Ear to the Ground 'No farming in it at all'!

Arrow in the Knee

Anytime I look at Ear to the Ground I see everything bar farming! Jees!!!

It does cooking, gardening and other off farm activities. When ever I sit down to look at Ear to the Ground all I want to look at is Farming Activities like Sheep,Arable, Beef and Dairy, Pig and even goat farming but it doesn't give enough time on such production systems.

I don't want to look at some one growing a few vegetables in a garden.

If I wanted to look at some one cooking I would watch a cooking programme or more than likely switch over.
If I wanted to look at some one pulling a few vegetables out of a garden I would watch a gardening programme or more than likely switch over.

Rare breed on UTV on Monday night was decent viewing none of the crap just farming.

At least Ear to the Ground has a special on NZ dairy farming next week.

Also a few years ago on BBC NI there was a programme about a family who sold up and moved to North Dakota to do large scale Dairy farming. I wonder how they are faring out there now?

idunnoshur

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

Anytime I look at Ear to the Ground I see everything bar farming! Jees!!!

It does cooking, gardening and other off farm activities. When ever I sit down to look at Ear to the Ground all I want to look at is Farming Activities like Sheep,Arable, Beef and Dairy, Pig and even goat farming but it doesn't give enough time on such production systems.

I don't want to look at some one growing a few vegetables in a garden.

If I wanted to look at some one cooking I would watch a cooking programme or more than likely switch over.
If I wanted to look at some one pulling a few vegetables out of a garden I would watch a gardening programme or more than likely switch over.

Rare breed on UTV on Monday night was decent viewing none of the crap just farming.

At least Ear to the Ground has a special on NZ dairy farming next week.

Also a few years ago on BBC NI there was a programme about a family who sold up and moved to North Dakota to do large scale Dairy farming. I wonder how they are faring out there now?

This week was surprisingly good, the parts on repossessions and forestry were good but then they put that **** up about healthy food. It usually has way more **** on it than it did tonight. Most of the time it's barely worth watching.

island of tighe

ear to the ground is a load of s**te.its main purpose is to "educate" the city dubs about us farmers.they must think after watching it that half of us are organic farmers and the other half sell their beef and dairy products at a country market.the producers of this rubbish are away with the fairies

John_Rambo

It seems to be concentrating on unusual farming, nothing on current situations for the normal farmer, that end of things seem to be left to the press (Indo on Tuesday and IFJ). Good point though, the TV license is payed by all and farming is allegedly a big part of us! I like the new young presenters, specially her... very very cute in a goofy sort way. The repo story was interesting.

Farmer Pudsey

I gave up watching it 5 years ago it is only for city dwellers and Micro farm industries not like the old farm programs

John_Rambo

island of tighe wrote: »

its main purpose is to "educate" the city dubs about us farmers.they must think after watching it that half of us are organic farmers and the other half sell their beef and dairy products at a country market

No, we don't. I'm from Dublin and I just said they aren't concentrating on current situations for normal farmers. I must have gotten myself an education somewhere.

Janedoe10

Ya it is a token effort to appease us . But I agree it is a bit . '" this is the country city folks " it's a lot better than the tripe on rte 2 right now

sh1tstirrer

There was a piece about outdoor pig production on it last week. Yourman has organic pig production on 30 acres and he is making a living from it with a wife and five children

The farmer from NI Is Rodney Elliot last I heard of him he was milking 3000 cows. His website was still active last year Drumgoon dairies in south Dakota. Milk prices were below the cost of production in the US for a few years after he started. He seemed to weather the storm even though he buys in most of his feed.

John_Rambo

What would you like to see? Programs on prices, new products, management, husbandry etc? You should let RTE know, yous have a point, it is about rural micro businesses and left field farming.

Arrow in the Knee

Feels like it's being watered down for the 'Townies'.

Seems like we're getting the Joan Collins Special!

