Livestock/General Farming photo thread ***READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1***

13spanner

Karen112 wrote: »

Do you by any chance live in The Lion King film?:p

It's a little known fact that it was filmed on location in Co. Clare. The giraffes and elephants are just out of shot there

JohnBoy

How did they make the yard redzer? thumb on the track machine? a grapple, or just a really good man with the bucket?



Some pics from my weekend......

I'd asked about hedge laying fuschia a few months ago.... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75380125

On saturday I called our Shane our hedge cutting man to come take a look and offer his opinion, he thought I was being hard on it, and that a good cutting back would be enough to thicken it. I was only looking to talk about the job, but he was keen to start into it straight away so who was I to stop him.

Had an issue with where to put the trimmings though, we still have a pretty huge pile from last year that was put in the wrong place because the loader was sinking.

I had also called Brian the digger man (who happens to do the loader work for shane when cutting ditches) to come and look at a few jobs. He was even more keen and had actually arrived in the digger, so he cleared some topsoil near the heap of bushes which got him down to solid footing and allowed the loader to move the heap.

In the space of three or so hours we'd gone from thinking about jobs to be done to having a huge pile of timber moved, a fallen lleylandii chopped up and thrown on the pile and around 300m of fuchisa taken from 10 to 2 feet tall.

Photos are a bit random, as I was taking them while I worked alongside the lads.

Moving the heap with the silage loader


die lleylandii, die


state of the place!!!!! I have quite literally years of work ahead of me


So much timber is going to waste in this pile, but I just dont have the time to pick the good stuff out of it.



The ditch itself, the right hand side was done last year, but was nowhere near as bad as the left.


The digger


The hedgecutter, Technically it's a pic from last year, but it looks the same these days.

JohnBoy

Some slightly older pics.

We had a traditional hayloft over a span of a lean-to hayshed. bit of a H&S disaster, it was made from pine poles, a sheet of silage plastic and some very tightly fitted bales on top. not bad the day it was made I suppose, but half the bales had burst at this stage and there's a couple of the poles were a bit "springy"


Took it all down at the start of december and cut the poles up for the fire, nice and dry at least.



The shed underneath had been used as a meal store and is very very dry, which suits as we need somewhere for clean dry storage of some furniture and stuff so a new loft was put in, the bulk of the work was done on new years eve by myself and a friend, no pics in progress as we were flat out all day long.

We bolted two 9x3s to the side walls and put 3 9x3 legs down undernath them to support the load, the loft is essentially free standing, the walls only keep it in position.

The joists are 9x2 on 12 inch centres, overkill, but going from 16 to 12 inch centres only adds a handful of joists so very little in it cost wise


The floor looks fierce fancy. it's red deal floorboards. I tossed and turned the options for ages, cost wise, including preservative, they were about the same as 3/4 WBP. I ended up going with the red deal as I figured it would be easier to lay than the ply. ply would require mm perfect joist spacing to make sure you end up with a joist under every joint, otherwise you'd be cutting every sheet. The red deal went down in no time as with 12 inch centred joists we didnt bother to put joints over joists, just lay the first board, then butt the second one to the end of it and cut to length. Start the next run with the offcut, butt the next board to length, cut and repeat. almost zero waste, very staggered joints and quick to do.


Almost a shame to dose it with green protim.


Next step of that job is to finish fitting the last few boards that need to be ripped to length, treat the timber and then build up that wall at the far side of the loft. then some sort of safety barrier/railing/gate on the open side of the loft, repair a hole in the roof, fit the flashing, replace a sheet of galvanise, replace a timber supporting the galvanise cladding, wire in the light down below, clean out, wash and paint down below, make and fit a new door down below.


it's a never ending project, and we dont even have livestock yet!

Suckler

JohnBoy wrote: »

Some slightly older pics.
it's a never ending project, and we dont even have livestock yet!

Tasty job JohnBoy, we have similiar going on, hay loft to be taken down out of the way etc., its amazing the space you see you have when the joists are taken away an dyou sont have to stoop going in to the shed!

redzerologhlen

Just a good man and a bucket johnboy, there's a lot to be said for a lad that knows how to drive a machine properly. No standing beside the machine telling the driver what to do. Just told him what I wanted done and left him at it.

JohnBoy

Suckler wrote: »

Tasty job JohnBoy, we have similiar going on, hay loft to be taken down out of the way etc., its amazing the space you see you have when the joists are taken away an dyou sont have to stoop going in to the shed!

Cheers, really opened the shed up for the few weeks between taking one down and putting up the other, but in our case the shed below is actually pokier as the underside of the new joists is ten inches below the old poles. still 7 feet of clearance though. the downstairs bit will all get washed, the timbers dosed in green E and then a few coats of lidl's finest white paint the next time it's in stock. there's nothing like some white to brighten a place.


The yards/sheds are in a state as can be seen, ten years of renting can be hard on a place, so we're constantly working on stuff, most of last summer was let's just say "compliance" related, this year's focus is mostly H&S points.

