Sizing up the Mess Part 2: Soggy Grounds, Mud and Whatnot.

Hello there People,

It is time now to describe the huge mess that the site is in, in Part 2 because Part 1 just was not big enough. You know if there is anything to be said about this mess is that the entire time that it has been happening, all of us who work there can't do a single thing, all because it has nothing to do with any Gate or Any Loose Miscreants looking for extra fodder and it has everything to do with the weather, and guess what, that is not covered in my insurance premium!!

Okay, so let's start by describing the mess in a bit of detail.

This panorama shows the most recent view of the waterlogged site. On the left is a bunch of Cows. On the right are pools and pools of stagnant water. A mosquitoes heaven. Also they bring that dreaded disease know by all livestock breeders as Foot and Mouth. What is Foot and Mouth? You can find out more about that here.




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So what is the big Deal? I mean I could just let the water dry up and then everything would be OK right? Wrong! These pools have been here for almost 1 and half months, since the weather turned Nasty about the middle of November Last Year. Also not in this picture is what has happened to our Storage area next to the main enclosure. This area is chock full with mud but previously you could drive and Park a lorry there and it was fine.

Why is all of this happening?

Actually there a myriad of reasons but the fact is the site is heavily travelled upon , by trucks, Cows, people etc, could be a reason. That, however, would only go partially in explaining that mess, there is another reason, but I don't want digress this just yet. Although the rain brought the water, it is the combined effect of water, wear and the just 'plain unevenness' of the land that the site sits on that makes this mess far worse I could carry on describing the causes in infinitesimal detail, but I don't want to bore anyone reading this with mud pie stories.

What it is supposed to look like.

This is what it is supposed to look like. Gravel Paths. Actually, there are a few more layers underneath, a Layer of Sand, followed by a graduated layer of rock from big to small, underneath it all is the soil that covers all the site. The thickness of this would be about 5-8 inches and all done with a tractor and heaps of stones and sand. The top layer is hard because it has been pressed down, but porous so that rainwater can go down to the layers beneath, where it can be absorbed.

This is ideal, barring any damage to the gravel surface and rainwater erosion, this could last quite a long time. Ideally you would use a lot of such gravel because of the vehicles that would be using it. Heavier vehicles mean thicker and thicker layers of gravel. The best Gravel is the most expensive and the more expensive per tonne of gravel the more this will add to the cost of whatever area you are trying to cover.

And Now for what it is NOT supposed to like.

This area is beside the shed to the right. The area is waterlogged. More than that, the gravel covering this particular section to the right of the photo is thin and worn out. A contractor might be to blame? Let's not go there (At least not yet).

This the access road into the site. It is Terrible. If you want to try it out with your car you can call me and I will give you some directions. No, I won't provide a tow-truck and pleas for any kind of help will fall on deaf ears, but I will Sell you some soap if you want to wash your car in-situ.

Seriously, of course, just don't become a victim. How did the road get so bad? Lorries of course, big huge ones, with many tires. If you want to know which one is the main culprit, I would say that it was the one that wrecked the gate. Mainly because it was also the largest.

One such victim of this messy orgy is yours truly. Really what a wasted day, The tractor that pulled the truck out of the ditch worked for only 5 minutes, and I paid him half a days rent!!

The cess pool as exemplified by this one right here, is just of many covering the site. The soil is entirely to blame, being clay like in nature, and unsuitable for drainage. Needless to say all of this stagnant water is not good for cows.

Mud, with algae growing on top, its not just the mushy feeling when you step on it, its the smell too. Washed out with the rains, an absolute haven for leeches. Gross.

Overview

Nastiness has been brought to new lows ever since the downpours began, but reassuringly though is the fact that during the dry season, such sights will easily be forgotten. It will take on average 2-3 weeks without rains to dry out the area thoroughly. Right now, that is asking a bit much. The access road will be already be patched up by the time you are reading this, and the Gate will have had work done, but as for these pools, they will just have to stay like that.

This is something that you should consider when selecting a site: its propensity to be degraded to an unworkable state. How can it happen? Weather and location are big influences but overall it is always the site management. Is My site management good? I've put in a lot of hours, and as the pictures show even the best manager has to deal with such circumstances. Despite everything, My animals are still secure, my workers have not run away and the damage is being repaired. Something is being done instead of nothing and if that does not constitute as good management, I don't know what is.

Another Visit to a Milking Station.

Hello Everybody and Happy New Year,

I'm going to start this year by a posting about a visit to a very well run Milking Station. This particular farm is a regular Milk Producer and the Farmer has 15 years of experience with Milk matters. His facility is accredited and regularly audited to ensure that the basic hygiene standards and animal health standards are always met.

Animals

The breed of the Animals here are Frisian cows. Approximately 35-40 Cows are kept here and Milked Daily. The average output per animal is 15 liters per day, but it is not unusual for a suitably fed animal to produce up to 25 to 30 liters of milk per animal, something only possible with the correct feed and correct care.