Tora Bora

RTE, should get rid of that tucking clown Tubs, and bring back The Riordans.:p

irishh_bob

island of tighe wrote: »

ear to the ground is a load of s**te.its main purpose is to "educate" the city dubs about us farmers.they must think after watching it that half of us are organic farmers and the other half sell their beef and dairy products at a country market.the producers of this rubbish are away with the fairies

must model itself on countryfile although a much larger percentage of people in ireland are farmers than in the uk , tv programmes are primarily about ratings and thier idea is to make the show appealing to as wide a demographic as possible , its a show about rural life more than about farming

MfMan

Tora Bora wrote: »

RTE, should get rid of that tucking clown Tubs, and bring back The Riordans.:p

And bring back Landmark and Mart & Market too! This demise dates back to the time Glenroe replaced Bracken (which replaced The Riordans), bringing with it niche market gardening and suburban spread. Long live the Pale!

John_Rambo

I believe the remit of most of the older farm based RTE program's was education for farmers. Even the Riordans was recorded and then broadcasted seasonally to coincide with what farmers should be at. I don't remember the Riordans, but I studied media studies years ago and from what I can gather it was really really controversial.

Attie

[QUOTE= The farmer from NI Is Rodney Elliot last I heard of him he was milking 3000 cows. His website was still active last year Drumgoon dairies in south Dakota. Milk prices were below the cost of production in the US for a few years after he started. He seemed to weather the storm even though he buys in most of his feed.[/QUOTE]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/tv/programmes/wantedfarmers_revisited/index.shtml

Suckler

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

Anytime I look at Ear to the Ground I see everything bar farming! Jees!!!

It does cooking, gardening and other off farm activities. When ever I sit down to look at Ear to the Ground all I want to look at is Farming Activities like Sheep,Arable, Beef and Dairy, Pig and even goat farming but it doesn't give enough time on such production systems.

If they did a program dedicated to regular farming activities they'd be plagued by people telling them thats not the right way / they do it a different way/ they don't know what they are doing etc. Hurlers on the ditch syndrome. Thats why they are restricted to speciality farming and can't focus too much on mainstream farming. There was a thread on this forum recently that condemned someone in the journal for having the tags on backwards in a staged photo :rolleyes: It wouldn't be worth the hassle they 'd receive to get in to main stream farming.

Edit: Just look at the Parish farm hand thread- A bit of initiative shown, try something different to find a new/niche market and all people can do is cut them down.

Arrow in the Knee

I wonder would TV3 be capable of doing a weekly farm programme?

Last year they had a programme 'Year in the Life' of farmers which focused on Sheep, beef, a large dairy farm and other farming activities.

TV3 could exploit Ear to the Grounds weakness.

I don't believe I have seen even a Farmers Journal ad on the telly when ETTG is on! While they have an ad on Rare Breed on UTV.

flatout11

the chances of rte airing something useful (well except the news) are limited, te year in the land was interesting albeit simple but sure if you removed adam from countryfile it aint much addition either

stanflt

next weeks piece from new zealand looks good- great country for bike cycling:)

whelan1

stanflt wrote: »

next weeks piece from new zealand looks good- great country for bike cycling:)

yup, saw that clip at the end, he's looking well:D

irishh_bob

stanflt wrote: »

next weeks piece from new zealand looks good- great country for bike cycling:)

i take it you,ve been to NZ

whelan1

stan flt's brother is on the programme next week

Arrow in the Knee

Yeep if Adam wasn't on it I wouldn't watch it either.

Usually on Countryfile their walking from one place to another looking into a river, standing beside a tree yapping about how old it is.

whelan1

very interesting programme this week

6480

whelan1 wrote: »

very interesting programme this week

was the feature on dairy farming in nz any good
i missed it had 3 cows calved and was late in , all my parents said is that they farm cruely in nz and it all about milk

oooge1

i found it very interesting ....seems like lots of opportunities for farmers starting off..

