Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119766295#Comment_119766295

The thing that I keep going back to is the massive improvement in pratices through out the country that has gone in agriculture over the last 20 years and yet water quality is deteriorating.drove through the an area close to us yesterday and you could see plenty work going on and done recently.came home then and the boys showed me a video on a local lad milking 1500 cows in England the gas thing was it was all self feeding out of the pit.i don't know of any yard doing that here.bale silage has become very popular and most lads make an effort to get bales as dry as they can.and as for nitrate use it look like putin has sorted that.whztever about before lads are being very careful now about fertiliser usage.yeah it's great to harp back to the sixties but if you are going to do that do it for all aspects of society and how its development has affected the environment. By the way many of the catchments in cork that are in trouble would have an urban aspect to them as well

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119767619#Comment_119767619

Any or all of the catchements in Cork with a problem have an urban element to them and problem obviously eminates where human population on the rivers increases..

GrasstoMilk

Our local river is poor status due nitrates but it’s a very extensive area with regards to livestock

there is dairy but only 7 of us in the general area and 4 of them are new entrants in the last 4 years

predominant farming practices are extensive sucklers and sheep and tillage

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119766295#Comment_119766295

EPA map of Agricultural Pressures..

Do you need someone to draw the county boundary for you?

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119766295#Comment_119766295

What are the actual parameter numbers? That is the numbers that represent a 'crash'. Good/fair/bad are all relative terms. Surely the EPA measures numbers?

minerleague

Wonder does land type have an effect, lot of red in north kerry into limerick on that map but not much in mid cork ( cow numbers/acre would be roughly the same ?? )

see were Philip hayes is taking over that desperate rte programme countrywide, apparently his currently presenting a climate action programme on radio 1. Just further confirmation of what little regard rte have for farmers. Never got over that gobshite they found that has 700 cows and if he had to reduce to 500 with national herd reductions he’d be out of business.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119766449#Comment_119766449

I was referring to areas like Gougane Barra and the Sheehy Mtns etc.- sorry if i confused you...

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119767959#Comment_119767959

Does someone need to point out to you that that is a map of catchments and that pollution does not respect county boundaries when floating down a river??

The map above makes thing a bit clearer on the issue

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119767619#Comment_119767619

I think your painting a rather rosy picture there in terms of issues like slurry storage in the face of rapid dairy expansion post 2015. Even Teagasc have admitted thats behind water quality pressures in relevant catchments. The annual rush to get slurry out at the last minute ahead of winter deadlines tells its own story on that - plus there is still a fair few cowboys paying no heed to any rules on the matter, including avoiding heavy rainfall events etc. as frequently discussed on other threads here. BPS measures, ongoing intensive reseeding/draining etc. have all removed natural soil and vegetation buffers that used to filter out alot of excess farm related nutrients before they got into water courses in the last 20 years

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768412#Comment_119768412

They use a Biological monitoring system that measures the presence and abundance of key aquatic micro invertebrates eg. Mayfly, Stonefly nymphs etc. The better the water quality, the more abundant and diverse the most sensitive indicator species are on a scale of 1 to 5.

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768963#Comment_119768963

It does help.now if we can just over lay that map with population density map we might be onto to something.just from own knowledge of cork county it looks like it does

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768963#Comment_119768963

'17 to '19?

C'mon🤔

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768959#Comment_119768959

You have me confused alright because the last time I climbed those mountains they were in west cork. One of them is the source of the river lee and the other is the highest mountain in cork.

Of course, you probably know better than me though. 🤔🤔

alps

An up to date report

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40986959.html

straight

Cow won't get up this morning for milking. Grass tetany I suppose/hope.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769055#Comment_119769055

Are they in or out?

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769010#Comment_119769010

MapChapter1.png

Now can we see any trends as regard population density and area s that are under pressure environmentally

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769240#Comment_119769240

Out. Started buffering the other day and their diet is a bit changed and they are unsettled I guess. She's fine now thank God. A mild enough case.

whelan2

I had a case last week of tetany pre calving .

Morris Moss

Power washed and disinfected the cubicles this year, cows in for the night and a lovely dose of ecoli mastitis this morning, twud **** sicken ya.

cosatron

According to the study, just 51% of sewage was treated to the EU standards set to protect our environment, well below the EU average of 90%.EPA said that works to eliminate raw sewage flowing into seas and rivers from 32 towns and villages have commenced or are due to start by 2024 and that Irish Water “has no clear plan to improve treatment at 27 priority areas where waste water discharges are impacting on rivers, lakes and coastal waters”.

This is just unbelievable in this day and age. Are the EPA and the government asleep at the wheel, will they try to cull the population to sort it out, it seems to be there answer to everything.

DBK1

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/only-half-of-irelands-wastewater-treated-to-eu-standards-report-says-1379995.html

As @cosatron says its amazing that this is allowed to happen and even moreI amazing that farmers are still getting the majority of the blame for pollution.

There seems to be a lot of Cork towns on the list too, funny that🤔

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769030#Comment_119769030

That covers 2018. 2018 was the drought.

A drought dries out the soil and cracks open the ground and allows oxygen down deep into the soil. This allows microbes to feast on the soil carbon which through respiration is converted to carbon dioxide. It's gassed off. The action of the microbes and any nitrates held by that soil carbon is now free to move.

This information has not being explained but yet the graph was used by environmentalists to object to Belview and stop any cow development in the southeast. But yet the same development like a drought ie especially converting carbon rich grassland to tillage is being promoted and the nitrate bounce from this man made drought does exactly the same thing.

But we're told it's all cows and we know how they weaseled in cow emissions on the same plain as auto engines. So the argument now is reducing cows saves the atmosphere and planet.

Conclusion. There's serious weasels out there. If I was seriously paranoid I'd say just like European activists, there was people influenced by Mr.Putin to disrupt economic activity and food production in this country for those above to benefit.

All under the guise of environmentalism.

If I see truthful and realist discussion not linked to starvation and economic suicide then I'll change my view.

https://consumerchoicecenter.org/is-russia-funding-european-environmental-activists/

Mooooo

Scanning went better than I thought, altho mainly because the planned culls all turned up in calf🙄. 9 % in cows. Only 1 heifer empty thought there was more but they were only codding me. Only 55% held to fixed time ai from conventional semen which is disappointing alright.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769043#Comment_119769043

Ah Jaysus - please forgive me 4 saying the NW instead of W of the county. Its always hard to keep up with the brightest boy in the class who is so ahead of everyone else he doesn't even need to read the item he claims is a load of BS.....

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119772633#Comment_119772633

Never claimed any such thing. All I said was you needed to brush up on your cork geography because you don't have a clue.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769882#Comment_119769882

Yeah - no doubt this is a big issue for estuaries/ beaches in particular(vast majority of those towns are on the coast). TBF the EPA highligts this issue as much as the Agri one. Whats needed on both fronts is better enforcement of existing laws but thats another area were this country falls badly down on in so many cases:(

alps

Irish water got away with murder today...They were top billing all morning on the radio and then all of a sudden...up steps Liz Truss...end of water quality issues..

Just after reading on Agriland that creosote post are to be very soon banned, first I heard of it. Is this wildly known? More stupidity. Let’s go and replace post every 5 years or less, untreated post’s aren’t fit for firewood. I’m now very worried. If they go ahead about this crap of rewetting peat land that’s 25 percent of my farmland gone, the same 25 percent that got me through the summer. I just want to know who are these people who make the rules, seriously.