Farming Chitchat 10/10- Now VIRUS-FREE!

ganmo

_Brian wrote: »

Well I suppose at least on a wet dreary day theres paperwork to cheer us up

Sheep are in here to be shorn

_Brian

ganmo wrote: »

Sheep are in here to be shorn

:eek::(

_Brian

When the rain passed I thought I’d try and get something done.

https://ibb.co/N7PNpdS

One field has exploded out of nowhere with these blastards of ragworth. I pulled maybe a fertiliser bag of it last year. I’d say I’ll have three or four more of it this year.

kk.man

_Brian wrote: »

When the rain passed I thought I’d try and get something done.

https://ibb.co/N7PNpdS

One field has exploded out of nowhere with these blastards of ragworth. I pulled maybe a fertiliser bag of it last year. I’d say I’ll have three or four more of it this year.

Get a few sheep

Suckler

I'm on the hunt for a decent pressure washer, petrol one this time. What sort of PSI would you want for general shed/yard/machinery cleaning. Don't want to shell out a few hundred on something under powered when a few quid more would get me the right power.

Castlekeeper

KatyMac wrote: »

Spent day topping. Getting on great but when parking up for the night discovered one of the skids has parted company with the topper. It's raining now so guess what I will spend tomorrow doing?

Just top it again, it'll find its own missing part, you'll hear it call out...

ruwithme

kk.man wrote: »

Get a few sheep

I had sheep on a couple of glas parcels earlier this spring. they grazed it good and tight. still have some ragwort.

maybe it take a couple of years to eradicate ragwort even with sheep??

straight

Suckler wrote: »

I'm on the hunt for a decent pressure washer, petrol one this time. What sort of PSI would you want for general shed/yard/machinery cleaning. Don't want to shell out a few hundred on something under powered when a few quid more would get me the right power.

Can't beat the tractor washer I'd say.

_Brian

kk.man wrote: »

Get a few sheep

Computer says NO !

_Brian

Girls have been back seeing a few friends again, not loads but a few. Swimming amd watching few movies.

Eldest was due to have few friends over tomorrow evening to see movie. She said one had spent yesterday in Belfast round the shops and a shopping centre.

Once I heard that we put a stop to the visit. Leave it off for a week at least just in case.

Say my name

_Brian wrote: »

Computer says NO !

Just seeing the calves thrive here after they've moved into a paddock that had a pony in it for a month before the grass was let up again.
It's got me thinking we've really gone down a pothole ridden road by farms just having one species grazing and the worm burdens taking advantage of it as a result.
Then of course the parasite dose companies profit but soil health suffers.
Maybe the rain has me soft but I'm beginning to think the ideal farm has to have two different species of grazier.
Maybe a dairy farm should be milking cows and sheep on the one farm. With each species grazing the paddocks in turn to benefit the land and the sheep and cows.

_Brian

Say my name wrote: »

Just seeing the calves thrive here after they've moved into a paddock that had a pony in it for a month before the grass was let up again.
It's got me thinking we've really gone down a pothole ridden road by farms just having one species grazing and the worm burdens taking advantage of it as a result.
Then of course the parasite dose companies profit but soil health suffers.
Many the rain has me soft but I'm beginning to think the ideal farm has to have two different species of grazier.
Maybe a dairy farm should be milking cows and sheep on the one farm. With each species grazing the paddocks in turn to benefit the land and the sheep and cows.

I suppose that comes back to the point that nature abhors monoculture. It’s unnatural. The places you see high fertility and thrive are alive with a myriad of plant and animal species.
Farms need to relearn that message.

Multi species grazing covers feed the soil biology rather than monoculture pasture starving it.

I fully expect having more different animals around likewise boosts the ecology of a farm, more diverse bacteria and fungi in soils again builds fertility and health.

Building back ecology, biodiversity and soil health is where farming needs to be moving. It benifets soil, animals and farmers.

Say my name

_Brian wrote: »

I suppose that comes back to the point that nature abhors monoculture. It’s unnatural. The places you see high fertility and thrive are alive with a myriad of plant and animal species.
Farms need to relearn that message.

