THE RESULTS after THREE MONTHS WORK and £1000's! | SPOILER: Its not good...
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- čas přidán 8. 03. 2024
- Sometimes things in farming just don't go to plan! Thankfully its a minor bump and not a catastrophic crash!
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4 years ago we went from 4 cuts to 3 cuts of silage on vets orders. Cows were scouring on a 4 cut system for several years and their conditioning wasn’t good enough. Silage going through them. Young grass. Now conception rates are fantastic but a little hit on milk yield but worth it when nearly everything holds first time or the 2nd straw does the job.
Collars collars collars. They are a game changer.!
Love your very detailed dairy farming videos! Scan more often with a vet and bring on non bullers and pd neg and cidr sistic cows etc. we scan weekly during service window.
Yeah, that was definitely a mistake this year, back to more regular scanning next year.
Hi Andrew. What I’ve noticed in the last year with my cows they are ovulating a lot quicker. I’m sticking straws in them right away and boosted my conception rate from 60% to 88% with sexed. It works for us we ai all different times of the day it’s a lot of work but worth it
I love all of your data forward ag business videos! I'm in a completely different sector- just getting started with a small market garden and taking a lot of inspiration on ways to use data and technology to keep track of & optimize things. Have noticed your audio is a bit quiet when you're speaking vs the background music, which obviously hasn't stopped me from watching and I hope this doesn't come off in a bad way but wanted to mention it as an opportunity to level up even more with a bit of adjustment :)
Thank you! Thank you for the advice also!! I will make sure to balance the audio better! 👍🤝
One of the reasons you get no negative responses is because you know your stuff and you've superb delivery/ diction.
Succinct Distinct 😍 👌
Ps,
Bad week at the office
#RedTractor 😄 😁
Why thank you!!! You had your RT? I'm so sorry you had to go through that farse again!!
We experienced something this past year. Our verified bred cows kept showing signs of heat. Before we figured it out we wasted several straws. When we put the bull in with them he only covered the un-AI’d heifers and one notoriously hard to AI cow. All cows that have freshened with multiple AI dates surprised us by going with the first straw date. I mentioned this to our AI guy and the vet and they both said multiple farms across the state had similar experiences. It was a very wet year and the clover was crazy so maybe that was it?🤷♂️
Hi Andrew, great informative video as always. You mentioned an empty cow that hasn't gone to the factory because she is still giving 23ltrs. Just wondering how many litres would be your cut off to say she's not covering the cost of keeping her. I have some here in the same boat.
Generally the lowest yielding gets chopped first, so there is no set rule. Over 20 litres I would be reluctant to cull.
The first year we started RMS with genus our conception rate was awful and had a lot of cows not showing heats and it was due to slats needed grooved. Chalk wasn’t getting touched because they were afraid to jump on each other
Our slats are extremely slippy!! I should maybe get that done over summer. 🤔
@@FarmTheoryNI definitely it was £1000 to do our whole cow shed. Once you do the shed you’ll want to do everywhere cows walk! So rare we have a cow do the splits on the slats now! Get that head get oiled!!
We tend to get a better conception rate with younger cows and heifers with sexed semen.
We run cows in one group and have a bull pen at the end of the cubicle shed. The bull being close to the cows makes heat detection so much easier because the cows are usually at the gate wanting through to the bull. Also any cows that have not held to AI for the first service, then go to the bull or get a fertility+ straw.
With all the data you have, is it not better to just serve conventional semen to cows with poorer conception rates in previous lactations?
If you were to buy a heat detection system , which system has caught your eye and in your opinion might preform the best , color ear tag or bolis ??
I would absolutely build one. 🤣 I don't know which to suggest tbh
Change of silage while breeding and taking some meal off them bound to affect conception rates?
Maybe yes, but it's hard to know!
Is it running out of 1st cut? Energy levels dropping?
Maybe, however I fed more meal to keep energy levels.
Thats an interesting looking handle at 3.50-3..55. Is the scanning man locking cows heads himself, when he pulls the handle.
He is indeed! Very handy!
@@FarmTheoryNI any chance of a pic please of the linkage mechanism where it attaches to the gate, i feel some DIY coming on
@@FarmTheoryNI any chance of a pic please of the linkage and how it attaches to the gate in front, it would be a nice DIY project. or a link to the manufacturers website
@@akaxllad ya just weld or bolt a length of box section to the frame of a morris crush. It’s not rocket science
👍👍👍.
