Farming Chit Chat

bob charles

you can fed silage once its baled, have done it numerous times down through the years as a proportion of our herd stay indoors

Tipp Man

bob charles wrote: »

you can fed silage once its baled, have done it numerous times down through the years as a proportion of our herd stay indoors

Surely its just grass if you are feeding it directly after baling?

20silkcut

Was topping today and and some serious smoke was coming out of the topper. When I investigated I found that the grass wrapped around one of the blades was smouldering. The housing just above the blade was absolutely reddened. Blocked grease nipple I am thinking.

johngalway

Gas piece on the news, cattle escaping a shed, unbolting double bolted gates with tongues and mouths.

stanflt

johngalway wrote: »

Gas piece on the news, cattle escaping a shed, unbolting double bolted gates with tongues and mouths.

theres a tread on here with the video linked

whelan1

i used to have a cow that could open the gates , so every gate had to have a chain on it also , she could feed herself in the parlour by getting her tongue around the ropes on the cashman feeders , one night she opened the gate into the milking parlour and fed herself and her friends for hours:rolleyes: was crap everywhere in the morning when i went to milk

whelan1

raining here all day... was a break where it was only drizzling for a while so i moved a few groups of cattle... back lashing now... you can see the growth

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

raining here all day... was a break where it was only drizzling for a while so i moved a few groups of cattle... back lashing now... you can see the growth

Ye are the people that need it

Thankfully we haven't had much rain since last monday. Ground is starting to dry up a bit. But we still have a very poor growth rate. Its going down to temperatures of 4 and 5 degrees here at night and this is knocking back growth rates.

KatyMac

Been watching the sky all day coz had a cow ready to calve. She managed to beat the rain by a whisker! Had a black heifer who is running after a bigger 3 month old calf, her mother is going crazy trying to keep up. We dare not go into the field until tonight as she doesnt like interference for first coupla hours. I also let out the last bucket fed lads today - the excitement was high for half and hour and then they went back into the shed and lay down, so much for feeling sorry for them that they were still inside!

KatyMac

20silkcut wrote: »

Was topping today and and some serious smoke was coming out of the topper. When I investigated I found that the grass wrapped around one of the blades was smouldering. The housing just above the blade was absolutely reddened. Blocked grease nipple I am thinking.

You are lucky that smoke was all you had. Last year a harvester that was working over the road from our house went up in flames within a few minutes. We heard noise like a bomb going off, ran out and saw the biggest fire I've ever seen. The driver had to jump for it.
The neighbours all started arriving then because some of them thought the column of smoke was coming from our house. Was nice to know that help will come when its needed.

futurefarmer

Meant to have a test tomorrow afternoon but 1 of the main ones i want tested has lost both tags !!! pain in the Axxe, than i havent any replacement forms !!! things aint goin well, can i download this form does anyone know ? or do i have to get them to send me new ones, Bad start to the week already lol

Bizzum

futurefarmer wrote: »

Meant to have a test tomorrow afternoon but 1 of the main ones i want tested has lost both tags !!! pain in the Axxe, than i havent any replacement forms !!! things aint goin well, can i download this form does anyone know ? or do i have to get them to send me new ones, Bad start to the week already lol

Is this your own vet or the Dept vet testing?

Bodacious

futurefarmer wrote: »

Meant to have a test tomorrow afternoon but 1 of the main ones i want tested has lost both tags !!! pain in the Axxe, than i havent any replacement forms !!! things aint goin well, can i download this form does anyone know ? or do i have to get them to send me new ones, Bad start to the week already lol

Hi futurefarmer,

Ring them in the morning 052 9153102 and pay with your card over the phone and you should have them in her ears for when the vet reads her, depends on your vet though ... Some can be sticky enough!! I did this recently anyway for 2 animals they rapid quick on replacement tags .. Big box of calf tags needed form filled and took 3-4 weeks to land.

Good luck with them

futurefarmer

Yeah had rang the Vet and they need at least one !!! problem is this fecker of a bull has lost both and must be only in the last few days typical like, would be great if they would take the order over the phone though i will try them in the morn fingers crossed,
Thanks for the help though

dar31

futurefarmer wrote: »

Yeah had rang the Vet and they need at least one !!! problem is this fecker of a bull has lost both and must be only in the last few days typical like, would be great if they would take the order over the phone though i will try them in the morn fingers crossed,
Thanks for the help though

they will take an order for less than 5 tags over the phone, talk nicely to them and they will have it in the post asap.
have credit card, herd no and tag no's to hand.

rang bandon a few weeks ago to get a permit through in a rush first thing in morning, nice and mannerly, a brief chat and got it sorted, rang lady back 10 min later when she had fax in hand she processed it there and then and gave me verbal conformation. thought no more of it till lunch time when i sat down to open the post at 1.30 and there was the permit, 4 1/2 hours later. a few pleases and thank yous go a long way

futurefarmer

Same as most things in life its nice to be nice and it can bring you a hell of a long way,
Thanks for the reply

reilig

dar31 wrote: »

rang bandon a few weeks ago to get a permit through in a rush first thing in morning, nice and mannerly, a brief chat and got it sorted, rang lady back 10 min later when she had fax in hand she processed it there and then and gave me verbal conformation. thought no more of it till lunch time when i sat down to open the post at 1.30 and there was the permit, 4 1/2 hours later. a few pleases and thank yous go a long way

