Farming Chit Chat

whelan1

thought i might start this about daily goings on. last night went to check kids during the night as they are all sick:eek: anyways there was a cow out having a stroll in the yard:rolleyes: lucky enough as the road isnt far away

johngalway

Went to the mart this morning for plastic barrels, the craic, and hay.... Got the hay at least :pac:

Never saw as many dirty lambs there

Headed back to farm for a hot date with the brush cutter. Atlantic didn't look like it was going to keep the rain to itself long so thought I'd open an old drain behind the shed instead. Got ten yards done with spade & drag before it came down :rolleyes:

Have spent the evening happily researching various methods of weed removal, furze, rushes, creeping & spear thistle, and yellow flag iris. Also follow up plans.

Now looking at surface seeding/overseeding material.

In short, I got SFA done today :pac:

jeff greene

Got up this morning drys mixed with milkers, broke down gate which stopped scrapper so beds and passages were dirty, I feed milkers every second day and of course the drys had that all eaten so extra mix this morning. Luckily they came out easy, they knew their job.Rooneys goal made it a great day:)

whelan1

thought i had enough dairy nuts for a week , but turns out the nuts where stuck on the view hole and the bin is empty:eek: only at the weekend would it happen:mad:

reilig

I went to the bull sales in Carrick on Shannon today. A lot of Chaorlais there, only 7 or 8 Limousin's' Chaorlais have good prices, the Limmo's were poor, although the selection was poor too. Going to try my bull on Donedeal. I'm not looking for a mint for him, but one bull in Carrick today was unsold at EUR800

jeff greene

reilig wrote: »

I went to the bull sales in Carrick on Shannon today. A lot of Chaorlais there, only 7 or 8 Limousin's' Chaorlais have good prices, the Limmo's were poor, although the selection was poor too. Going to try my bull on Donedeal. I'm not looking for a mint for him, but one bull in Carrick today was unsold at EUR800

Why the poor demand for Limmo, poor quality or wrong time of year. Remember to say your bull is Show quality when advertising on Donedeal, all the livestock there are either show quality or british frisian

Muckit

Moved some bales of straw from shed near the house to shed away from house to make room for my new toy... aerlite 8' cattle box:)

While I'd the grab off I chain harrowed 15 acres, admired 2 swans swimming along the other 15 acres that's flooded

pajero12

Got up this morning.. Every one of the cows in a 6 bay single shed had went for a little 2 mile walk :rolleyes: Funny thing was,There wasnt a single gate opened,And we checked the cameras..So noone was in the yard acting the bollix Then went to the FTMTA show till six,followed by 3 hours of study

locky76

reilig wrote: »

I went to the bull sales in Carrick on Shannon today. A lot of Chaorlais there, only 7 or 8 Limousin's' Chaorlais have good prices, the Limmo's were poor, although the selection was poor too. Going to try my bull on Donedeal. I'm not looking for a mint for him, but one bull in Carrick today was unsold at EUR800

Is this you Reilig?
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/livestock/1891984

dar31

had the weanlings cleaning out a paddock atfer the cow, while moving them back to the kale this evening, noticed the usual 5/6 red kites over head. could see more off in the distance, with in 5 min there were 20, at best count, directly over head, close enough to see the tag colours on their wings. some sight to see that many gliding on the wind.

9 calves and counting so far today, really looking forward to feeding them in the morning

Muckit

locky76 wrote: »

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Seamus/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]Is this you Reilig?
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/livestock/1891984

Now that is one nice shapely bull. he is 19mths old though

babybrian

calved a cow after coming home after a few pints in the pub at 2am, slept it out abit then this morning.. cleaned calving pen, got dairy nuts and meal in merchants, treated a useless cull cow who managed to get herself mastitis(wouldnt give milk when I wanted her too). Then to top it all off forgot to change over the milk line, milked an antibiotic cow into the tank so tank contents had to be dumped :mad: never happened me before....feck feck feck...but heifer to bull count is running at 80%heifer and 20%bulls

Bizzum

Muckit wrote: »

Now that is one nice shapely bull. he is 19mths old though

Nice looking bull. I'm sure I could find €800 somewhere to buy him:D

whelan1

this is not the time to be selling/ buying bulls ... the cows would be calving in november / december ... we always have a load of customers in april... this is in between seasons... although that being said had a guy ring yesterday looking for a bull... i passed him on to wiggy:D

reilig

locky76 wrote: »

Is this you Reilig?
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/livestock/1891984

No. I haven't put him up yet.
Mine is only 14 months old. How much would you need to be getting for a bull like that - after feeding him for 19 months??

