Bought 12 Cows have limited knowledge

[thoongfoned]

1 hour ago, cobbler said:

Pigs. .been there done that. Had piggery. 110 sows. Bred them up over a couple of years. End up buying all the feed. Too much hassle. Swore ide never do it again.
Pigs are ok if u just want to have a few to eat scraps airatethe soil. Lovely. But how much money am i going to make doing that?sounds like more of a fun hobby type thing.
Fish could be interesting. I love fish. Unfortunately fish dont love me.
Cows eat grass. Cows are much more desease resistant.
1 thing i agree with you though is. Everything in moderation.

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reason i said pigs was small area needed, quick turn over and all the bi products... fish are good but again the feed bills will be high, if you want quick turn over.

sounds like cows, chickens,rice  and hydroponics..... cows = expensive to buy, slow returns.. chicken cheap and returns fast, if for eggs feed bills will soon raise its ugly head. hydro not expensive to do..... rice on the side, keep the rubber, just get the workers to keep tapping,  nice passive incomes....

[thoongfoned]

cobbler, talking about feed costs, last month the pigs used over 19500 kg of feed and yesterday i bought 150kg of dryed dog food. got 2 mum dogs nursing litters... gotta love them bills.555

[kickstart]

7 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

cobbler, talking about feed costs, last month the pigs used over 19500 kg of feed and yesterday i bought 150kg of dryed dog food. got 2 mum dogs nursing litters... gotta love them bills.555

We have a lot of cats,feed bill 750 baht month on cat food , cattle feed bill  3300 baht  ,

[thoongfoned]

i, a couple of the younger childen want cats, i dont mind em, the wife dont like em so thats that...sometimes like at the mo we have alot of dogs, spread over 2 homes,  in the past we tended to have 2 or 3 litters per year, this year we have had 2 already.5555 thinking about making the dog breeding more of an income rather then a hobby, its more about being able to sell them at a decent price with the increaed volume we will be having . thats why i have had the wife out busy over the past few months trying to get more wholesale contacts, gona get the eldest to set up a facebook page, had some sales through this sort of thing at the end of last year, its just all the baht pinching i can not be done with, i have always been a wholesale type of person.555

kickstart how many cattle have you got at the mo? 100 ish baht a day plus the grass cutting dont sound to much to keep things going...

[thoongfoned]

just asked a local  cattle guy with 2 largish females (on the thin side) and one 2 or 3 month old 'baby' boy how much, 50,000 baht for the 3. every time i see him now he is going to pester me to buy.555 didnt think that sounded to expensive as a 1st off price thrown at me..... he says a 'good' female pregnate would be 30,000 baht ish......

[Ronaldo777]

7 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

just asked a local  cattle guy with 2 largish females (on the thin side) and one 2 or 3 month old 'baby' boy how much, 50,000 baht for the 3. every time i see him now he is going to pester me to buy.555 didnt think that sounded to expensive as a 1st off price thrown at me..... he says a 'good' female pregnate would be 30,000 baht ish......

Hi any chance of a photo of the cattle 50.000 which province are they . Not worried about them being thin if they are nice cattle i will come pick them up . 

[cobbler]

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[cobbler]

Thoongfoned. Yes everything is give and take.

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[kickstart]

9 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

i, a couple of the younger childen want cats, i dont mind em, the wife dont like em so thats that...sometimes like at the mo we have alot of dogs, spread over 2 homes,  in the past we tended to have 2 or 3 litters per year, this year we have had 2 already.5555 thinking about making the dog breeding more of an income rather then a hobby, its more about being able to sell them at a decent price with the increaed volume we will be having . thats why i have had the wife out busy over the past few months trying to get more wholesale contacts, gona get the eldest to set up a facebook page, had some sales through this sort of thing at the end of last year, its just all the baht pinching i can not be done with, i have always been a wholesale type of person.555

kickstart how many cattle have you got at the mo? 100 ish baht a day plus the grass cutting dont sound to much to keep things going...