If you use the departments online services, you can print out your movement permits instantly!!

vanderbadger

anyone see the year farming show on tv3 last night, one guy milking 600+ cows..hard to imagine the scale of the farm. interesting though

johngalway

vanderbadger wrote: »

anyone see the year farming show on tv3 last night, one guy milking 600+ cows..hard to imagine the scale of the farm. interesting though

I saw it last week. They made a mistake I think in their catch up service and that episode was on, closely followed on by a different one after midnight.

JohnBoy

Thought it was better the first week in that they showed a greater range with small medium and large covered, whereas last night their small guys while not having massive cow numbers have grown in a different direction.

but still thought it was very good. our three year old complained at the start about me turning off her cartoons, and complained at the end that the cow programme was over. which is a pretty good review in my book

sea12

yep thought it was very good last night. Enjoyed it more than the first episode.

whelan1

my cousin is an organic farmer , doing quite well for himself , i just read on his fb page that tesco have cancelled all contracts in ireland and the uk for organic beef and are sourcing it from uraguay(sp) surely the beef over there would not be of the same standard as here

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

my cousin is an organic farmer , doing quite well for himself , i just read on his fb page that tesco have cancelled all contracts in ireland and the uk for organic beef and are sourcing it from uraguay(sp) surely the beef over there would not be of the same standard as here

That's poor form isn't it?

I thought that the best selling point for beef would be that it was Irish? Second to this then would be that it was organic? Irish organic beef should be the cream of the crop!! I'd certainly buy irish non organic grass fed beef ahead of unknown organic stuff from Uraguay!!!

Birdnuts

whelan1 wrote: »

my cousin is an organic farmer , doing quite well for himself , i just read on his fb page that tesco have cancelled all contracts in ireland and the uk for organic beef and are sourcing it from uraguay(sp) surely the beef over there would not be of the same standard as here

Tesco are corporate parasites - they did the same thing to Vegetable growers in North Dublin after the farmers had invested 30 million euros of their own money into a specialized storage and veg handling facility. How any Irish person could patronize them is beyond me since they treat their customers in the same way:(

Birdnuts

reilig wrote: »

That's poor form isn't it?

I thought that the best selling point for beef would be that it was Irish? Second to this then would be that it was organic? Irish organic beef should be the cream of the crop!! I'd certainly buy irish non organic grass fed beef ahead of unknown organic stuff from Uraguay!!!

Exactly - the idea that beef from SA is somehow a sustaineable product is laughable, but this is Tesco we are talking about:(

bbam

Feeding up earlier..stuck me hand into a ton bag of meal and there was a mouse in it... jebus I squealed like a girl for about five minutes

whelan1

bbam wrote: »

Feeding up earlier..stuck me hand into a ton bag of meal and there was a mouse in it... jebus I squealed like a girl for about five minutes

put on my body warmer a few years ago , it was in the shed , put my hand in the pocket there was a bloody mouse in it yuck yuck yuck:o

Bodacious

bbam wrote: »

Feeding up earlier..stuck me hand into a ton bag of meal and there was a mouse in it... jebus I squealed like a girl for about five minutes

im with you there.. horrible feeling.. id be also acting like a sissy , anything but a mouse or a rat!!:D

Tora Bora

Went one better good few years ago. Had a nice heap of spuds in the haggard. Covered with rushes and plastic. Used to fill up a bucket of spuds by lifting up the cover at the end and sticking my hand in to get at the spuds. Doing it one Saturday morning no pro an thought to myself this slid feels kinda funny as I pulled it from the heap.

You guessed. It was a monster dead rat. I nearly had a seizure when I saw what was in my hand. Often had a handier weanling.
Wouldn't give a damn about a mouse. If one ran up leg of my trousers, wouldn't bat an eye lid. But a rat is another story all together.
Haven't stored spuds in a heap since. Have them in a timber crate set up on blocks, with lime shaken all around the floor in all sides of the box. Mr rat won't walk on lime if you keep it damp. Keep it damp so it burns his feet, the bstrads.:o

Bizzum

Tora Bora wrote: »

Haven't stored spuds in a heap since. Have them in a timber crate set up on blocks, with lime shaken all around the floor in all sides of the box.

Did they survive the frost this winter? (The spuds, not the rats!)

who the fug

Use to go hunting mices with a sledge hammer, as a teenager

Tora Bora

Bizzum wrote: »

Did they survive the frost this winter? (The spuds, not the rats!)

Not great to be honest. Brought a few bags into the house she temps dropped well down. Threw straw on my crate in the shed. Got some ok out of it, but most were damaged. Turnips in the were never as sweet though. Parsnips as well. They like a bit of frost.

