Farm Life, Milkers

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Sat. Jan. 14, 2017 8:51 am

My sister & her husband are dairy farmers just west of Lake Seneca,N.Y.,they are milking around 80 cows,iirc.. They have tie stalls with pipeline. With the current bottomed out price on milk ,they are considering alternative marketing of their milk in the future. The switch to all grass fed,organic is a HUGE life changing decision with lots of pro & con issues to think about & weigh one against the other.
I never understood why the government has control of milk pricing,but I really have never understood much of how the government works. :roll:
It has always seemed to me that supply & demand would create a more stable pricing on milk.

 
unhippy
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Post by unhippy » Mon. Jan. 16, 2017 1:48 pm

wilder11354 wrote:Point is to all inputs... Fed Govt milk only alwas X amout of dollars pay per hundred weight of milk...... weither you high tech.... costs YOU 1K to make 1 hundred weight of milk, or low tech costs you 92.95 to make a hundred weight. UNTIL the feds get out of a busines price controlling of it it will always be a HARD way to make a living, BESIDES the 24/7 time one has to put in.
You have Govt controlled milk prices???? :shock:

 
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windyhill4.2
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Location: Jonestown,Pa.17038
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1960 EFM520 installed in truck box
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404 with variable blower
Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both

Post by windyhill4.2 » Mon. Jan. 16, 2017 1:52 pm

unhippy wrote:
wilder11354 wrote:Point is to all inputs... Fed Govt milk only alwas X amout of dollars pay per hundred weight of milk...... weither you high tech.... costs YOU 1K to make 1 hundred weight of milk, or low tech costs you 92.95 to make a hundred weight. UNTIL the feds get out of a busines price controlling of it it will always be a HARD way to make a living, BESIDES the 24/7 time one has to put in.
You have Govt controlled milk prices???? :shock:
YEP.
As is the normal when govt.is involved..... IT IS MESSED UP :mad3:


 
unhippy
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Post by unhippy » Tue. Jan. 17, 2017 4:48 am

Hmmm...as a foreigner from a nation that is still under farming sector trade sanctions imposed by the US in the 70's for 'government interference in commercial enterprise'.....i see a case of...... 'do as I say peasant,..... not do as I do' :mad:

And yanks wonder why they keep getting 'surprise dental work' when they come here and start talking about free market economy etc.....

Edit (a day or so later): I sounded a little grumpy with america.....damned arabica coffee

 
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wilder11354
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Post by wilder11354 » Sat. Jan. 21, 2017 10:08 pm

Ahh someone may call this a "shed" if its what they call them else wheres. 3 silos, 2 used to max capacity yearly, 3rd ones only goes to about half due to siloeblock conditions.
IMG_20170121_173122.jpg

foggy this mild winters night

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IMG_20170121_173313.jpg

lights in bottom are milk section of"shed".

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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 22, 2017 9:06 am

One thing I never want to work on is a silo unloader. They only break under the worst of conditions, and then you have to climb to fix them. Hopefully yours are well maintained - once they get past a certain point it takes a lot to get them back in a reliable state.

Our old barn was built with a state of the art (for 1964) Van Dale automatic feed system. Once they ran a new electrical entrance to stop the brown outs, it worked pretty well...Until things got some wear on them. I think dad smiled for a week when he ripped all of that out and started feeding out of a bunk with a mixing wagon.


 
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windyhill4.2
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Stoker Coal Boiler: 1960 EFM520 installed in truck box
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404 with variable blower
Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both

Post by windyhill4.2 » Sun. Jan. 22, 2017 12:02 pm

Rob R. wrote:One thing I never want to work on is a silo unloader. They only break under the worst of conditions, and then you have to climb to fix them. Hopefully yours are well maintained - once they get past a certain point it takes a lot to get them back in a reliable state.

Our old barn was built with a state of the art (for 1964) Van Dale automatic feed system. Once they ran a new electrical entrance to stop the brown outs, it worked pretty well...Until things got some wear on them. I think dad smiled for a week when he ripped all of that out and started feeding out of a bunk with a mixing wagon.
Rob, about 6 months after my father was killed in a farm accident I was working for a farmer who milked 225 cows. He had 2 concrete silos with bottom unloaders that worked poorly in getting the haylage out. One day another hired man & I went into the bottom of that silo under that haylage to work on that unloader...
To this day I can not remember what we did in their...
BUT, I still remember being terrified in there with those big clumps off haylage dropping down around us.
That was the only time they ever got me in there.I still break out in a sweat just thinking back to that experience.
Working on top unloaders was never something I cared for either,but less stressful than crawling under the haylage. I never liked having to be in the silo when the unloader was running tho, & I had to do that a few times for the one farmer I worked for,he had filled 1 silo with sawdust,the unloader would keep spinning the drive wheel into the sawdust. 1 of us would go up there and follow the stupid unloader to help it.Our "safety" was trying to stay close enough to the power cord plug to pull it if we ran into trouble. :roll:
I don't miss those times !! :fear:
I also do not like climbing up high,so having silage & haylage on a pile in the great outdoors with all that fresh air & wonderful lighting suits me much better. :D

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 22, 2017 12:28 pm

Here is a picture of our family farm in the early 80's. The big silo was a 24x60'. It was quite a show when we knocked it down.
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After the silos were down we had two concrete bunks that were tight to the road. Those worked excellent and provided easy access for trucks. Later we had to move the bunks behind the hill due to leachate and proximity to the lake. In this picture from around 2002 you can see the old bunks and the pile on a pad behind the empty bunks.
IMG_20170113_193009378.jpg
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windyhill4.2
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Stoker Coal Boiler: 1960 EFM520 installed in truck box
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404 with variable blower
Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both

Post by windyhill4.2 » Sun. Jan. 22, 2017 1:50 pm

I was 12-14 yrs old when the farmer my father worked for put up an 80' Harvestor silo,i climbed to the top off that silo..... 1 time only.
Awesome view but terrifying height.

Trench ,pile or bunker for silage & haylage is much more to my liking.

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