We have had a change around here, since last November I had an appintment with a scapple blade, saw and a hammer,  and  I now have an artificial  hip ,so now becous of this, and the wife is now doing most of the work ,we only have 6 head, 2 beef cows, 3 heifers and a young bull ,we are just ticing over ,feed costs are the14% concentrat and brewers  grains ,and some minrals, we feed Naipper grass silage that  was made last year ,our other maine feed the tree legume, Leucaena  Leucocepala, Gratin in Thai, which, now the misses cuts most days, cattle are mainly on a forage diet.

With the  , gratin  aphids  are becoming a problem,  starting  to be difficult to find ,so we will be pushing  up the grass silage we have a fair bit ,so it should not be a problem ,but with Gratin at  22 % protein ,and grass silage at about 9% might have to up the concentrate and brewers grains ,the grains has a protein of 22% but a low  DM, dry matter, grains are  a wet feed,will have to juggle things around a bit . 

[kickstart]

10 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

just asked a local  cattle guy with 2 largish females (on the thin side) and one 2 or 3 month old 'baby' boy how much, 50,000 baht for the 3. every time i see him now he is going to pester me to buy.555 didnt think that sounded to expensive as a 1st off price thrown at me..... he says a 'good' female pregnate would be 30,000 baht ish......

Largish females (on the thin side ), are they long eared things if so thay are Indo Brazil x, and will remain thin.

A female  pregnant ,in calf , would be worth 30 000 baht,especially  if it is red ,but you first you have to get it in calf ,not always easy,  ask when it last calved if it was up to a year ago ,it would be difficult to get back  in calf, would it be AI or a bull ,a bull would be better ,a higher percent conception rate , than AI .

[473geo]

5 minutes ago, kickstart said:

Largish females (on the thin side ), are they long eared things if so thay are Indo Brazil x, and will remain thin.

A female  pregnant ,in calf , would be worth 30 000 baht,especially  if it is red ,but you first you have to get it in calf ,not always easy,  ask when it last calved if it was up to a year ago ,it would be difficult to get back  in calf, would it be AI or a bull ,a bull would be better ,a higher percent conception rate , than AI .

One such as this my wife bought from a neighbor in calf 35k end of Nov, is due I expect within 6 weeks/couple of months just starting to bag up a bit. I'm not real keen on this breed, big enough cow to be fair, but as you say do not flesh out. Anyway let us see what it produces and take it from there. I guess if it is a heifer we will continue the line.

Personally would never buy a cow past calving age that is not in calf. First may be difficult to get in calf, secondary it is a long keep until you see any produce.

[473geo]

[473geo]

Just to give an idea of size young cow behind is a Charolais cross 2.5 years old just serviced a month ago

[Ronaldo777]

Bought this rec cow August 27.000  shes not tall but a nice cow she had calf 2nd january . August also bought another cow very tall 24.000 not sure when shes due to calf but shes also pregnant she was thin when she arrived here but looks great now after taking care of her . The photos of the red cow was morning 2nd jan when the calf was born . 

[473geo]

Good fit cattle Ronaldo, a credit to you, and where we would like to be. At the moment my wife is doing great improving the stock and now concentrating on the feed side as she sees the quality improve.

She will get there, I am proud of her achievements thus far, it was my wife who bought the mother of the charolais cross and put her to a top AI bull. You see the result, my wife has another heifer of the same type coming through both 'home bred' makes me proud just to look at them.

As I said, we will see how the big red cow pans out, but looking at your stock it may be possible to get some weight onto them if they go for beef.

[thoongfoned]

14 hours ago, Ronaldo777 said:

Hi any chance of a photo of the cattle 50.000 which province are they . Not worried about them being thin if they are nice cattle i will come pick them up . 

will try and get one of the children to take a photo for you, my phone is only a 500 baht jobbie.... not really that thin,  can not see the ribs, look healthy but..... not fat, will try a photo or 2.... udon thani province, more towards the loas side. im sure the guy would rip your hand off with the money in it for the 50,000, he has been asking my wife if im serious.... thai people dont really "window shop".

[thoongfoned]

11 hours ago, kickstart said:

Largish females (on the thin side ), are they long eared things if so thay are Indo Brazil x, and will remain thin.