Bizzum

We took a hit on the spuds too, thats what prompted me to ask.
I suppose we hadn't factored -17C into the equation, will in future though!

Min

We had poison down for rats, one morning I saw the cat with a dead rat in it's mouth, it wouldn't let go of it no matter what I did, so in the interest of the cat I caught it by the tail and I started to swing in a circle, round and round I went and the cat didn't want to let go, so I spun around faster till it went flying from it's mouth, a dizzy experience but it is fun swinging a cat by the tail but I only did it once to prevent poisoning.

theroad

Years ago, back in the (18)80s I worked for a summer on a caravan park, and part of my job was to collect and burn the rubbish (there weren't rules about that sort of thing back then). Before throwing on the new stuff, I had to bash the old stuff that hadn't burned fully to make a bit more room in the "incinerator". Sure enough, every now and then I'd disturb a rat, they'd leap out just past my ear as I stood there thumping this great pile of sh*te with a shovel. I hated that job.

Suckler

reilig wrote: »

That's poor form isn't it?

I thought that the best selling point for beef would be that it was Irish? Second to this then would be that it was organic? Irish organic beef should be the cream of the crop!! I'd certainly buy irish non organic grass fed beef ahead of unknown organic stuff from Uraguay!!!

+1

I mentioned in another thread (on about Bord Bia etc.) that i always go out of my way to buy irish beef. I've emigrated but Irish beef is competing against American and Aus/NZ meat here. I did say the quantity available is lower than its competitors ( Could be someone getting to it before me!) but it is well advertised as Irish grass fed beef.

whelan1

have 2 milk tanks , one which is ancient -but does the job - it has a davey washer on it... the motor went on it last week and we brought it to a local place that does rewinds. We rang last friday and where told it would be ready on saturday.... didnt ring them back until today -my husband rang them twice this morning-,the guy we spoke to was rude and said that they handt looked at it yet and might look at it on monday:mad: i blew a fuse and rang them again ... he said the same to me , then i asked him to check again and a few minutes later he came back and said it was done i can not understand how some places stay in business with assholes- another one:rolleyes:- like this fronting their business... i sent dh to collect it ... i also took €15 off the price for stress... i also rang and complained to the boss:o was right annoyed i was

JohnBoy

All things being equal, how much is second cut silage worth relative to first cut?

Fertilised, off the field in both cases.

runningblind

farming is business and costs have to be kept as low as possible! hammer only costs you a few euro! job done!

greenpilot

whelan1 wrote: »

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:

I work for one of the Connacht Gold Branches, and yep.....it always reads wrong.....you should always beat the side with a stick!!:D

runningblind

have a good one about them fecking mice, in the meal shed filling buckets and came across a mice nest, managed to close the door before many got out, ended up killing 15 mice with the shovel!

whelan1

greenpilot wrote: »

I work for one of the Connacht Gold Branches, and yep.....it always reads wrong.....you should always beat the side with a stick!!:D

yup , ours is a 16 tonne meal bin so i have to go up quite a height to hit it with a hurley:)

leg wax

whelan1 wrote: »

yup , ours is a 16 tonne meal bin so i have to go up quite a height to hit it with a hurley:)

theres your problem a hurley was only made to hit fellas around the knees and ankles,it must have fallen off the back of a kilkenny lorry.:p

mossy1

Just wondering how much ground lads on here would allow for say 60 heifer calves for the simple for grazing for the year??

johngalway

It's great to be mechanically minded - I'm not. Met the fella who fixed my chainsaw last time at the mart this morning (sheep prices back a long way in the past three weeks :eek: ). All that needed doing? Half turn of a little screw on the engine :rolleyes: Buzzing like a hive of bees now.

whelan1

had a friesian bull calf that got an infection in his throat could hear him from a mile away the noise of him , got vet to look at him a few times and was commenting to my dad how great he was doing , the fecker was dead this morning with bloat:mad:

5live

whelan1 wrote: »

had a friesian bull calf that got an infection in his throat could hear him from a mile away the noise of him , got vet to look at him a few times and was commenting to my dad how great he was doing , the fecker was dead this morning with bloat:mad:

The vet was right! The infection in his throat didnt kill him:)

Hate that though

Min

The worst thing about an animal dying is you then have to pay to get rid of it, and often after having a vet bill to go with it.

whelan1

Min wrote: »

The worst thing about an animal dying is you then have to pay to get rid of it, and often after having a vet bill to go with it.

was banking on him to buy kids uniforms:rolleyes: never count your chicks til they've hatched... €25 to knackery , didnt get specific call outs for him , only if vet was out to something else, still a total bummer...

anfieldrd

whelan1 wrote: »

had a friesian bull calf that got an infection in his throat could hear him from a mile away the noise of him , got vet to look at him a few times and was commenting to my dad how great he was doing , the fecker was dead this morning with bloat:mad:

In the same boat whelan1, let a batch of calves out a fortnight ago and the father goes, not one bit of sickness between them all. Within 2 days one was down with pneumonia, after getting the vet out he seemed to be picking up, then after coming back from the match last week he was dead.