Hang a light weighted tarp - clear plastic - from the rafters to catch the poop from the starlings. This should be a good indication as to the volume of droppings over a week/month.
Hello Eric, we have a dairy farm not far from you in Berks county. In reference to your mastitis problems, have milking system checked, especially your vacuum system regulator. We were having trouble last year. Aaron Keller came out from Fisher n Thompson, checked out our system and found that our regulator was bad. He replaced that and it was night n day difference. Take care and thanks for the videos.
Speaking from experience most udder health issues stem from the milking routine. 10 years ago we went from maybe I cow a week in a 120 cow milking herd to 15 to 20. Went through all the housing no real problems when the milking system was checked we found that the vacuum pump control valve was not working correctly and we were milking with 3 inches more vacuum than was suggested and we were causing teat end damage . Another time we changed udder prep product and reeked havoc for a couple of weeks.
Hey man, I worked on a dairy farm in germany he had the same problem with the birds, tried about evertything but nothing worked. The one thing that worked was a music box thingie that makes the sound of one of those birds being taken or killed bye a hunting bird. Saved him a lot of problems with sick cows and nutriens being taken out of the food
We never used the same piece of equipment to handle feed as we hauled manure with. Not sure where your bacteria coming from but I would think it is be digested. We always spread lime on the concrete floors after we cleaned out manure !! Thx for the video !!
you should look into an older manure spreader and put the corn stalk bales in that and use that to do your bedding ,, i fallow roher dairy farm ,, and thats what they use and it does a great job .. your dad had a good idea doing that ..
Your a great worker, cows are always in top condition too. One of my favourite channels to watch and a lot of our own viewers do often mention you in high regards. 👍
Your wife is not one that likes the topic of manure, if I remember correctly. I love your manure and manure related videos. I am a giant fan of how clean you keep your cows and their pens and your whole farm !! I could watch you sling and push cow poop all day. Occasionally I'll watch other dairy farm videos and wonder how the farmers and their livestock don't get some serious diseases. The poop piles in dirty pens is scary for this city person to see. Makes me happy to see and hear the concern you have for your critters. To that point, I have wondered about birds in the rafters pooping on the cows and their feed. Now you mention your concern of the birds in your barn. I noticed in another barn you have what looks like "chicken" mesh wire across the ceiling. You and your dad keep the best of all dairy farms, to me.
I have read that the natural predator of starlings is the hawk. They recommend a Hawk decoy, or even better is to have someone that does falconry bring hawks a few times around the farm, and that really makes them stay away. I believe there are people who actually do that as a business of getting rid of birds like that. Wouldn't hurt to look into something like that.
You should look into getting a high dump bucket for loading feed and loading the spreader, we use a high dump bucket at the farm I'm working at and we just clean it really good after doing anything with manure, definitely worth the money so you don't have to shake the bucket quite as much!
Hey great video! We’ve been dealing with mastitis lately as well. It’s definitely a headache sometimes but hopefully you are able to get your problem figured out. We’ve been getting a mix of warm and cold temperatures in our area, I believe that’s what’s triggering our mastitis all of a sudden.
They make sonic emitters to chase away animals. Humans can hear just a ticking sound. Animals hear fingernails on a blackboard. I've used one for barking dogs in a kennel. Barking stopped in a few minutes. Don't know how the cows would react?
Starling issues: my buddies place had to add The hanging plastic strips at all the doorways to keep them from flying in when the doors were open. They also added netting to keep them from flying up into the rafters. Then they had to aggressive go after remaining nests. Have a look at the paper "EUROPEAN STARLINGS: A REVIEW OF AN INVASIVE SPECIES WITH FAR-REACHING IMPACTS" Aug 2007. There are a bunch of other papers on this but starlings (and other birds) bring lots of diseases along and mastitis increases as a result (along with other issues). it's worth trying to get rid of them. I bet if you setup a camera and took a timelaps you will see them eating the cows feed as well. Good luck!
