Our Dairy Comp 305 triggered the trim list and we set them to sort out of the pens. Trimmer was on farm 3 of 4 Fridays each month for the cows. Days carried calf (dcc) triggered the trim list, although we could add any lame cows to the list. He set up in the sort barn. A different trimmer did heifers once a month. He set up in a heifer pen and rotated the pens through the barn. He used LOTS of gates to shuffle heifers.
Have you thought about having a falcon brought in. A place I worked at had a bad starling infestation, they hired a guy that had a small falcon. It took out two five gallon buckets of starlings in about an hour, and it took almost a year for more to show back up.
About the feed spilling out of the hay box - I think that if you add a board at the bottom across the belt it would prevent the hay from all coming down and the belt would pull a smaller amount out at a time. Great video Eric, keep them coming!
Hi eric, The hoof trimmer comes to us about every 6 weeks and picks up the lame cows, the cows just before dry-off and the cows that are 100 days into lactation at that time. Since we always grab a small group it is not so stressful for the whole herd and in my opinion the lame cows are handled well and the cows that are close to lameness are also detected well. Also because you do it twice in the lactation it goes faster for the cows that have no problems but only need maintenance because then less horn has grown back.
You could put a reinforced board across the box cart and block off the top auger and maybe even half the the next one two because its chopped dry hay it would not be heavy enough to stall or block the bottom drive chains. it wouldn't work for haylage or silage but dry chopped hay should be ok. As always never miss a video thanks for making my day once a week. God bless
Sounds like there's some adjustments that will help you all for next year, when it comes to the rations. I think that's a normal thing, considering the changes with the silo and the auto feed being new. Good luck with all of it, you'll have it worked out soon. Have a good afternoon!
I would try put a baffle in the hay wagon so it doesn’t slide down like that, I know it just happens at the start each time it gets reloaded, but that’s a lot of work cleaning up all the time, if it can be prevented. Nice work as always, Eric.
As always you have a well thought out storyline and it's cool to watch the business through your eyes. At 6:40... Order a muffler when you make the first repair. It will brake again and just be an annoyance. And you'll have the muffler on hand. If you're going to be keeping the machine of course...
Another suggestion that worked for us is the local welding shop made a stainless steel liner we bolted inside the spout. Feed would build up on the spout to the door which made it not throw out very well. Ran stainless liner to end of spout and made a great improvement. Used little stainless bolts on edge so wouldn't effect the flow. Have in both are haylage silos.
A fan of New Holland skid loaders, it's what we ran on the Dairy farm in WNY. Now I see them rolling out on trucks from the factory where they are built. I work aviation now at at manufacturer close the the New Holland factory.
Trim whole herd twice a year. Then have our own chute for special needs and lameness in between. We don't use a tip chute so it's minimal disturbance. Usually don't see much affect on milk and hooves look good. We trim in the middle of the feeding alley of the barn so they can eat and lay down before and right after
Hey I believe every enclosed cab for human occupancy has to have a cab filter . Didn't see that being opened, cleaned out and change. 1960's or newer believe it or not. Good as always 👍🏻
As a problem solver, may i suggest removing the top spindle or even both and just weld in some bracing or make a wood wall to keep the hay up and in from over flowing. Since you need it to feed at a slow rate, there is no hurry and it should be able to feed slower even with a full wagon imo. (Perhaps a quick test would be unhooking them if possible so the top two don't spin.)
Suggestion to fix the feed spill problem out of the box you could grab a couple sheets of plywood and some angle, brackets, heavy duty ones and put them in front of the top one or two shredders on the inside or outside, forcing all the feed to properly fall into the low conveyor And for the bunch of problem, you could also increase the speed of the feed conveyor going through the wall as it will pull away the hay/straw a lot quicker
I think the ideal trim schedule for a monthly trim is 100-130DIM and then all the cows to dry off the next month. And then obviously lame cows on top of that. That’s how I’ve always done it anyways. Doing it a group at a time might work out decently for you
What about removing about half of the rear panel on the wagon just low enough to reach over with the skid steer? Then you could leave the wagon in there and just put a few buckets in every couple days and it wouldn’t get loaded too high and clog the conveyor. Or is the commodity shed too far away from it?