Multi species grazing covers feed the soil biology rather than monoculture pasture starving it.

I fully expect having more different animals around likewise boosts the ecology of a farm, more diverse bacteria and fungi in soils again builds fertility and health.

Building back ecology, biodiversity and soil health is where farming needs to be moving. It benifets soil, animals and farmers.

If wormers were completely banned tomorrow there'd have to be a rethink on one species grazing on farms.
All this specialist one thing farming of the past twenty years really doesn't benefit much.

I was clearing up a corner of a field today where no fertilizer (or spray) would have ever been spread. It was black carbon rich soil. Like coal dust.
I'm beginning to think the "experts" who say bag nitrogen and phosphorus harms the soil ecology and carbon fixation process may be correct.

Say my name

I see a thread named Charcoal in the food forum on the new posts page that greets me here on boards when i first come on this site.

I've simple tastes so yeah I click into it to find they're all knocking lumps out of each other.
The jersey -freisian debate is like a jousting match with feather dusters compared to this.

Water John

Certainly the knowledge in the 1970s was that, you could carry some sheep for free on cow grazing ground. It would have been fairly mainstream advice. Would have been articles in the IFJ on it. Can't remember the stocking. It got lost in the ongoing rush to monoculture and mono enterprise.

Neddyusa

Say my name wrote: »

Just seeing the calves thrive here after they've moved into a paddock that had a pony in it for a month before the grass was let up again.
It's got me thinking we've really gone down a pothole ridden road by farms just having one species grazing and the worm burdens taking advantage of it as a result.
Then of course the parasite dose companies profit but soil health suffers.
Maybe the rain has me soft but I'm beginning to think the ideal farm has to have two different species of grazier.
Maybe a dairy farm should be milking cows and sheep on the one farm. With each species grazing the paddocks in turn to benefit the land and the sheep and cows.

Yep.
I've always maintained that the real smart cow farmer has a nice flock of white lads to clean up...

Seriously though - much of the mixed grazing research was done in the 70s and 80s in Athenry and the typical figure was that you could carry 10-15% extra stocking rate with no extra inputs.
Time is the main input with sheep of course - but the smart cow man always has plenty of home-grown help too though!

Suckler

Say my name wrote: »

I see a thread named Charcoal in the food forum on the new posts page that greets me here on boards when i first come on this site.

I've simple tastes so yeah I click into it to find they're all knocking lumps out of each other.
.

They'd give the dairy threads a run for their money. The differences between cooking on charcoal(lumpwood or briquette is another issue)/gas/Kamado bbq's is more complicated than the North. GFA looks like a cake walk in comparison.

orm0nd

Water John wrote: »

Certainly the knowledge in the 1970s was that, you could carry some sheep for free on cow grazing ground. It would have been fairly mainstream advice. Would have been articles in the IFJ on it. Can't remember the stocking. It got lost in the ongoing rush to monoculture and mono enterprise.

They reckoned you could carry 1 ewe for every cow with no additional cost.
We're still carrying a fairly large sheep flock along with the dairy herd.

The benefits (besides financial) are huge, but it can get quite labour demanding at times.

Dinzee Conlee

Looking at getting a hedge trimmer, mainly for briars than hedges...

Anyone got anything good or bad to say about echo?

Looking at the one in link below

https://www.echo-tools.co.uk/products/hedge-trimmers/hca-2620es-hd/

Bass Reeves

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Looking at getting a hedge trimmer, mainly for briars than hedges...

Anyone got anything good or bad to say about echo?

