Now Ye're Talking - to an Irish Farmer

Good evening all, thanks Niamh for setting me up for this. I'll log in here a few times a day and try answer as many questions as possible, piease bear in mind that I type with 2 fingers and the internet has been a bit dodgy here with all the rain.

ChippingSodbury wrote: »

Why did you get out of dairy?

How would you assess the level of education among your peers? Do you think they are more of the opinion "sure that's the way we always did it" or "I can't wait to see the new technologies/ methods and try them out"?

Do you think Teagasc does a good job?

I'd love to be a farmer by the way (but I don't think I'd survive on my 2 acres!)

I got out when the price of milk went lower than when quotas came in, I couldn't expand, and I was in college as a mature student.

Some are very traditional, others embrace new technology, I suppose a lot depends on how they were brought up/educated themselves.

By and Large Teagasc does a good job, there are some very good advisors there, I don't know much about the research side of things though.

KonFusion wrote: »

Do you find beef/tillage easier than dairy?
Do you worry about the legacy/future of the farm when you retire?

Do you think farmers are more socially isolated than other professions? If yes, have you found any good ways to get around this?

Do you find it easy/hard to find reliable part-time workers to take care of things if you need to leave the farm for a holiday/wedding/funeral etc?
I travel a lot and have personally found that Ireland definitely has one of the best quality beef in world. Is there a sense of pride among Irish beef farmers regarding the quality produced?
How big is the herd? Do you plan to expand?
Edit: Sorry, lots of questions! I find farming fascinating as I don't think I'd ever be able to it myself! Tough job

Lifestyle is much better as a beef and tillage farmer, but money is tighter. It's a lot easier now to head off on a sunday and not have to be back at a certain time to milk. Not really worried about the 'legacy' I have one son and I hope he'll take it on, but only as a part timer.
Yes it can be isolating, I used to do a bit of amateur drama, and was involved in Macra when I was younger.

I have a guy that gives me a hand when I need him, especially working with cattle, he is very reliable, and knows my farm well, so if I was away he's able to look after things.
Yes there is a sense of pride in our produce, more later:)
Herd is approx 50 suckler cows+calves+finishing cattle. I don't buy in, just finish all the calves born on the farm, total herd number now is 120. No plans to expand as yet.

quainy wrote: »

What is your take on this "new generation" of young farmers that are starting farms with more technology based systems in place?
If ever anyone on this board was looking to begin farming, how would you advise them to go about it?
Looking back at all your time in farming, is there anything you would have done differently (from a business standpoint) and why?

Anything that makes life easier is good, but it has to pay for itself, no point in having €200k invested in a tractor if it's idle either, there is a happy medium and every farm is different.
It's basically a closed shop, we are way behind NZ in this where they have a system of shared farming, which allows young ppl from outside farming to work their way up.
With the benefit of hindsight I'd have gone to Australia when I was 20!

kupus wrote: »

has headage ruined irish farming for the future?
Do you think putting all your eggs into one basket for the dairying and milk industry is dangerous. ( lil dairy farmers being over-regulated so the bigger ones can come in and take over the family business)
How much of a prick is larry the godman?
HOw can irish farms compete with the factory farms of africa.
HOw can you stop supermarkets/factories from dictating the prices?
Just like in every business in ireland today excluding multinationals... is ireland over regulated so people are just giving up business and farming?

Headage isn't really there anymore, direct payments I think are very unfairly distributed.
Not really sure TBH, harvest 2020 is the first time we have had a national plan for agriculture, and it's early days. Never met LG, but he is one shrewd businessman, you have to admire him.
I don't think we have too much to worry about from African factory farms, we are very efficient. Can't stop supermarkets. They have grown on cheap food policy in EU and USA.
Yes, have to agree, over regulation is a big problem, no doubt there will be more on this later.

A fork;)

Fuzzy I'm spoken for:p. Road frontage? I was thinking this would come up, I was trying to work it out in my head last night before I went asleep, my guestimate is between 1.5 and 2 km. I hate ribbon development!

Moleyv if there is traffic behind me I pull in at the earliest, safe opportunity. I use every sort of road except motorways with the tractor.

Typical day;
At present almost all the cattle are in sheds so there is a bit more work feeding, bedding and looking after them. Cows are just starting to calve, so they are checked first thing. Next bulls get meal. Silage is pushed in at feed passages. I do the main feed in the late afternoon, just before dark. The closed period for spreading slurry has just ended, so today I was getting machinery ready for that. I start at 9am and this evening finished at 6pm, but cows will be checked again before I go to bed. That's roughly the routine at the moment, but it changes day to day.

Cattle's diet is mostly grass and silage, + some straw. Finishing cattle get rolled barley + bought in concentrate from the mill.

I think at the moment it is sustainable, but if subsidies go it will be factory farming in a very short space of time, with large farms specializing in one or two commodities.

Mars bar, I have some wet land that floods almost every winter and this was flooded a lot worse this year, but it would be a lot worse if me and a few neighbours hadn't cleaned a drain/stream about 4 years ago. My slurry tanks are almost full, but my drier land is ok to spread on now.

Yester wrote: »

How much is your electricity bill now and how much was it when you were dairy farming?

Roughly €1000 a year now, down from about €2,500, good question. A lot of other costs were reduced as well when I quit dairying.

diomed wrote: »

Is your head full of things to be done on the farm/things would like to do if you had more time/money.
If so list a few things you plan to do.

What do you wear for a day's work on the farm?
Are you an expert on Wellington boots?
Do you have a dry room for drying out wet clothes (we had at work).

Yes there's always something on the backburner/long finger. Most of them involve building work/repairs to older sheds. There's also:
Re-seeding
fencing
water leaks/troughs
Would it be worthwhile to buy a diet feeder for feeding cattle?
What will the impact of all these extra dairy calves to the beef sector?

Then there's short term stuff as well, like what needs to be done today/next week? Or by such a date?

Most days I wear cheap jeans from Dunnes! Maybe wash them 3 or 4 times and then they're gone, a T shirt, jumper (has to be wool) a top quality body warmer. If it's raining I wear a wax coat and a beanie hat. Not really an expert on wellies, I wear the same brand for about 20 years now, in summer I wear dealer boots. We don't have a 'dry' room, we call it a utility room, the fridge, freezer, washing machine and dryer are in there, I keep my yard clothes and boots there, if wet hang them near the stove.