40 years ago,there was a product that you could roll on the rafters. It was excellent to repel the birds. Even chickens,wouldn’t enter the shop. They would walk up to the edge and that was it. A man would come around periodically and apply it.
Graham Parker the Hoof GP is your go to for Hook care, I’m sure he would do a great collaboration and give you advice on hoof care etc. think your batch trimming idea would give you a better overall care for cows and save you man hours herding and moving around. You can also create a chute to guide them into trimming and then exit to their pens. To be fair you can come up with various options and until you trial them it’s what fits your farmlife. Overall aim is best care for the cow, efficacy and costs. Healthy cows produce more milk and the quality so you get the best income to keep the standards higher.
I have a 80 cow dairy. I trim twice a year all the cows it takes about 2 days. I have 2 groups with a robot on each group so as we push the cows through the robot (whether they need milked or not) they are then funneled in to the shoot to be trimmed. Long day but 4 days out of 365 not to bad keep them walking good.
We always just sort off the sore ones in the lactating group then we trim actually while they are dry that way we aren’t disturbing them during lactation
Are you milking while the hood trimmer is there? If not put the pre fresh cows in the holding area. If you are milking then maybe now you could put up a temp lane and fence and run the pre fresh group into one of the bunks till trimming is over
RE: Muffler. seriously consider "exhaust bandage" as a way to seal the two joints between down pipe (manifold) -> muffler -> tail pipe. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a killer and is invisiable and odourless. dont risk it. Re broken corner: gas cut two squar-ish plates of cast iron. the idea is be the front and back sides of the broken corner. bolt them to each other (front and back) tightly. Use generous amount JB weld as a filler between the plates at the broken corner. allow to set. dont bother trying to remove the plates. no need. if that fails its a new manuifold anyway. Finally.. SEAL ALL THE EXHAUST JOINTS! - *CO* is serious stuff. Ps. Love your vids :)
Another UA-cam channel I follow (a dairy out in Oregon state) installed a sound system that plays distress calls. It unsettles the Starlings to the point that they don't want to land. It makes a huge difference. You should investigate it as a viable solution!
Actually we don’t blanket hoof trim , we only do the ones that are in need of it, it works out at about 25 percent of the herd per year ( some would have been seen twice and two were seen three times) many years ago we did do every cow at least once a year but we adapted a rigorous foot bathing routine and it worked out well so our hoof trimmer said we were just wasting our time and his doing cows that were fine. We probably present more than we should even still but we have reduced our hoof trimming to six times a year so if we are anyway suspicious we pull her for inspection.
Immediately I was thinking of all the hard work you do Eric along with your Dad and hired crew in just a single day. Then I saw that first lady taking her place in the Milking Line and had to laugh as she instantly noticed the camera filming her!😂 Of course it is not lost on your Fan Base just how much your camera placements amplify the total coverage of any given job you are doing. As this video proceeded it became obvious that you really went above and beyond your normal camera coverage and we ALL are grateful! As always your explanations of what you are doing round out an awesome presentation! It's a real pleasure to be a part of this Ride! Thank you for my seat! MOO From COW-lumbus, Ohio 👋
When you started up the New Holland, it sounded a little throaty. How macho. lol Then when you pressure washed it, I had forgotten it was actually yellow. Guess the saw dust made it look so creamy.
We trim whole herd 2 times and old/lame get done 4x per year. If I could I would do 2x per year, same as you do, just sort a group once per month. Way better timing, now we get dry cows that should have been trimmed etc. Plus lame cows can get more attention
A while ago you bought a hoof trimming shoot and said sometime you would start to trim the cows hoves yourself.If you want a course go and check out TheHoofGP's channel.Great video
We have cows which we need to trim every 3 months and some only once a year. I'm aiming to trim m just before drying off and around 120-130 days. And of course the lame ones. If you only have to trim them once, there must be something you're doing good
Eric. When is the fan in the back of the feeding room being installed. I am noticing a lot of dust when it's making feed and love the work you put into making videos.