InchicoreDude

was the feature on dairy farming in nz any good
i missed it had 3 cows calved and was late in , all my parents said is that they farm cruely in nz and it all about milk

Its usually up on the RTE Player so you should be able to catch it there

irishh_bob

whelan1 wrote: »

very interesting programme this week

new zealanders are a very ruthless people in comparison to us irish , killing calves in order to get the cow milking along with her colleagues on time is part of the course , its all about dollars and cents in new zealand

6480

irishh_bob wrote: »

new zealanders are a very ruthless people in comparison to us irish , killing calves in order to get the cow milking along with her colleagues on time is part of the course , its all about dollars and cents in new zealand

at least irish farmers treat their animals with respect ,i remember talking to an american last june on a trip to cailaforna (he was a sales rep for john deere) and he was on about the way we can grow grass in this country and let our stock out freely to graze and that they are not indoors ie feedlots being fed on grains and that irish farming is organic , my mother said they dont feed the cows that well when there dry in nz

starviewadams

I always end up watching this every week,find the farming stuff quite interesting like last weeks show about the reposessions,and the lady who was doing goat farming a few weeks back,but even I (a city boy!) can't understand why they bother putting stuff like that healthy eating class thing in Limerick last week on the show though.

I also quite like that short haired brunette presenter too!

lab man

aah, ella

Sam Kade

whelan1 wrote: »

very interesting programme this week

It sure was Then they tell us what they have coming up next week, a butcher, some randy 80 year old living with a 40 year Korean mail order bride :rolleyes: and Alzheimer's disease. Lots of farming information there :mad:

Outkast_IRE

Well in fairness they did say that there is a ban coming into place in NZ in 2015 on the farmer inducing the cow in order to line up milking times correctly.

But wasnt it a fair point about how the EU subsidies artificially prop up some areas where really there is no point was it the young male calves that were being put to slaughter withing a day or two of birth.

irishh_bob

6480 wrote: »

at least irish farmers treat their animals with respect ,i remember talking to an american last june on a trip to cailaforna (he was a sales rep for john deere) and he was on about the way we can grow grass in this country and let our stock out freely to graze and that they are not indoors ie feedlots being fed on grains and that irish farming is organic , my mother said they dont feed the cows that well when there dry in nz

california wouldnt have the right climate for growing grass , dairy farmers are good in thier own way over there though

Dazzler88

Very interesting show tonight.Seems to be a lot easier for young people to get into farming.That Irish lad is only there 2 years and he is managing a 600 cow herd.
I was also amazed at the cheap land,the fella in the helicopter said dairy land at $5000 an acre,which is €3000,you wouldn't buy water and rushes for that here.Land is still way overpriced in this country IMO.

6480

Dazzler88 wrote: »

Very interesting show tonight.Seems to be a lot easier for young people to get into farming.That Irish lad is only there 2 years and he is managing a 600 cow herd.
I was also amazed at the cheap land,the fella in the helicopter said dairy land at $5000 an acre,which is €3000,you wouldn't buy water and rushes for that here.Land is still way overpriced in this country IMO.

agree with u there about the price of land here , and a smallish farmer here wouldn have a change of buying a piece of land here either at least in nz you could get into dairy farming a bit easier than here

keep going

For what it is worth i think the most important difference between here and nz is attitude.Too many people here moan and bitch about the problems here instead of just dealing with them and get on with it.We wont have the same industry as nz but we also have huge advantages internationally. yes we will use some techniques from nz but we will only build them into our systems not transpose theirs.Land ownership is not a priority but getting land into the hands of people that can use it is crucial.Current eu schemes are not helping this.Any time i travel up the country i see so much land being wasted its frightening.and i dont mean all dairying.Anyway rant over, dont see you heading over anytime soon stan or your cows either:D and yer man guiney seems to have brought a bit of the machinery bug with him from here

pakalasa

Milk Quotos came into Ireland and effectively brought the development of the Industry to a halt. It will be interesting to see what happens when they do go.

Tipp Man

Didn't see the programme, will watch it sunday

did they happen to mention the huge debt burdens that a lot of NZ farmers are under?

Also I see somebody above mentioned land prices at NZ$ 5,000 per acre. I have been doing a bit of looking from afar over the last few years and you would be very hard pushed to find any dairy farm under NZ$ 10,000 per acre from what i can see - and some is making a lot more than that

for example 279 acres dairy farm for $5m (€ 3.2m)

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/ML2799/2150B-State-Highway-27

This 207 acre dairy farm for $3.2m (€2m+)

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/KK2665/139-Matauri-Bay-Road


This 568 acre non dairy farm is €4.5m (€2.9m) and would need a fair bit of work to change it to a dairy farm

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/KK2859/Ohaeawai-7135-State-Highway-1

An ideal first dairy according to the blurb, if you have NZ$ 3.9m (EUR 2.5m) lying around that is

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/IV9647/Gore-183-Chittock-Road

I wonder if the far away hills are always greener??

whelan1

Tipp Man wrote: »

Didn't see the programme, will watch it sunday

did they happen to mention the huge debt burdens that a lot of NZ farmers are under?

