Farming Chitchat 10/10- Now VIRUS-FREE!

Lime Tree Farm

One of the workers in the store lost his hubcap and asked the lads in the garage was there any hope of finding a replacement. They said leave it with us. He called back in the evening, delighted that they had sourced an exact match for him. He asked how much, nothing , no charge, they were glad to oblige. He was delighted. On arrival home, he discovered that they had moved his hub cap from the passenger side onto the driver’s side. He saw the funny side of the joke.

foxy farmer

My father worked for a large building & civil engineering firm. They had a large yard outside Cork and there was a handful of staff working there fulltime. Fitters welders forklift drivers etc.
There was one lad there and after lunch in the canteen every day would take out a bar of chocolate and eat it. They could be playing cards or talking and hed be munging away. Hed never offer them a bit and it used to get on their goat.
Anyway on few occasions someone raided his lunchbox and the chocolate was taken. Yer man got the message and the next day kept the bar out of the lunchbox. After dinner they said they would have a game of cards. Some bucko made a comment about yer man having no chocolate.
Next thing he pulls a bar out of his coat pocket opens it breaks it in pieces. Help yourselves he says. 4 lads swoop in and clear the lot. On with the card game. After a bit one lad gets up goes out saying nothing and after a few mins another gets up and out.
Next the other 2 get up together and they nearly get wedged trying to get out the door together. Both seen making a run for the Jacks. The first 2 boys had both stalls taken. Out they came and off down behind containers to do some urgent load shedding. Yer man had given them Exlax chocolate and it worked like it should. They never asked for chocolate at lunch again.

Reggie.

foxy farmer wrote: »

My father worked for a large building & civil engineering firm. They had a large yard outside Cork and there was a handful of staff working there fulltime. Fitters welders forklift drivers etc.
There was one lad there and after lunch in the canteen every day would take out a bar of chocolate and eat it. They could be playing cards or talking and hed be munging away. Hed never offer them a bit and it used to get on their goat.
Anyway on few occasions someone raided his lunchbox and the chocolate was taken. Yer man got the message and the next day kept the bar out of the lunchbox. After dinner they said they would have a game of cards. Some bucko made a comment about yer man having no chocolate.
Next thing he pulls a bar out of his coat pocket opens it breaks it in pieces. Help yourselves he says. 4 lads swoop in and clear the lot. On with the card game. After a bit one lad gets up goes out saying nothing and after a few mins another gets up and out.
Next the other 2 get up together and they nearly get wedged trying to get out the door together. Both seen making a run for the Jacks. The first 2 boys had both stalls taken. Out they came and off down behind containers to do some urgent load shedding. Yer man had given them Exlax chocolate and it worked like it should. They never asked for chocolate at lunch again.

Same lads probably never offered him anything either. Good lad

kollegeknight

When our slatted house was being built- a bullish kind of a lad always has a bottle of Coke- someone kept taking a few sips out of it until one day, one of the younger workers was spluttering mad- the coke bottle was filled with plasterciser.

My father wasn’t overly pleased as he was afraid it would have poisoned the lad.

1373

foxy farmer wrote: »

My father worked for a large building & civil engineering firm. They had a large yard outside Cork and there was a handful of staff working there fulltime. Fitters welders forklift drivers etc.
There was one lad there and after lunch in the canteen every day would take out a bar of chocolate and eat it. They could be playing cards or talking and hed be munging away. Hed never offer them a bit and it used to get on their goat.
Anyway on few occasions someone raided his lunchbox and the chocolate was taken. Yer man got the message and the next day kept the bar out of the lunchbox. After dinner they said they would have a game of cards. Some bucko made a comment about yer man having no chocolate.
Next thing he pulls a bar out of his coat pocket opens it breaks it in pieces. Help yourselves he says. 4 lads swoop in and clear the lot. On with the card game. After a bit one lad gets up goes out saying nothing and after a few mins another gets up and out.
Next the other 2 get up together and they nearly get wedged trying to get out the door together. Both seen making a run for the Jacks. The first 2 boys had both stalls taken. Out they came and off down behind containers to do some urgent load shedding. Yer man had given them Exlax chocolate and it worked like it should. They never asked for chocolate at lunch again.

Luckily one of them didn’t rob the whole bar that day

whelan2

Electricity gone off here...