Could do most all your pack bedding with the spreader!! One load of corn stalks then one load of sawdust. You all would figure out the amounts to use after the first time or 2. I bed first bed up for beefers every year with old H&S
Looked like that heifer knows what's coming when you guys clean out the pens, their cute when they kick up their heels like that. I like how you and your family take such good care of your animals, it shows. That manure is great, I wish I had that resource for my farm, I don't like using chemical fertilizers and wow, twenty loads, whew. Great video Eric, thanks for sharing, have a good Friday and a great weekend!
I just use a 20 by 30 barn for a couple or so beef I raise to get in out of the weather. Been doing that for many years since I left the dairy. I raise Holstein from bottle to finish and in the 30 to 35 years never lost one. Last year for some reason being weather or what ever there were thousands and I do mean thousands would roost in that little barn, crapping all over and it was thick. The calves were covered also. I lost one that was right a 1000 lbs last year and the vet took tests and gave shots and was puzzled as I was why he got sick. I thought maybe that was the reason so I started carrying the 410 out there and started shooting what I could get a crack at. So the numbers went down to almost nothing as I would do that e to 4 times a day. I had everything roosting in the barn from sparrows, starlings, doves and even quail. Had lots of crows coming around during the day. Mostly those greasy starlings though in the barn. Knock on wood I haven’t lost one since.
You all sure have some beautiful heifers, that mostly white one is sharp looking. Try some plastic owls in your free stalls. We used some years ago when we milked cow's it seemed to help. Another great video Eric.
Perhaps you answered your question about cows getting sick. Using the same skid loader for feed and manure. Bacteria can linger on your equipment long after you hose off the skid steer.
That would mostly cause digestion and infection of the urinary track. mastitis is a bacterial infection in the udders. Which would have nothing to do with the food. Their barn is pretty clean where the cattle lay. The most probable cause is bird droppings and birds landing and eating seeds around the cattle while they are chewing their cud
You could uses rubber snakes or blow up owls to put in the rafters to keep the birds out.The birds do carry diseases and will make cows sick and the feed waste. Yea the weather is all mess up on my birthday I’m always snowed in can’t get anywhere . It’s strange get up no snow but cold an windy with rain. You and your dad our hard worker’s never a doll moment working until dark and start again early morning. Love seeing the calf’s enjoy themselves with new bedding .
Can you fly a hawk balloon or kite near the barn entrance? It may shift them away from your barn. I wouldn’t put a roof in as it will create a bigger job down the line once the bird poop piles up. Love your videos! 🇬🇧
Eric those starlings are most deff the prob we deal with them too on our farm here in VA. Wish I had a solution for em, but I will say no way its your barn environment it is unreal how clean it stays with those slats & scrapers. Wouldn't be farming without yer daily dose of challenges, keep up the good work 👍
Hey Erick, is it possible the birds are bathing in the cows drinking water? Not a farmer actually quite the opposite, but just an observation I made. Hope it helps👍🏼
Eric if you do decide to upgrade your Deere's lights look into Tiger Lights. They offer a direct led swap so the harness, and mounts are the same. They even have kits for the Kubota skid steer.
Hey bud get a couple of fake plastic owls and hang em in the rafters of the barn they will scare the starlings away once they put out some bird netting around the opening in the roof top. My grandfather was a government trapper for years that’s his best suggestion. Best of wishes with them birds love the work and the videos keep on keeping on brotha
Plastic owls only work if they are moved around very frequently, otherwise smart birds like starlings, blackbirds, and such figure out they aren't real. There are plenty of videos demonstrating this, and you can easily find pictures of birds roosting right next to the plastic owl.
Would work long enough to get em out and get some netting up or patch the holes or what ever they wanted to get done but saying it’s a permanent thing but eh it’s a suggestion for a small problem
The disease worry is a headache I know but you can be assured that your dairy farm is probably the cleanest I've seen Eric. It's good to see that you're on the button with anything happening too. Birds can be a menace but I bet the issue is something far simpler. I'd start with the drinking water and work from that.
@@texkenny759 thanks guess i missunderstood why they’d need a full skid loader if you use a diff bucket. But im ignorant of farming. Just enjoy the channel
I think you are on the right track with the birds spreading problems. If your neighbor ten miles away has a serious problem you will end up with it because the birds were over there last week. They are hard to keep out once they get started.