We used to trim our cows the same way but then we switched to a different hoof trimmer and we trim the whole herd 3 times a year and trim prefresh heifers when we have a group
Might be worth looking into those clear plastic 'curtains' for the robot feed room. The ones that have the vertical 'slats' that are about 6-8" wide. It'd keep the dust in but still let the robots pass through easily. Just an idea :)
Would "processed" (pre cutter baler) large square bales work better than loading chopped hay in the wagon? Take the rear gate off, and just load the bales and cut the strings. I've fed that kind of hay, and it really breaks apart when the strings are cut. Just a thought, y'all know what works for you. Great video, Eric.
See if you have a Falconer local. That is what the Air Force used to get birds out the Hanger's. Then they put netting up. Birds still get through the netting though.
Eric as non farmer it seems like doing them in groups and not having to sort or bother anyone seems pretty good to me and sounds like it would be better on you guys and the girls that’s a pretty solid idea bud
Hay bin - since it works better half full - cut the right side down (to the diagonal brace) so you can load it inside the shed without moving it outside first?
Could your hay trailer be modified to close in the front end, maybe using tin/plywood, so it can only feed out of the bottom chute? That might help with spillage. A whole system will certainly take a lot of trial and error to get it perfected, but keep up the good work.
Regarding sorting… have you thought about it after they are released from the parlor and before back to the pens? Or not worth the time and hassle since milking is priority? Maybe a sort gate in the future?
We milk about 80 cows. We trim every three months. All the milk cows and dry cows go through the crate in one day. Cows are on rubber and go though a footbath
Any plans to increase the number of acreage farmed to make sure there is enough forage? pr is there enough acreage and just more needs to be planted in the fall?
A time lapse from a robot-mounted camera would be really fun to watch. Love your content.
I have said a dozen times you have the cleannes barn and cow ever. Well done
@salmonhunter7414 May I suggest you learn some grammar before you post?
Our Dairy Comp 305 triggered the trim list and we set them to sort out of the pens. Trimmer was on farm 3 of 4 Fridays each month for the cows. Days carried calf (dcc) triggered the trim list, although we could add any lame cows to the list. He set up in the sort barn. A different trimmer did heifers once a month. He set up in a heifer pen and rotated the pens through the barn. He used LOTS of gates to shuffle heifers.
You should name the mixers. Dad and Eric so you can still say Dad/Eric is feeding.
Votes best new idea for 2025.
Wow….
Haha, great idea, I named my robot vac Peter! Great name for a robot!
How about Polly and Roger?!
That would be great!
I’m sure the ladies won’t mind the extra pampering with having their nails done more often.
Lots of bovines BALK at trim chutes!
Have you thought about having a falcon brought in. A place I worked at had a bad starling infestation, they hired a guy that had a small falcon. It took out two five gallon buckets of starlings in about an hour, and it took almost a year for more to show back up.
Thats pretty amazing.
Love your ramp. You sure do have a knack for solving problems on the farm. Great video and thanks.
About the feed spilling out of the hay box - I think that if you add a board at the bottom across the belt it would prevent the hay from all coming down and the belt would pull a smaller amount out at a time. Great video Eric, keep them coming!
Hi eric, The hoof trimmer comes to us about every 6 weeks and picks up the lame cows, the cows just before dry-off and the cows that are 100 days into lactation at that time. Since we always grab a small group it is not so stressful for the whole herd and in my opinion the lame cows are handled well and the cows that are close to lameness are also detected well. Also because you do it twice in the lactation it goes faster for the cows that have no problems but only need maintenance because then less horn has grown back.
You could put a reinforced board across the box cart and block off the top auger and maybe even half the the next one two because its chopped dry hay it would not be heavy enough to stall or block the bottom drive chains. it wouldn't work for haylage or silage but dry chopped hay should be ok. As always never miss a video thanks for making my day once a week. God bless
Straight piped skiddy sounded pretty good 😂😂😂
😂😂😂
3:33 cow walked out like it needed a therapist
I like the idea of hoof trimming home delivery. ;) They are so social - the stress would be much less i think.