The animals are kept inside at all times. The enclosure is washed and scraped several times a day. Note the wet floor. Constant attention is necessary to maintain a high level of cleanliness. In some farms, leavings are removed as soon as they are deposited, which goes to show the level of attention paid.

This particular herd is maintained to a very high standard of cleanliness, and are medicated frequently to avoid infection by disease and attacks by parasites. 

Young calves separated from their mothers and fed a milk replacement. The female calves are usually kept to adulthood whilst males are sold of after 1 year to become steers (Meat Cows). Normally the cycle from young calf to milking adult takes about 2 years.

Male calves and their female counterparts are usually kept separated. Any male that will become dominant in their later years usually will start to show this behavior at an early age. It is important not to allow such behavior to persist as this will lead to excessive aggression and handling issues by the time the animal needs to be disposed of.

This fella over here was eating and is wondering why some guy with a silly looking black object is bothering it.

Milk cows in general are not as aggressive as other cows. The worst case I have come across are reservation or Wild cows. Wild cows do not like intruders, and will circle one several times just to get a look at the intruder, before running away en-masse. Milk cows however do not behave like that at all

At the time of the visit, which is around midday, cows are normally wound down and look for rest. Their active period is at night, when they tend to eat much more than during the day. Here an empty daytime trough is usually filled to the brim at night.

This cow was previously a bit to handle as evident by the ring in its nose. Usually an aggressive animal is more intelligent than the other docile counterparts, and for that reason, they are more alert. If you could attribute aggression towards gender in humans in cows or any animal, this line is usually quite blurred.

Just because their more intelligent also means their more inquisitive. Also aggressive cows and bulls don't like being touched. If a dominant male bull becomes violent, usually people run away and not try to be 'heroic' if you know what I mean.

Feed

Feed is the most important part of a Milk cow production. The feed has to have a high protein content. In order to reduce cost a farmer would typically cultivate their own feed on a rotational basis. The feed here would be Napier Grass, which is planted grown and harvested over a period of 60 days.








Once the Napier has been cut, it is replanted using a small percentage of live stalks. These covered with Animal leavings which have been collected to be used as a fertilizer, will be left to grow.

Supplementation of the Animals diet begins by adding extra protein. In this case soybean hull pellet or basically, the skin of the soybean is used. Although this adds extra protein to the feed, it also adds a cost, so such a feed should be used sparingly.

Another component of the Animals diet is fiber. This stuff, is called Brew. It is what is leftover from beer making. Although such a feed is considered a waste, there is a cost attached to it as such a feed is much sought after by other breeders and not just for mammalian livestock either. An alternative would be Corn Trees but in this locality, close to an urbanized area, such a commodity is impossible to obtain.

Equipment

Milking Urns and milk collection buckets all washed and dried before the evening milk collection a few hours away. Note the medicine cabinet on the right as well as other supplements in the rack under the table. I will do a posting on some common medicines, sprays, minerals etc and describe their cost and quantity required.

A branch chopper is necessary for chopping up stalks of Napier to smaller pieces. This particular unit is electrically driven, which is cheaper to run than than a petrol driven version. This eliminates waste from the feed supply, as long bulky stalks are less likely to be eaten when compared to the soft leafy portions of the grass plant. 

This farm runs on an electrically driven milking station with a clear milk collection vessel to measure the quantity of milk being collected. Such a piece of equipment whilst looking to be inexpensive, requires electricity to run cheaply as using diesel or petrol generators will add more cost to the activity. 

Overview

This particular farm was very well run and managed, mainly because the farmer had experience in the production of milk and knows that farming is about trying to keep costs to a minimum whilst maximizing your returns from production. This is a basic rule of farming and of any business. The Farm's main activities were the growing and processing of feed, the collection of Milk, the Daily monitoring of sanitary conditions and last but not least,  the basic health and well being of the Animals kept on site.

To emulate this will take a lot of doing, but in my experience, a little bit of know how goes a long way. What is critical is the day to day management and the allocation of resources. If you can manage somehow running a mismanaged enterprise and bring it back from the point of failure, such a task, such as this will require limited skills when compared to the former. Real Farms with problems are much more difficult to manage as there is always the issue of cost, which erodes what you can supply to your animals economically.

If you could compare this visit to the previous Milking station, you can see the vast differences, and not because the previous farm was mismanaged either. Actually doing the work is not as simple and variability may even boil down to external factors beyond the Farmers control. I'm not making excuses, only saying that we should not as a visitor to such places come to a negative conclusion about who is or is not competent. At the end of the day if you were willing to plunge headfirst into such a venture, one cannot be a hypocrite especially when you've no idea of the difficulties because you haven't even started.

Overall this visit has given me more ideas to tap into and perhaps the more such farms I visit, the better the ideas will be. When it comes down actually executing my own project in the near future, such ideas can be of aid to cut down on costs and even small and cheap ideas can help in reducing all the red ink from the investment and shorten the time it takes to get a solid return. At the end of the day the money needs to keep turning which will slowly erode the capital cost to the point of making a clean profit, which is the whole point of the exercise.

Up Next: Sizing up the Mess Part 2