Any dairy farmers out there?
Where are ya, when do you start calving?  You know - that crazy season just round the blimmin corner.............

Not a dairy Farmer.....Not mad enough to be one!! LOL

I love everything about the lifestyle though...Appart from the milking...

Hense why Im not a dairy farmer! LOL

I grew up on a dairy farm though.....does that count?

We used to start calving around mid July and hope to finish mid September with the tail-enders.

awww fanks guys!
I'm sure there are some, somewhere.  collie milks too but it doesnt go moooo.   I heard that she already has one on the ground.  early collie??

Far out!  no I blimmin cannot beat a 0.7% empty rate!!

Are does naturally fertile?  Or are you guys just absolutely fantastically amazing?  Both?  What would be an average MT rate?

You dont wanna know our MT rate.  We are at a point that we can feed em for milk but cant feed em properly enuf to keep them out of negative energy balance - but we're working on it. 

Mind you it was a s**t season for us Tararua lot.  Had 2 metres of rain from June to November.  Very hard on the 2yo.

Arent they soooo cute when you have the first 20 or so!  Then not very cute for the next 240 others!!! (for us)
Couldnt cope with 2000 maaas.

Hahaha, the blue face is kinda cool.

Just like cows you can stuff it up, have to say it is the first time our empty rate has been that low, not sure how much of that was good management and how much was sheer bloody good luck.

hmmm Brooks, I do believe you just might have been on a farm at one stage or another.

btw , none of the kids born so far are keepers and on top of that I'm rearing only 200 does / 20 bucks this year

you good at maths?

absolutely nothing wrong with the non keepers - just can't keep them all

Not Hamilton, but might know your friends anyway.

Bet you notice the difference bewteen htn's weather and the south of the south or have you toughened up and forgotten what it is to be warm (in the winter)   

Borrell hmm, I've heard the name mentioned but haven't met them the times we went up to Hamilton.

I started seriously hard feeding the horses this week, they were all dropping weight - they are ankle deep in mud, being break fed so they are only getting one feed of grass a day, then hay.  They have about 1 1/2 acres of saved grass left that has to keep them going until the grass starts growing again at the end of September.

The weather has been very cold, wet And a bit windy too - pretty tough on the animals out doors.

Last week we had to sell our weaner calves as we ran out of decent feed for them, pity about that as it was a poor price, as one would expect at this time of year.

Yeah I think I'll stick with our coldness here rather than your rain!

WE have ahd about 4-5 days in a row of frosts and nice sunny days.

Not much mud here this year,

THANK God it makes a very welcom change!

    you are right - you made me dry - my lot are practically fully hard fed now. Normally when they get half way down the winter paddock, I back fence them to rest about 1/4 of the paddock so by the time they are at the end of the paddock there is nice new stuff to go back to.  There will be none of that this year so they are getting hay and ezibeet / barley etc and a few blades of grass, just so they don't forget what it is.

But looking on the bright side, it didn't rain yesterday - ALL day and this morning the sun is out... hurts the eyes a bit - not used to it but it is glorious AND they say fine again tomorrow too!!!

I'm not listening to  you       

wash your mouth out - that would finish any grass growth dead!!

I know what you are talking about emsee, that is a very good season you had there.

(We haven't been grade free for three seasons now  )

Btw, just how many farms are there with fontera these days?

wheres brooks these days????

Brooks is hiding from us.      I'm told her sister is visiting and she can't get away.

To Quote: You know what I mean...... the people who make out they know what is best for you, coz the experts say so, and everyone else does it this way.  and waddaya know it is all marketing crap. Unquote.

Boy do I ever know what you mean!!  And The 'EXPERTS" tell you what they want ever they need to say to make you want to buy the product, for the firm they work for - has very little to do with facts.

you want to try something a little different and free

Go to the sea - get a tanker load of sea water and call it fertiliser - it has EVERYTHING in it to sustain life and the extra sodium isn't going to go amiss either.  I'm told that just a sprinkle over the farm is enough to start things in motion.  Just don't do it when the ground is bone dry.   Have a think about it - look up seawater on Goggle, even.  And Save the planet - they are moaning that the sea levels are getting higher 

Instead of ordinary water to mix my up my compost with (I'm not talking small here- I'm talking about 50 truckloads of used shavings from the sheds) I am going to use sea water  as we are only 5 mins from the sea, got a little tank, we use to cart milk around that I can use.  To the compost mix I will add nitrogen and lime  (the microbes that do the initial work need the nitrogen, then die and release it back into the mix) before leaving it to the worms for a while to turn it into instant plant food so we can then return it to the farm as organic (Loosely termed) fertiliser.  And save about $30,000.00 a year, to boot.

We initially were going to give away the stuff but when the company wanted us to PAY them to take it out of the shed we told them to piss off - we knew its value. So now I've taken over a 4 acre paddock and have the stuff in massive rows, so I can turn and wet it as needed.... Big boys toys are fun to play with 

my compost or the sea water?

your compost.  Actually I thought you were going to spread it on your farm as a general fert. No?
I have great ideas for stuff like what you are doing (but not the same).   I'm trying to get into Massey to do a few papers first. I think I may have told you that before....
I am just in the hugest minority of what I am trying to do.  But the avail market is huge.  And I feel I am running out of time somehow.

the only issue I have with spreading liquid (and hey I'm not knocking your idea either - theres waaay too many of them out there, so please dont take my posting the wrongy way).
But if you spread liquid you hafta make sure that it is not on a sunny day where direct sunlight will hit the plants/grass.  It will create little prisims (sp) and burn your plant.

and I would have to get the compost tested to see exactly what nutrients and to what level is in the compost but for sure there will be plenty of carbon / humus going in to keep the microbes and worms happy in the soil and therefore the plants as well.  Just recycling  as the shavings has all the poop and piddle from 1000 goats mixed into it.


so Emsee, what are these ideas you have for composting?  (I have a little piece of paper that tells me I'm a horticulturist so hopefully I will understand what you are talking about, not that I've dug it out for a long time.)

I'm more organic by accident than on purpose, same goes for 'natural' if it works - good if not, I happily look elsewhere.  Mind you because we are producing premium goats milk we must make sure nothing GE goes into the soil or the animals and antibiotics and drenches must be a last resort as the moment we use them on a milking goat then she is out for a long time.

A ge product is anything that has genetically engineered stuff in it.  We have to have it verified that whatever we feed the goats is GE free.

Withholding is a little longer for goats.
but as you know it depends on the product, antibiotics - 4 to 14 days, generally we will send a sample to make sure it is clear if at all unsure.  Often they will be kept out longer because it just isn't worth the risk. sometimes we'll get calves to feed from them, they clean out any mastitis very nicely.

drenches from 5 days to 3 months.  Same again about testing as goats don't always do what they should.  One guy drenched his goats with a long acting one at the end of the season and got done big time because the milk was still contaminated by drench.  NO residue - none whatsoever is tolerated.  Everybodies milk is tested every time.  It is tested for smell too, some feeds as you know will taint the milk so they are out as well.  Also a high line in the shed will cause the milk to be stronger smelling so most farmers run a low line.

No it is not certified organic but their requirements are strict.

bugger - Collie.  What actually is your payout.  Based on milksolids or litres??

You're a blimmin mind reader Collie