A female  pregnant ,in calf , would be worth 30 000 baht,especially  if it is red ,but you first you have to get it in calf ,not always easy,  ask when it last calved if it was up to a year ago ,it would be difficult to get back  in calf, would it be AI or a bull ,a bull would be better ,a higher percent conception rate , than AI .

one was white one brown /red, both long ears. at a guess i would say the brown one is the mother, so birthed not long ago. last time i saw him walking the cattle there was not offspring. owner mainly comes to the farm to just cut weeds, not "walk" the cattle.555 as far as i know its no 

AI just a mount and fingers crossed.

yeah i was surprised at the 50 for the lot, not expensive in my mind anyway. going back 6 or so years when "we" had some cattle i think father inlaw was selling just a female for 30/35,000.... at one time "we" had 6 or 7 females that were all almost constantly in calf. all breed out from 2 mums that we kept for many years, maybe even plus 10? no AI.

when we were starting the rubber plantation and other projects we used to go to the local town cattle market and buy afew, they were only 4 or 5,000 baht a pop back then and if you have 40 or 50 people working in a day it was better to just slaughter an animal rather then pay them all day money, people used to like the meat better then the money. anyway we ended up buying a couple of female that were in calf out of all the other ones, thats  why/how father in law became a "free grazzer" cattle man. in the past he had had cows and buffalo so had some idea, well more than me.... i never took any interest back then. 

freinds came up from the islands back many years ago and ended up buying 25 head of cattle in one go, they though its was just a laugh and could not beleive how cheap they were.... 1 year later they had gone from 5,000 baht to 20,000,  their father in law was a very happy man that year.

[thoongfoned]

10 hours ago, Ronaldo777 said:

Bought this rec cow August 27.000  shes not tall but a nice cow she had calf 2nd january . August also bought another cow very tall 24.000 not sure when shes due to calf but shes also pregnant she was thin when she arrived here but looks great now after taking care of her . The photos of the red cow was morning 2nd jan when the calf was born . 

looks like a good set up, good few baht in the ground not to mention the animals..... how many animals you get there?

[Stanier]

.newcowboy hi, I just left Bansai, we have a house there and got a buffalo also. Where are you based there?

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[CLW]

Is there a site on the Internet where I can find blueprints of cow barns?

Of course I can Google search by myself but maybe someone knows a good source.

Thanks

[kickstart]

Hi CLW.

               On this one how long is a piece of string, depends on how much you want to spend, your own money, or the banks ?will it be for beef or dairy, if it is for a dairy farm, you will have to take a milking shed/ parlor, into consideration.

When I first come here the farmers bank BAAC,where loaning farmers 200 000 baht .to buy 5 cows and build a milking shed  and a cattle shed, most sheds where just eucalyptus poles and tin sheet roofs, it did the job, at the time cows were making more money than crops ( a bit like the present time) ,government encouraging farmers to start dairy farming , and Thailand wanting more milk.

It got a lot of farmers on the cow ladder, some expanded some /a lot gave up.

One guy near me, about the best dairy farmer in the area, just built a new shed, mainly for feeding his cattle milks 70 cows heard average 16-18 kg/ day, this shed cost him 1 million baht, he part funded by selling in calf heifers which he gets a very good price.

 Another guy was milking 90 cows, herd average 12- 13 kg/day, went out and spent 5 million baht  put in 100 cubicles for the cows new milking parlour  now has a TMR system ,he was a local Nie-Aumpur, sheriff (how much of the funding come from being Nie-Aumpure I do not know ) .

So, back to your question Google cattal shed disign, you get 4,4000,000 hits most are from our own contrys, where most famers are making more money than here in Thailand, and of course in Europe they is the EU with the singal farm payments, (a tax payers suberdies ),and when I was farming in the uk there where suberdids to build cattle sheds and one farm I was working on they sold  some milk quoata to put in a cubical system and a new milking paruler ,but the old parulor was well past its sell buy date.

Also, most Google sheds sites are just not appropriate to Thailand  an RSJ shed would be very nice, but not cost effective by far 

The FAO web site would be your best bet, more appropriate sheds for Thailand, should be some plans on there. 

If you were thinking of the shed in Kwie-Bar's thread from last week, as I said it does the job, that was built with free labour,  a big help they is not that much money in beef to build a shed costing a fortune, and now labour cost in LOS are not cheap.

