Everyones Opinions on Farmers

Permabear · 08-07-2016 1:40am

This post has been deleted.

jimbobaloobob · 08-07-2016 1:47am

I suppose in the care of livestock your own health can come second at times of crisis or high demand

onrail · 08-07-2016 1:47am

For context, I'm just getting to bed after finishing off a report for work tomorrow. Which will get fck all thanks and a fraction of the salary our hedge fund poster is on. .. Which is why I'm considering the move back to farming.

jimbobaloobob · 08-07-2016 1:50am

What would make you happier in life onrail?

onrail · 08-07-2016 1:55am

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

What would make you happier in life onrail?

That's the million dollar question that I've been pondering for the guts of a year now. After a while you realize its nigh on impossible to keep everyone happy!

jimbobaloobob · 08-07-2016 2:00am

It depends whose important to keep happy. This isn't a rehearsal

Wildsurfer · 08-07-2016 4:50am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Farming must be still in you're blood... This is exactly what a farmer would be moaning about!

Wildsurfer · 08-07-2016 4:54am

And by the way I'm a farmer, its before 5am and I'm heading to milking. But after that Ill have a two hour breakfast:)

Clampdown · 08-07-2016 5:08am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

And yet you still had time to make over 24,000 posts on boards during the last 8 years! Hillary and Trump are quite relieved that you're not US born I'd say.

Permabear · 08-07-2016 8:54am

This post has been deleted.

Jim Bob Scratcher · 08-07-2016 8:58am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Get back to work, ya bleedin moocher :pac:

Ush1 · 08-07-2016 9:07am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Just can't get the staff these days...

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-07-2016 9:14am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

It's not a competition, you can work hard too and not be a farmer

I LOVE farming. Love it. I find it fascinating, so interesting. I love talking about it. I love being on farms. I love learning about it. But I would suck at being a farmer. There's so much to it.
You have to know about crops. You have to know how to treat uncomplicated illnesses. You have to give injections. You have to recognise when an animal is sick when they can't tell you and you need to be able to assess if you can treat what it is or if it needs a vet. You are a cow midwife. You need to stay calm even when you're stressed out because working with hyper and stressed out animals is a waste of time. You can't schedule anything because that'll be the time they'll all break out, or get sick, or give birth.
It can be dangerous at times, hormonal cow just after giving birth, a temperamental bull, a big gentle animal much bigger than you not realising its strength and accidently hurting you. You don't take days off, you don't take holidays, animals don't care if you're sick or hungover or can't be bothered, they need to be fed and looked after regardless.

It's so interesting. I'm never going to be farmer of the year but I learned so much from my dad. I learned you can put penicillin in a cows eye if it's sore. I have helped strip a cows womb and put it back inside her, I know how to treat mastitis, I could help get a large calf out of its mam if she was having difficultly. I know how to take care of an orphaned newborn calf so it doesn't die either. I can hand milk. I can tell when they're sick. I know the basics on what to check for when they're unwell. I can tell what vitamins and doses they need by looking/listening to them. I know how to choose a new calf to buy, what to look for and what to avoid. I know how to take care of the babies when they get a virus. I know how to bid for them. I know how to sell them in marts and I know how to push for the best possible price. I know how to treat the animals with the respect they deserve and I had an amazing childhood growing up with so many amazing beautiful animals.

And that's only one side. You have crops to grow and take care of and harvest. You have machinery to fix. You have records and paperwork to keep. You have accounts to keep. If there's a cow about to calve or a sick animal, you're up and down all night long. You don't get to leave the job at the door at finishing time.
There's been many nights I've set my alarm every four hours to get up and feed a baby calf to keep him hydrated during the night because he can't have any milk.

It's definitely not a life I could live by myself, it's a lot of responsibility and it's very very physical, and emotionally draining. But if you love it I think it makes things much easier. It would be an awful life to live if Farming was just a job.

