UK Work Force.

[eggsarascal]

Not just cattle, I do some work on a pig farm, none of the pigs ever see daylight.

[dumper]

16 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

Not just cattle, I do some work on a pig farm, none of the pigs ever see daylight.

Must say eggs iv3 never seen a pig milked,..........yet

[Guest Gimlet]

You've never worked as an AI man in a dry sow house and had to approach the boar with a rubber glove and a thermos flask..

[doobin]

2 hours ago, drinksloe said:

 

 

It would be quite possible for a modern dairy cow love it's whole life never actually walking on or eating real grass.

 

1 hour ago, HuntingHicap said:

Bollocks. Pretty rare, if at all possible. 

 

1 hour ago, gary112 said:

No its not bollocks at all ,dairy farm next to us milk 220 a day and they never go out on grass at all 

There are many UK farms where the cows are housed year round. It's the most efficient way to keep high yielding stock. I visited a farm in Ireland last year where they had just thirty cows and a robot. Maybe two hours labour a day required. Extremely efficient, and apparantly profitable too even with so few cows.

 

However, grass is the most cost effective food we can grow on these isles and I can't believe there are any UK dairy farms where grass isn't fed, be it mown and brought to the shed (termed zero grazing) or grazed by the cows themselves.

[drinksloe]

1 hour ago, HuntingHicap said:

Bollocks. Pretty rare, if at all possible. 

 

Will all depend how calfs are reared and at they do with dry cows, so possible to move from igloos to bigger flood then into a shed.

 

I bet the majority of adult dairy cows in my area will never go outside now, if on robots u can't let them outside and if a bigger herd usually kept in as easier to get better quality and more constant milk as u can regulate wot they eat better.

Few dairies now smaller than 300 head ( except the 120 or 180 head robot units) and some now thousands of cows know 1 milks 2500ish on 200 acres of ground.

 

Aye supermarkets driving prices down and modernisation has a lot to answer for.

Even the new 'type' of dairy cow look terrible those bloody Holstein things, lucky to get 2 or 3 lactations out of 1, old any bull calfs have next to no use. All pelvis and udders

Compared to some off the old dairies small 40 to 60 cows proper fresian herds lived for years and bull calfs could still be fattened

 

[drinksloe]

8 minutes ago, doobin said:

 

 

There are many UK farms where the cows are housed year round. It's the most efficient way to keep high yielding stock. I visited a farm in Ireland last year where they had just thirty cows and a robot. Maybe two hours labour a day required. Extremely efficient, and apparantly profitable too even with so few cows.

 

However, grass is the most cost effective food we can grow on these isles and I can't believe there are any UK dairy farms where grass isn't fed, be it mown and brought to the shed (termed zero grazing) or grazed by the cows themselves.

 

That's a small dairy that at 30, most off the local robots seem to do about 60  cows.

While it saves milking time, expensive to buy and maitanence is srptill uncertain and on 24hr standby for breakdowns, which is why smallest I've heard off is 120 so 2 robots so got a back up if 1 breaks.

Know a few of the earliest 1s have now ropes them out either gave up milking or back to a parkour.

Modern parlour I'd prob milk 120 in an hour and ur not on call rest of day and little to break down

[dumper]

3 hours ago, Gimlet said:

You've never worked as an AI man in a dry sow house and had to approach the boar with a rubber glove and a thermos flask..

And you put the product into your tea?..

[struie]

6 hours ago, David Cropper said:

I bet you were on about the same wage when you joined the Army in 76. 

well david, now you come to mention it,     not sure what the hourly rate was for an army sprog,but it all seemed to go on bootpolish,haircuts,missin kit, oh i, bevy,  n fast women,lol.they were the days,and you still had enough for a long yomp home.

[David Cropper]

34 minutes ago, struie said:

well david, now you come to mention it,     not sure what the hourly rate was for an army sprog,but it all seemed to go on bootpolish,haircuts,missin kit, oh i, bevy,  n fast women,lol.they were the days,and you still had enough for a long yomp home.

I'm going to sound ancient now! At 17, £3 per week, 17 and a half £7, then the 50 pence a day " Danger money" for being in Ireland. When I got posted back to England, by Christ didn't I miss the 50p! 

[Khriss]

1 hour ago, struie said:

well david, now you come to mention it,     not sure what the hourly rate was for an army sprog,but it all seemed to go on bootpolish,haircuts,missin kit, oh i, bevy,  n fast women,lol.they were the days,and you still had enough for a long yomp home.

Longtown or as far as Catterick  ? K