If they have somebody to check or can pop back themselves, that can work - but if you leave them alone for 10 to 12 hours or longer you're asking for issues.
@farmtheory can you do an update on this as a short maybe, with what your daily silage cost saving is when you factor the cost of the feeder wagon in, both in depreciation of the capital asset but also the labour and diesel, wear and tear on the tractor etc please?
Hi Andrew. I watched your Fed by Farmers podcast and it was brilliant. Do you have a RUclips video or could you do one to explain more about the shed planning in NI? If I wanted to extend a shed that is already there is that not possible? I always thought it would need no planning permission but now I think it’s not even possible at all? I’ve no plans on extending at the minute but it’s always something I would like to do at some stage!
In my experience well off arable farmers would be out shooting or hunting and not so well off ones would be working a second job to keep the farm going!
If you were able to push forage intakes (if you had more in the clamp) would the tmr potentially have a better yield per £ spent?Interesting how the milk price to feed ratio has definitely made the sums work better than you’d normally expect.
Great video. You’re lucky to have the demo feeder wagon and that meal is relatively cheap and milk is relatively dear… fair play for being so on the ball ref your figures not withstanding the lucky breaks. Towards the end of the video you said saving 2 tonnes per cow per day, I think you meant 2 tonnes per day for all 160 cows? Why will your silage usage rate increase in Spring… is it because extra cows are being milked after the mega December calving as discussed? Buy the Feeder Wagon and the Quicke Grab… you know you want to and it’ll make the marketing people who sent you the goods happy, (and we’ll have a laugh!). Farmer Phil bought the same grab… you probably know that already. Did you ask Santa for those spanners?! Keep up the good work.
I call them beef and sleep farmers 😂😂. I actually have suckler cows taking everything to finish. This is my busy time and I can feed and bed in under an hour then I go off farm to earn money to support my painted metal and cow habit 😂
@@andrewmear8704 and that’s more than fair you are probably better off that way than farming full time, however you can’t call us beef and sleep farmers solely based off your system?
Would love to see your feed efficiency, FPCM, kg milk solids a cow a year or alternative per cow a day. All solid tools to get a rough idea of herd performance.
Great informative video as always . Thick question !!! Why bother about last years consumption ? Its historic , of no value for this year . Surely ,your daily consumption in kgs ( easy as you weigh it every day )with the amount ( in feet / metres ) you use every week will give you a quick rate of usage . Divide that into youre silage left will give you days left in clamp
So would the saving be enough to pay for a new feeder? If you kept the feeder you could then record the weight of maybe thebfirst gran in each feeder and then be able to get a fairly accurate average silage density. Wether thatsbworth thebtime tondo it or not? Could you also favtor on the potential of selling surplus silage in a year with better yields?
The beef and sheep farmers feed and check animals in the morning they then either go to work or run there own business, then repeat in the evening normally putting in a 12-14 hour working day. All for the love of the land as there paid income helps to subsidise the farming operation which includes buying shiny metal and paying rediculous amounts of money on rented land or mortgaged land, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Love it everyday.
Do farmers see more rats feeding meal in silage? Before I use to feed rearer mix for calves on top of silage attracted rats, now gone on to nuts and don't see any rats. Thinking of feeding straights to cattle and wondering how to not attract rats.
@@georgedoorley5628 OK I should have said sighns of rats, on coarse mix I use to see droppings around the cattle shed. since I've gone over to nuts 2 years ago there aren't eighvin sighns of rats anymore. Only time I see sighns of rats now is when we buy straw in
Meal is more consistent than silage. So even if meal was a little dearer. And milk a little cheaper. Over a 5 year avg. Meal is a better bet than trying to make super quality silage. I don't mean make bad quality silage. We shud always strive to make it as good as we can. But the consistency of meal against the inconsistency of silage because of irish weather. Makes consistency from year to year. In terms of milk volume and quality. A sum uv got to factor into the equation.
Sure that’s just like me saying what do you do all day after you milk your cows too the evening ?😂always plenty do her on beef and sheep farm and with lambing and calving starting in a few weeks be 24/7 for the next few months
I often wonder what dairy farmers do all day in the winter all you have to do is feed and milk, must be nice not having sheep to go and fence or chase all day
I hate using the words "told you so". Don't forget you are still very young in the world of TMR. I would suggest you consider the price comparison between soya hulls and maize meal, then compare the value of what is in them.