Sounds like there's some adjustments that will help you all for next year, when it comes to the rations. I think that's a normal thing, considering the changes with the silo and the auto feed being new. Good luck with all of it, you'll have it worked out soon. Have a good afternoon!
I would try put a baffle in the hay wagon so it doesn’t slide down like that, I know it just happens at the start each time it gets reloaded, but that’s a lot of work cleaning up all the time, if it can be prevented. Nice work as always, Eric.
As always you have a well thought out storyline and it's cool to watch the business through your eyes.
At 6:40... Order a muffler when you make the first repair. It will brake again and just be an annoyance. And you'll have the muffler on hand. If you're going to be keeping the machine of course...
never realized how big the hay wagon is until I saw it hooked up to the skid steer.
Another suggestion that worked for us is the local welding shop made a stainless steel liner we bolted inside the spout. Feed would build up on the spout to the door which made it not throw out very well. Ran stainless liner to end of spout and made a great improvement. Used little stainless bolts on edge so wouldn't effect the flow. Have in both are haylage silos.
A fan of New Holland skid loaders, it's what we ran on the Dairy farm in WNY. Now I see them rolling out on trucks from the factory where they are built. I work aviation now at at manufacturer close the the New Holland factory.
It is so satisfying to see a dirty machine get clean!
Always like seeing the robots in action!!
Your trimmer seems to do very good work. I'm loving your robotic feeders.
Those are some seriously gorgeous silos in the background. I’ve never seen any so tall, awesome.
Trim whole herd twice a year. Then have our own chute for special needs and lameness in between. We don't use a tip chute so it's minimal disturbance. Usually don't see much affect on milk and hooves look good. We trim in the middle of the feeding alley of the barn so they can eat and lay down before and right after
We trim twice a year.
Great Videos 👍
Greetings from germany
Have you thought about using a rubber baffle (an old mud flap) to control how much hay drops out of the wagon onto the conveyor belt?
That’s a neat set up on trimming there hoofs
Hey I believe every enclosed cab for human occupancy has to have a cab filter . Didn't see that being opened, cleaned out and change. 1960's or newer believe it or not.
Good as always 👍🏻
As a problem solver, may i suggest removing the top spindle or even both and just weld in some bracing or make a wood wall to keep the hay up and in from over flowing. Since you need it to feed at a slow rate, there is no hurry and it should be able to feed slower even with a full wagon imo. (Perhaps a quick test would be unhooking them if possible so the top two don't spin.)
Suggestion to fix the feed spill problem out of the box you could grab a couple sheets of plywood and some angle, brackets, heavy duty ones and put them in front of the top one or two shredders on the inside or outside, forcing all the feed to properly fall into the low conveyor And for the bunch of problem, you could also increase the speed of the feed conveyor going through the wall as it will pull away the hay/straw a lot quicker
I think the ideal trim schedule for a monthly trim is 100-130DIM and then all the cows to dry off the next month. And then obviously lame cows on top of that. That’s how I’ve always done it anyways. Doing it a group at a time might work out decently for you
Does the frequent provision of fresh feed also have an impact on the amount and ingredients of milk?
When I worked on the farm it was a 800 cow dairy. Hoof trimmer came every other week and we would sort out 40-50 head.
What about removing about half of the rear panel on the wagon just low enough to reach over with the skid steer? Then you could leave the wagon in there and just put a few buckets in every couple days and it wouldn’t get loaded too high and clog the conveyor. Or is the commodity shed too far away from it?
Videos are tight bro! Nice job. Very fun to watch!
40 years ago,there was a product that you could roll on the rafters. It was excellent to repel the birds. Even chickens,wouldn’t enter the shop. They would walk up to the edge and that was it. A man would come around periodically and apply it.