Two Tone · 08-07-2016 9:28am

LexieOnRale wrote: »

It's not a competition, you can work hard too and not be a farmer

I LOVE farming. Love it. I find it fascinating, so interesting. I love talking about it. I love being on farms. I love learning about it. But I would suck at being a farmer. There's so much to it.
You have to know about crops. You have to know how to treat uncomplicated illnesses. You have to give injections. You have to recognise when an animal is sick when they can't tell you and you need to be able to assess if you can treat what it is or if it needs a vet. You are a cow midwife. You need to stay calm even when you're stressed out because working with hyper and stressed out animals is a waste of time. You can't schedule anything because that'll be the time they'll all break out, or get sick, or give birth.
It can be dangerous at times, hormonal cow just after giving birth, a temperamental bull, a big gentle animal much bigger than you not realising its strength and accidently hurting you. You don't take days off, you don't take holidays, animals don't care if you're sick or hungover or can't be bothered, they need to be fed and looked after regardless.

It's so interesting. I'm never going to be farmer of the year but I learned so much from my dad. I learned you can put penicillin in a cows eye if it's sore. I have helped strip a cows womb and put it back inside her, I know how to treat mastitis, I could help get a large calf out of its mam if she was having difficultly. I know how to take care of an orphaned newborn calf so it doesn't die either. I can hand milk. I can tell when they're sick. I know the basics on what to check for when they're unwell. I can tell what vitamins and doses they need by looking/listening to them. I know how to choose a new calf to buy, what to look for and what to avoid. I know how to take care of the babies when they get a virus. I know how to bid for them. I know how to sell them in marts and I know how to push for the best possible price. I know how to treat the animals with the respect they deserve and I had an amazing childhood growing up with so many amazing beautiful animals.

And that's only one side. You have crops to grow and take care of and harvest. You have machinery to fix. You have records and paperwork to keep. You have accounts to keep. If there's a cow about to calve or a sick animal, you're up and down all night long. You don't get to leave the job at the door at finishing time.
There's been many nights I've set my alarm every four hours to get up and feed a baby calf to keep him hydrated during the night because he can't have any milk.

It's definitely not a life I could live by myself, it's a lot of responsibility and it's very very physical, and emotionally draining. But if you love it I think it makes things much easier. It would be an awful life to live if Farming was just a job.

Jeez, great post!

Permabear · 08-07-2016 9:38am

This post has been deleted.

siblers · 08-07-2016 9:45am

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

What a load of nonsense. Most of the work is done off a tractor.
-Try assist a calving heifer where the poor calf is upside down or is already dead because it's too big.
-Spend a day setting up fences and electric wire, go pull steel wire with your hands and see how you feel.
-Try fix a broken water trough or find the source of a burst pipe, might craic all together.
-Cleaning out pens, cleaning out dead silage, piking in silage, cleaning out sheds, repairing damaged roofs due to storms etc.
-Hang and weld gates, you'd never need a gym ever again if you were at that every day.

Just a fraction of the jobs farmers have to do..wouldn't get very far doing them while sat on a tractor :rolleyes:

There's also all the paper work, plus actually being able to take care of the animals, not just feeding them but giving them injections, being able to tell when in discomfort, able to tell when they are ready to calf, dehorning, shoe fitting etc.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-07-2016 9:47am

I dunno if I'd agree with you there Permabear. I think older farmers can be quite set in their ways but in terms of knowledge, I think they could buy and sell the younger farmers. My brother is farming (part time) now, and if there's ever anything he's unsure of, he passes by all the other farmers to go to an old farmer because he knows so much about cattle it's almost like he can talk to them.

I think if older and younger worked more together they would both learn a lot from each other. Farming is not something you can learn in agricultural college.

Permabear · 08-07-2016 10:01am

This post has been deleted.

Muckie · 08-07-2016 10:07am

Being from the country myself, worked on farms with many farmers.
Loved being out doors, its a tough job out in all kinds of weather.

Then in my 20's moved to Dublin and worked on the Buildings.
Most Farmers Sons i meet "knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing". They talked about GAA and read the Sun/Mirror newspapers.

Drove diesels full of "greeen diesel horsebox!

Maybe i worked with a bad bunch from Cavan/Kildare.