Would you ever think of getting a Tedder so you can still chop your grass within 24h but instead of being 28 dm would be more like 32dm therefore with cows eating the same kg of dry matter/day this would decrease the fresh weight and volume of silage fed to the cows
You have made a mistake son ! Just because you made less silage doesn’t mean that it didn’t cost you the same to produce the less silage than it would to have produced enough silage, so you probably only saved a small amount of diesel because the crop was lighter than expected however since you harvested quite a bit of wetter than usual grass this year even that is arguable as well ,since you carried in a lot of water, so to sum up your notional saving on silage value is probably not valid but on the upside you are not losing money by increasing the amount of meal feed and the extra value of the milk you would normally have produced over last years value means you are actually making more money per day this year than last by a considerable margin ( even allowing for the extra straw) . Did the same sums myself last week and came up with roughly the same result, however a side benefit of the extra meal is that the cows are coming in heat quicker and having stronger heats and I fully expect that this in turn will lead to better conception rates( to be determined) . Regards from Wicklow.
@ of course, however I am not saying you didn’t have to spend money, I am just saying that you were putting a notional value on the two tons of silage that you were not using of 35 pounds a ton based on cost pricing however I was pointing out that you were unlikely to have saved that money as your cost of production of your silage was probably the same whither you harvested 1500 tons or 1800 tons as your reduced crop was nothing to do with reduced inputs, rather it was the result of poor weather. My point being that a cost analysis of the silage in the pit would in my opinion indicate that the cost of the silage this year was considerably higher than the previous year, however I just remembered that you said somewhere along the line that you forward bought fertiliser in 22 for 23 which probably shoved up your costs for 23 so maybe your cost per ton is not that dissimilar however all things being equal, the reduced production was not a factor of reduced inputs. In conclusion it is actually good to know that I didn’t make a cock up with my calculations because I came to almost exactly the same conclusion down here and was wondering if I had made an error also but I’m pretty confident that the results are correct.
I don't think you understand the power of this video.. all dairy farmers need to understand this concept exists. Forage is very expensive for its value, concentrate is very profitable at times. Great video
what u missed in your final calculations is the cost of the feeder wagon, you can manipulate diets all year but you are overstocked and with the implications of nitrates and climate challenges you would be better off with far less cattle and a simple silage and ration diet
When the beef farmer finishes feeding in the morning they go to work.
If they have somebody to check or can pop back themselves, that can work - but if you leave them alone for 10 to 12 hours or longer you're asking for issues.
@@joytotheworld9109 lots around here are only seen and fed at night in the black dark at this time of the year .........
We feed our cattle, then take a "wee while" looking at RUclips 😂😂
@joytotheworld9109 do it all the time what do you think cattle used to do in the wild lol
I think it would help..if you
Could park a few more things in the way ! In the silage shed ! To make it a more interesting drive on the loader !
Farm tour video is defiently something we have been waiting for! :)
That's next week's video. 🤣 Been waiting to get some nice drone footage
Great video the diet feeder is staying, should have got shear bucket would be handy for filling the feeder .
What about the diesel cost to run the tractor and cost of diet feeder does that reduce the 60 pounds a day you think you are better off by much?
Found you from Fed by Farmer... glad I did
TMR will work for you through out the summer as well so you will save silage that time of year as well winter if you implement it
Great video again can you show sometime you using the diet feeder again and filling it??
Yes I will
@farmtheory can you do an update on this as a short maybe, with what your daily silage cost saving is when you factor the cost of the feeder wagon in, both in depreciation of the capital asset but also the labour and diesel, wear and tear on the tractor etc please?
I did on tiktok. 🤣
@ can you post it on RUclips for those of us who are nearly 40 and aren’t cool enough for TikTok?
Ull be buying that feeder wagon 😉😉
🤔
Is there much difference in feed value for the cows between pit silage and baled silage...
Hi Andrew. I watched your Fed by Farmers podcast and it was brilliant. Do you have a RUclips video or could you do one to explain more about the shed planning in NI? If I wanted to extend a shed that is already there is that not possible? I always thought it would need no planning permission but now I think it’s not even possible at all? I’ve no plans on extending at the minute but it’s always something I would like to do at some stage!
In my experience well off arable farmers would be out shooting or hunting and not so well off ones would be working a second job to keep the farm going!
Right decisions spend to save and buying silage is dearer than meal
The mystery of beef and sheep farmers is quite easy! We go to work.
I guess you don’t have that many beef animals
Yeah, I know. 🤣 Only stirring the pot.
If you were able to push forage intakes (if you had more in the clamp) would the tmr potentially have a better yield per £ spent?Interesting how the milk price to feed ratio has definitely made the sums work better than you’d normally expect.
