August 2016 Newsletter
Milk Price & Supply, Sustainability Stories, Shinagh Open Day, Michael Crowley Farm Walk, CellCheck Tip of the Month
Milk Price & Supply
The milk price for the month of July is unchanged at 25.65 cpl (116.60 cents per gallon) at 3.60% butterfat and 3.30% protein, including milk price support of 0.5 cents per litre (cpl) by the Co-Op, Summer Somatic Cell Count (SCC) bonus of 0.5 cpl, SDAS bonus of 0.15 cpl and VAT at 5.2%.
The average price paid for the month based on the average butterfat of 3.99% and protein of 3.43%, including SCC, SDAS bonuses and VAT is 27.32 cpl.
Sustainability Stories
Want to see how local farmers implement environmental practices and save money on their farms?
Sustainability Stories West Cork is an exciting new digital storytelling project, the first of its kind in Ireland.
A partnership between Carbery Group and Macroom E (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cork County Council) has resulted in this Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded project, which was officially launched in April.
The first project participants from Drinagh and Lisavaird Co-ops took part in digital storytelling workshops and from this, they have created ten digital stories on their farms, based on their personal “sustainability story” and how their story fits with the Carbery Greener Dairy Farm Programme.
The study would like to share these ten unique digital stories with other farmers in the local area and collect responses through short surveys over a number of weeks. You will receive a letter shortly regarding this including the incentives offered for you to participate and we hope that you take part.
Want to know more? Contact Eimear Cusack on ecusack@macroom-e.com or 026-20520.
Shinagh Open Day
Carbery / Teagasc Joint Programme Open Day
on
Shinagh Dairy Farm
Bandon
Thurs, 15th Sept
Topics:
- Physical and Financial performance
- Money Management - managing cash
- Gurteen Share Farm - progress to date
More details nearer the day
Michael Crowley Farm Walk
See this article for photos of the day.
CellCheck Tip of the Month
Time for a change
Assuming you started the spring with a new set of liners, then it’s definitely time to change them now if you haven’t already done so. To help prevent mastitis, CellCheck recommends that liners are changed every 2,000 milkings, or every 6 months whichever comes first. For example, for the average Irish milk recording herd of 79 cows, if the full herd has been milking since March 1st in a 10 unit swing over parlour, the milking liners will have clocked up over 2,800 milkings by 31st August. These liners had completed 2,000 milkings by July 4th!
Cluster liners are designed to flex and squeeze the teat during each pulsation cycle. This massages teats and maintains blood supply. While liners are working they begin to lose tension, absorb fat and hold bacteria. After too many milkings this can reduce the speed and completeness of milking, resulting in a loss of milk yield. It also increases teat end damage and increases the spread of mastitis bacteria. Fatigued rubber can also hold bacteria and this can increase the total bacterial count (TBC) if dirt is being trapped.
To estimate how often you should change your liners, based on the number of rows you’re milking:
| No. of rows | Days between changes |
|---|---|
| 6 | 167 |
| 7 | 143 |
| 8 | 125 |
| 9 | 111 |
| 10 | 100 |
| 11 | 91 |
| 12 | 83 |
So, if you’re milking 8 rows of cows, you should be changing your liners every 125 days, which is approx every 4 months.
If you’re milking 11 rows of cows, you should be changing your liners every 91 days, which is approx every 3 months