Light Land Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 As you know I'm a herdsman on 530 cow low in-put grass based dairy farm. The pictures are of a 30 bail "Waikato" milking system made in NZ. Light land and New Holland chick after milking. Cows are doing 1.5 kg of milksoilds per day (Not that high but the cows are on poor grass at the moment.) SSC=150,000 (thats a good number for this mixed breed herd) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Can those cows kick you in that parlour Ol...given you are down below and they are up above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmermilkin82.050 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Good pictures Ol, that seems to be a good strong herd, how long does milking be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmermilkin82.050 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Can those cows kick you in that parlour Ol...given you are down below and they are up above When I do be milking, they can only move their back legs a bit when you are cleaning their udders there is usually a bar going along the parlour that is right up against the cows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deere-est Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Nice to see what you are doing, Ol. Your cows are out at grass are they or ar they housed and forage brought to them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 Tris,There outside all year round.In bad weather they get shut on the feedpad were they can sleep on bark chips and eat grass silage from the feed throughs. Farmermilkin,takes 4.5 hrs to milk and wash up 430 cows,got a few to calve yet.Herd is made up of Frisains,jerseys,aryshires and kiwicross cross (1/2 Frisain 1/2 jersey often jet black in colour) Bill,The kick rail keeps there legs in 99% of the time.I've only had 1 kick in the last 6 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM Farm Model's Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 what size is the parlor is that ol takes a good while to milk them ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmermilkin82.050 Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 The pictures are of a 30 bail "Waikato" milking system made in NZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Nice set up there Ol, how do you did the kiwicross? I was looking at some genetics booklets where the virtues of then were being touted rather loudly as for the parlour, we have a gasgoine with the same sort of backrail, but I once got a nasty kick to the stomach from a small heifer that had got far enough forward to kick like a horse. Then again we have a parlour designed to accommodate big holsteins and this heifer was small, but the backrail works quite well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted October 2, 2011 Author Share Posted October 2, 2011 Most kiwi farmers put a jersey AI straw in a freaisn cow and a freasin straw in a jersey cow and just keep doing that. the frist cross calves are worth big money here.I'm unsure of the finer points of making a kiwicross into a breed of it's own.What I do know is the kiwicross......... -Able to handle the extremes of weather beter than other dairy breeds. -Milk well off grass based systems,less liters but higher milk soilds. -Good walkers,that maters in NZ with cows walk many miles to the milking shed each day. -Not too big,so make less mud in winter. -A good kiwicross is jet black in colour. -Popular with kiwi farmers as now it's well understood that huge cows eating 25kg/dm per day will not make more money here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 That's very interesting Ol, do many farms round you make silage or just graze all year round? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texas Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Very nice set up Ol. Cross are also very strong. In texas we also a few cross the rest was jersey. Jersey can also better handle higher higher temperature. Texas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 Bas-thanks mate,good of you to look. Pat-Most make grass silage before christmas.A few will just let the cows eat more and by in abit of maize silage later on.We have 30ha of barley silage growing so the cows will eat all the grass untill autum when they will get barley silage as a top up for the grass.Cows are now doing 24ltr/day and doing 2 milksoilds per cow/day with a SCC of 100,000 as the cows get on too the 2nd round of grazing the grass is beter and they are milking well.Cows are eating 15kg grass and 2kg palm kernal now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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