Was talking to a guy today who sold a chaorlais bull for EUR2000. 18 months old. He reconed he had eaten EUR1400 worth of meal.

Bizzum

whelan1 wrote: »

this is not the time to be selling/ buying bulls ... the cows would be calving in november / december

I see what your saying BUT.....
These young bulls that are sold at many of the society sales are waaaaaaaaaaay to well done.
If you bought one and left him off with cows he might just melt!
So you're better off buying him early, and gradually bringing him down, and hardening him up a bit. Then introducing him to the girls slowly.

pajero12

reilig wrote: »

Was talking to a guy today who sold a chaorlais bull for EUR2000. 18 months old. He reconed he had eaten EUR1400 worth of meal.

That's just not possible!
You should stick him up on DoneDeal. We sold 2 bulls on it in the last week!
Dont put up a price up on the ad! Let them ring you if there interested!

ihatetractors

Got up, auld lad had gone on milking so i feed up/scraped/bedded/feed calves, the general day to day stuff. Had a lovely little holstein heifer . Went checkin how few fields of wheat are, then went to see the uncle putting stored feed barley through the combine to clean it futher but decided it just didnt look clean enough, (few pink grains), had intended to use as seed but loaded it up and carted to the mill. Then watched the rugby/milked/rugby.

whelan1

Bizzum wrote: »

I see what your saying BUT.....
These young bulls that are sold at many of the society sales are waaaaaaaaaaay to well done.
If you bought one and left him off with cows he might just melt!
So you're better off buying him early, and gradually bringing him down, and hardening him up a bit. Then introducing him to the girls slowly.

i assume the farmers are buying the bull to work , we have learnt over the years only to sell from the yard , not at sales - we have repeat customers from 20 years ago- i Hate the type of bulls in the sales , reminds me of a kids beauty pagent , there is no need for it at all. The bulls are not in their working clothes and have been mollycoddled way too much

stanflt

didnt get finished in the yard last night till 8.30.- supposed to be my evening off- was just finished playing football ready to go for a few pints with the lads when the phone rang- computer in the dairy wouldnt work-so it didnt register the cows coming into the parlour and it wasnt feeding them- had to rush home- computer fried- had to set parlour up to manual milking and feed cows individually which was so time consuming. as if this wasnt bad enough their was 15 new calves born in the last 48hours and they take forever to drink- had to put 6new calves in hutches and then clean out the calving pen cause two more heifers were ready to calve last night. was to tired to go for pints as i was up till four the previous morning- had dinner- OH not happy dinner ready since 7 and i had to go 2 bed at 9.00

both heifers calved last night

leg wax

sold the heifer weanlings off the kale yesterday in carnew mart and was very happy compaired to the bulls the week before,got home at 5 and had 2 cows calveing and 2bulls an hour later so happy days, in to town for the chinese take-away and home.oh had the bottle of wine open and watched both rugby matches from earlier.

whelan1

sold 4 calves this morning , thats my holiday money sorted

johngalway

Late start today, finally got some decent sleep last night!

Done a bit more draining, removing the roots of rushes from an old drain ain't what I call fun.

Dodged a heavy shower, then headed up the land with the brush cutter and gleefully murdered some more rushes. Then prolonged showers stopped play.

whelan1

had a calf with bloat this morning.. put a big needle in its side , god the smell was yuck

reilig

Just a reply of curiosity

If you lived around me you'd be described as a man who loved hardship :D

How many acres do you have? Would you never consider getting in a track machine. My local guy charges €400 per day for a 13 ton. He can break down hedges and clean up to 1000m any day - he's nifty and leaves a great finish.

Would it be worth your while getting someone like that or do you really enjoy the drag and spade ??? :D:D

johngalway wrote: »

Late start today, finally got some decent sleep last night!

Done a bit more draining, removing the roots of rushes from an old drain ain't what I call fun.

Dodged a heavy shower, then headed up the land with the brush cutter and gleefully murdered some more rushes. Then prolonged showers stopped play.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

Just a reply of curiosity

If you lived around me you'd be described as a man who loved hardship :D

How many acres do you have? Would you never consider getting in a track machine. My local guy charges €400 per day for a 13 ton. He can break down hedges and clean up to 1000m any day - he's nifty and leaves a great finish.

