A Good Green Start To 2024! Too Much Maize?? A New Pit?? Silage In January
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- I haven't picked up the camera for the last 10 days so today is bit of a catch up of what has been happening since Christmas.
Bit of a bad start to the day which may not be as bad a I originally thought..
Huge maize crop Incoming, but where to put it all?!
Cows are looking well.
Narrow and low bunkers means faster feeding speed which is always better for the quality of the frontface of the stack.
Andrew, The tassel is producing pollen, it is a real fine yellow powder. The silks are really small capillary tubes. They transfer the pollen into the ear. As for the double ears, you need to increase your population. The corn is sowed too thin so the plant is trying to make up for it by double earing. Some varieties are more prone to it but I would still try to increase the population 5-10%. See if that helps reduce the double earing.
Glad you're still green! Why not put a stack on the concrete pad in the old yard where you were thinking of having a wash area. Otherwise a bunk alongside your main bunk using the existing wall may be a cheaper solution than new walls all the way around the small one.
Here's an idea on your silage pit. Get your mate to precast the new panels offsite using a tongue and groove pattern (to minimise farm disruption) and to your desired new height. These would then be erected inside the current pit using the old pit for support. the old pit would help with sealing it against rodents too.
Happy new year Andrew. Another great video. Yes, making that bunker would be a brilliant idea. Future proofing yourself is always good, in my way of thinking maze is a really good insurance policy. Putting that side dressing on your maze is the best thing you could have done. You’ve gone to the effort, and spent the money to create the crop, so maximizing your return to me is a no-brainer. If it adds 5-10% to your yield, you can feed those cows slightly better through your mating season, and hopefully help improve your mating stats.
Happy farming
Great vid. Take the back wall out and put part of the stack out the back. Also put a digger on the stack and build it high, you should be able to get way more above the concrete then below it.
Happy new year!!!!!! It looks really pretty down there. And another great video
Obviously, the silage bunkers are in the critical source bracket for the WRC. The bureaucrats look at a silage bunker on aerial imagery in the office and probably think the farmer might put high moisture grass silage in the bunker at some point, hence the leachate tanks etc. Old mature concrete can be expensive to play with. One of the few reasons to adjust old concrete is to improve the minor earthquake resistance. Might have to put temporary bracing in to support the small bunker sides while working on the end. I would see if the interlocking concrete blocks would work/ fit to replace the end, use a digger with a grapple etc. At the same time use the digger to do site prep for maize silage bags or maize silage bales. If the maize silage balers and baggers are unavailable when required, see if the silage can go to a bunker on another farm nearby.// Parts of southern hemisphere South America do not milk their dairy cows during the summer. I wonder, in the warmer parts of NZ, if Illawarra reds (Aus dairy cows) or (Illawarra x Jersey) or the hybrid Taurindicus (Sahiwal x Jersey) would be better in summer?
Happy New year to you and your family.
Send some sun and heat to Scotland please. 😊
Thanks again for the information. You're a natural. Love to be part of your farm. Your cows looks fantastic. You are definitely winning. May 2024 be better than expected.
Great stuff Andrew,Happy new year to you your Dad and all the family.
Instead of putting that paddock in maize could you put it in chicory instead?
Andrew, a mate of mine has a scrap yard, the EPA here in Melbourne have been going hardcore at making sure scrap dealers are working on concrete, not gravel or hard stand. He had to concrete his yard. Big expense. He got onto a guy and was getting seconds precast concrete tilt panels. Setting them on a levelled compacted base, drilling and pinning and concreting in between the laid down panels and voids for windows doors.
So perhaps talk to your mate, see if he knows of somewhere you could get seconds panels. Or research that, find a supply. You have space, perhaps a new bunker, with extra thought and design it could have a sliding lid. Be set on the right grade in the right spot and not have earth mounds which only encourage rats and the like.
It’s probably a better investment to go from scratch than modify what you’ve got as it will have a use as it is for something like handling bales. Or as a temporary pit for grass silage. Which this year I think you could do and save the cost of wrapped bales.
Knock the pit down and build a bigger capacity one . Increase in milk solids price take care of it 😂. Hey Andrew have you got any evidence of the Fall Army Worm in the maize. Apparently it is attacking maize crops up in Northland. A couple of years ago it entered Australia thru the most northerly tip of Queensland and only took 8 months to get down in Victoria. They grow quite a lot of maize up here on the Atherton Tablelands and initially the Fall Army Worm caused a fair bit of crop damage. These days have bred a resistance type of maize but still spray as well. They don’t use the maize for silage. They grow it right out until the plant goes dry then the harvest with a header to just get the kernels. Very dusty at harvest time
Well done your CZcams is real 👍
The cows knew you were going to have too much maize so they were trying to help you.