Also I see somebody above mentioned land prices at NZ$ 5,000 per acre. I have been doing a bit of looking from afar over the last few years and you would be very hard pushed to find any dairy farm under NZ$ 10,000 per acre from what i can see - and some is making a lot more than that

for example 279 acres dairy farm for $5m (€ 3.2m)

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/ML2799/2150B-State-Highway-27

This 207 acre dairy farm for $3.2m (€2m+)

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/KK2665/139-Matauri-Bay-Road


This 568 acre non dairy farm is €4.5m (€2.9m) and would need a fair bit of work to change it to a dairy farm

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/KK2859/Ohaeawai-7135-State-Highway-1

An ideal first dairy according to the blurb, if you have NZ$ 3.9m (EUR 2.5m) lying around that is

http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/View/IV9647/Gore-183-Chittock-Road

I wonder if the far away hills are always greener??

there was alot of mention of debt burden, thats where they where saying that dry cows go hungry , every cent is accounted for.... it all looked great... liked the idea of paddocks in a spider web style beside the parlour... wonder did leonie have much money going over?

leg wax

the one thing i took from the program was you work the **** out of yourself in your younger days, ease off around 40 and sell up at 60.now i could be wrong but thats the way it looks to me,so the farm has no parents to look after no children looking for their share of the farm out of the will,ireland has a long way to go,and i will say it again dairy farmers will be in for a hard time when quotas go,they sometimes forget quotas are going all over europe where is all the milk going to find a new home,if the price comes under pressure the nz dairys are in a better position to get thru the hard times.the first thing to help everone is get rid of all supports from the eu,every year on boards its the same thing lads anyone get the sfp yet need it to pay a few bills its crazy,sorry if i upset anyone but its just facts,get rid of payments and farmers will soon get rid of attachment to land and then ireland can move forward,rant over.

whelan1

just asked my dad- couldnt hear all the programme as kids driving me mad:rolleyes:- 10 years ago land was $400 an acre, now its around 5k but you have to irrigate it hth

Tipp Man

leg wax wrote: »

the one thing i took from the program was you work the **** out of yourself in your younger days, ease off around 40 and sell up at 60.now i could be wrong but thats the way it looks to me,so the farm has no parents to look after no children looking for their share of the farm out of the will,ireland has a long way to go,and i will say it again dairy farmers will be in for a hard time when quotas go,they sometimes forget quotas are going all over europe where is all the milk going to find a new home,if the price comes under pressure the nz dairys are in a better position to get thru the hard times.the first thing to help everone is get rid of all supports from the eu,every year on boards its the same thing lads anyone get the sfp yet need it to pay a few bills its crazy,sorry if i upset anyone but its just facts,get rid of payments and farmers will soon get rid of attachment to land and then ireland can move forward,rant over.

Some good points but a couple of things to remember

1: when milk prices fall across Europe then Irish farmers should be in a better position than most other countries in europe to deal with it. Ireland is the cheapest (or second??) cheapest producer of milk in the EU and is predominantly grass based so there should be farmers going bust in Europe before Irish ones go

2. the rate of land turnover is a major problem. I was able to pick out 4 or 5 large farms from 1 auctioneers website in NZ in less than 5 mins. If you took the whole of Ireland and spent a month searching you couldn't find 5 farms of similar size for sale

3. the return of people to the "land" is going to be a significant downside factor. How many threads have been on here in the last year with fellas saying the land is rented out and they want to take it back? I think there are 2 on the front page alone this morning. This is reducing the capabilities of full time farmers by reducing their area

4. lads renting out land are making too much money. If you have an average wage of 35k and 80 acres rented out at 150 an acre that's an additional 12k. that 12k could pay a very large mortgage and leave the entire wage for living. It is so hard for farmers to compete with this. Ideally a lot of this land would be sold which would increase the circulation of land in the country - but that just won't happen as it is too cushy for fellas with a job and land rented out