How do you feel your lameness was through January February. Biggest effect on pregnancy rates is down to lameness. Not showing heats and not taking to the AI due to the immune system fighting effects of lameness.
Excellent point!! We are struggling with lameness this winter!
@@FarmTheoryNI get rid of the first water footbath as it acts as a barrier against the chemicals in the second bath, send them through at least once a day at no more than 3-4% chemical percentage, and you’ll see a difference within a few weeks
You need a good teaser bull with a chin strap to do the observations for you to make your AI heat detection more accurate. I would also be tempted to use your own stock bulls AI'ed from your better cows if that is allowed. You have a good spread of AI bulls so you could pick from the bulls with the fewest siblings. When you can't be sure what is causing your conception issues it's best to be as natural as possible to keep the milk gap minimal otherwise you're feeding non-paying guests.
Wet 4th cut ? End of 1st cut? Recalibration of feeders, did you cut conc?
Cows look in good order, are yields up across the board ?
Have you tested any of the semen from bulls with the 💩 fertility? We had a NZ bull last year that left 1 heifer from 30 straws 😡😡 by the time we were getting repeats it was all used and the company refuse to take any responsibility , brother is having similar issues with the same company (different bull) this year.
Any connection between bulls used and empty cows? I'm sure you have the data😂😂🏴
Yes!! I worked out bull conc rates but cut it from the video for time. Ginetta conc is 13%... 😳
@@FarmTheoryNI if you have any left in the tank may be worth testing to check there is still something swimming in there, or whether it is better in the bin.
We stick a Blue straw in behind the beef bulls especially if they are busy, every 3 weeks costs £2-3/ day £60-£90 . £5 blue straw is a good investment and you possibly get a more valuable calf
Ur probably the only person that knows this 😅 what would u spread on field after applying lime. Ideally should of got spread before lime but that wasnt an option.
Just dont use urea, CAN or AN is fine. 👍
Q fever maybe why on fertility struggle 🤷
Cows on wet grass not getting enough nutrition for milk and retaining body condition not eating enough silage trying to get more milk from same feed
Very very possible!
I think you are at a stage where you could become a distributor for an existing cattle collar system and if you played your cards right you might be able to expand your slurryquip operation on the back of that. All big stuff but you have the skillsets to give it a go. Developing a collar system of your own is going to take a lot of time and effort. You could do it for sure but it that would probably take about 3 - 5 years at a minimum. Looking at Nedap Cow Control for example gives some idea of the complexity.
It won't take long! My logic is the development process is the interesting bit! Also would be great content!
@@FarmTheoryNIIt would be interesting for sure. You could do content on how you will appoach the project. The big thing will be the testing of whatever you develop. It might help to do some content on existing collar offerings in the market that you would be aiming for based on their pros and cons. Definitely loads of potential content. Get the Cow Quip name registered.
Try get some collars maybe??
Conception is very poor you need to check the mineral level
Maybe, however with all that kinda stuff it's so hard to know if it makes a difference !
Man.himself how.much cost.for scanning
Honestly I don't know. 🤣 He just sends me a bill every few months.
Those sexed straws vary hugely conventional straws = better conception rates but more of the dreaded FR bulls
I'm definitely moving back to more conventional. Fresian bulls are getting good prices at the moment!
Hey Andrew 👋 would it not be more cost effective to get professional AI people in to inseminate the cows in order to get a higher percentage in-calf ? Cheers.
The issue wasn't the ai technique, it was the heat detection I think. I don't think it makes sense to pay someone, it's a skill I need to be able to do.
1. You need to put in place a sensible heat detection plan. Do you use tail paint? Or teaser bull esp if cows are at grass. You don't seem to be accurate at picking up cows in heat given the irregular intervals between heats recorded. Generally their cycles will be regular
2. Stay away from sexed semen until you improve your AI technique. Conception rates are lower with sexed semen and your s are already very low.
3. Do an AI course or a refresher or get a professional AI person on until a time you are competent
4. There is no evidence of an underlying infertility problem in the herd given you get good results with natural service. All the issues seem to be related to AI - poor and inaccurate heat detection and / or insemination technique leading to low conception rates.
Would not.be better.have bull.run cows
This year yes! However I was very happy with last year's results. 🤷