Anything we tackle we try and do a good repair. we dont have the money for ripping things down and starting again, and we dont want to be chasing our tails fixing pallets and twine forever either. hard to strike the balance in getting the job done against doing it right.


Thankfully we're both working as well, the farm pays no wage, every cent we're bringing in is ploughed right back into it, and will need to be for the next 5 years I'd say at least. (assuming we both stay in full time employment)

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Just a good man and a bucket johnboy, there's a lot to be said for a lad that knows how to drive a machine properly. No standing beside the machine telling the driver what to do. Just told him what I wanted done and left him at it.

wow, that is impressive so. it looks like he's placed each rock by hand.

just do it

JohnBoy wrote:

it's a never ending project, and we dont even have livestock yet!

Great satisfaction out of all that work. I did something similar over the last 3.5 years. But don't fall into the same trap as me,it's selling cattle that makes you money, not having the prettiest farm in Ireland!

I hated seeing my home place neglected since it was rented out in 1980. Whilst a certain amount had to be done on the place, I've invested too much time and money on infrastructure and not enough on cattle. Now I can't afford to increase numbers to a decent stocking rate. I'm breeding some nice replacements but it will be years before it's making any worth while profit.

Kovu

Not really farming as such........he does this every evening when I light the fire. I'm so tempted to push him in........:p



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PMU

Karen112 wrote: »

Not really farming as such........he does this every evening when I light the fire. I'm so tempted to push him in........:p



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" I smell a mouse..."

Bodacious

cows down by the sea in Summer... cant wait for the Summer again!!

13spanner

Bodacious wrote: »

cows down by the sea in Summer... cant wait for the Summer again!!

I've been saying that since October looking forward to this summer more than any other!

Bodacious

13spanner wrote: »

I've been saying that since October looking forward to this summer more than any other!

Wet/****ty Summer 2011 seems to have made this Winter extra long alright

Muckit

Bodacious wrote: »

Wet/****ty Summer 2011 seems to have made this Winter extra long alright

We can't complain in all fairness. It's been a great spring so far. Very mild. We're not out of the woods yet though :rolleyes:

Bizzum

Few pic's from today, A couple of outlying heifers.

Pic 171 Alcazar (AZA) heifer 22Mths old calving at the backend to FL22.
Pic 173 Uboy (UBU) heifer similar age calving backend to FL22.
Pic 183 Alcazar (AZA) heifer 20Mths old calving at the backend to FL22.
Pic 184 Roadside hedge after some dirty backstard!

dar31

a few from the last few weeks
got a new phone a while back, so been a bit snap happy lately

johngalway

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Yard built:D Few gates, Few loads of shale and a crush now and we will be away with it!!

Nice job, sheep farmer back the road from me done a similar job out on the commonage. Now he can round up the ewes, pen them on the commonage, dose/whatever them, and let them right off again. Before he had to come down a narrow road, cross an R road, then down another narrow road to the home place. Lot to be said for pens.

Kovu

Had a tooth pulled the other day so had some time off work. Got back to my horses and got a few nice pics.



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blue5000

Rovi wrote: »

You DO realise that in 100 years time, that'll have a preservation order slapped on it?
And in 200 years time, it'll be the subject of a thread like this!: Fairy forts

Great job Redzer, you should have made it in a circle. with the gate facing sunrise on the longest/shortest day, that would really confuse the timeteam of tomorrow;)

redzerologhlen

blue5000 wrote: »

Rovi wrote: »

You DO realise that in 100 years time, that'll have a preservation order slapped on it?
And in 200 years time, it'll be the subject of a thread like this!: Fairy forts

Great job Redzer, you should have made it in a circle. with the gate facing sunrise on the longest/shortest day, that would really confuse the timeteam of tomorrow;)

Ha, I was thinking about doing a dolmen style shed in the corner of it I have it tidied up a good bit since but can't put up pics cause my laptop kicked the bucket and I'm using my phone. Will get them up sometime though!!

redzerologhlen

johngalway wrote: »

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Yard built:D Few gates, Few loads of shale and a crush now and we will be away with it!!

Nice job, sheep farmer back the road from me done a similar job out on the commonage. Now he can round up the ewes, pen them on the commonage, dose/whatever them, and let them right off again. Before he had to come down a narrow road, cross an R road, then down another narrow road to the home place. Lot to be said for pens.

Sure if you can't do these kind of things by yourself then your going nowhere. There's a lot to be said for a bit of comfort. Should be a nice tidy job when it's all finished.

redzerologhlen

One of the friends day old giga bull calf


My yard after tidying up the Walls a bit

redzerologhlen

The yard is around 80ft long and 35ft wide. I am going to put a 30ft crush along under the cliff and make 2 pens in the yard. I was going to do blocks on the cliff side of the crush rather than bars so they wouldn't be able to put their heads out the far side when dosing and things. Sculling gate is going to be on the left of the pic. I was going to hang the entrance gate so it can latch into the sculling gate when opened in so cattle could be loaded straight out of the crush. Don't know if ye will understand that as well as I do but I'm open to suggestions as to what way to lay it out.

pakalasa

Redz,
Ya, I know what you mean about the gate opening in to the crush skulling gate. Good idea. You could leave a corner in the wall at the skulling gate so that you can work at the cattle's head from both sides. If you know what I mean.

