New inexperienced farmer!

BullBauld

OP here...First herd test in the morning. Ol' man would be proud ha.

Siamsa Sessions

BullBauld wrote: »

OP here...First herd test in the morning. Ol' man would be proud ha.

Best of luck with it. Take ‘em handy anyway thru the yard and crush. Let us know how you get on

BullBauld

Test done....kind of!
One mad hoor hopped out of the crush. Couldn't stop him.... didn't get in his way really either!
She said she'll get him again.

Siamsa Sessions

BullBauld wrote: »

One mad hoor hopped out of the crush. Couldn't stop him.... didn't get in his way really either!

Sensible approach

BullBauld wrote: »

She said she'll get him again.

Again, the sensible approach

If you stick at it, farming will impose common sense on you that spreads to all other parts of your life

Dickie10

didnt go into BDGP a few years ago when everyone was telling me to. thank god i didnt by the sounds of it. pulled the plug on sucklers here two years ago and havent looked back.

Panch18

Dickie10 wrote: »

didnt go into BDGP a few years ago when everyone was telling me to. thank god i didnt by the sounds of it. pulled the plug on sucklers here two years ago and havent looked back.

What you doing with the place now Dickie??

Dickie10

was buying in weanlings and yearlings heifers all the time and finishing off grass in august/sept/oct and had 17-20 suckler cows and a bull as well, i used to finish the hiefers and sell bull weanlings around april.

now i just buy in more weanlings and yearlings usually buy around 30 weanlings in autumn and 20 yearlings around this time of year. finish the 50 heifers between july and october, along with ewes and store lambs

Dickie10

i found the suckler game madness, we didnt traditionally do it with my father he bought in weanlings bullocks and heifers , i got in accidentally and built up a little herd. the amount of work for such a tight margin made no sense though, calving, dehorning, tagging, sending away tags weaning dosing the calves in summer and watching them like a hawk on cold wet april and may days. thats with a bull imagine messing with AI. Find it a lot easier let someone else do all that, i think you can pick up weanlings handier than the time and money you spend calving them myself. plus spring dragged on a long time, at least with sheep im still lambing a few hoggets one was down for a double and she lost one their this evening which is unfortunate but the handling of them is a lot easier.

Hill Bill

Dickie10 wrote: »

was buying in weanlings and yearlings heifers all the time and finishing off grass in august/sept/oct and had 17-20 suckler cows and a bull as well, i used to finish the hiefers and sell bull weanlings around april.

now i just buy in more weanlings and yearlings usually buy around 30 weanlings in autumn and 20 yearlings around this time of year. finish the 50 heifers between july and october, along with ewes and store lambs

Dickie, that sounds like a nice simple system, do you mind me asking what breed the heifers are, the weights you kill them at & do you have to use much meal?
In the past I’ve found it hard to finish continental heifers before their 2nd winter without a lot of meal as they’re still growing but then keeping them for a second winter eats up any profit gained from them being heavier at slaughter.

Dickie10

Hill Bill wrote: »

Dickie, that sounds like a nice simple system, do you mind me asking what breed the heifers are, the weights you kill them at & do you have to use much meal?
In the past I’ve found it hard to finish continental heifers before their 2nd winter without a lot of meal as they’re still growing but then keeping them for a second winter eats up any profit gained from them being heavier at slaughter.

I usually get a man to buy them for me in clare and granard marts other then he might hit, carrigallen etc. He picks anything with value white charrolais, red limo, black limo, angus. the best for that system i find are good round angus out of suckler cows , finish in july without any meal a charrolais or BB could be almost october before you get a good fat cover with plenty of meal , although they make up for with big carcass weight and grade but can go over 30 months this way , the best job is nice angus, kill out around 340 kg at 27-28 months. I could never get heifers killed before 24 months, i wouldnt feed meal in their second winter just get by and put on weight from silage finsh off grass try to get them out around 1st april but with sheep its hard a s i give them preference in spring. basically i try not to feed much meal in this sytem at all, finsh off grass but you cant finsh off grass til their over 24 months til the fiinsh growing then they lay down fat

Bass Reeves

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Would any of you be buying in calves from the dairymen and rearing them onto finish siphoning out the poor ones and any decent replacement heifers along the way?
Or do you always start with weanlings and go from there?