Get rid of them anyway you can. My mother spent several months in isolation at a Sanitorium after having part of her right lung removed because she contracted Histoplasmosis from the the starling dropping in our milk barn back in the mid 1960's. That was not a good time for her at all.
Try putting up the plastic owl's in the rafters and a couple of fabric geese the smaller bird's will eventually make for the hill's because they see bigger bird's especially if you can get a light above the geese the shadows will help keep them out of the feed. Same principle of the scarecrow the smaller bird's flee when shadows are above just something cheap to try before you get a pro involved. There's a bunch of products that can be put on the beam's but the Bill would be outrageous.
Laser pens or a DJ laser can work with starlings. But i think the best way is closing up absolutely every gap around the shed, that’s what we are aiming for. We just come out of a mastitis problem, get the vet in for a walk around we changed our sand bedding management and now were ok. Good luck.
Eric, think you feeding Brewers Grain now has anything to do with more mastitis? Just a thought from on the outside looking in sir. Great videos and fyi, your operation is the cleanest I have seen in a long time young man. Thank you
We vaccinate for mastitis. We had issues with watery mastitis and since using a vaccine at dry off and a booster at close up move, we’ve been good. Our vets have told us that sawdust can carry a bacteria and that can cause mastitis, even kiln dried. We put a ceiling in our barn 10 years ago. Brightens it up and the birds are gone.
"Bird guard!" It's a sound system that's relatively inexpensive. It sends out random raptor bird sounds, and it works very well. We use it all winter long. Make sure you have the settings right. Otherwise, it can go off in the night.
Didn't you recently change something (like the teat disinfectant) when milking the cows? Maybe look into that if my memory serves me, as it could possibly be not as affective. Also, you started with wet brewers yeast not too long ago. Maybe that could be contributing to the mastitis (even thought it is supposed to help). You also tried out some different bedding recently. I would just go back to all the changes you made since the uptick in mastitis and revert to what you were doing before to see if it helps.
Good video Eric! Sorry to hear you've had some difficulties. The starlings as a cause makes sense. Wish you well in finding a solution. I've heard of businesses that use live falcons and owls for bird abatement services in the UK. Wish I had some useful advice for you. Certain you'll find an effective answer. Prayers for you!
i had a nieghbour who had birds of birds and anytime i had crows pecking ag bags or pigeons or starlings in the barn i would call on him with a bird and they'd be gone. if you can find someone like that they can set you up with an owl box or sparrow hawk in order to get a bird a prey to live at your farm for longterm effect
I would really like to see you upgrading the lights on the tractor. They are really dim and weak, and it is very hard to see anything at night. My excavator had very dim and old halogen lights and I just could not use it in the dark. After the upgrade I pulled an all night shift in my friends place and due to the bright LED lights all over I was not very tired, due to stearing in the dark. The bird issue is something I would have tried to tackle by getting a kid with an air rifle to shoot down what he or she could, over some days. Just make sure that you are able to collect the birds before the cows can get at them. Maybe shoot birds while the herd is being milked? Over a week you can take out a lot of birds, if he or she is a good shot. Just make sure the air rifle is not too strong. You don't want extra holes in your roof or walls. Good luck with that.
With the bird situation maybe you could just put a cieling over the area where they eat to cover the feed. If it gets worse after that then considering extending the cieling to cover the whole area. It would be a good way to experiment on fixing things without spending more than you probably want to. At least this way if it works then problem solved but if not then you already have some of the area covered.
Chicken wire the top. Won't allow them in. I've seen it work really well before. We had a few cows pass under the same conditions. Like you said, we worked hard at every step to mitigate the problem. Once we got the birds wrangled there was a slight decrease in sick cows. Unfortunately the dang birds just find another spot to get into. Good Luck
If you don’t have them already, I would try owl statues around the building that would probably be the cheap option it may or may not work or put in netting to keep the birds out of the rafters
Yes. I was going to suggest the owls. People in my neighborhood growing up would also put plastic snakes up to keep woodpeckers away. Not sure if that would work on all birds.