If I was you, I would I would go up to Mortlec, in Saraburi provence  or Pack Chon, look at some dairy farms, you could come up to me , take a lot of photographs, then   find a builder, prefably one with some agricultur backgrond, explain  what you want to get him to build your shed ,you could disgn  someting your self ,plenty of information on the net ,ie how many square foot  per head of cattal, disign for good ventilation ect   ,and as this is Thailand some gates so you can get in and out of the shed, a Thai thing no gates in a shed, look at Kwie -Bar's shead not many gates they .

[kickstart]

Hi CLW.

               On this one how long is a piece of string, depends on how much you want to spend, your own money, or the banks ?will it be for beef or dairy, if it is for a dairy farm, you will have to take a milking shed/ parlor, into consideration.

When I first come here the farmers bank BAAC,where loaning farmers 200 000 baht .to buy 5 cows and build a milking shed  and a cattle shed, most sheds where just eucalyptus poles and tin sheet roofs, it did the job, at the time cows were making more money than crops ( a bit like the present time) ,government encouraging farmers to start dairy farming , and Thailand wanting more milk.

It got a lot of farmers on the cow ladder, some expanded some /a lot gave up.

One guy near me, about the best dairy farmer in the area, just built a new shed, mainly for feeding his cattle milks 70 cows heard average 16-18 kg/ day, this shed cost him 1 million baht, he part funded by selling in calf heifers which he gets a very good price.

 Another guy was milking 90 cows, herd average 12- 13 kg/day, went out and spent 5 million baht  put in 100 cubicles for the cows new milking parlour  now has a TMR system ,he was a local Nie-Aumpur, sheriff (how much of the funding come from being Nie-Aumpure I do not know ) .

So, back to your question Google cattal shed disign, you get 4,4000,000 hits most are from our own contrys, where most famers are making more money than here in Thailand, and of course in Europe they is the EU with the singal farm payments, (a tax payers suberdies ),and when I was farming in the uk there where suberdids to build cattle sheds and one farm I was working on they sold  some milk quoata to put in a cubical system and a new milking paruler ,but the old parulor was well past its sell buy date.

Also, most Google sheds sites are just not appropriate to Thailand  an RSJ shed would be very nice, but not cost effective by far 

The FAO web site would be your best bet, more appropriate sheds for Thailand, should be some plans on there. 

If you were thinking of the shed in Kwie-Bar's thread from last week, as I said it does the job, that was built with free labour,  a big help they is not that much money in beef to build a shed costing a fortune, and now labour cost in LOS are not cheap.

If I was you, I would I would go up to Mortlec, in Saraburi provence  or Pack Chon, look at some dairy farms, you could come up to me , take a lot of photographs, then   find a builder, prefably one with some agricultur backgrond, explain  what you want to get him to build your shed ,you could disgn  someting your self ,plenty of information on the net ,ie how many square foot  per head of cattal, disign for good ventilation ect   ,and as this is Thailand some gates so you can get in and out of the shed, a Thai thing no gates in a shed, look at Kwie -Bar's shead not many gates they .

[kickstart]

Hi CLW.

               On this one how long is a piece of string, depends on how much you want to spend, your own money, or the banks ?will it be for beef or dairy, if it is for a dairy farm, you will have to take a milking shed/ parlor, into consideration.

When I first come here the farmers bank BAAC,where loaning farmers 200 000 baht .to buy 5 cows and build a milking shed  and a cattle shed, most sheds where just eucalyptus poles and tin sheet roofs, it did the job, at the time cows were making more money than crops ( a bit like the present time) ,government encouraging farmers to start dairy farming , and Thailand wanting more milk.

It got a lot of farmers on the cow ladder, some expanded some /a lot gave up.

One guy near me, about the best dairy farmer in the area, just built a new shed, mainly for feeding his cattle milks 70 cows heard average 16-18 kg/ day, this shed cost him 1 million baht, he part funded by selling in calf heifers which he gets a very good price.

