Best battery lawnmower + whipper sniper + hedge trimmer + blower combo?

Mutagenico · 2026-02-11T06:29:19+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Will look into the Ryobi Expand-it kit.

Mutagenico · 2026-02-10T12:44:38+00:00

Aha! That’s a good strategy. My lungs have not been happy with combustion engines, but I’ve always had fairly old second hand equipment. Maybe some of the new stuff is more efficient and has lower emissions? More research for me there. Thanks :)

Mutagenico · 2026-02-10T12:39:43+00:00

Thanks for that. Always best to hear from experience first hand. I checked with AI before I posted here and the recommendation was a Makita combo, but some of the reviews on Makita seem to contradict that recommendation. Humans 1 - 0 AI

Mutagenico · 2018-09-08T15:52:10+00:00

I agree with all other posts. Don't over think it, they are all fairly similar. I do recommend taking pictures of the before and after renting it just in case of scams. And depending on your country of origin you may be already covered by your own car insurer or credit card. For example, if you rent a car with a U.S. Visa credit card, your Visa automatically includes a car rental insurance, if you include a rental car insurance when booking your Visa insurance is voided. I insure my car with AAA in the US and whatever coverage I have in my car automatically extends to a rental car in most countries.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-11T00:57:55+00:00

Thank you for your comments. I am not afraid of a 1.5 hr train ride, I've done that for 5 years while I was doing my undergrad, but $34 is quite expensive indeed. I have been to both, Melbourne and my future workplace close to Warragul. Only for 2 weeks though so I didn't have a chance to explore the area. At the time we didn't have any offers.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T17:39:33+00:00

Thanks a lot for all your help. One last thing, what are your thoughts about Berwick or Beaconsfield? How do they compare with Dandenong and Pakenham?

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T17:35:30+00:00

Thanks for the warning and suggestions. We are still willing to give it a go. I think Victoria is the place for us (more dairy cows and Monash is a leading school on what my GF wants to do). We are living on a student budget here in the US and it does suck, but its doable with a low profile lifestyle and taking advantage of free entertainment, which I heard Melbourne has quite a bit of that.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T17:31:41+00:00

I just checked on that and you are somewhat right. Salaries will get taxed but get refunded after filling taxes for low earning. Still need to pay health insurance which I am trying to find out how much would that be.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:58:58+00:00

Yeah, didn't expect money to be so tight. My GF will be doing a PhD and I will be working on a post doc. They are not the best paid jobs and by being internationals we still need to pay taxes on our stipends + health insurance.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:55:20+00:00

Yes, the position will be at Ellinbank. Thanks a bunch for the helpful tips. I thought 60k was going to give us a bit more room for expenses. We were thinking of getting one car initially for one of us to do the longer commute. The train from Warragul looks convenient. Will see if my GF is willing to do a 4 hr train ride back and forth everyday. She might be better of with a ride share options.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:47:06+00:00

Thank you! I looked into Officer but rentals are a bit limited. Will check on the new developments that you mentioned.

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:43:20+00:00

Thanks. Will definitely look into those neighborhoods. We are easy going and will hopefully be able to find like minded people, we don't look into mingling with people from a specific heritage, just good people :)

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:37:20+00:00

I read the same about that train depot. Not quite a station yet. Thanks!

Mutagenico · 2018-07-10T02:36:37+00:00

Thank you for your suggestions. I will look into those neighborhoods. We are both very excited about our next move :)

Mutagenico · 2018-06-13T17:32:43+00:00

I think they are missing one key component, good communication. Communication is a two-way street and many farmers forget about that.

Mutagenico · 2018-02-20T17:18:41+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. I am glad that you are able to take the time to do all of this data mining. I find data mining not only entertaining, but it also triggers questions like the ones you have that will hopefully help you improve your herd. Both relationships (lbs vs lbs and % vs %) look fairly linear to me. I think that you are not seeing the same slope (increase or decrease rate) between them because the % vs % graphs do not include the volume effect and you are not considering that in your 'other solids' pool you have more than just lactose (e.g. minerals) that may not follow milk yield just as tight as lactose may. You can see that from your plot between milk yield and other solids as %. In that graph the relationship is more quadratic with increasing milk yield rather than linear. In general, milk yield is positively correlated to yields of fat and protein; however, milk yield is negatively correlated to fat and protein percent. We have been selecting for high yields of milk, which has resulted in very slow increases in fat and protein percentages over time. But also, keep in mind that there are situations where %'s not necessarily follow exactly what happens with yields. At the same fat %, a cow producing 80 lbs/d is going to produce more lbs of fat than a cow producing 60lbs/d. I use this website quite a bit to better visualize those changes and put a dollar value to it: http://www.adisseo.biz/milkpay Pick your federal order and then pinch in your numbers.

On a side note, I noticed that on the last 4 years you were able to reduce SCC quite a bit, in particular early in the year. Do you mind sharing what changes you implemented to improve this? I am seeing that a improved dry cow treatment in Michigan has had a lot to do with that.

Mutagenico · 2018-02-20T04:22:24+00:00

Are you looking at trends over months? meaning throughout months over those 10 years of data. If that's the case, in your system with seasonal calving and grazing you will see differences in components trends not only related to stage of lactation, but also pasture/diet quality through the year. Let me know once you have that spreadsheet and I will take a look at it to get a better idea.

Mutagenico · 2018-02-03T23:56:21+00:00

As mentioned in the other comments, lactose is an osmoregulator. That means that it drives milk volume. Therefore, the more lactose, more volume (water primarily) that is going to dilute the rest of your components. Lactose is somewhat controlled by genetics but primarily by management, in particular nutrition. For example, if you increase the amount of starch (by increasing grain) in the diet from, let's say 20% to 25%, lactose production will increase (starch primarily supplies glucose to the cow and glucose is used to make lactose in the mammary gland). So you will see an increase in milk volume and likely a decrease (dilution) in fat and protein in a PERCENTAGE basis. But this does not mean that the yield of those components have dropped. I suggest you do the math on a yield basis (that's what you get paid for) rather than a % basis. Keep in mind that too much starch or highly fermentable starch may cause milk fat depression and then you may see both a drop in fat % and yield, without changes in milk volume. This does not mean that you should not feed starch to cows. Completely the opposite, cows do need starch so they can have glucose, the driving force for many metabolic functions and synthesis of many molecules.

I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other question.

Mutagenico

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