Chicken wire fence rolled out in the rafters is something i have seen done to keep birds out and still allow airflow. Wish we would have done it on all our sheds
Why did you decide against the bale shredder? It seemed like a good tool especially for the heifer barn at the other farm which always seem very dirty.
Even though your sawdust appears to be very clean it is always risky. There was a time when we would get new cases every time we put fresh sawdust in stalls. I know it is frustrating when you want to fix a problem but can"t find the problem. Good luck
Not a dairy farmer but I would think that some kind of mesh barrier to keep out the birds is a good idea. Hope you find the problem bc even I know dead loss means lost investment in that cow and comes straight off the bottom line. God Bless you and your entire family.
You could get the birds tested for avian flu, etc. Do not buy mist nets as very expensive. Hire a few bird banders with mist nets ( usually volunteer banders) they’ll capture a few, and be on their merry way. The other logistics, vet, lab, etc. Owls plus owl sounds, plus other birds of prey. Hire someone who has prey birds, and have it take out problem birds. Good luck.
As noted earlier, the plastic owls do a good job keeping the birds away until they figure it out, so once you got them scared away get that netting up, thankfully it's not pigeons, they are stupid and nothing really works for them
![Summer Walker - Heart Of A Woman [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SFddctbZzw8/mqdefault.jpg)
Hang a light weighted tarp - clear plastic - from the rafters to catch the poop from the starlings. This should be a good indication as to the volume of droppings over a week/month.
Hello Eric, we have a dairy farm not far from you in Berks county. In reference to your mastitis problems, have milking system checked, especially your vacuum system regulator. We were having trouble last year. Aaron Keller came out from Fisher n Thompson, checked out our system and found that our regulator was bad. He replaced that and it was night n day difference. Take care and thanks for the videos.
You have one of the cleanest barn I have ever seen. We use to get sick cows for the chickens that ran around. So we made chicken soup and that helped.
We had to put up netting on the rafters in the hanger to keep the birds out.
Speaking from experience most udder health issues stem from the milking routine. 10 years ago we went from maybe I cow a week in a 120 cow milking herd to 15 to 20. Went through all the housing no real problems when the milking system was checked we found that the vacuum pump control valve was not working correctly and we were milking with 3 inches more vacuum than was suggested and we were causing teat end damage . Another time we changed udder prep product and reeked havoc for a couple of weeks.
Hey man,
I worked on a dairy farm in germany he had the same problem with the birds, tried about evertything but nothing worked. The one thing that worked was a music box thingie that makes the sound of one of those birds being taken or killed bye a hunting bird. Saved him a lot of problems with sick cows and nutriens being taken out of the food
You and your dad are like a well oiled machine ! Praying for a quick remedy to your sick cows. Love your videos, God bless!
We never used the same piece of equipment to handle feed as we hauled manure with. Not sure where your bacteria coming from but I would think it is be digested. We always spread lime on the concrete floors after we cleaned out manure !! Thx for the video !!
You know you are hooked on the 10Gen channel, when you see "Hauling a Bunch of Manure" and you get excited.
We use a manure spreader for all our bedding been doing it for years woks great!!! Thanks for the video.
It’s crazy to see how much you guys get done before the sun even comes up, big thanks to all the farmers out there
Lots of good fertilizer and clean barns! Hope you get the disease issues under control.
That breaks my heart to hear the loss of some cows. I love your videos and love the COWS. Blessings for you. Please keep us updated.
House looks great also. Much respect from Maine
Thanks for all you guys and gals do. I enjoy riding along with you. Cheers 🇨🇦
you should look into an older manure spreader and put the corn stalk bales in that and use that to do your bedding ,, i fallow roher dairy farm ,, and thats what they use and it does a great job .. your dad had a good idea doing that ..
Great video. Really enjoy watching your days on the farm.
Cows look happy and dry.👍
One thing that helps keep birds out is putting plastic netting on the bottom of the trusses. We did that in our heifer barn and really like it.
Aww I'm sorry to hear about the cows I hope yall and I know yall will figure it out...stay warm and have a great weekend!!