 Another guy was milking 90 cows, herd average 12- 13 kg/day, went out and spent 5 million baht  put in 100 cubicles for the cows new milking parlour  now has a TMR system ,he was a local Nie-Aumpur, sheriff (how much of the funding come from being Nie-Aumpure I do not know ) .

So, back to your question Google cattal shed disign, you get 4,4000,000 hits most are from our own contrys, where most famers are making more money than here in Thailand, and of course in Europe they is the EU with the singal farm payments, (a tax payers suberdies ),and when I was farming in the uk there where suberdids to build cattle sheds and one farm I was working on they sold  some milk quoata to put in a cubical system and a new milking paruler ,but the old parulor was well past its sell buy date.

Also, most Google sheds sites are just not appropriate to Thailand  an RSJ shed would be very nice, but not cost effective by far 

The FAO web site would be your best bet, more appropriate sheds for Thailand, should be some plans on there. 

If you were thinking of the shed in Kwie-Bar's thread from last week, as I said it does the job, that was built with free labour,  a big help they is not that much money in beef to build a shed costing a fortune, and now labour cost in LOS are not cheap.

If I was you, I would I would go up to Mortlec, in Saraburi provence  or Pack Chon, look at some dairy farms, you could come up to me , take a lot of photographs, then   find a builder, prefably one with some agricultur backgrond, explain  what you want to get him to build your shed ,you could disgn  someting your self ,plenty of information on the net ,ie how many square foot  per head of cattal, disign for good ventilation ect   ,and as this is Thailand some gates so you can get in and out of the shed, a Thai thing no gates in a shed, look at Kwie -Bar's shead not many gates they .

[kickstart]

Hi CLW.

               On this one how long is a piece of string, depends on how much you want to spend, your own money, or the banks ?will it be for beef or dairy, if it is for a dairy farm, you will have to take a milking shed/ parlor, into consideration.

When I first come here the farmers bank BAAC,where loaning farmers 200 000 baht .to buy 5 cows and build a milking shed  and a cattle shed, most sheds where just eucalyptus poles and tin sheet roofs, it did the job, at the time cows were making more money than crops ( a bit like the present time) ,government encouraging farmers to start dairy farming , and Thailand wanting more milk.

It got a lot of farmers on the cow ladder, some expanded some /a lot gave up.

One guy near me, about the best dairy farmer in the area, just built a new shed, mainly for feeding his cattle milks 70 cows heard average 16-18 kg/ day, this shed cost him 1 million baht, he part funded by selling in calf heifers which he gets a very good price.

 Another guy was milking 90 cows, herd average 12- 13 kg/day, went out and spent 5 million baht  put in 100 cubicles for the cows new milking parlour  now has a TMR system ,he was a local Nie-Aumpur, sheriff (how much of the funding come from being Nie-Aumpure I do not know ) .

So, back to your question Google cattal shed disign, you get 4,4000,000 hits most are from our own contrys, where most famers are making more money than here in Thailand, and of course in Europe they is the EU with the singal farm payments, (a tax payers suberdies ),and when I was farming in the uk there where suberdids to build cattle sheds and one farm I was working on they sold  some milk quoata to put in a cubical system and a new milking paruler ,but the old parulor was well past its sell buy date.

Also, most Google sheds sites are just not appropriate to Thailand  an RSJ shed would be very nice, but not cost effective by far 

The FAO web site would be your best bet, more appropriate sheds for Thailand, should be some plans on there. 

If you were thinking of the shed in Kwie-Bar's thread from last week, as I said it does the job, that was built with free labour,  a big help they is not that much money in beef to build a shed costing a fortune, and now labour cost in LOS are not cheap.

If I was you, I would I would go up to Mortlec, in Saraburi provence  or Pack Chon, look at some dairy farms, you could come up to me , take a lot of photographs, then   find a builder, prefably one with some agricultur backgrond, explain  what you want to get him to build your shed ,you could disgn  someting your self ,plenty of information on the net ,ie how many square foot  per head of cattal, disign for good ventilation ect   ,and as this is Thailand some gates so you can get in and out of the shed, a Thai thing no gates in a shed, look at Kwie -Bar's shead not many gates they .

[thoongfoned]

22 hours ago, CLW said:

Is there a site on the Internet where I can find blueprints of cow barns?