They were jack of all trades and when the Building went wallop they went back to the farm.

sbsquarepants · 08-07-2016 10:21am

I find a lot of farmers act like they have some sort of god given right to be farmers - they seem to be forever whinging about how they can't make a living whilst simultaneously putting their mucky hands out for a subsidy instead of doing something else and actually earning a living.
if you're working hard and you still can't make a living at what you're doing- what you're doing is just not viable. Do something else.:mad:

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-07-2016 10:25am

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I find a lot of farmers act like they have some sort of god given right to be farmers - they seem to be forever whinging about how they can't make a living whilst simultaneously putting their mucky hands out for a subsidy instead of doing something else and actually earning a living.
if you're working hard and you still can't make a living at what you're doing- what you're doing is just not viable. Do something else.:mad:

Do you like being able to buy 2 litres of milk for under 3 euro?

swimming in a sea · 08-07-2016 1:50pm

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Do you like being able to buy 2 litres of milk for under 3 euro?

I know idea if that is good or bad price, for the consumer that is.

FortySeven · 08-07-2016 2:05pm

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Do you like being able to buy 2 litres of milk for under 3 euro?

CAP subsidies actually raise prices due to the secondary price intervention restricting competitiveness. If we scrapped CAP we would see a period of deflation across the industry as a whole until prices stabilised. With CAP they have created a bit of a monster that is very difficult to reform without severe wide ranging implications.

Be a bit more tax money sloshing around for all instead of being funnelled straight into farmers pockets.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-07-2016 2:25pm

FortySeven wrote: »

CAP subsidies actually raise prices due to the secondary price intervention restricting competitiveness. If we scrapped CAP we would see a period of deflation across the industry as a whole until prices stabilised. With CAP they have created a bit of a monster that is very difficult to reform without severe wide ranging implications.

Be a bit more tax money sloshing around for all instead of being funnelled straight into farmers pockets.

If you cut subsidies to dairy farmers you can be sure you'd be paying a lot more for your dairy products. Someone would have to pay vets bills, food bills, storage bills. They'd sell their milk at a much higher price to make ends meet.

Dr Crayfish · 08-07-2016 2:25pm

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Gordon Gecko over here. Why on Earth do you bother? Sounds like a f**king horrible life.

freedominacup · 08-07-2016 2:32pm

FortySeven wrote: »

CAP subsidies actually raise prices due to the secondary price intervention restricting competitiveness. If we scrapped CAP we would see a period of deflation across the industry as a whole until prices stabilised. With CAP they have created a bit of a monster that is very difficult to reform without severe wide ranging implications.

Be a bit more tax money sloshing around for all instead of being funnelled straight into farmers pockets.

Thank fcuk for the CAP so. God knows what prices would be like without it. Milk price in 1989 mid season was £1.06 per gallon or 23.3 pence per litre. Milk price at farm gate today 22 cent per litre. Subsidy worth around 4cent per litre to me on top of milk price and ours would be regarded as a large subsidy. I'm willing to bet that the list of other consumer products worth less in euro today than they were in pounds almost thirty years ago is quite short.

Btw wheat this year will be getting around €130/tonne, harvest price in 1996 was around £130/tonne. Subsidy was more or less the same twenty years ago.

Great scheme CAP. Really driving farm gate prices higher, we'd be screwed without it.

FortySeven · 08-07-2016 2:32pm

LexieOnRale wrote: »

If you cut subsidies to dairy farmers you can be sure you'd be paying a lot more for your dairy products. Someone would have to pay vets bills, food bills, storage bills. They'd sell their milk at a much higher price to make ends meet.

With CAP gone we could drop the punitive import tarriffs and allow competitiveness back into the market. A lot of small farms would go out of business but that is not a bad thing. Not denying it would hurt the country short term but long term the benefits would be for everyone.

pickarooney · 08-07-2016 2:36pm

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

What on earth would possess someone to live like that?

onrail · 08-07-2016 2:40pm

pickarooney wrote: »

What on earth would possess someone to live like that?

Job satisfaction. Money.

Tbf, thats not massively far off what farmers are doing anyway - and with far, far less reward.

JinkyJackson · 08-07-2016 2:42pm

Farmers are wealthy folk with a poor mouth

jmayo · 08-07-2016 2:42pm

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Lads, laddies instead of picking on farmers we have the real enemy in our midst.
Hedge fund managers, bond managers, future traders, stockbrokers, etc they are the real enemy.

They create nothing, they grow nothing, they build nothing, they fix nothing, they trade on the hard work of others.

Oh they tell you they work hard looking at their screens watching for an increase or drop of a few percentage points so that they can pounce or run.