I think I will be able to do that, I will see what the situation is in Jan.
In a wetter zone and with TB on the rise you can start to see the attraction of a controlled indoor regime.
Great video. You’re lucky to have the demo feeder wagon and that meal is relatively cheap and milk is relatively dear… fair play for being so on the ball ref your figures not withstanding the lucky breaks. Towards the end of the video you said saving 2 tonnes per cow per day, I think you meant 2 tonnes per day for all 160 cows? Why will your silage usage rate increase in Spring… is it because extra cows are being milked after the mega December calving as discussed? Buy the Feeder Wagon and the Quicke Grab… you know you want to and it’ll make the marketing people who sent you the goods happy, (and we’ll have a laugh!). Farmer Phil bought the same grab… you probably know that already. Did you ask Santa for those spanners?! Keep up the good work.
Well done smart video
hi just wondering if you could do a comparison video on youre case vs massey?
great video btw
Good idea!
I call them beef and sleep farmers 😂😂. I actually have suckler cows taking everything to finish. This is my busy time and I can feed and bed in under an hour then I go off farm to earn money to support my painted metal and cow habit 😂
Clearly don’t have many cows
@ no I don’t that’s why I go out to earn money 50 cattle is nothing it breaks even and provides enjoyment and good beef in the freezer
@@andrewmear8704 and that’s more than fair you are probably better off that way than farming full time, however you can’t call us beef and sleep farmers solely based off your system?
Us beef and sheep farmers usually do our farming morning and evening and have a full time job in-between like myself 😁
Would love to see your feed efficiency, FPCM, kg milk solids a cow a year or alternative per cow a day. All solid tools to get a rough idea of herd performance.
My milk from forage sits around 3000l/yr if that helps.
Great informative video as always . Thick question !!! Why bother about last years consumption ? Its historic , of no value for this year . Surely ,your daily consumption in kgs ( easy as you weigh it every day )with the amount ( in feet / metres ) you use every week will give you a quick rate of usage . Divide that into youre silage left will give you days left in clamp
Yes, you're right, last year was as a check. There is still the variables of silage density and also if our usage increases in spring.
Good stuff
So would the saving be enough to pay for a new feeder? If you kept the feeder you could then record the weight of maybe thebfirst gran in each feeder and then be able to get a fairly accurate average silage density. Wether thatsbworth thebtime tondo it or not?
Could you also favtor on the potential of selling surplus silage in a year with better yields?
I did work out my silage density by using the wagon, it was 800kg/M3. I will work it all out in March
@FarmTheoryNI is there potential of variation through the clamp, or not really?
If you do buy a feeder wagon don't buy a Keenan it a tumble dryer
So how long till you get the results and do the numbers and figure out that you’re going to house year round
March. 🤣
Did you account for the cost and running cost of the feeder wagon?
Not yet. I'm recording it all
Great Video, How many brain cells died in the production of the Video, just kidding! Thanks for sharing
Did u ever make up wat it costs to run diet feeder and tractor which u wouldnt need if u only putting in blocks
remember that not all beef and sheep farmers have any where near as good a set up as you have ...........!
The beef and sheep farmers feed and check animals in the morning they then either go to work or run there own business, then repeat in the evening normally putting in a 12-14 hour working day. All for the love of the land as there paid income helps to subsidise the farming operation which includes buying shiny metal and paying rediculous amounts of money on rented land or mortgaged land, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Love it everyday.
Yep, for a lot of people farming is their hobby. Which is actually something I am sometimes jealous off!
Do farmers see more rats feeding meal in silage? Before I use to feed rearer mix for calves on top of silage attracted rats, now gone on to nuts and don't see any rats. Thinking of feeding straights to cattle and wondering how to not attract rats.
the rats are still there u just do not see them............if u see a rat , u have a bad infestation
We have enough cats we don't have that issue any more.
@@georgedoorley5628 OK I should have said sighns of rats, on coarse mix I use to see droppings around the cattle shed. since I've gone over to nuts 2 years ago there aren't eighvin sighns of rats anymore. Only time I see sighns of rats now is when we buy straw in
@@FarmTheoryNI I hate cats, they make holes in the round bales.
Meal is more consistent than silage. So even if meal was a little dearer. And milk a little cheaper. Over a 5 year avg. Meal is a better bet than trying to make super quality silage. I don't mean make bad quality silage. We shud always strive to make it as good as we can. But the consistency of meal against the inconsistency of silage because of irish weather. Makes consistency from year to year. In terms of milk volume and quality. A sum uv got to factor into the equation.
