as i want it to be comfy and clean , so double the space , a few more cows and all should be good. All in all , if we do the cubicles, the straw court and keep the "girls" as happy as they are just now , then this coming winter we should really start to see the results , both in the cows themselves and , more importantly, in the milk tank
With silage out of the way , I can now turn my attention to other jobs and projects , mainly the complete refit of the cow cubicles , ie, the beds that they lie in through the winter . I have no idea how old the ones that i am taking out are , but they are well past they're "sell-by date" and are basically just falling to bits . So bit by bit I am cutting out the old and making way for the new .We have nearly decided which company to pick , after viewing different manufacturers products on various farms .it's so interesting to see just how much min/max dimensions have changed over the years with regard to cattle housing , so much so that we are able to put an extra cubicle in every row , as by today's standards our old cubicles are too wide !
In the last couple of weeks we have been advertising for a new relief milker to cover alternate weekends for me and also holiday cover (I must look up the dictionary definition of holiday 'cos I don't come across THAT word too often here !)
With the advert put in the Farmers Guardian and Scottish Farmer, we have had a good response , with applicants from all over .It's always interesting interviewing people and reading CV's . I suppose if I had any comment to make on this subject it is that I wish people would read the advert properly , we had a lot of calls about the job and people were asking about hours/pay etc , when it clearly stated PART TIME. Clearly the job market is still a mine field out there . Hopefully by this time next week we will have the post filled .
To help with the day-to-day management of the herd I use a computer system called Uniform, I doubt i could run the herd as effectively without it . We have just upgraded to "Pro" package , sounds very grand , but basically it gives me way more information than i had in the past and enables me to keep tighter grips on output , fertility, feeding etc . It's fun at the moment , still working out everything it can do that the last one can't . I'll soon get the hang of it soon .
Cow wise the herd have had a very good summer out at grass , with the weather being unkind really only in the last few days . They are going to be spoiled soon as they will eventually find themselves grazing lovely new grass that is surplus to silage requirements , so hopefully that will boost the milk . At present they are averaging 28.6 litres /day, with only a token gesture of buffer ration in the trough , and on the whole i feel they are a much "happier" , more content herd than last year .
Later in the summer we are about to extend our straw bedded cattle court , which will give us nearly double the room , however i don't want to put double the cows in , as i want it to be comfy and clean , so double the space , a few more cows and all should be good. All in all , if we do the cubicles, the straw court and keep the "girls" as happy as they are just now , then this coming winter we should really start to see the results , both in the cows themselves and , more importantly, in the milk tank
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