Bizzum

You that has room Redzer, would you consider a curved crush?

http://www.grandin.com/design/design.html

You might pick up a tip that suits ya on that link.

just do it

redzerologhlen wrote: »

I was going to hang the entrance gate so it can latch into the sculling gate when opened in so cattle could be loaded straight out of the crush.

Are you going to hang it an angle so that:
1. when it is latched to the skulling gate the cattle can run straight out, and
2. when it is latched to the wall the cattle coming out of the crush turn back on themselves into the yard?

Good idea - if I've understood you correctly!;)

redzerologhlen

pakalasa wrote: »

Redz,
Ya, I know what you mean about the gate opening in to the crush skulling gate. Good idea. You could leave a corner in the wall at the skulling gate so that you can work at the cattle's head from both sides. If you know what I mean.

Good idea pak, might hang 2 6ft gates off the sculling gate incase I ever have to put a calf sucking off it too.

redzerologhlen

Bizzum curved crush is out I think, the yard is rectangular so we will work to that. I have seen hundreds of crushs and you would often see small things done and say to yourself that's a great idea and I have forgotten the most of them

Just do it that's the idea anyway, suggested by the man that built the yard with the digger, should make loading a one man job.

pakalasa

Mad;

pakalasa

Another one;

Muckit

They must have been made with a Fusion!

Well made but light as f**K!!

limo_100

Muckit wrote: »

They must have been made with a Fusion!

Well made but light as f**K!!

I dont think fusion bales are to light tbh

johngalway

pakalasa wrote: »

Mad;

Reminds me of my Dad when we first got silage, backed in the 35 with the new second hand bale spike on it and Hi-Ho Silver away!


Well, not quite away, we had to get a few bags of sand tied across the bonnet then twas away

leg wax

my new jocky for mopping up

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

my new jocky for mopping up

Very nice.

Hope you have great luck with him!!

What did he set you back?

johnpawl

leg wax wrote: »

my new jocky for mopping up

Fine animal, best of luck with him!
What age is he and what's his breeding?

leg wax

johnpawl wrote: »

Fine animal, best of luck with him!
What age is he and what's his breeding?

hes 16 months and is a vulain out of a turbo cow.

tismesoitis

leg wax wrote: »

my new jocky for mopping up

Class animal Legs best of luck with him. Don't blame you for taking this route we have 6 parts on the ground and we delighted with them.

bogman_bass

leg wax wrote: »

hes 16 months and is a vulain out of a turbo cow.

thats a nice pedigree. Best of luck with him!

redzerologhlen

A bit of love between one of the girlfriends pet lambs and their sheepdog!!

defadman

this is a limousin heifer calf at 3 weeks old out of a first calver limousin heifer. what ye think of her?

teddd

Lovely calf, wats its sire?

defadman

not sure to be honest teddd..we bought the heifer in just before calving!

Bizzum

defadman wrote: »

this is a limousin heifer calf at 3 weeks old out of a first calver limousin heifer. what ye think of her?

A smasher. Stick up a pic of the Dam!

just do it

Bizzum wrote: »

A smasher. Stick up a pic of the Dam!

+1.

Was she as muscular at calving or has that developed over the 3 weeks? Was she easy calved?

limo_100

smashing calf great end on her the mother of that calf would work well with a blue bull or even parthenaise.
don't mean to be nosey but how much did the springer set you back?

defadman

here's a picture of the dam nothing too special in my opinion but decent all the same.eh well she wasn't to bad, the cow was tight enough though.the springer set us back 2,320 back in sptember,people thought it was crazy!

tismesoitis

Heres a couple of photos of our new silage slab.Poured the 2 floor sections last saturday probably won't get back to it for 3 or 4 weeks as baby no.2 will be with us any day now:eek::):)http://i.imgur.com/53Kmd.jpg http://i.imgur.com/UTcUz.jpg

leg wax

tismesoitis wrote: »

Heres a couple of photos of our new silage slab.Poured the 2 floor sections last saturday probably won't get back to it for 3 or 4 weeks as baby no.2 will be with us any day now:eek::):)http://i.imgur.com/53Kmd.jpg

tis best of luck with the new baby,how do i see the other pics.

tismesoitis

thanks legs try it now just changed something.... not great on this computer:o

vanderbadger

tismesoitis wrote: »

Heres a couple of photos of our new silage slab.Poured the 2 floor sections last saturday probably won't get back to it for 3 or 4 weeks as baby no.2 will be with us any day now:eek::):)http://i.imgur.com/53Kmd.jpg http://i.imgur.com/UTcUz.jpg

nice looking setup there