It's interesting for sure. 🤔
Sure that’s just like me saying what do you do all day after you milk your cows too the evening ?😂always plenty do her on beef and sheep farm and with lambing and calving starting in a few weeks be 24/7 for the next few months
I often wonder what dairy farmers do all day in the winter all you have to do is feed and milk, must be nice not having sheep to go and fence or chase all day
A fair comment. 😅
I hate using the words "told you so". Don't forget you are still very young in the world of TMR. I would suggest you consider the price comparison between soya hulls and maize meal, then compare the value of what is in them.
Thinking of making some changes next week. 👌 Feel free to say "I told you so" 😅
Would you ever think of getting a Tedder so you can still chop your grass within 24h but instead of being 28 dm would be more like 32dm therefore with cows eating the same kg of dry matter/day this would decrease the fresh weight and volume of silage fed to the cows
Our neighbour has one, I find I normally don't need to use it.
I would be thinking that tedders , rakes and dribble bar applied slurry will be shown to be a bad combination in the near future
You have made a mistake son ! Just because you made less silage doesn’t mean that it didn’t cost you the same to produce the less silage than it would to have produced enough silage, so you probably only saved a small amount of diesel because the crop was lighter than expected however since you harvested quite a bit of wetter than usual grass this year even that is arguable as well ,since you carried in a lot of water, so to sum up your notional saving on silage value is probably not valid but on the upside you are not losing money by increasing the amount of meal feed and the extra value of the milk you would normally have produced over last years value means you are actually making more money per day this year than last by a considerable margin ( even allowing for the extra straw) . Did the same sums myself last week and came up with roughly the same result, however a side benefit of the extra meal is that the cows are coming in heat quicker and having stronger heats and I fully expect that this in turn will lead to better conception rates( to be determined) . Regards from Wicklow.
I would have to either buy silage or meal? So it's not an option to not spend money?
@ of course, however I am not saying you didn’t have to spend money, I am just saying that you were putting a notional value on the two tons of silage that you were not using of 35 pounds a ton based on cost pricing however I was pointing out that you were unlikely to have saved that money as your cost of production of your silage was probably the same whither you harvested 1500 tons or 1800 tons as your reduced crop was nothing to do with reduced inputs, rather it was the result of poor weather. My point being that a cost analysis of the silage in the pit would in my opinion indicate that the cost of the silage this year was considerably higher than the previous year, however I just remembered that you said somewhere along the line that you forward bought fertiliser in 22 for 23 which probably shoved up your costs for 23 so maybe your cost per ton is not that dissimilar however all things being equal, the reduced production was not a factor of reduced inputs. In conclusion it is actually good to know that I didn’t make a cock up with my calculations because I came to almost exactly the same conclusion down here and was wondering if I had made an error also but I’m pretty confident that the results are correct.
A pre calving diet should set you fresh calvers up a lot better to milk better post calving
We are finding that
Beef and sheep farmers get there free work done in the morning. Then head to there paid work the rest of the day😂
I don't think you understand the power of this video.. all dairy farmers need to understand this concept exists. Forage is very expensive for its value, concentrate is very profitable at times. Great video
Why not buy some beet
what u missed in your final calculations is the cost of the feeder wagon, you can manipulate diets all year but you are overstocked and with the implications of nitrates and climate challenges you would be better off with far less cattle and a simple silage and ration diet
Yes, that will be done on the full video in spring.
To be full time farming you would need over 600 ewes and by God you would be busy
very very true ...........never ever seen a sheep farmer with big numbers having any problems with being overweight .............
Storm Darragh obliterates Britain's biggest solar nonfarm,,,is that sustainable??
FYI if u can't make money on beef cattle this year with no purchase price of the stock and cheap meal give up the beef enterprise!!
When your a dairy farmer and your closed with TB you can’t really just give it up
We probably will this year, but lost quite a bit last year. It averages to £0 basically
Are ye having a storm
We did!
🙏🙏🇮🇪🇮🇪👌👌👏👏👍👍
If u have used 60% of your silage, I think u should be looking for silage now.
Why, not get rid of beef animals, if not making money. in stead of 19 cows
Go and watch farmer Phil to see what a Beef farmer does. 😊😅😊
Did you not do a video and only spent like 3 hours farming one day ??
Yes. 🤣🤣
ruclips.net/video/qYWYI5b_L28/видео.htmlsi=xvoaybsXDoclAVYm
Why not buy some beet