This Farming Life back on BBC

stantheman1979

It's 8 sheep a minute!!! Hardly Guinness world record standard lol

Bullocks

stantheman1979 wrote: »

It's 8 sheep a minute!!! Hardly Guinness world record standard lol

Ya I'd say with a good set up and good dosing gun it would no bother and the wife was keeping them pushed up to him .

Attie

This Farming Life BBC 2 tonight bit about milk fever.

flutered

i cannot see it on $lys listings

Lady Haywire

Attie wrote: »

This Farming Life BBC 2 tonight bit about milk fever.

Was that not on last week where the chap lost a cow to it? Blamed a change of feed as he got a heap of cows with it all of a sudden.

Attie

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Attie wrote: »

This Farming Life BBC 2 tonight bit about milk fever.

Was that not on last week where the chap lost a cow to it? Blamed a change of feed as he got a heap of cows with it all of a sudden.

Sorry Lady for not getting back to you fall asleep, you are right but I missed last week's.

Lady Haywire

Attie wrote: »

Sorry Lady for not getting back to you fall asleep, you are right but I missed last week's.

Think it was on every evening last week! I certainly watched it most days, was very good. Watching the auld fella getting the cameraman to help calve the highland was pretty interesting tv!

Muckit

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Think it was on every evening last week! I certainly watched it most days, was very good. Watching the auld fella getting the cameraman to help calve the highland was pretty interesting tv!

I thought he was going to calf himself! They're both gone too old for that sort of craic.

MollsGap

Great show. Bet the Auld fella needed  some Biomoxil after that exertion!

Lady Haywire

Muckit wrote: »

I thought he was going to calf himself! They're both gone too old for that sort of craic.

Aren't his kids working abroad or something? I'd feel far too guilty working abroad if I knew my elderly parents were working on a farm alone.

MollsGap

Clever kids making a run for it by the looks of things.
The guy should be sitting inside sipping a hot whiskey instead of doing the work he is doing.
But that's just his generation... never stopping

sea12

MollsGap wrote: »

Clever kids making a run for it by the looks of things.
The guy should be sitting inside sipping a hot whiskey instead of doing the work he is doing.
But that's just his generation... never stopping

He is a grumpy bollox though. Wouldn't like working for him. Agree they should be retired or taking it easy. Seem them tag calves last week. Only a matter of time before one of them get hurt. And she is sick too I think.

Bullocks

sea12 wrote: »

He is a grumpy bollox though. Wouldn't like working for him. Agree they should be retired or taking it easy. Seem them tag calves last week. Only a matter of time before one of them get hurt. And she is sick too I think.

She was lucky not to get a kick in the puss when they were tagging the calf on his back .
The old boy looks grumpy alright , are they really making a living from them few cows and sheep though ? It said he would be hoping for £500 when he sold a calf next year , that's not much use and every time I see him going to the cows he has a bucket of nuts with him !

liam7831

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

adam14

liam7831 wrote:

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

Like most of us!

adam14

liam7831 wrote:

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

Like most of us!

adam14

liam7831 wrote:

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

Like most of us!

adam14

liam7831 wrote:

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

Like most of us!

Bullocks

liam7831 wrote: »

They are both musicians just doing the farming for the love of it not for the money

This farmer hasn't a note in his head haha

Dickie10

what do u lads make of the usual story from British farming programmes of dairy farmers going out of business because theres no money in it and some converting back to beef?

Dickie10

where does that line come from?

Jonny303

A few episodes behind, Janet and Alaistair, the young ones with all the dogs. They were using an EID reader than went straight through to a tablet for recording info. Any idea what software this was, looked nice and simple.

solerina

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Aren't his kids working abroad or something? I'd feel far too guilty working abroad if I knew my elderly parents were working on a farm alone.

Are this the pair that have two daughters, one a musician, both living in London ?? Wife has Parkinson's. The man there used to be a professional musician himself before he retired to the croft.

Water John

We rear our young, to fly the nest, if they choose.
Their really isn't a living there for the next generation.

Lady Haywire

solerina wrote: »

Are this the pair that have two daughters, one a musician, both living in London ?? Wife has Parkinson's. The man there used to be a professional musician himself before he retired to the croft.

That's them. Thought they were abroad but sure London is just as far from the farm as abroad I reckon! The wife having Parkinson's hit home with me, Dad does the same, tries to keep his mind and himself active.

AntrimGlens

Jonny303 wrote: »

A few episodes behind, Janet and Alaistair, the young ones with all the dogs. They were using an EID reader than went straight through to a tablet for recording info. Any idea what software this was, looked nice and simple.

I dunno what software or reader it was but i know this. If they're complaining about being really hard up for money and scraping a living do the following.

1. Get rid of at least five of the sheepdogs - they'll not be cheap to feed. If you have 600 acres and 120 or so ewes, you have little need to use eight sheepdogs to gather a few sheep.

2. Change your breed of sheep, why bother with shetlands, soays and whatever other mongrel breed of ewe they were running.

3. Start with a flock of blackies and they'll be every bit as productive as those other 'native' breeds. The wether lambs will sell as well as he was getting on with his half suffolk crosses or whatever he was selling in one of the first programmes. Ewe lambs will be used as replacements to build up the flock or sell as good priced breeding ewe lambs.

4. If marking a sheep with spray paint to determine which ram it is being mated to, try to avoid the rump area and use anywhere on the other 90% of the fleece. This is the area that the raddle you applied to the ram shall mark. If you spray the rump of the sheep green and you apply green raddle to Eoin the ram, how the fook can you tell if the ewe has been served or not.

5. Don't buy a kubota or whatever make utility vehicle, a quad will do you fine.
You have a new hilux supplied by one of the deer estates, so it would suffice i imagine.

6. Don't buy a sheep wand and software at a cost of nearly a thousand pound. Refer to point 2. You will be lucky to have a lambing percentage of 100% off the 'native' sheep, so its not like you need to record how prolific the flock is. Any improvement in ewe fertility and lambing percentage, or lambs weaned would easily be identified without the need to electronically record it.
Also Refer to Point 1. You have 120 or so ewes, so between the two of you, you should easily be able to see which ewes need assistance at lambing or have little milk etc, without the expense of a wand. It's not like you're going to be recording for birth weights, dlwg, or for foot problems, or prolapses. these are wild breeds which you'll likely never have your hand on at lambing, so won't be able to ascertain this information. Buy a pencil and waterproof notebook.

7) Don't throw the cobs for the deer in through a cairn of stones when feeding them. I know you probably aren't paying for the feed, but its not much use lying at the bottom of a pile of rocks where the only thing that could eat it is a ferret.

Probably best if i never appear on tv demonstrating my farming practices. I thought it was only my father who was usually the one shouting at the tv years ago if there was a farming programme on and i used to laugh at him getting worked up about folk he never met or likely to meet.

Muckit

You've given this a bit of thought!

AntrimGlens

Muckit wrote: »

You've given this a bit of thought!

Its raining outside still Muckit and i'm not in a good mood with 3 tanks of slurry stirred waiting to go out and nothing to do but watch farmers on tv. :mad:

wiggy123

agree antrimglens, then again-the land is poor--hilly.. so hardly take to many more sheep/cattle

Attie

On at the moment if anyone interested.