Farming Chitchat 10/10- Now VIRUS-FREE!

Genghis Cant

Story used do the rounds here.
A council employee , a bit of a character, used skive off work and do his business in the shops around town.
The ganger was getting fed up of him and followed him one day to the barbers.

He challenged him coming out of the barbers and warned him not to be getting his hair cut on council time.
The reply he got was ' shur didn't it grow on council time !'

Bass Reeves

Albert Johnson wrote: »

I'd have nearly zero experience of finishing stock tbh, almost everything locally is sold as either a weanling or store. That's some turnaround inside 18 months although you're working with different land to us. Still I'm interested in trying something different to suckler's for a myriad of reasons.

I think there will be a push over the next 2-3 years to encourage suckler farmers to move to dairy calf-store/beef. The question is what type of incentives will be put in place. Mine is a store to beef and I just got used to doing mainly friesian's. I find they leave as much as anything else.

Hard Knocks

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I think there will be a push over the next 2-3 years to encourage suckler farmers to move to dairy calf-store/beef. The question is what type of incentives will be put in place. Mine is a store to beef and I just got used to doing mainly friesian's. I find they leave as much as anything else.

Wasn’t it always the plan
Did you get the ICBF questionnaire?

Bass Reeves

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Wasn’t it always the plan
Did you get the ICBF questionnaire?

It's definitely being pushed along but there no incentives yet

Base price

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Wasn’t it always the plan
Did you get the ICBF questionnaire?

What is the ICBF questionnaire.
I think that there will be a push for more use of the traditional commercial beef breeds - proper Angus, Hereford and beef Shorthorn.

I see in the UK there is a big push for dairy farmers to use traditional breeds that produce marbled beef.

Hard Knocks

Base price wrote: »

What is the ICBF questionnaire.
I think that there will be a push for more use of the traditional commercial beef breeds - proper Angus, Hereford and beef Shorthorn.

I see in the UK there is a big push for dairy farmers to use traditional breeds that produce marbled beef.

There was a survey out earlier this week from ICBF asking opinions on dairy calves and if you do or would be willing to rear dairy calves
Think an option was the dairy farmers paid the beef farmers to rear the calves

Giving the genetics of dairy cows would the first cross with traditional breed be enough?

Keep Sluicing

Say my name wrote: »

You'd want to be careful there's not a bit of winding up going on.
Wind up the new guy on the government job with porkies and see how he reacts as such.

He's the new guy. I'm the longest one there on a crew of about 50. He's in through an agency, like most of the trades on site.

Albert Johnson

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I think there will be a push over the next 2-3 years to encourage suckler farmers to move to dairy calf-store/beef. The question is what type of incentives will be put in place. Mine is a store to beef and I just got used to doing mainly friesian's. I find they leave as much as anything else.

Your probably right as regards a move from suckling to dry stock. Most of the farms around here would have traditionally been small dairy farms with all progeny and usually some bought sucks being kept through to stores. I know a good few lads that have changed from suckling to a weanling to store setup and the workload is so much less. Granted there's no fortune out of it either but there's so much added work with suckler's compared to dry stock.

We wouldn't be in dairy country so most Friesian's I'd encounter would be either bought to replace a lost calf or dealer's stock from the south. I'm not that hung up on the color of what I keep but I don't think a dairy calf to forward store set-up would work given the current price of sucks compared to stores. Perhaps there might be a form of incentive introduced that would change the economics. I struggle to see how such cattle would be finished locally without going into a high cost system which would have marginal benefits over the current suckler system. It's the cost of wintering particularly with larger cattle for 6-7 months that really crucifies us here in the North West imo.

Albert Johnson

Hard Knocks wrote: »

There was a survey out earlier this week from ICBF asking opinions on dairy calves and if you do or would be willing to rear dairy calves
Think an option was the dairy farmers paid the beef farmers to rear the calves

Giving the genetics of dairy cows would the first cross with traditional breed be enough?

So contract rearing by another name perhaps? There beating that drum with a while but it's definitely not for everyone and it needs reasonable expectations and input from both sides to work.

There's such a wide spectrum of both dairy cows and traditional breed bulls that it's hard to answer that question. I personally doubt that the quality of most calves bred from such a cross would be anything more than very average and they would have fairly dismal beef or maternal traits. Yes you'll have outliers and exceptions to every rule but there's a serious lack of power and scope in a lot of dairy breeding that isn't being corrected with a lot of traditional type bulls.

It would require a serious change of mindset for all involved imo. First the dairy man would have to realize that simply producing a calf isn't enough to secure a worthwhile market and that said calf would have to have some merit as a beef animal. Secondly the man breeding the bull would have to accept that simply breeding for the lowest possible calving difficulty at the expense of all other traits wasn't sustainable. Finally the man rearing the beef cattle would have to look beyond breed snobbery and those "inferior dairy stock". Then and only then you could look towards improving your dairy beef stock with every generation. However while calves are regarded by the majority including the advisors to be a somewhat welcome byproduct of the system it will be impossible to gain any real traction for a change of mindset.