Your a great worker, cows are always in top condition too. One of my favourite channels to watch and a lot of our own viewers do often mention you in high regards. 👍
I wish I could find some cow Manure like that for my gardens! Great job on the video! Thank you for sharing.
Rohrer Dairy uses their manure spreader to bed pens. They put straw bales in the spreader and back up to the pen. It seems to work pretty well!!
Always looking after the herd. Keeping the cows happy and healthy has always been a priority for you and your dad. Keep up the good work. Stay safe.
Your wife is not one that likes the topic of manure, if I remember correctly. I love your manure and manure related videos. I am a giant fan of how clean you keep your cows and their pens and your whole farm !! I could watch you sling and push cow poop all day. Occasionally I'll watch other dairy farm videos and wonder how the farmers and their livestock don't get some serious diseases. The poop piles in dirty pens is scary for this city person to see. Makes me happy to see and hear the concern you have for your critters. To that point, I have wondered about birds in the rafters pooping on the cows and their feed. Now you mention your concern of the birds in your barn. I noticed in another barn you have what looks like "chicken" mesh wire across the ceiling. You and your dad keep the best of all dairy farms, to me.
I think she didnt like the wet manure, dry was OK
@@michaelmckay Wet is the best though Mike. Slushy and pushes so well.
( I can't believe I am writing this !)
@@clairestaffieri4398 we aint talking about manure anymore, are we?
that’s how we spread straw all the time, is with the manure spreader. works awesome with any bale type /round/ big square/ small squares.
Love your vids Eric. Excited for your family moving into your new home as well!
Hope u get that serious problem figured out quickly loved seeing u clean the barn out great video as always Eric keep up the great work
I have read that the natural predator of starlings is the hawk. They recommend a Hawk decoy, or even better is to have someone that does falconry bring hawks a few times around the farm, and that really makes them stay away. I believe there are people who actually do that as a business of getting rid of birds like that. Wouldn't hurt to look into something like that.
Thanks for another awesome video bless y’all
You should look into getting a high dump bucket for loading feed and loading the spreader, we use a high dump bucket at the farm I'm working at and we just clean it really good after doing anything with manure, definitely worth the money so you don't have to shake the bucket quite as much!
These warm winters in PA. It’s a struggle to find cold enough days where the grounds solid enough to haul manure. Starlings are a nuisance.
Hey great video! We’ve been dealing with mastitis lately as well. It’s definitely a headache sometimes but hopefully you are able to get your problem figured out. We’ve been getting a mix of warm and cold temperatures in our area, I believe that’s what’s triggering our mastitis all of a sudden.
What do you do when a cow dies?
Love to visit and see the operation someday 💕 HUGE FAN!!
Love seeing cows jump in new bedding, they seem super happy. Congats brother.
Way to keep your head up man, I wish nothing but the best for your family as well as the cows! Hopefully the source of problem is figured out quickly.
These are my favorite videos, watching new bedding going into these cow buildings
It’s weird how hauling manure is one of the things I miss about living on a dairy farm. Thanks for the video.
They make sonic emitters to chase away animals. Humans can hear just a ticking sound. Animals hear fingernails on a blackboard. I've used one for barking dogs in a kennel. Barking stopped in a few minutes. Don't know how the cows would react?
Great video Eric. Thank you and your dad so much for feeding us. Hope you get to the bottom of your sick cows
Starling issues: my buddies place had to add The hanging plastic strips at all the doorways to keep them from flying in when the doors were open. They also added netting to keep them from flying up into the rafters. Then they had to aggressive go after remaining nests. Have a look at the paper "EUROPEAN STARLINGS: A REVIEW OF AN INVASIVE SPECIES
WITH FAR-REACHING IMPACTS" Aug 2007. There are a bunch of other papers on this but starlings (and other birds) bring lots of diseases along and mastitis increases as a result (along with other issues). it's worth trying to get rid of them. I bet if you setup a camera and took a timelaps you will see them eating the cows feed as well. Good luck!