So less of the ire for the farmers, grab a hay fork (will sell you some cheap ones that not used since the days of the hay) and chase these out from amongst us.

Ah feck it ...
I just realised permabear has already gone.
Hell they has even forgotten his Donegal roots the poor fella.

There is no hope for him, last I heard he had gone libertarian and joined the tea-party.
Maybe he hoped they would be having cups of tea to remind him of his younger days growing up on the old farm.:D

Muckie wrote: »

Being from the country myself, worked on farms with many farmers.
Loved being out doors, its a tough job out in all kinds of weather.

Then in my 20's moved to Dublin and worked on the Buildings.
Most Farmers Sons i meet "knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing". They talked about GAA and read the Sun/Mirror newspapers.

Drove diesels full of "greeen diesel horsebox!

Maybe i worked with a bad bunch from Cavan/Kildare.

Stop hanging around with Seanie Johnston.

(this will sort the culchies from the townies)

screamer · 08-07-2016 2:47pm

I'd love to post what I think about farmers but I'd be banned from boards if I was truthful.

freedominacup · 08-07-2016 2:49pm

screamer wrote: »

I'd love to post what I think about farmers but I'd be banned from boards if I was truthful.

Pm someone. It'll probably help you if you get it off your chest.

pickarooney · 08-07-2016 2:50pm

onrail wrote: »

Job satisfaction. Money.

Tbf, thats not massively far off what farmers are doing anyway - and with far, far less reward.

What's satisfying about a never-ending cycle of work? What use is money with no time off? Sounds like the worst kind of hell to me.

the evasion_kid · 08-07-2016 2:52pm

Im from a horticultural farming area....big,thick and ignorant is how I'd describe the farmers around here...and dog rough too some of them

whisky_galore · 08-07-2016 3:04pm

A mix of decent people, hard workers, salt-of-the earth, complete bastards, chancers and opportunists, like the rest of the population.

swimming in a sea · 08-07-2016 3:07pm

Its hard to understand the mentality of farmers, I grew up in the countryside but was not from a farming family so I have only a limited insight. Truly some of them have horrible lives and then they die....

for 90% of small 30 acre farmers they would more likely sell their daughter into the sex trade rather than sell-up and that is not far fetched considering they most probably already fu*ked over their brothers to get the farm in the first place and haven't talked to them for 30 years afterwards.

I knew one farmer who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, but instead of getting rest or treatment he was negotiating the buying of another field, I think he got the deal done 2 weeks before he died.

Samaris · 08-07-2016 3:10pm

onrail wrote: »

[*]Normal people. Stop making an issue where there is no issue, you culchie gob****e.

[/LIST]

I've known plenty of farmers, and while I'd be inclined to see them as being socially less progressive, I have often been surprised at very liberal opinions from some of them. So that suggests it's my own "prejudices" rather than fact.

tayto lover · 08-07-2016 3:11pm

They seem to get loads of grants and also get to educate their children with more grants unlike many a PAYE worker. I think they manipulate their income in order to do so. Cute hoors.

whisky_galore · 08-07-2016 3:12pm

Greed is hardly confined to the farming community, we all hear of the family that tears itself apart over money or a will.

And as for 'land'...well....urban-dwelling neighbours will fight and go to court over a boundary wall or a hedge.

08-07-2016 3:42pm

tayto lover wrote: »

They seem to get loads of grants and also get to educate their children with more grants unlike many a PAYE worker. I think they manipulate their income in order to do so. Cute hoors.

This is often trotted-out against farmers, when they are more regulated than any almost any other 'sole-trader' enterprise in the country.

Unlike shopkeepers, solicitors, doctors and dentists, farmers don't tend to deal in much cash. We have more rigorous ID-systems for farm animals than we have for human beings. You cannot sell an animal without it being recorded. If you slaughter the animal, it's recorded. Your sale of barley and milk are similarly traceable, and Revenue only have to follow the cheques. There are a few occasions where dishonest farmers could sell fodder without declaring the income, but overall, the potential for tax evasion is tiny compared to other professions, especially those dealing in a lot of cash.

