Farming Youtubers

Well if I was farming with a family member and 1/2 employees you could still consider it a family farm even if you’re getting into big numbers but how could you still call it a family farm if after that I decided to rent 2/3 more units and employ a manager on each of them, probably another full time employee on each also and a roster of relief Milkers to cover aswell. That is a company not a family farm in my eyes, I was going to say business but all farms should be treated as businesses regardless of size.

One man running a farm with help from parents could manage up to 200 cows if set up correctly and with 1/2 employees 3/400 cows is what I was getting at but as I said when you add units and managers and employees that’s where I would draw the line with family farm. People can agree or disagree with that but that’s my take on it having milked cows for two men with such multiple unit operations.

Would a family farm be one that operates with the majority of work being done by family members?

Worked on a family farm in pigs. The father was the owner and still managed all the breeding and house movements and was well into his 70's. The son was the operator as such looking after staff, meal purchases and slurry applications with a side contracting operation of silage making with McHale balers. Staff employed was one Supervisor on the pig farm and an additional two full time employees, one dealing with the pigging sows and the other mostly cleaning and power washing.

Spent three years there and for as tough a business as pigs are it was brilliantly ran and organised. Would still call it a family farm, will go to the owner's grandson at the end of the day.

YouTube is famous for the cun7ish comments.

If your videos were about water, thirsty men on YouTube would complain it was wet.

I do feel for Farmer Phil after watching that latest video. I’m used to continental beef stock,Rearing dairy beef is a tough game. Those calves are a pity, I couldn’t be looking at them.

I've to laugh at Phil when he tries to bump up the great looking calves .......they would be far better keeping a third or half the amount of a better type cattle but every man to there own

"However, a word of caution is needed. The above is the case for gut worms. In the case of lungworm or hoose, you go in and dose once you hear animals coughing. The reason for this is most damage is done by the larvae stage, i.e. before they become adults and start to lay eggs that appear in the dung."- teagasc.

suckler calfs dont need many doses cos they dont have the same pressure for worms (not grazing as tight or not as much while theyre still sucking). them dairy calfs are eating grass amd worms from the get go . ideally you want ground with less worms for them , grazing ahead of the stronger cattle (not as tight) or grazing clean ground (aftergrass)

Very true. A cough is alarm bells. I do ivomec super and no resistance thank you know who. But I don't overdo it either. I had a bout of coughing one year finishing cattle. The slaughter reports were an eye opener. I vowed never again. Vet took samples this year when tb testing lab results were a1. I don't take samples myself just observe animals and it seems to work. I can't vouch for calves but my weanling stock get two shots over the second grazing season and I had no issues since.

The advice is also that calves are put back into the paddock they are grazing for a few days after dosing. Traditionally calves would be moved to a fresh pasture immediately after dosing but this leads them to infecting the new pasture with resistant worms.

Blind faith in the vet/thinking the cydectin was a wonder product probably didnt help, calves probably need to be dosed two months ago, waiting for a nice few to drop dead before dosing them was bizarre....

Have a real nasty bug here causing mastitis that if you treat it with antibiotics either with tubes/injectables, it feeds of them and makes the mastitis alot worse basically kills the animal,am basically gone antibiotic free in the herd here, a sick animal now just gets a anti-inflammatory mineral drench and dry cow tubes is all that's used....

Microbial resistance down the line is going to be a huge problem in agriculture

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/beef/better-beef/IFJ-27Jan2018.pdf - timeline

teagasc have an answer to almost any question you have

A strict grazing rotation can solve a lot of issues with the need for worm dosing. Maybe people should sample more often than they dose to see if the animal actually needs it in the first place. Dose resistance is becoming a huge issue.

I think Vets get paid per farmer. It's part of a programme.

https://animalhealthireland.ie/programmes/parasite-control/parasite-control-tasah-consult/