Could do most all your pack bedding with the spreader!! One load of corn stalks then one load of sawdust. You all would figure out the amounts to use after the first time or 2. I bed first bed up for beefers every year with old H&S
Looked like that heifer knows what's coming when you guys clean out the pens, their cute when they kick up their heels like that. I like how you and your family take such good care of your animals, it shows. That manure is great, I wish I had that resource for my farm, I don't like using chemical fertilizers and wow, twenty loads, whew. Great video Eric, thanks for sharing, have a good Friday and a great weekend!
they kick any time u move them
Just wanted to thank you and your family for all the hard work you do to produce the milk I love to drink, so thanks again for your hard work....
I just use a 20 by 30 barn for a couple or so beef I raise to get in out of the weather. Been doing that for many years since I left the dairy. I raise Holstein from bottle to finish and in the 30 to 35 years never lost one. Last year for some reason being weather or what ever there were thousands and I do mean thousands would roost in that little barn, crapping all over and it was thick. The calves were covered also. I lost one that was right a 1000 lbs last year and the vet took tests and gave shots and was puzzled as I was why he got sick. I thought maybe that was the reason so I started carrying the 410 out there and started shooting what I could get a crack at. So the numbers went down to almost nothing as I would do that e to 4 times a day. I had everything roosting in the barn from sparrows, starlings, doves and even quail. Had lots of crows coming around during the day. Mostly those greasy starlings though in the barn. Knock on wood I haven’t lost one since.
You all sure have some beautiful heifers, that mostly white one is sharp looking. Try some plastic owls in your free stalls. We used some years ago when we milked cow's it seemed to help. Another great video Eric.
The brewers grain maybe the reason for excessive mastitis. Yeast is also a bacteria. Talk to your Vet.
I grew up on a cotton farm and seeing theses dudes working so early in the AM brings back memory's of us kids having to wake us in the dark.
I certainly admire the work ethic of dairymen but I thank my lucky star I wasn’t born into a dairy family.😳
Perhaps you answered your question about cows getting sick. Using the same skid loader for feed and manure. Bacteria can linger on your equipment long after you hose off the skid steer.
That would mostly cause digestion and infection of the urinary track. mastitis is a bacterial infection in the udders. Which would have nothing to do with the food. Their barn is pretty clean where the cattle lay. The most probable cause is bird droppings and birds landing and eating seeds around the cattle while they are chewing their cud
You could uses rubber snakes or blow up owls to put in the rafters to keep the birds out.The birds do carry diseases and will make cows sick and the feed waste. Yea the weather is all mess up on my birthday I’m always snowed in can’t get anywhere . It’s strange get up no snow but cold an windy with rain. You and your dad our hard worker’s never a doll moment working until dark and start again early morning. Love seeing the calf’s enjoy themselves with new bedding .
Can you fly a hawk balloon or kite near the barn entrance? It may shift them away from your barn. I wouldn’t put a roof in as it will create a bigger job down the line once the bird poop piles up. Love your videos! 🇬🇧
Eric those starlings are most deff the prob we deal with them too on our farm here in VA. Wish I had a solution for em, but I will say no way its your barn environment it is unreal how clean it stays with those slats & scrapers. Wouldn't be farming without yer daily dose of challenges, keep up the good work 👍
Hey Erick, is it possible the birds are bathing in the cows drinking water? Not a farmer actually quite the opposite, but just an observation I made. Hope it helps👍🏼
Eric if you do decide to upgrade your Deere's lights look into Tiger Lights. They offer a direct led swap so the harness, and mounts are the same. They even have kits for the Kubota skid steer.
Hell yeah winter should be winter!! Mild winters suck and make a mess of everything mud wise.
Always amazes me how stock is so excited to go into freshly bedded pins!!!
Enjoyed
Dairy farmer from the West of Scotland. Shining a laser pen around your barn or a disco ball light will scare the birds out they hate it.
Hey bud get a couple of fake plastic owls and hang em in the rafters of the barn they will scare the starlings away once they put out some bird netting around the opening in the roof top. My grandfather was a government trapper for years that’s his best suggestion. Best of wishes with them birds love the work and the videos keep on keeping on brotha
Plastic owls only work if they are moved around very frequently, otherwise smart birds like starlings, blackbirds, and such figure out they aren't real. There are plenty of videos demonstrating this, and you can easily find pictures of birds roosting right next to the plastic owl.