5. It is easy to say get rid of all supports but it is clear that supports are going to continue in the medium term - you would have to imagine that they will continue until 2030 at least (not withstanding a collapse of EU but that is probably unlikely). So they are going nowhere so we have to work around them

PMU

great programme. the Guineys have done a fine job in 12 years. they have concentrated on the buisness end of things first, and the farm second. everyone there talks about lifestyle and the economies of scale,no one man operations where labour cannot be afforded.

leg wax

good points tipp man but ireland maybe cheapest for grass,but for money and banks it will not, and they will pull the support under farms in the hard times,thats where i see the trouble ahead.

irishh_bob

Dazzler88 wrote: »

Very interesting show tonight.Seems to be a lot easier for young people to get into farming.That Irish lad is only there 2 years and he is managing a 600 cow herd.
I was also amazed at the cheap land,the fella in the helicopter said dairy land at $5000 an acre,which is €3000,you wouldn't buy water and rushes for that here.Land is still way overpriced in this country IMO.

kiwis dont hava the connection to land that irish farmers do , it would not be unusual for a farmer in new zealand to spend ten years farming in one place and then up sticks and relocate to another part of the country , have you ever heard of someone from donegal selling thier farm and moving to limerick , would be the talk of the country and the farmer would be scandalised for selling the homestead

kiwi farmers have not a sentimental bone on thier body but its a much bigger country with a small population so land is going to be cheaper anyway

irishh_bob

whelan1 wrote: »

just asked my dad- couldnt hear all the programme as kids driving me mad:rolleyes:- 10 years ago land was $400 an acre, now its around 5k but you have to irrigate it hth

the land where leonie foster and her irish husband are is in canterbury , very little rain falls there and you need irrigation but nz is very diverse in terms of climate and landscape , they get plenty of rain in southland which has seen the most change in recent years when it comes to dairying , they also dont need irrigation in most of the north island - most of the time

raindodger

watched the program last night leonie foster said it was only possible to run 600cows on the one farm.
Was wondering what it would cost to get a set up like this up and running here[ignoring any cost for quota]
You would have higher land values and also winter housing while alll they had was a milking shed.
Started to do the figures in my head and the sums seem massive

irishh_bob

raindodger wrote: »

watched the program last night leonie foster said it was only possible to run 600cows on the one farm.
Was wondering what it would cost to get a set up like this up and running here[ignoring any cost for quota]
You would have higher land values and also winter housing while alll they had was a milking shed.
Started to do the figures in my head and the sums seem massive

maybe they dont own the land , you can buy a herd of cows and put them on someone elses land and you and the land owner share the profits down the middle , they call it share milking

keep going

maybe milk prices will fall legwax post 2015 but they are going to fall anyway sometime.all that is going to happen is that the eu will become a varible instead of a constant.imo the future of dairying is in family units around 100+cows depending on land blocks with low borrowings and little outside labour.if we are learning anything from killkenny and other places is it seems to be very difficult to repay large borrowings on paid labour.none of these places are paying rent that would buy them so i dont think we will see anyone investing in large blocks to start up dairying.sheelys in new ross has a father +2 sons involved and he is some operater to run their 500+ operation and some labour, and even then he is using wealth he built up previously to help finance it.

Tipp Man

keep going wrote: »

maybe milk prices will fall legwax post 2015 but they are going to fall anyway sometime.all that is going to happen is that the eu will become a varible instead of a constant.imo the future of dairying is in family units around 100+cows depending on land blocks with low borrowings and little outside labour.if we are learning anything from killkenny and other places is it seems to be very difficult to repay large borrowings on paid labour.none of these places are paying rent that would buy them so i dont think we will see anyone investing in large blocks to start up dairying.sheelys in new ross has a father +2 sons involved and he is some operater to run their 500+ operation and some labour, and even then he is using wealth he built up previously to help finance it.

I'd agree with this

I think 100 cows approx per family labour unit available. Have relatively small borrowings and fellas will be doing ok

Is sheely the guy who bought the Castle Annagh estate?