Would it be worth your while getting someone like that or do you really enjoy the drag and spade ??? :D:D

i see alot of the digger men down my way now have kinda saw heads or mulchers for the diggers, on my way home from work I go right thru Burren, very stony landscape with heaps of brush hazel etc, anyway in a few spots the owers have had these lads in with the digger/mulcher head and whole fields that have never previously been visable suddenly appear, its amazing the difference in the landscape from passing in the morning to coming back in the evening..i think the owner have to get permission to clear these types of area before anyone gets exited

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

i see alot of the digger men down my way now have kinda saw heads or mulchers for the diggers, on my way home from work I go right thru Burren, very stony landscape with heaps of brush hazel etc, anyway in a few spots the owers have had these lads in with the digger/mulcher head and whole fields that have never previously been visable suddenly appear, its amazing the difference in the landscape from passing in the morning to coming back in the evening..i think the owner have to get permission to clear these types of area before anyone gets exited

A contractor for Irish Rail has a mulcher on a 20 ton duck, I see it working on the line close to home. Its some job to clear bushes and trees up to 8 inches in diameter. They look like a great job.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

A contractor for Irish Rail has a mulcher on a 20 ton duck, I see it working on the line close to home. Its some job to clear bushes and trees up to 8 inches in diameter. They look like a great job.

ya seems to be a serious tool alright, an animal would hardly push their way thru some of the places im on about its so overgrown but this yoke makes a great job of it

dryan

vanderbadger wrote: »

ya seems to be a serious tool alright, an animal would hardly push their way thru some of the places im on about its so overgrown but this yoke makes a great job of it

Yer watching too much of that Swamp Loggers on the Discovery channel lads!!

vanderbadger

dryan wrote: »

Yer watching too much of that Swamp Loggers on the Discovery channel lads!!

feck..forgot about ice road truckers last friday

theroad

Had a heifer calve down on Saturday - threw a heifer calf - took the calf away yesterday. The dam spent the night bawling her head off. They're both doing fine but it's a terrible sound. It's just as well they forget.

leg wax

just done the tb test, fingers crossed for thursday.

whelan1

vanderbadger wrote: »

feck..forgot about ice road truckers last friday

stupidly i bought the box set of ice road truckers for my husband last christmas .... think there was 8 dvds in it. thought they would never be over , felt like misplacing the box of them:mad:

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

stupidly i bought the box set of ice road truckers for my husband last christmas .... think there was 8 dvds in it. thought they would never be over , felt like misplacing the box of them:mad:

well i dunno about watching the boxset now either but if i find it on i watch it..seems like the same old ding dong every season, near disasters etc but somehow they survive

johngalway

reilig wrote: »

Just a reply of curiosity

If you lived around me you'd be described as a man who loved hardship :D

How many acres do you have? Would you never consider getting in a track machine. My local guy charges €400 per day for a 13 ton. He can break down hedges and clean up to 1000m any day - he's nifty and leaves a great finish.

Would it be worth your while getting someone like that or do you really enjoy the drag and spade ??? :D:D

Money, Reilig, money, or lack of it

I'd be delighted to get a small machine in, know just the fella to do the job and all, but then I'd have to sacrifice the new fence I want to put up to better manage the grass. Or something else important

I've about 18.5 acres in that spot. Any work I can do myself, that's how it gets done. Do a bit every day and things don't be long shaping up. And as for loving hardship, that's the ould fellas hobby, not mine :pac:

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Just a reply of curiosity

If you lived around me you'd be described as a man who loved hardship :D

How many acres do you have? Would you never consider getting in a track machine. My local guy charges €400 per day for a 13 ton. He can break down hedges and clean up to 1000m any day - he's nifty and leaves a great finish.

Would it be worth your while getting someone like that or do you really enjoy the drag and spade ??? :D:D

Our oul lad used to send us out years ago cutting the tops of thistles over the summer holidays............ with spades!!:D:D Now that was painful! I loved picking stones after that!

johngalway

At the mart the last day, getting hay. And while I'm gone for the trailer the ould lad is getting the spiel from a galvanised sheep race salesman. Two guillotine gates, two panel sides on each side, sheeted.... €750 :eek:

And he was seriously thinking about it...

