In The Dairy - Doddington Dairy

The White Stuff !

Unfortunately , the title of this post is not the "White Stuff" that dairy farmers like to talk about . the snow is still here , and it's now packed hard on all the yards , in scenes that are just identical to the one's earlier in the year . I do however think we have coped better this time round (despite the obvious shed incidents). The forecast for the coming week is not that encouraging either , with more snow forecast . Still all our girls are inside , and apart from a few frozen pipes , it's business as usual. We have a neighbours sheep on our land at the moment , and I can't remember when they would last have actually grazed some grass. they have been living off hay and silage now , and generally raking the hedge backs for shelter and food.

The cows have been milking amazingly well considering all the upset and the cold , obvioulsy got the ration about right. We will be drying cows off next month ready for calving in March/April , so hopefully the workload in the parlour should get less for a few weeks anyway.

Today we are going to take down the remaining section of the feed passage roof , as it is basically unsafe now. This will either go smoothly or take us forever and a day. I have visions of it being like a Fred Dibnah type event and when it's ready to fall , I will sound a horn , run like hell , look up and say "Did you like that ? "

Bad Start to the Week !

The above picture is the damage done with the sheer weight of snow on our feed passage roof this week . It's fair to say it wasn't the newest roof on the farm ,but to have it come down has just been the biggest hassle we have experienced for a long time . It took ALL day to clear up the mess , and the remainder of the shed roof is now being supported by props along the length . Today there has been a fairly hefty thaw , so long may that continue. The wintery weather of the last week has played havoc on the work load of the farm , with even the simplest task taking twice as long, not to mention the fact that there has been little or no staff around , as none live on the farm.
Hopefully we can get on better in the week to come,
On a brighter note , Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious calved this week , and she had a heifer calf , Chloanne Jeeves Gracious . It's an absolute cracker of a calf and I'll hopefully put some photo's of her on here soon.

Mud, Glorious Mud !

The general consensus seems to be that, according to records, this is the wettest Oct/Nov we have experienced for many , many years. Most farmers will tell you that without the aid of records and data, it's just one of those facts that you know if you happen to have to work in it day in and day out. I have never known us be so far behind at this time of year . The electric fence wire and posts are still outside , waiting to be dismantled but the ground is just so wet that it certainly wouldn't allow a Manitou forklift onto it !All the cattle are finally inside now . Again ,I have never seen them out in such muddy conditions for years . All that now remains outside are the neighbours sheep , which strangely enough , don't seem to mind the rain in the same way that Holstein cattle do. They do however make a mess on extremely wet ground , so we will need to be mindful of moving them on as soon as they start to do damage.
So, now that all the girls are inside , it is now a case of bedding and feeding for the next 4-5 months . They can all certainly eat some grub , and we have never seen the silage pit go back so fast. Hopefully things will ease off once I start to dry more cows off in the coming weeks. Milk yields have picked up a bit since the cows came in , they are now fairly well settled into their winter routine. Strangely too, the butterfat figures have been sky high, most likely down to the ration they are on . We are in the middle of a feed trial for our nutrition company at the moment , so I am constantly downloading facts and figures and taking milk samples to monitor our performances.
On the cow front , the high yielders are going from strength to strength , while the lower, staler cows are really drying themselves off. The challenge is trying to prevent the low yielders from putting on too much condition which would then be detrimental to calving. Cow numbers are due to go right down over the next couple of weeks as I dry a lot off .
Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious 2 is due to calve 1/12/10 , and she is looking great , and just starting to "bag up" now. Fingers crossed for her, however a young heifer , Chloanne SJ Gracious "slipped" her calf at just 7 months . I have her running with the herd at the moment and hopefully the milk will eventually come onto her . It really does knock the a bit if something like that happens .However , that's the realities of this job,just when you think you have things sussed and under control , there's always something lurking round the corner to kick you into touch !

CHLOANNE ROSEMAN ETHEL

Above is the first pic of Chloanne Roseman Ethel, born 1/11/10. There is just a slight tinge of red in her hair , as her sire is Sterndale Roseman Red. I used sexed semen for this pregnancy as I really want to develop the Ethel family to be on a similar par to other branches of this amazing family that are all over the UK

7 days off ! !

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 !

The Girls Need In

We are now at that time of year when the weather is trying to do it's best to make things as tough as possible . Don't get me wrong , we have had it much worse at this time before , but it always creeps up on you non the less. roadways start to get mucky , gateways have puddles in them and in general , the land starts to get wet . Grass quality is also rapidly decreasing and now would be the time to be thinking of bringing the cows inside for the winter .
This is always a tricky topic here . On the one hand there is ME that is saying " Bring them in" and on the other is the BOSS saying "NO , they're fine outside" . Of course , both camps are correct , up to a point . It just depends what you want from your herd of cows and how you want them to perform , particularly later on in the year. The argument for keeping them out revolves around the fact that there is still grass outside. this is fine , the cows will eat the grass and it is now a really cheap feed , trouble being there won't be as much feed value in the grass as is thought . Now , again , that in itself is okay if you are not pushing for yield and you just want the cows to produce milk at a leisurely pace. If high yields are to be maintained then the "girls" must be kept on an optimum plain of nutrition for as much time as possible. We are feeding around 3.5 tons of expensive buffer feed at the moment and they are just cleaning it up in a matter of hours just after milking. Then , they get shoved outside and some of the good is undone by them foraging around in the wet fields , especially at night , where temperatures are starting to dip. Basically , at the moment we are nearly getting a roller coaster effect in their nutrition .
Most other herds in the area are now inside , but we always go through this annual ritual of keeping them out , until the milk falls sufficiently to become a worry, and then they are hurriedly brought in and expected to pick up where they left off , before the fall in production.
If thee cows were brought in sooner , before the dip in yield , then they would have a steadier output , a more balanced ration , and ultimately , adapt to their winter housing way quicker , with no ground to make up in the short term .
(There, got that off my chest ! )