Graham Parker the Hoof GP is your go to for Hook care, I’m sure he would do a great collaboration and give you advice on hoof care etc. think your batch trimming idea would give you a better overall care for cows and save you man hours herding and moving around. You can also create a chute to guide them into trimming and then exit to their pens. To be fair you can come up with various options and until you trial them it’s what fits your farmlife. Overall aim is best care for the cow, efficacy and costs. Healthy cows produce more milk and the quality so you get the best income to keep the standards higher.
I have a 80 cow dairy. I trim twice a year all the cows it takes about 2 days. I have 2 groups with a robot on each group so as we push the cows through the robot (whether they need milked or not) they are then funneled in to the shoot to be trimmed. Long day but 4 days out of 365 not to bad keep them walking good.
We always just sort off the sore ones in the lactating group then we trim actually while they are dry that way we aren’t disturbing them during lactation
Are you milking while the hood trimmer is there? If not put the pre fresh cows in the holding area. If you are milking then maybe now you could put up a temp lane and fence and run the pre fresh group into one of the bunks till trimming is over
RE: Muffler. seriously consider "exhaust bandage" as a way to seal the two joints between down pipe (manifold) -> muffler -> tail pipe. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a killer and is invisiable and odourless. dont risk it. Re broken corner: gas cut two squar-ish plates of cast iron. the idea is be the front and back sides of the broken corner. bolt them to each other (front and back) tightly. Use generous amount JB weld as a filler between the plates at the broken corner. allow to set. dont bother trying to remove the plates. no need. if that fails its a new manuifold anyway. Finally.. SEAL ALL THE EXHAUST JOINTS! - *CO* is serious stuff. Ps. Love your vids :)
Another UA-cam channel I follow (a dairy out in Oregon state) installed a sound system that plays distress calls. It unsettles the Starlings to the point that they don't want to land. It makes a huge difference.
You should investigate it as a viable solution!
Its always satisfying washing equipment.
Awesome video Eric. thank you
We trim every Thursday but for ones that badly need it
Looks like things are going along just fine Eric,
Actually we don’t blanket hoof trim , we only do the ones that are in need of it, it works out at about 25 percent of the herd per year ( some would have been seen twice and two were seen three times) many years ago we did do every cow at least once a year but we adapted a rigorous foot bathing routine and it worked out well so our hoof trimmer said we were just wasting our time and his doing cows that were fine. We probably present more than we should even still but we have reduced our hoof trimming to six times a year so if we are anyway suspicious we pull her for inspection.
Immediately I was thinking of all the hard work you do Eric along with your Dad and hired crew in just a single day. Then I saw that first lady taking her place in the Milking Line and had to laugh as she instantly noticed the camera filming her!😂 Of course it is not lost on your Fan Base just how much your camera placements amplify the total coverage of any given job you are doing. As this video proceeded it became obvious that you really went above and beyond your normal camera coverage and we ALL are grateful! As always your explanations of what you are doing round out an awesome presentation! It's a real pleasure to be a part of this Ride! Thank you for my seat! MOO From COW-lumbus, Ohio 👋
When you started up the New Holland, it sounded a little throaty. How macho. lol
Then when you pressure washed it, I had forgotten it was actually yellow. Guess the saw dust made it look so creamy.
We trim the cows 2 times per lactation around 100 days and before drying off, we trim every 5 weeks
We trim whole herd 2 times and old/lame get done 4x per year. If I could I would do 2x per year, same as you do, just sort a group once per month. Way better timing, now we get dry cows that should have been trimmed etc. Plus lame cows can get more attention
another great video
One idea. Split special needs pen in half. You could use some gates or plastic fencing, like orange snow fencing.
Plastic Owls used to work for birds on a farm I used to work at
A while ago you bought a hoof trimming shoot and said sometime you would start to trim the cows hoves yourself.If you want a course go and check out TheHoofGP's channel.Great video
Thanks for the video
Get a falcon egg. Hatchet, it raises the falcon. Use the falcon to catch the birds.
just a suggestion.
And you'll have a falcon as a pet bird.
We have cows which we need to trim every 3 months and some only once a year. I'm aiming to trim m just before drying off and around 120-130 days. And of course the lame ones. If you only have to trim them once, there must be something you're doing good
Eric, you could of painted the cows hooves and put a bow in their hair to let them feel a little more glamorous. LOL
Awesome video Sir. 🚜🚜🚜
Could of ❌
Could've ✅
Could have ✅
Excellent Job!!