Works for a week or so ...
Would work long enough to get em out and get some netting up or patch the holes or what ever they wanted to get done but saying it’s a permanent thing but eh it’s a suggestion for a small problem
We blasted about 300 in our barn one night. Next morning it was like nothing even happened
@tydebeer5268what do you play on the speaker?
A lot of thought and planning, when you built this barn. makes things so much easier and faster to clean your barn out, less manual labour.
The disease worry is a headache I know but you can be assured that your dairy farm is probably the cleanest I've seen Eric.
It's good to see that you're on the button with anything happening too. Birds can be a menace but I bet the issue is something far simpler. I'd start with the drinking water and work from that.
We actually just installed a UV light this week because there was some bacteria in our well water. Hopefully that will help.
Second bucket for the skid loader. One dirty and one for food….?
@@rickwhitescarver8526 they do.
@@rickwhitescarver8526 yes, he’s shown that before
@@texkenny759 thanks guess i missunderstood why they’d need a full skid loader if you use a diff bucket. But im ignorant of farming. Just enjoy the channel
I think you are on the right track with the birds spreading problems. If your neighbor ten miles away has a serious problem you will end up with it because the birds were over there last week. They are hard to keep out once they get started.
Get rid of them anyway you can. My mother spent several months in isolation at a Sanitorium after having part of her right lung removed because she contracted Histoplasmosis from the the starling dropping in our milk barn back in the mid 1960's. That was not a good time for her at all.
Those are some nice looking young stock, you do a good job!
Try putting up the plastic owl's in the rafters and a couple of fabric geese the smaller bird's will eventually make for the hill's because they see bigger bird's especially if you can get a light above the geese the shadows will help keep them out of the feed. Same principle of the scarecrow the smaller bird's flee when shadows are above just something cheap to try before you get a pro involved. There's a bunch of products that can be put on the beam's but the Bill would be outrageous.
You guys are like my brother he also has robots and he keeps our cattle really clean at all times. His barns have ceilings to stop birds nesting.
Laser pens or a DJ laser can work with starlings. But i think the best way is closing up absolutely every gap around the shed, that’s what we are aiming for.
We just come out of a mastitis problem, get the vet in for a walk around we changed our sand bedding management and now were ok. Good luck.
String up bird netting to keep the birds out of the rafters.
Eric, think you feeding Brewers Grain now has anything to do with more mastitis? Just a thought from on the outside looking in sir. Great videos and fyi, your operation is the cleanest I have seen in a long time young man. Thank you
A lot of places around here use those plastic owls to scare the birds off some use motion or time activated noise makers.
Absolutely loved the Timelapse of you loading the spreader with the sunrise coming up!!
We vaccinate for mastitis. We had issues with watery mastitis and since using a vaccine at dry off and a booster at close up move, we’ve been good. Our vets have told us that sawdust can carry a bacteria and that can cause mastitis, even kiln dried. We put a ceiling in our barn 10 years ago. Brightens it up and the birds are gone.
"Bird guard!" It's a sound system that's relatively inexpensive. It sends out random raptor bird sounds, and it works very well.
We use it all winter long. Make sure you have the settings right. Otherwise, it can go off in the night.
Try multicoloured disco ball’s as starlings don’t like moving dots of light.
Didn't you recently change something (like the teat disinfectant) when milking the cows? Maybe look into that if my memory serves me, as it could possibly be not as affective.
Also, you started with wet brewers yeast not too long ago. Maybe that could be contributing to the mastitis (even thought it is supposed to help).
You also tried out some different bedding recently. I would just go back to all the changes you made since the uptick in mastitis and revert to what you were doing before to see if it helps.
Ahhhh...manure management videos are the best!
