No job suits farming

mr.stonewall

@Bass Reeves when you have both bales and pit in the yard it's just night and day. I still make approx 70-100 bales annually. Use a good lock at housing and hold about 30 for the spring when the pit can be closed. Will agree with you on getting them dry. It's a balancing act when looking to get out the gate, pit wins hands down

A big one is lighting around the yard. Being part time their is no excuse to having good lighting to light up sheds both inside and outside, even the crush area. Most of my winter work is done after 8pm when the smallies are gone to bed, 99% of the time I'm back in before the 9 o clock news and that is wintering close to 200 head. No other help during the day. 10 min check in the morning to give meal to some finishing stock if on that path and turn off the lights. Less than an hour a day is key. As a great corkman once said "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail"

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120911959#Comment_120911959

I have to laugh at the comment about trade unionists and the derogatory nature of same . If farmers had been represented by strong unions over the past decades we wouldn’t have to put up with the decline in farm numbers and farm incomes that has taken place .

Most farmers now are no better than slaves with the entirety of their incomes coming from grants all of which are dependent on strict compliance with a plethora of regulations and red tape .

A farmer criticising a trade union activist -I have heard it all now .

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120912670#Comment_120912670

Agreed.I had to laugh at that as well.

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120912619#Comment_120912619

Couldn’t agree more about the pit. Feed 200-300 of them here along with the pit. I look forward to opening the pit after spending a month feeding bales and I hate to see it emptied coz it means I’m back to the bales again.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120912670#Comment_120912670

I worked in a fair few places in my time and not one of the shop stewards had a days work between them.

I am currently in an office and the union rep is the most useless yoke on two legs. I'm not attached to her union. She come in texts and chats to her mates, gets extra time off in the year to attend conferences. They r just piss ups.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120911959#Comment_120911959

I too would rather not be a tractor jockey but apart from silage I can't get people to do things when they should or do a half decent job or do the job for the kind of money that wouldn't tempt me to get the machine myself...

One lad does the hedges around the homeplace (short run) but he's dependable if very late (usually after xmas (but grand, hes doing it from the road not ploughing the place up)....but anything internal or on outfarm they'll either arrive when the ground is too soft and make a shite of the place or I tried a new lad last year and he charged me multiple hundreds for showing the hedge the hedgecutter...I'd have done as much with a pair of hand clippers, didn't cut the top at all...which was the bloody point and cut about 3 maybe 4 inches growth sporadically along the line of the hedge..(I'd sat he didn't want to do it all) ....that's it, the choices are, let it grow wild, pay mad money(in the context of what was actually done) for a **** job or the place ploughed up when fields are at their wettest when yer man has nothing else to do or reluctantly become a tractor jockey and do it right yourself..(some machinery wouldnt be long paying for itself with the kind of jobs some lads do and the rates they charge imo - and tbh I csn understand it from their perspective too ..... its diesel, wear and tear and a man's time at the end of the day)...at least with something like a hedgecutter youll get use out of it if you have a lot of hedging and it comes in handy maintaining fences, cutting back when you want to fence etc

Tis a similar story with dungspreading for me...one lad wants to be at it on the very last week before the closed period when he will nearly sink up to the axels and the good lad has to come from so far away it's close to a grand a pop....sure I might as well do that too, even though Id rather do something else and not have a dungspreader corroding away out in the yard....cest la vie....if you have lads around you that do a decent job for reasonable money it can be a godsend....If you have lads that want it on their terms you probably are better off going at it yourself.

mr.stonewall

Exact situation as here, so much so that I bought a handy 2nd hand hedge cutter for small money a few years ago. Lovely to get in in early September to get behind wire while ground is good. You can pick a choose where you go and when you go. You would be surprised at what you would get done in 3 hours.

Getting contractors for jobs such as slurry,dung, spraying etc is getting harder. Ground conditions are vital here as it's wet ground. If it's travelable you just go.

kerryjack

A lad down our way drives a concrete truck, he has a yard and roadways you could land a jumbo jet on them and never paid a euro for them.

patsy_mccabe

delete please

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913973#Comment_120913973

I'm blessed in that way with a good local contractor/welder/mechanic.

He'd do anything and won't see you stuck night or day, I'd be absolutely lost without his help over the last few years.

Always try give him a good big hamper or some other gift at Christmas.

arctictree

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913934#Comment_120913934

+100

Seriously thinking of getting a hedgecutter myself but a decent one is awful expensive. Very narrow window in the cutting season when you can travel the land without making shite of it. And of course the contractor is too busy then...

Tileman

I bought one for that reason and it is very convenient but slow work. Also got a few repairs and it turned out expensive. Still handy to have though

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120921019#Comment_120921019

Hedgecutting is the least profitable of all contracting jobs.

A hedgecutter not on axle brackets is a pretty harmless machine

Farmers are always less fussy with the work they do themselves though.

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120912619#Comment_120912619

Most of my winter work is done after 8pm when the smallies are gone to bed, 99% of the time I'm back in before the 9 o clock news and that is wintering close to 200 head. No other help during the day

Excellent post.

Was going to post something similar but thought I would offend a few.

Some men just make hard work of everything and lack efficiency.

There is a 40 cow suckler farm at home, I'd say the average labor throughout the year is one hour per day.

It's well set up with a clever chap running it. Nothing is a big job.

ruwithme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120923428#Comment_120923428

Key sentence there is "it's well set up"

Took a bit more than a "hour a day" to get to "well set up"

Dickie10

teacher here , travelling an hour to work at minute but might get closer in a few years, its an unreal job for farming. two days a wekk last year i didnt have to leave until 8:30 and 9:30 other 3 days leave at 7:30, lads on buildings would have half an hour work already done on dublin sites by then. home at 5pm every evening, if timetable clicks this year should have at least one day when im home by 3:30pm. half day every friday finsh at 2 pm. i went for teaching so i could farm its working so well

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120923646#Comment_120923646

That what taking a step back and looking at your daily routine and coupled with clever investment can achieve. There was was a good few tough years but building numbers, using depreciation wisely has got it there, but still room for improvement with small tweaks.

Remember tough times makes strong people, and strong people make good times, now i won't complete the rest of the saying. Everyone here has control of what happens inside your own farm gate,

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120923428#Comment_120923428

An hour a day during the week on top of an 8 hour work day plus commute is enough to be doing. I bet there is a few extra hours put in over the weekends though?

At least this is how I did it for years.

mr.stonewall

Should we look at a thread of how to save time as a part timer. Spring summer autumn and winter. Even small things gets people thinking. We can get our vision clouded in the fog of the rat race

memorystick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120923683#Comment_120923683

Teacher here. Live in town near school and farm under 6 mile from house. Bell goes at 4. Home by 4.07. Quick coffee and changed. On farm by 4.35. Finished by 5.30-40. Home by 6. That’s most evenings in the winter months.