You and your dad are very responsible dairy farmers. The care that you put into managing the herd properly helps to understand what it takes to run the farm. Thankyou. I like your dry sense of humor. Stay safe.
Great video Eric. Loved the info about your philosophies on milk and farm production. I hope smaller farms like your remain the backbone of our food chain system. Thanks till next time.
Colored zippties on the hydro lines to keep em straight. And it good to hear production is so well but it had adda be with the amount of effort you and your dad put forward the cows obviously more than appreciate you guys 😊 keep up the good work and god bless.
Eric, I’m an engineer (electrical) and I’m amazed at the technology you use to track each cow and monitor their health, output, and breeding data. I can’t imagine how challenging it used to be!
Swap the hoses. Keep the same battery size/ frame. When you hit the key you want it to GO. Great video, and always remember that the older cows have already paid thier freight, and anything after 3rd lactation is more profit than expense.
Hey Eric. It been awhile since I commented. Keep up the good components!! 7 lbs is our goal also, seems to be where the Cash flow is. We are still on 2022 corn silage and it's a struggle to get higher fat. All the guys around here that are on 2023 corn silage are making great butter fat.
Eric you're totally right. Percent profit is still percent, whether you're a hundred million dollar operation or a hundred dollar operation it all washes out in the percentage 👍 Plus those mega farms don't have the kind of content you produce and we love watching the videos
I really admire your attention to the details. Your average daily milk production numbers per cow are also amazing to me. Back in the 1980’s when I left the dairy industry. Our average daily milk production per cow was only 50-60#. Proof that your family is doing a fantastic job of managing and operating your beautiful dairy farm. I wish all of you continued success in this new year! Just curious: Does “the dog” have a name? Maybe “chewy”😂
I'd imagine that premix makes it more uniform and easier for you guys. Good work with the hydraulic hoses, looks good. I think your assessment of the cattle and your future with the herd is spot on, good luck with it. Thanks for sharing and have a good night!
I really like how much knowledge you have about so much in the farm it is awesome to see. A good way to remember where lines go is get a pack of multicolor zip ties makes it super simple.
Swap out the 8D battery for two or three group 31 batterys wired in parallel for 12 VDC and fab up a new hold down bracket. Much cheaper and are available everywhere.
You can use colored zip ties on your hoses to remember which one goes where. Both ends of the same line will get the same color zip tie and so on and so forth for other lines
Congratulations on your herd production, you're definitely on top of managing your cows to get those numbers! We still have a ways to go to get there...
Good to see you replace those hoses, had one blow while Bush hogging one time on a Mahindra with no brakes. Drove it home using the right and left brake that didn't really work.
Ferment the feed/fodder more after harvest (with a higher moisture content, like you did in one of the grow bags earlier). More digestible with higher nutrient intake
Wow Eric as a non dairy farmer, I've only experienced arable it's mind boggling what science goes into the ratios/percentages of the feed and adatives you have to work out. Brilliant.
Just a tip for you when doing lots of hoses keep as many different color zip ties around and put them on either fitting then you just have to match up colors
Hey Eric, alot of farmers in my area ask us at the fire department for any old hose we have...We donate it to them so they can use it on their hydraulic lines just like the sleeve you put on the hoses... Might be a good idea for the future!
Thanks for the insight on your farming strategy. I heard you say in an earlier video you were keeping the cows longer. Please don’t be too hard on Gracie she was only doing what puppies do best. Chew on everything 🤦♂️. Our house beagle has several different rope toys that help out with her chewing on things. God Bless You and Yours.
Get a multi color pack of zip ties to mark which hose came from where and add a couple unused zip ties under the zip tie on the hose that is being replaced so when your hose guy makes a new hose he has zip ties to put on the new hose. SIMPLE and Easy
Our components are high here in Ontario as well this year. Must be the feed but we have been breeding for it for years so it’s nice to see heifers milking well and generating good records. I assume your breeding decisions are based on some of the same parameters as us.
I always enjoy watching your videos, keep ‘em comin. Just wanted to mention that elbow on the top of that cylinder on the right side looks like it could hit the frame if your axle flexes too much.
the way i'd manage where they go is to use color tape when take them apart you and when you put them back to gather just mach the existing colors. then when you get replacement just swap color tape from old to new
Thank you Eric for the information on the feed ratio and your goals for milk production, very interesting!! Do you think that the “computer chip” in the rumen is also helping increase the production, simply allowing you to react quicker to an animal not feeling up to par? Keep up the great work…even if you “pull” our leg sometimes😂
You successfully messed up with me. 😅😅 You caught me off guard withe the steering turning joke. Good job Eric. Better days ahead. I like your videos from Kenya. 🇰🇪
Uhh watch out, i imagine when you hit a rock with your left front wheel the albow on your new hydraulichoose will snap right off when it hits the frame. Turn it downwards instead off upwards... Thats what I would do anyway...😊 Thanks a lot fore letting us follow your daily jobs! I enjoy it very much!!
Have you looked into Performance Beef feeding software? Granted it’s for beef cattle but it would make your feeding/mixing much easier. We’ve been using it for a year with great success.
Hey Eric, I saw you had a paper sheet wrote out for your feed sheet, I’m assuming you make those quite often with all of your rations since you don’t have any feeding software. I had that problem so I made a document on Google sheets that is nice I can input all Dry Matters, Cow numbers, etc and it produces a feed sheet for me and I use the mobile app to show the feed sheets. It saved lots of time and paper when I made the switch and multiple people can access the app to view and it’s a free app. I’d be happy to help share more info if you were interested.
one you tuber I watch uses different colored zip ties when changing out multiple parts. one goes on the hose and the other one would go on the tractor where the hose came from.
It is interesting to hear that in US you are also getting more money for milk components. I thought it is only in Lithuania, where I am living 😁 We have formula that every milk factories are using to calculate coeficient.
Great attitude Eric on always looking & striving for continuous improvement. Hey Eric, are planning on getting a heard of milk cows that will produce chocolate milk? Just mess’n with yah? Love your sense of humour Eric. Hope your New Year is going well.
Thanks Eric for your video’s! Interesting to hear the protein/fat levels you achieve. In the Netherlands (I’m living there, working in dairy industry) farmers achieve on average protein level of 3,58% and fat 4,45%. So there might be some upside for you on the protein part 😉.
Hi Eric, get yourself a pack of multi-colored zip ties. Put the same color on the hose and the fitting it goes to, so you can keep track of what goes where Edit: you also reminded me of a hilarious video I saw somewhere, of a bicycle someone had built that turned the opposite way of how you turn the handlebars. Watching people epically failing to ride it is :chefkiss:
Zip ties is how this old farmer keeps track of my hydraulic hoses. When I'm replacing a bunch of hoses or repairing anything complex like wiring rebuilds etc I take a bunch of photos on my phone as well for reference later.
You have a very clever neighbor. He plastic welds, makes hose, does custom work and a myriad of other things 😆. I get they probably are different people as you try to protect privacy. I always chuckle when you say “ the neighbor “ 🤣. I’d like a neighbor like that….z
Does a 5 gal. Pail make that much diffrence in that many cows? Seems like maybe 1 mouthful extra of stuff in pail compared to rest of cows. Is it that important? Or would diesel cost offset it? Just curious.