Good video Eric! Sorry to hear you've had some difficulties. The starlings as a cause makes sense. Wish you well in finding a solution. I've heard of businesses that use live falcons and owls for bird abatement services in the UK. Wish I had some useful advice for you. Certain you'll find an effective answer. Prayers for you!
i had a nieghbour who had birds of birds and anytime i had crows pecking ag bags or pigeons or starlings in the barn i would call on him with a bird and they'd be gone. if you can find someone like that they can set you up with an owl box or sparrow hawk in order to get a bird a prey to live at your farm for longterm effect
I would really like to see you upgrading the lights on the tractor. They are really dim and weak, and it is very hard to see anything at night. My excavator had very dim and old halogen lights and I just could not use it in the dark. After the upgrade I pulled an all night shift in my friends place and due to the bright LED lights all over I was not very tired, due to stearing in the dark. The bird issue is something I would have tried to tackle by getting a kid with an air rifle to shoot down what he or she could, over some days. Just make sure that you are able to collect the birds before the cows can get at them. Maybe shoot birds while the herd is being milked? Over a week you can take out a lot of birds, if he or she is a good shot. Just make sure the air rifle is not too strong. You don't want extra holes in your roof or walls. Good luck with that.
Keep the new house updates coming.
With the bird situation maybe you could just put a cieling over the area where they eat to cover the feed. If it gets worse after that then considering extending the cieling to cover the whole area. It would be a good way to experiment on fixing things without spending more than you probably want to. At least this way if it works then problem solved but if not then you already have some of the area covered.
Chicken wire the top. Won't allow them in. I've seen it work really well before. We had a few cows pass under the same conditions. Like you said, we worked hard at every step to mitigate the problem. Once we got the birds wrangled there was a slight decrease in sick cows. Unfortunately the dang birds just find another spot to get into. Good Luck
A nice group of calves. NEW BRUNSWICK, Canada .
There is a machine that puts out a high frequency that will keep the birds out. May check with the DNR
If you don’t have them already, I would try owl statues around the building that would probably be the cheap option it may or may not work or put in netting to keep the birds out of the rafters
Hardware cloth on the ceiling would be quick and permanent..
Eric, I wonder if that silage shredder would work for shredding those bales of fodder when you put new bedding in your pens?
Love the manure show, that was my job for years, grape!and shovel.
No skidloader as dad didn't believe in machines that worked.
He was a.mechanic .
4:35 this was a cool shot. Just seeing the clouds moving as you are just destroying that pile of manure.
Yes. I was going to suggest the owls. People in my neighborhood growing up would also put plastic snakes up to keep woodpeckers away. Not sure if that would work on all birds.
LOVE YOUR VIDEOS ERIC
Chicken wire fence rolled out in the rafters is something i have seen done to keep birds out and still allow airflow. Wish we would have done it on all our sheds
Why did you decide against the bale shredder? It seemed like a good tool especially for the heifer barn at the other farm which always seem very dirty.
Even though your sawdust appears to be very clean it is always risky. There was a time when we would get new cases every time we put fresh sawdust in stalls. I know it is frustrating when you want to fix a problem but can"t find the problem. Good luck
Barn swallows - it reads they are a better match and can chase the starlings out.
All together they catch insects also. So breed some couples there.
Does the malt affect the grasses that grow in fields youspread it on? Is it better quality or lower or no diffrent
Not a dairy farmer but I would think that some kind of mesh barrier to keep out the birds is a good idea. Hope you find the problem bc even I know dead loss means lost investment in that cow and comes straight off the bottom line. God Bless you and your entire family.
You could get the birds tested for avian flu, etc. Do not buy mist nets as very expensive. Hire a few bird banders with mist nets ( usually volunteer banders) they’ll capture a few, and be on their merry way. The other logistics, vet, lab, etc. Owls plus owl sounds, plus other birds of prey. Hire someone who has prey birds, and have it take out problem birds. Good luck.
That was a good days work Eric and dad 😊
They have netting for birds. That mite help you out.
Namaste!
Does the barn with the birds have the same netting as the new cow barn does? That’d probably be the best option
No it doesnt have the netting like the new one. They do have netting to try to block the holes in the roof but the birds are still getting in and out.
As noted earlier, the plastic owls do a good job keeping the birds away until they figure it out, so once you got them scared away get that netting up, thankfully it's not pigeons, they are stupid and nothing really works for them