Cheers guys. 🇨🇦
Eric. When is the fan in the back of the feeding room being installed. I am noticing a lot of dust when it's making feed and love the work you put into making videos.
We used to trim our cows the same way but then we switched to a different hoof trimmer and we trim the whole herd 3 times a year and trim prefresh heifers when we have a group
Excellent video
Might be worth looking into those clear plastic 'curtains' for the robot feed room. The ones that have the vertical 'slats' that are about 6-8" wide. It'd keep the dust in but still let the robots pass through easily. Just an idea :)
Great video brother from the imperial county ca 🚜🚜🇺🇲
❤ YOU ERIC ❤
Would "processed" (pre cutter baler) large square bales work better than loading chopped hay in the wagon? Take the rear gate off, and just load the bales and cut the strings. I've fed that kind of hay, and it really breaks apart when the strings are cut. Just a thought, y'all know what works for you. Great video, Eric.
All good!
Fake owls on top of the barn for the birds!! I’ve used them around my property and they work pretty well!
Could you add a heavy piece of expanded metal in front of the augers on hay wagon to keep hay from dropping down forcing it out the bottom only
Most Dairy Farmers I worked on here in Vermont was never set up very good for trimming cows feet,Edward from Vermont
Great video Eric try those plastic owls to see how they work
Cows do like barley straw more👍
TDF Honest Farming got a machine for keeping birds out. Have to check out his videos to find the brand.
Trimming is a fine line between cow care and cost.
No, cow care is the most important thing..... Cost is not
You would have less dust if you made your pipes a bit longer going into the new feeder. Less dust means monre minerals going into the feed.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
See if you have a Falconer local. That is what the Air Force used to get birds out the Hanger's. Then they put netting up. Birds still get through the netting though.
Your robots are so cool
Can you use the hay ramp for when you need to load the seeder?
You could use your ramp when loading seed into your drill, instead of holding up the board.
Eric as non farmer it seems like doing them in groups and not having to sort or bother anyone seems pretty good to me and sounds like it would be better on you guys and the girls that’s a pretty solid idea bud
HI 10th generation from Indiana
I have a cousin who is a hoof trimmer and he goes to most farms at least twice a year, I know all the farms in my immediate area get done twice a year
How does the hoof trimmer charge, by the cow or the hour? What is the cost of trimming? Great video.
Hay bin - since it works better half full - cut the right side down (to the diagonal brace) so you can load it inside the shed without moving it outside first?
(Perhaps it's easier to load the way you're doing it :)
Have you ever tried to use owl decoys, my dad used them in our hay barn. Seamed to work.
Could your hay trailer be modified to close in the front end, maybe using tin/plywood, so it can only feed out of the bottom chute? That might help with spillage. A whole system will certainly take a lot of trial and error to get it perfected, but keep up the good work.
Sir I don't know about cow barns for your bird problems but in my shop I used rubber snakes that seamed to work.
With those cement silos try putting your forage up as wet as possible without juicing!
Did you not listen to the video?
Awesome video
We do before they go out of the barn and some times when they come into the barn .
Mufflers have always been a common issue with New Holland, lost count how many times I welded or bought new ones.
Regarding sorting… have you thought about it after they are released from the parlor and before back to the pens? Or not worth the time and hassle since milking is priority? Maybe a sort gate in the future?
THe New Holland skidder also has hte exhaust pipe smashed closed. Open that up too.
Do you have to clean the feed robots at all
We milk about 80 cows. We trim every three months. All the milk cows and dry cows go through the crate in one day. Cows are on rubber and go though a footbath
Can you put the trim cows in the holding area and the trim chute in front of the return alley
Any plans to increase the number of acreage farmed to make sure there is enough forage? pr is there enough acreage and just more needs to be planted in the fall?
Eric, how have the robotic feeders changed your work schedule on the farm, hopefully the work burden has been reduced.