Of course I can Google search by myself but maybe someone knows a good source.

Thanks

not the internet.......... do people/is there a  contract "milking cow" set up by the milk processor companies? if so they will have the spec for the barns that need to be built.

kick start you say that a good cow would average 18 ish litres/kg a day here in thailand, how would that compare to back home?

why i ask is that they say that a top/good milk sow will/could give 20 plus litres a day here is thailand.....  that would be with a dry feed intake of 10 plus kg a day.

[kickstart]

Hi, thoongfoned.

Your first question is no, all farmers are on they own, no spec, their local milk center buys they milk, and the milk center /co-op are contracted to send milk to the processing companies, ie Duch mill etc .

The Thia -Denmark milk company have some extension workers that can advise farmers on building milking sheds and cattle sheds, but most farmers  (90%) do it themselves, cost being the majority factor, and how much money they can borrow,(BAAC) a lot of setups are just a design nightmare,were eucalyptus poles and tin sheets  rule 

The average dairy cows yield will be about 12-13 Kg/ day, not good, a freshly  calved cow can give 20kg a day,  some a lot more but that soon drops,, but the biggest limiting factor in milk yields is the roughage, being mainly rice straw, a feed with no more than  4% protein, very low energy value, and low in all minerals.

 

So, you say, why not grow grass, most farms cows  are kept like on the USA system, cattle in sheds the whole time,some dairy farms are only 2-3 rie, some less  and feed brought to them, in the USA ,that feed will maize silage , or Alfalfa hay, high protein high energy feeds, made by themselves, here in Thailand rice straw is brought in, like all feedstuffs, not good for profit margins.

As I said Thai cows can give 20kg milk/day, as you say feeding a lot of concentrate feed, 10kg/day+  that may be OTT, she could suffer from digestive upsets and maybe rumen acidosis, which can be fatal.

Also 20kg/day,(and that can soon drop to 15Kg/day ),milk price 18 baht/kg= 360 baht/day,with a concentrated feed cost of 10-11 baht /kg  feeding 10-12 kg /feed  day 120 baht/day+,plus other feeds ,cassava wast , or brewers grains ,rice straw ,(paying the bank back,new pick up),does not leave a lot of profit .

 Concentrate costs being the biggest cost, rice straw cannot be far behind, most cows are not overfed, some farms cows will "Geen-Im" eat till they are full, but you will have fat cows, and an infertility problem, but you get a good price for cull cows, these farms think cows eating a lot of concentrates will give a lot of milk, some freshly calved cows, where the most milk is .will milk well, others will not, a cow calved a long time extra feed  is just a wast of money .

As for yields back home herds averaging 25-30 Kg/cow/day are common, with a peak yield of 40Kg+/cow/Kg/ day, common, but the feed they get will be all high energy, all rations worked out on a computer program, back of a fag packet now well gone now. 

[thoongfoned]

would the heat play a part in the infertility problems and also the yeild of the milk here in thailand? 

makes sense that the yeilds back home would be double plus some of thai standards, yet last time i was back i can remember the diary famers up in arms with regard to the  processors buying price of milk/ then the low retail price say in tesco, it seemed to be buy 1 litre get 1 free all the time, bottled water was more expensive then the same amount of milk....

we have 2 dairy heards in the village, no more than 30/40 animals in each set up. they sell to the thai danish company that is 10/15km up the road. i do know that one guy got the idea from the "baac" some years back i can remember him saying so, some advert caught his eye while in the que and the next month he was up and running.(self funding) i will try and ask or get the wife to ask about yeilds next time are paths cross...   dont think they get that much judging by the number of "churns" in the back of the truck, how much can you get in 1 churn?

Edited May 9, 2018 by thoongfoned

[kickstart]

Heat and breed all play a part in the infertilty problem, feed is still the biggest problem with infertilty ,the heat caues the cows to go off they feed ,also cows chew they cud for up to 6 hours a day, if the feed is old and corse like rice straw it takes a lot of digesting ,and all that cuding  and digesting will produce heat, then the weather is hot you get problems .cow goes off her feed ,and if it lasts a day or more milk yeild drops ,then the farmer panics and gets the vet in .