TheFarrier

A relation of mine has a habit of walking into the kitchen and tearing into whatever he lays his hands on.
He lands in one day and picks up a bag belonged to his niece and starts eating away. No one passed any remark till he started asking what they were, that they were quite tasty.
Child looks up and says that’s a packet of cat treats it’s a free sample that came with the cat food.
The lad takes one look at the bag and dives for the sink, gagging like he was poisoned.


Another day he picked up a pint glass of someyhing the niece had in front of her and took a big slug, and promptly spews it out all over the table.
He’d picked up the glass of water she’d been cleaning her paintbrushes in.

ganmo

TheFarrier wrote: »

A relation of mine has a habit of walking into the kitchen and tearing into whatever he lays his hands on.
He lands in one day and picks up a bag belonged to his niece and starts eating away. No one passed any remark till he started asking what they were, that they were quite tasty.
Child looks up and says that’s a packet of cat treats it’s a free sample that came with the cat food.
The lad takes one look at the bag and dives for the sink, gagging like he was poisoned.


Another day he picked up a pint glass of someyhing the niece had in front of her and took a big slug, and promptly spews it out all over the table.
He’d picked up the glass of water she’d been cleaning her paintbrushes in.

an uncle of mine used to very bad for just munching on everything in front of him.
Now he didn't like cream eggs, so one day his put a bet on between themselves that if they put one into his hand when he was chatting to someone he'd scoff it...and he did. Thankfully he seems to have gotten ontop of it now though

funkey_monkey

_Brian wrote: »

https://youtu.be/OQT6dr6uaNk

Pasture for Life.

Wonder is his something that could be done here. It’s a massive selling point and should be easy to get clued in consumers behind it.

Any idea of the cost of getting fields reseeded with this type of pasture instead of the standard grasses?

I think we'd struggle to finish on grass only. I presume silage and winter housing is permitted?

Buford T. Justice XIX

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Any idea of the cost of getting fields reseeded with this type of pasture instead of the standard grasses?

I think we'd struggle to finish on grass only. I presume silage and winter housing is permitted?

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

toleratethis

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

Wrong type of cattle and wrong management I'd suggest.

Say my name

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

Ah they do say they can be housed if necessary but obviously pasture is better and no cereals.

https://www.pastureforlife.org/

kk.man

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

With respect and not wanting to come across smart, what did ye do before slatted sheds and before sheds full stop? It's not that long ago and cattle survived in every part of the country. I know of some ruff land in North of this county and its not that long ago fellas were out wintering stock.

Say my name

kk.man wrote: »

With respect and not wanting to come across smart, what did ye do before slatted sheds and before sheds full stop? It's not that long ago and cattle survived in every part of the country. I know of some ruff land in North of this county and its not that long ago fellas were out wintering stock.

The department won't allow outwintering of cattle. Well they won't allow poaching and damage to the ground.

There's some posting on other forums on social media of bale grazing in this country but they use light British breeds and have old pasture saved up for half the year and the bales placed on top at silage time.

Not a slight on any farmers here with second jobs but all this talk of regenerative this and ecological that but in my mind they're not worth a damn if they don't provide a living.

I see a comment was made at the icmsa gathering about a mandatory proposal that every farmer should plant 2ha of trees. There was a comment made on social media that that'll be nice for the landowner who only has 2ha's. All these proposals they always favour the larger landowner and are made by the larger landowner on these committees who have paid help at home.
Anyway gone away from pasture for life..

Odelay

kk.man wrote: »

With respect and not wanting to come across smart, what did ye do before slatted sheds and before sheds full stop? It's not that long ago and cattle survived in every part of the country. I know of some ruff land in North of this county and its not that long ago fellas were out wintering stock.

That would be when a person with 16 cows would have been thought of as a progressive farmer.

Birdnuts

kk.man wrote: »

With respect and not wanting to come across smart, what did ye do before slatted sheds and before sheds full stop? It's not that long ago and cattle survived in every part of the country. I know of some ruff land in North of this county and its not that long ago fellas were out wintering stock.