Christ on a bike. He's I've got a lot of work to do on his land cleaning it up, with old age, arthritis etc it's gone back a bit. I think I've finally succeeded into drilling some machinery sense into him. As in, it'd be fúcking sensible to get some... :pac:

Add to that, I'd build him 4-5 of those same size runs for that same €750, and as the farm is isolated and fragmented over difficult exposed ground, does it make sense to be carrying those sheeted sections on yer back in a gale? I think not!

I'll drag him kicking and screaming into the 20th century yet.

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Our oul lad used to send us out years ago cutting the tops of thistles over the summer holidays............ with spades!!:D:D Now that was painful! I loved picking stones after that!

We used to be sent out with the tractor and transport box to the swarts of grass in the cut meadows to pick the docks and thistles out of them so that they wouldn't end up in the bales. The worst job was feeding the dairy cows on the side of the road. We live on a by road which had wide verges. The cows would get a couple of days a month eating on it. We had 2 cattle dogs. 1 would sit at each end and make sure the cows didn't run off but 1 of us always had to be there to direct cars through the 30 or so cows. It was the most boring job ever.

whelan1

just in from scanning did 65 , 5 not in calf ... very happy..... bloody frozen though

jeff greene

whelan1 wrote: »

just in from scanning did 65 , 5 not in calf ... very happy..... bloody frozen though

Good results, what do you put in down to? Heattime?

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

We used to be sent out with the tractor and transport box to the swarts of grass in the cut meadows to pick the docks and thistles out of them so that they wouldn't end up in the bales.

Yes did that too We used the trailer with box though. One year, we'd meadow with nearly a trailer load an acre:eek: Dumped them down the bog.

We made alot of hay those times. I reckon a combination of late cutting date (docks would be red and well headed out) and the haybob scattering the ones we missed made a right job of things:rolleyes:

whelan1

jeff greene wrote: »

Good results, what do you put in down to? Heattime?

we scanned 12 sucklers all in calf. 18 heifers all in calf to bull, 35 cows mixture of ai and bull 5 not in calf..... some of these 5 are serial repeaters so their time is up i am afraid... so heat time was only being used on the cows

dasheriff

Just after landng home with a pbr limmo heifer i bought private last week,very happy with myself now sitting down drinking a cup of tea before i go do my evening checks..

whelan1

picked the cows out with the heat time this morning for scanning... was washing down the parlour when i noticed they where gone:eek: saw the last one heading down the lane at the front of house:eek: ran down after them , only to see them all heading back up the lane:D this evening the heat time picked a load of them out as they had high activity !

stanflt

whelan1 wrote: »

picked the cows out with the heat time this morning for scanning... was washing down the parlour when i noticed they where gone:eek: saw the last one heading down the lane at the front of house:eek: ran down after them , only to see them all heading back up the lane:D this evening the heat time picked a load of them out as they had high activity !

was it all the cows that got away and had high activity-are you using auto drafting?

whelan1

it had picked out 35 .... around 15 of them went down the lane and the rest went out in to a field- they haven't been out yet this year , so it was high jinx for a few minutes , was waiting for some of the neighbours to say they had been in their garden .Thankfully havent had any call down yet:rolleyes: ye you just put the numbers in you want to draft out and hey presto they get picked out

stanflt

whelan1 wrote: »

it had picked out 35 .... around 15 of them went down the lane and the rest went out in to a field- they haven't been out yet this year , so it was high jinx for a few minutes , was waiting for some of the neighbours to say they had been in their garden .Thankfully havent had any call down yet:rolleyes: ye you just put the numbers in you want to draft out and hey presto they get picked out

did K.L sell you the gate with heat-time

whelan1

ye , i was one of the first to get it in:D

stanflt

whelan1 wrote: »

ye , i was one of the first to get it in:D

honest reply please-was it worth the money?

we serve over 150 animals each year(sometimes twice,sometimes trice etc). three of us watching the stock daily and we dont seem to miss any heats-also the parlour tells us if the cow has depressed yeild over the microphone so we tail paint any of these. what are your honest thoughts

whelan1

well i dont have a high spec milking parlour and i dont have the time to watch the cows all the time , so i think it is brilliant , some cows heats are very short , so its great for that.... for me its as good as having an extra person here-that is capable of the job:)- it picks out the ones that have low activity, your parlour can do that, so you probably dont need it... i wouldn't be with out it now ...

vincenzolorenzo

reilig wrote: »

We used to be sent out with the tractor and transport box to the swarts of grass in the cut meadows to pick the docks and thistles out of them so that they wouldn't end up in the bales.

Yes that sounds very familiar indeed!