Looking at the one in link below

https://www.echo-tools.co.uk/products/hedge-trimmers/hca-2620es-hd/

I use an ordinary hedge cutter similar to below
https://www.echo-tools.co.uk/products/hedge-trimmers/hc-2020/

I presume this is just for tidying up around gates and gaps. They are a bit cheaper and easier to use. While the long reach of pole saw type hedge cutter is important it is a bit unwieldy

patsy_mccabe

You can now pay your Dairygold account online with a Mastercard credit card. Might be of use to someone.
Could only use Visa up to recently.

greysides

Say my name wrote: »

Just seeing the calves thrive here after they've moved into a paddock that had a pony in it for a month before the grass was let up again.
It's got me thinking we've really gone down a pothole ridden road by farms just having one species grazing and the worm burdens taking advantage of it as a result.
Then of course the parasite dose companies profit but soil health suffers.
Maybe the rain has me soft but I'm beginning to think the ideal farm has to have two different species of grazier.
Maybe a dairy farm should be milking cows and sheep on the one farm. With each species grazing the paddocks in turn to benefit the land and the sheep and cows.

A while ago Teagasc did a trial called Controlled Mixed Grazing. Sheep and cattle in a certain ratio. Worked well. Was a run of what happens in mixed farms anyway but with more management.
Sheep and Dairy just doesn't mix practically, it was tried 30+ years ago when sheep prices were good and dairy farms selling continental X calves wanted a taste of that too. It was a short experiment! Experts at the time said if you spent the time sheep took better managing the dairy herd there would be much bigger returns.

Edit: I think other lads beat me to it.

Hard Knocks

orm0nd wrote: »

They reckoned you could carry 1 ewe for every cow with no additional cost.
We're still carrying a fairly large sheep flock along with the dairy herd.

The benefits (besides financial) are huge, but it can get quite labour demanding at times.

Let’s just keep that to ourselves, or the OH will be looking for the freezer stocked with lamb more often & for free

Wildsurfer

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

You can now pay your Dairygold account online with a Mastercard credit card. Might be of use to someone.
Could only use Visa up to recently.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to be paying off your co-op account with any sort of credit card.

patsy_mccabe

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to be paying off your co-op account with any sort of credit card.

Why? I've a credit card for over 20 years and never paid a cent in interest.

Say my name

Some witch hunt going on against Barry Cowen.

RTE and the other eegits reacting to this should be ashamed of themselves.

Are we now going to see Michael Martin's golden girl Pippa Hackett promoted to overall Minister for Agriculture?

orm0nd

greysides wrote: »

A while ago Teagasc did a trial called Controlled Mixed Grazing. Sheep and cattle in a certain ratio. Worked well. Was a run of what happens in mixed farms anyway but with more management.
Sheep and Dairy just doesn't mix practically, it was tried 30+ years ago when sheep prices were good and dairy farms selling continental X calves wanted a taste of that too. It was a short experiment! Experts at the time said if you spent the time sheep took better managing the dairy herd there would be much bigger returns.

Edit: I think other lads beat me to it.

Pallaskerny College done trials in the 1980s after quotas were introduced. I was there at an open day in 85. Every place was burned in the drought. Teagasc were rambling out figures for the profit it was turning. Not one word of the thousands that was spent on the additional fencing, or for labour. (nothing new there)

orm0nd

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to be paying off your co-op account with any sort of credit card.

Disagree totally. I paid high overdraft rates and loan rates for over 20 years.

Pay every available bill I can now by credit card giving an extra 6 weeks interest free from the bank.

I don't need this arrangement now (thankfully) but I'm getting something back from the feckers. And a bit of satisfaction doing so.

ganmo

orm0nd wrote: »

Disagree totally. I paid high overdraft rates and loan rates for over 20 years.

Pay every available bill I can now by credit card giving an extra 6 weeks interest free from the bank.

I don't need this arrangement now (thankfully) but I'm getting something back from the feckers. And a bit of satisfaction doing so.

Get 30 days free credit on the back of dairy gold, 30 days on the back of Mastercard. If ya have to it's not a bad option.

I hate having to use credit but it's a nessecity is some cases

Wildsurfer

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Why? I've a credit card for over 20 years and never paid a cent in interest.

But all your doing is delaying having to pay a month, what difference does it make then? Your co-op sales rep will give you that if you look for it without the danger of slipping into paying exorbitant interest rates. Watch any money advice program and the first piece of advice is get a scissors to the credit card.