Good loser

Leaving an old friend's 'house' some years ago hung on the wall I noticed one of those metre long plastic yokes for putting bolus's into stomachs of cattle.
Only this one had a short lead at the handle end with a 3 pin plug; on looking closer a cable came out the delivery end with the wire exposed.
His problem was too many cats that he couldn't get rid of (or catch to get rid of). They would come to the door alright for milk.
I'll leave the rest to imagination.
It could be called 'The Final Solution".

Base price

Hard Knocks wrote: »

There was a survey out earlier this week from ICBF asking opinions on dairy calves and if you do or would be willing to rear dairy calves
Think an option was the dairy farmers paid the beef farmers to rear the calves

Giving the genetics of dairy cows would the first cross with traditional breed be enough?

If you exclude Jersey bloodlines and the use of super easy calving bulls that give colour rather than any type of growth rate/shape then they should.
Over the years we've bought in sucks, reared and finished them be them fr, hex, aax, shx, continental bred bulls and bullocks and did well enough with them. In the past few years we've notice the demise of the quality of dairy cross calves.
Realistically the export of dairy bull calves for veal to mainland Europe is on it's last legs - the EU has set up a committee to look into the live transport of livestock.

kollegeknight

Have the last 7acres of first cut knocked. Light crop but it’s a meadow that would be impossible to travel if the year got bad.

OH left for work at 06:15 so had to pick some ragworts out of it before she left. not a lot but enough to be picked out. Did about 2 hrs, if any neighbour saw me, I’d be locked up.

Had a bit of a leak in the tractor so sent it to be fixed, getting someone in to draw in the bales.

Hard Knocks

kollegeknight wrote: »

Have the last 7acres of first cut knocked. Light crop but it’s a meadow that would be impossible to travel if the year got bad.

OH left for work at 06:15 so had to pick some ragworts out of it before she left. not a lot but enough to be picked out. Did about 2 hrs, if any neighbour saw me, I’d be locked up.

Had a bit of a leak in the tractor so sent it to be fixed, getting someone in to draw in the bales.

Due to family commitment I’ve got the bales stacked on the outfarm for the last 3 years
The OH has paid for it and says it’s the best money spent
Family life is more important than profit monitors

Keep Sluicing

Knocked a third of the 2nd cut yesterday afternoon. Baling this afternoon. A smash and grab affair.

Albert Johnson

The CVRT is out on my jeep on the 08/07 so I rang my local test centre this morning and I'm told that it has been extended by 3 months to the 08/10. Of course I forgot to ask the lad on the phone but I'm assuming that when it's tested the cert will be back dated to the 08/07. Am I right in thinking I'll essentially only get a cert valid to nearer 9 months as opposed to the usual 12 when it is eventually tested?

Panch18

Are NCT centres open again?

Mine is out since mid March as was due just around the time they closed

Danzy

September think

kollegeknight

Ended up with 66 bales so about 17 short for whole year.lad that’s gathering them is able take 3 at a time. Great set up.

Kevhog1988

kollegeknight wrote: »

Ended up with 66 bales so about 17 short for whole year.lad that’s gathering them is able take 3 at a time. Great set up.

Double bale lifter on back and one on front loader?

SouthWesterly

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Story used do the rounds here.
A council employee , a bit of a character, used skive off work and do his business in the shops around town.
The ganger was getting fed up of him and followed him one day to the barbers.

He challenged him coming out of the barbers and warned him not to be getting his hair cut on council time.
The reply he got was ' shur didn't it grow on council time !'

Bit like the new army recruit who asked his sergeant if he could grow a moustache. He was told he could but not on the sergeants time.. True story:)

kollegeknight

Kevhog1988 wrote: »

Double bale lifter on back and one on front loader?

Exactly that.

Water John

In the British Army in the 19thC you had to have a moustache.
Was hauling in bales for relative with a Case. Two green bales on the back and she was groaning lifting them.

whelan2

Panch18 wrote: »

Are NCT centres open again?

Mine is out since mid March as was due just around the time they closed

Everyone got a 4 month extension

Hard Knocks

Kevhog1988 wrote: »

Double bale lifter on back and one on front loader?

Anyone see the attachment to bring 4 on the back & 1 in front
Looks good but some weight behind

Birdnuts

Water John wrote: »

In the British Army in the 19thC you had to have a moustache.
Was hauling in bales for relative with a Case. Two green bales on the back and she was groaning lifting them.

Seemed to be the case in the Irish Army during the 70's and 80's going by pictures of my Uncles in various regiments at the time

Danzy

Birdnuts wrote: »

Seemed to be the case in the Irish Army during the 70's and 80's going by pictures of my Uncles in various regiments at the time

A bare faced liar.

Ie a lower ranked soldier, no moustache.

zetecescort

are the Liverpool fans popping the champagne yet?

whelan2

zetecescort wrote: »

are the Liverpool fans popping the champagne yet?

Up the walls here , fingers crossed

carrollsno1

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Anyone see the attachment to bring 4 on the back & 1 in front
Looks good but some weight behind

Put two bales on a double handler together drop em off drop another on top stick another on the loader back into the 3 and thats 4 in one go if the tractor can handle it

whelan2

zetecescort wrote: »

are the Liverpool fans popping the champagne yet?

I think I'll be deaf from all the screaming. Youngest lad had his school graduation on zoom tonight and let out a big scream when Chelsea scored the first goal