Breed is also a cause ,most Thai dairy cows have a lot of Holstein Friesian blood in them ,above 90%  HF blood a lot of cows will suffer from heat stress ,the HF breed is USA/European breed, where the climate is cooler and the diet a lot better ,cows get fed good quality grass  and high energy feeds ,and better management ,hence better yields .

What they do here in Thailand is mix some tropical breeds with the  HF breeds  like Sahiwal ,it gives the cows a better resistance against heat, and also tic fever, the curse  of most dairy farms, which is very often fatal (,and now you can not get the main drug to treat tic fever, for some reason it is not being imported.) 

 

www.dpogenetics.com/images/siredam-summary/2560-2017-dpo-siredam-summary.pdf

The above link  will give you a listing of the DPO bulls ,the DPO is the milk producing /breeding arm of the Thai Denmark milk group, ,some of they young bulls on that list are now proven bulls scrool down note the blood mix, on the bulls  1 straw of semen from a DPO bull costs about 70-120 baht straw, plus the cost of insemnation about 100 baht ,so for 200 baht you can get a proven bull ,localy breed ,that should not suffer from heat stress,the DPO buy the young bulls from local dairy farms ,3 have come from my area ,the siers of Thai bulls all come from Holstine Frisaine stock, comeing from the USA ,the bulls are kept at Mortlec Salaburi .

The Thai DLD, Department of Livestock Development, they have they own bulls, again brought from dairy farms .bulls now kept in Saraburi province.DLD will AI cows for free, but around here the AI men and now women will charge 80 baht/farm , petrol expenses of the motorbike,  

A milk churn will hold 40kg of milk, some older ones will hold 50kg, morning milking cows will give more milk, like most farmers dairy farmers  can exaggerate yields ask them about cows being milked and yield, he will say milking X cows sending X  kg's of milk  a day ,look around and see just 2 churns hanging up  ,the numbers do not  stack

As for Tesco's they caused the dairy industry a big headake,  for a long time they where selling milk as a loss leader ,at the time they had such a monopoly ,dairy farmers were bearly making any money ,even with the EU single farm payment ,friend of mine knew a dairy farmer 200 cows, good farmer sold up could not make any money, ,Tescos announced  they yearly profits a mind-boggling  billions of pounds ,and farmers were making a loss .

Now they are having big problems, and most dairy farmers are making a profit.  

 

[thoongfoned]

kickstart, said before, but will say again  you do know your stuff! thanks for sharing all the info/knowledge...

thought that all the lovely heat here would put a strain on the cattle...  

 

[kickstart]

Data were compiled and statistically analyzed on the lactation of 50% and 75% Thai native-Friesian crossbred and purebred Friesian cows that were fed at a national institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand. More than 30% higher milk production was obtained in the 75% crossbred compared with that in the 50%, but this amount of milk production in the upgraded breed was still about half that of purebred Friesians; 2,138 kg, least squares means during an average lactation period of 279 days in the 50% crossbred, 2,847 kg during 277 days in the 75% crossbred and 5,585 kg during 308 days in the purebred. Environmental stress due to tropical climate was alleviated by the use of electric fans and water sprinklers in the feeding house during the hot season, and improved diet seemed to enable purebred Friesians to keep their ability to produce a milk quantity of more than 6,500 kg per year. This special care was not given to crossbreds and significant negative correlations were found between daily minimum temperature and humidity during the initial 100 days of lactation and total milk production and average daily milk yield in the 75% crossbreds. However, these correlations were not found in the 50% crossbreds. Keywords: Crossbred; Friesian; Cow; Milk Yield; Temperature; Tropical

High milk yields can be achieved  with purebred cattle, but at what cost, you would have thought setting up costs and running cost would have made them uneconomical, Near me, CP has a  dairy farm, cows are housed in a broiler type house with cubicas, and a forced cool air supply, never go out fed on corn silage and concentrate, cows milk well, again at what cost per kg/milk .I would still stay with a 75%  Friesian X cow.

The above papper comes with thanks to CLW for the links to the Asian  Australasian journal, from Kwiaibah's thread.