Probably more hardier and traditional breeds allied with more sustainable stocking rates allowed for such an approach

Albert Johnson

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

Out wintering stock was commonplace until the last 20 year's even here in deepest darkest Connaught. It couldn't have been easy but there was no alternative at the time, slatted sheds are only a reasonably recent concept locally and up until there arrival a byre with a few cow's tied in stalls was the only real option. One of the biggest differences I've seen in my life time is the reduction in farmer's locally, cattle numbers have also fallen but not to the same extent. The few herds left have increased in size which wouldn't make a return to out wintering any easier. There were smaller herds at the time with more help and time to carry out the work associated with out wintering.

Small groups of stock are the secret imo and a run of rough grazing is almost essential to avoid mud and hardship. Having said that an elderly neighbor often shows me where he and his fore father's used to out winter 5 two year old store bullocks​ for sale at a fair around St Patrick's day. It's a low lying bog meadow and yet it supported those cattle from Xmas to Paddy's day and still yielded a hay crop in late summer. It required a lot of work and some luck but I'm told everyone was in the same boat. Perhaps the weather was really better in the past and of course the cattle were smaller, hardier native breed's. I don't think putting a bundle of heavy continental stores into the same piece of ground in late October and leaving them there until May day would have the same amount of success.

Albert Johnson

Odelay wrote: »

That would be when a person with 16 cows would have been thought of as a progressive farmer.

The above statement is very true but I don't think the current average suckler herd is even that big today. Perhaps I'm misguided but I'm sure I read a figure of the average herd being circa 12 cow's in recent years. I know locally that a lot of lad's would have less than 16 cow's and I know more lads with less than 10 as opposed to more than 30 cows.

funkey_monkey

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Well, it says pasture for life so I'm guessing that housing wouldn't be an option there?

I've seen videos of lads feeding silage and hay to outwintered cattle but could you imaging outwintering cattle anywhere west of kildare? Our rainfall would be too high in most areas to outwinter many and not have a huge effect on spring growth.

Not much ground around here could support cattle year round. Grass fed would be as far as e could go, but out wintering would be a disaster for the cattle, ground and me.

I've sometimes thought about going along that path, but it is a big step.
Although, I'm not sure about claim in video that cattle sweat in shed as their bodies are working harder to digest it.

Nekarsulm

It's a long long time since milking cows were out all year round.
Tie up byers are around in some form at least 150 years, and before that the cow would practically have shared an end of the dwelling house/cottage.
Young stock, yes.

_Brian

Birdnuts wrote: »

Probably more hardier and traditional breeds allied with more sustainable stocking rates allowed for such an approach

I think rainfall patterns have changed. Too many days and weeks with rain and no break, ground gets no rest from rain. It used to be that there would be heavy rain and then dry days.

We half out winter.
Smaller stock have access to Dry paddocks but also have access to slatted shed for silage at the barrier. They mostly stay out, this evening in the blowing wind and rain they were in though.

wrangler

Just after being asked to do santy again on Sunday for local Irish KIdney Association christmas party.
Looks like I've triggered a new career.
Have to say I had a ball on Wednesday

Water John

Enjoy, don't do a Billy Bob Thornton.

Birdnuts

_Brian wrote: »

I think rainfall patterns have changed. Too many days and weeks with rain and no break, ground gets no rest from rain. It used to be that there would be heavy rain and then dry days.

We half out winter.
Smaller stock have access to Dry paddocks but also have access to slatted shed for silage at the barrier. They mostly stay out, this evening in the blowing wind and rain they were in though.

I'm not so sure about that - last winter was remarkably dry and mild and if you look back to some of the winters in the 40's and 50's we've had it pretty easy most of the time, even more so if you look further back to earlier centuries when climate induced famines were not uncommon

I says

Just waved the vet out the gate, herd test clear for another year.

Parishlad

I says wrote: »

Just waved the vet out the gate, herd test clear for another year.

Good stuff! I have the reading of our test tomorrow morning. Always a nervy time.

orm0nd

I says wrote: »

Just waved the vet out the gate, herd test clear for another year.

just got locked up here with a single reactor, rest were spotless.

I says

Parishlad wrote: »

Good stuff! I have the reading of our test tomorrow morning. Always a nervy time.

Yeah Tis a stress alright

I says

orm0nd wrote: »

just got locked up here with a single reactor, rest were spotless.

A pain in the backside

wrangler

I says wrote: »

A pain in the backside

A lot of breakdowns around here, bad time coming into the calving season