My FARMS winter ROUTINE! | FIRST CUT is almost ALL GONE!

Something a bit different this week... its a video on the farm!
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[@mikeysky8917]

Sorry for this long post Advantage of a feeder wagon with us is we are currently mixing 4th cut with 1st cut etc. It means we maintain a balanced feed throughout the winter without damage to milk volume & a blend feed dust added results in no waste being left to clean out. As we use troughs, we don’t need to push silage up. The troughs are empty every morning before filling. We tend to wash them out every 3 months or so. With the feeder, we can fill it and have it emptied in under 15mins. The young stock for example, a couple of grabs is handier set in than using the feeder but it all depends on the cow numbers you are working with. I also notice you are feeding meal far heavier than us. Bit shocked at the amount tbh. Extra feed made no difference in our milk volume like you would with silage quality. It would cost us a fortune if we increased the feed in the parlour. Return wouldn’t be justified. Good video btw👍

[@FarmTheoryNI]

All valid points! I feel like I would need to make a video to reply in full. 😅 We are at 3200l milk from forage, I thought that was pretty good. 🤣 Marginal litres pay, you don't have to cut feed with food silage, you can get more milk.

[@insightfulfacts7619]

I understand what your trying to do by mixing 4th cut with 1st cut ur trying to bring up the quality of 4th cut but all ur really doing is bringing down the quality of 1st cut. That’s probably why extra meal made no difference to ur milk yields

[@mikeysky8917]

@@insightfulfacts7619 No. It’s about a balanced diet that keeps a high volume milk output. Why would you want to be feeding different cuts at different stages throughout the winter when you can have the same throughout and keep the milk up. We have tried it different ways over the years and this works the best for us and keeps the milk up. If you get a bad cut and it’s wet for example, that cut fed on its own can put your cows dry quickly and it takes a long time to get them back up if you even can. Imagine Andrew feeding his fresh cows his 5th cut for weeks? If he could daily mix a grab of it with his 1st cut, the damage would be little or none at all. On meal, we are already pushing our cows and we can give them more kg but it can never replace good silage and bring a bad diet up to what is required. The computer has shown us the evidence of an increase in kg. Trials and testing is big on our farm and if it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t be doing it. At the end of the day, we want to produce the most milk and sustain that output at a low production cost and its working.

[@conor-breathnach]

I would definitely like to see a video on the power monitoring system when you get to it!

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Its added to the list!

[@lesliebarfoot3981]

Very interesting Andrew. I like your candid commentary and your simple grass based system among other things. Look forward to the next episode!

[@Dairy-Vet]

Hi Mr Andrew, Hope you and your Farm is doing amazing. I have just explored your channel a few days back and I really love your content and learning something out of it, as I'm a Veterinarian from Pakistan and currently doing job at a Dairy Farm of 4500 Holstein Cows. Keep it up Man 💗

[@padraigking5185]

Good stuff

[@eoghanhayes7699]

When tight on first cut could you not leave the excess with the cows? Can see why you clean out the stuff they throw out but excess from the night before should still be good no?

[@FarmTheoryNI]

I think it hurts intakes. I could well be wrong.

[@swfarmer9591]

Always thought be good if you had like a camera that watches the tail paint by the drafting gate and would draft the cow out

[@FarmTheoryNI]

You can use a heat camera to detect heats. Be fun to try it, but they arnt cheap.

[@finbarreburn5112]

Dolby / Dairy Surround Sounds brought to you today by 'Music Magpie' 💯

[@Alejandrogarcia-fp1fr]

nice video

[@nthnmcclure3020]

What are your selection criteria to decide whether a cow gets a dairy straw or beef Andrew, or do you serve the majority to dairy and deal with the bulls? Genetic progress is faster the more selective you can be on both the dam and the sire side so curious about your system

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Every cow gets a chance at Holstein if they show a heat before 100dim. After 2 repeats or high dim they get beef. It's not done on production.

[@jamesmccambridge7457]

Seriously interesting Andrew how it's all changed to technology on a modern dairy farm, far cry from when I first milked cows sitting on a stool and manys a kick l got and milk spilled before you got it to a churn and taken of to a tank of water to cool 😥😥hard work in those days

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Farming has changed so much in 30 years! Who knows what the next 30 hold.

[@andrewbaird3431]

I would hope it's more than 30 years since James was milking by hand 😂😂

[@davidroberts30]

the waste on your side sheets is more than likely as they are too short and not enough overlap. i allow at least 1meter

[@rich7584]

What make of black silage sheet and oxygen barrier do you use? Surprised you don’t use the orange sheet.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

The green film is the same as the silostop orange, just cheaper. 👌

[@ciaranconeely8579]

👍👍👍

[@AdamBrown-jr8wb]

What's the latest with the TB on your farm? Are you still closed? Back in 2013 we got completely wiped out with TB we had around 75 cows tested positive out of 120 so they took the whole herd. We had to go through a 3 month period with no cows and in that time we had to get all our sheds washed and disinfected before we could restock.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Still closed! Test in 3 weeks

[@jonniehetherington8753]

How much concentrate are you feeding per cow per year? 1.8 tonnes?

[@FarmTheoryNI]

2.2t, our mff sits just over 3000

[@billbobby461]

are your 4th and 5th cuts always poor every year? if so, do you have any theory as to why?

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Not always but usually. We end up cutting late September most years, much harder to dry down grass and its got less sunshine so lower in energy.

[@billbobby461]

@@FarmTheoryNI I have always wondered about the effect of the amount of sunlight has on the actual concentration of energy in grass, its something I will have to research, my initial assumption would be that instead of drastically increasing energy concentration it would more affect total yield? silage is a funny thing, we cut silage in November and it was the best silage we ever made, cut silage in June and it was the worst, there are so many variables to consider, like the 2nd cut June silage had headed even though it was only growing for 4 weeks, and the November silage was 14%DM but the very cold weather and the fact it was in bales 1 row high, lead to it not fermenting fully but preserved rather like in a fridge. I just wish i could lessen the variables and make hay 😂

[@andrewbaird3431]

Where's this quality silage your famous for ? "4th and 5th cuts are poor" surely 4th cut in August should be good, not always the easiest to get dry but still enough day length to make sugar? As for the side sheet causing waste. Put the oxybarrier under the side sheet ON the silage where it's supposed to be 🤷 Was that 14kg of conc for over 40 litres 😲 if you're silage is that good why are you substituting it for concentrates😂😂 of course because you don't use a wagon you can't measure how much your cows are actually eating!! Old story "if you don't measure you can't manage" seems you measure everything else on the farm 😂😂😂😂 All tongue in cheek your doing a good job 👍

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Where do I start. 😅 I will just say that good silage doesn't have to meal a high m+, marginal litres still pay. Currently 0.34kg/l

[@andrewbaird3431]

As I said substitution 😂0.29kg/l plus 49 kg fresh weight of all 4 cuts of silage and 0.5kg of hay for a bit of fibre 😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@gerrymulligan2602]

Ya have some sheds thire.loder with grab some job how many.cows ya milk ya calfs alot work if start.to scoured lucky.have some body.patients look after we calfskin