Thanks for the video Andrew and I hope you and family had a great Christmas/New Year. I really do think a bunker is better than a stack. A stack is cheap but there's soooooo much waste.
Hi Andrew happy new year all the best for the year ahead. Just a few ideas the silage bunker can your friend that does concrete make you new higher panels and make it wider for you so you are set up for the future I know you said you wanted to spend money on other things but wouldn't having the space to make more silage be a top priority saves having to buy in more. And plus gives you the feed to keep cows in good condition. I would go ahead and do the bale those paddock as the forecast is more rain after next week and they where saying because of the warm sea temperatures it's why alot of moist air around. That paddock with the old fence line . I would work the whole paddock up and re grass it do it once do it right. If it was my paddock I would do it asap don't even spray it plough it over so what's in the paddock feeds the soil work it up roller drill it good to go anyway just my 2 cents worth
Happy new year! Almost 26k subscribers!
I think the cob is the least digestible part of the corn plant
Yep that’s why it needs to be cracked 👍
👀🙄🐾👍Great video Andy the rising GDT Auction won't make that much difference to this season it will make a difference to next as long as theirs no drops in price
Just hope for break even
Happy new year and great videos
You take very good care of your cows, On most farms, cows are knee-deep in dirt. As a city lady, I would love to live in the village and have at least one cow. jersey cow is my favorite
We had 104ml over Christmas in mangatawhiri
We have had like 5 in a row return from AI and they all were over 40 days in calf some even 60 days, it’s definitely annoying haha
How about having an open end bunker ? I actually rate them
With the number of potentially open cows are you considering a late second breeding season? Is it worth putting the bulls you have on farm with them just to get more milk next year even if the cows will definitely need to go after this season? Looks like you’re going to have the feed to consider all the options.
Got grass coming out ya ears, looks like you could have skipped and baled those couple of paddocks you mowed for the girls looks like there was definitely to much for the girls to eat, awesome problem to have at this time of year though 🤙
With the collars being accurate should there be need for scanning ? Also could one of the bulls not be fertile ? Would an ag bag any advantage for this season for the maize overflow
Buenos dias soy de cuba cuantas vacas usted tiene y cuantas hectáreas usted tiene.
Que variedad de hierva usted tiene sembrada
Yes bail it up
With the hill you want to smooth out why don’t you plant it in chicory
Not a bad idea! 👍
I’m also once a day grazing in Ireland, do you find a big increase in cell count after the sixth month of lactation? I’m usually around 120 up until then after that it shoots up. Any recommendations?
Do you or your contractor have access to a silage bagger? It would solve all your maize storage issues
Your going to take 2 paddocks out for silage and yet your still feeding maize???
Are you getting the extra milk?
And is that equating to profit?
Yep, there not getting much on the pad plus I need to get the minerals in.
If I have the extra feed to save for a dry spell or winter then I’ll definitely make it.
I see where your coming from though 👍 valid question
Hi can ı ask how much you milk per cow
Daily feed per cow . milking cow?
En que mes deben parir las vacas
From mid July - September
my buddy here in upstate NY gets 5.50 a gal...i know everything in your country is a lot more pricey...but thats a ok price i guess...wish farmers would stop getting ripped off by the middleman...i guess if you want to sell thousands of gal you gotta deal with companies like that...its unfortunate...we pay 4 dollars a gal for whole milk but its stripped of most of its cream...i dont like...doesnt taste as good as milk out of the vat...i prefer the A1 jersey milk...a lot richer in taste....are your brown cows same protein and fat content as jerseys..my wife cant drink A2 milk...one of the reasons why we drink the jersey milk....
NZ farmers mainly sell through their own co-op milk company. Andrew uses Fonterra our largest processor with 80% of all dairy herds. The price he spoke of is $7.70 to 8.00 per KG (2 lbs) of milk powder. Being a co-op the farmer gets all profits either directly or a dividend on their shares in the company.
O Milk de 👉🏻 🐄 Jersey é muito gostoso 😋🥛🥛🥛🥛,você faz 👉🏻🧀 também ou só entrega o leite para a cooperativa?
You're going to have to milk year round with all ur open cows
Are all the return cows from the same batch of semen
Hi Andrew great video been binge watching your videos great content thanks for your reply on instagram