How many can you work per acre when finihsing drystock compared to running a suckler herd?

I buy stores from about June/July on and finish following year from June to mid September however there is always a few stragglers. 24HA on the SFP or about 60 acres. Have 69 on it this year 5-6 more than I would like. Mostly Friesian. Stores would vary from 300 kgs to 450 ISH at purchase.

Great thing about drystock like this is you can run them in two bunches a finishing bunch and a store bunch. Even if you buy in cattle they can go into the store bunch. You can run heifers and bullock's together. Aim for a margin of 200+/ head. Costs are about 350/year.

They get silage only for the winter and get 3-4 kgs of s three way mix for 40-50 day pre finish.

BullBauld

Folks just a question on GLAS.

I have submitted application for BPS in March.

Part of that is a field for wild bird seed under GLAS.

Is there anything else that needs to be done (application wise) prior to the 15th apart from getting the field itself seeded?

Thanks.

johnnyfruitcake

Another question of inexperience.

I'm looking to concrete the yard, I've completed the green cert and an in partnership as a young farmer.

What grant/scheme is available to cover this work?

Siamsa Sessions

johnnyfruitcake wrote: »

Another question of inexperience.

I'm looking to concrete the yard, I've completed the green cert and an in partnership as a young farmer.

What grant/scheme is available to cover this work?

TAMS - you’ll get 60% of costs. But has to be “grant spec” standard. There’s a little bit to it in terms of application, reference costs, approved materials, inspection, etc. You’ll also have to wait for months before the work can start.

Some lads swear by it but others just drive on and avoid the hassle

addaword

BullBauld wrote: »

So my father recently passed away. He worked all his life so was a part time farmer until he retired from work and the farm became his main interest. Nothing major, 35 acres, dry stock of 15-20 usually. Buy calves, sell at 30 months. That sort of thing.
He's also in GLAS and getting a few other payments.
So for the most part this has been passed on to me. Always a reluctant farmer growing up. But now I want to keep things going as best I can.....if it's viable. I don't want to let it out if at all possible.
Have to get the herd number transferred over to me and a few things like that.

So any advice for a newbie with limited experience?

Thanks.

Never, ever give up is my simple advice. There will be good days and bad days but never give up. Good luck.

minerleague

addaword wrote: »

Never, ever give up is my simple advice. There will be good days and bad days but never give up. Good luck.

don't know if id agree with this completely. fine if you always wanted to go farming and have a gra for it, but ive seen a couple of lads pressed ( oh have to keep it in the family !) into farming and the results aren't always great:(

addaword

minerleague wrote: »

don't know if id agree with this completely. fine if you always wanted to go farming and have a gra for it, but ive seen a couple of lads pressed ( oh have to keep it in the family !) into farming and the results aren't always great:(

The o.p. said he wanted to go in to it and did not want to let out the land. Nobody should go in to any line of work if they are pressed in to it by others. It needs determination and hard work to succeed. There are days when things do not go right.

minerleague

addaword wrote: »

The o.p. said he wanted to go in to it and did not want to let out the land. Nobody should go in to any line of work if they are pressed in to it by others. It needs determination and hard work to succeed. There are days when things do not go right.

your right, sorry should have been clearer, post above meant in general terms not directed at OP in any way. wish the OP the best after loss of father ( listen to the advice of many but tailor it to suit your own situation )

addaword

No problem, I agree with you minerleague. I am old enough to have seen unhappy people and happy people in farming. You have to want to do it and have an interest in it. If he does it to please others he will not last long.