When my father died, the value of the will (i.e the farm) was published in the wills section of a Sunday newspaper, since newspaper editors seem to think it's in the public interest to do so. What wasn't stated, however, was that we inherited nothing but debt. Anyone reading it might think "he was a wealthy farmer", although the man had no savings and worked right into his 70s simply to pay his bills.

That's the biggest misunderstanding. Farming is a job where the assets you own are valuable, in theory, but yet they generate small incomes.

It's no good telling a farmer he can't get a grant because he's sitting on a valuable asset, if that asset is only source of his income.

I can already hear some people cry, "well then, sell the asset"

So who's going to provide your agricultural produce? What would happen to rural Ireland? What's going to fill the multi-billion euro gap in the Irish economy?

Farmers love their work, so let them get on with it without accusations of rampant tax evasion, which is altogether without foundation.

08-07-2016 3:43pm

All my life I've loved talking to older people and hearing their stories and being entertained by their expressions. My older farming relatives in particular are absolutely absorbed in the history and tradition of their land. One old uncle (who always greeted me with "Well, the Rebel!" hehe) brought me around years ago and told me the names of not only fields but corners of fields, holes in fields - it was just extraordinary the knowledge, folklore and history he had in his head. I never heard him speak so much Irish as even though the villages and towns had been anglicised around him these field names were not. One name in particular I recall - Caltra - and he explained there was an old graveyard right underneath us and to look over at the wall and the remnants of headstones. Back in the 1960s or 70s a group of archaeologists came out from Dublin and carted away a bunch of Ogham stones, which upon inquiry ten years ago were lying in storage in Collins Barracks for want of space in the display area. You can really feel the pull of the land, the tradition, the sense of place in the world, right there in those fields. Very philosophical stuff.

He's long passed away now and his son who took over the farm is a bit, eh, "culturally challenged", so I don't expect these names to live on. On the other hand, I see volunteers in three counties at least have compiled field names and their histories and recorded them for posterity. Fantastic service for future generations.

Louth Field Names Project

Kilkenny Field Names Project

Meath Field Names Project

gimmick · 08-07-2016 3:45pm

JinkyJackson wrote: »

Farmers are wealthy folk with a poor mouth

Exactly. No such thing as a poor farmer.

whisky_galore · 08-07-2016 3:47pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

That's the biggest misunderstanding. Farming is a job where the assets you own are valuable, in theory, but yet they generate small incomes.

It's no good telling a farmer he can't get a grant because he's sitting on a valuable asset, if that asset is only source of his income.

I can already hear some people cry, "well then, sell the asset"

This is such a crock, it's like telling the owner of a business leave all his employees go and to sell up.

Blowfish · 08-07-2016 3:50pm

pickarooney wrote: »

What's satisfying about a never-ending cycle of work? What use is money with no time off? Sounds like the worst kind of hell to me.

If you actually enjoy doing your job, you'll have far less of a 'need' to have time off.

As for farmers, I actually don't know enough to give much of an opinion either way, but the fact that the Farming forum here on boards has a serious discussion about water divining on its front page doesn't exactly give it the impression of being a particularly efficient and modernised occupation...

fepper · 08-07-2016 3:54pm

Samaris wrote: »

I've known plenty of farmers, and while I'd be inclined to see them as being socially less progressive, I have often been surprised at very liberal opinions from some of them. So that suggests it's my own "prejudices" rather than fact.

Socially less progressive?? Are we?

tayto lover · 08-07-2016 3:56pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

This is often trotted-out against farmers, when they are more regulated than any almost any other 'sole-trader' enterprise in the country.

Unlike shopkeepers, solicitors, doctors and dentists, farmers don't tend to deal in much cash. We have more rigorous ID-systems for farm animals than we have for human beings. You cannot sell an animal without it being recorded. If you slaughter the animal, it's recorded. Your sale of barley and milk are similarly traceable, and Revenue only have to follow the cheques. There are a few occasions where dishonest farmers could sell fodder without declaring the income, but overall, the potential for tax evasion is tiny compared to other professions, especially those dealing in a lot of cash.

When my father died, the value of the will (i.e the farm) was published in the wills section of a Sunday newspaper, since newspaper editors seem to think it's in the public interest to do so. What wasn't stated, however, was that we inherited nothing but debt. Anyone reading it might think "he was a wealthy farmer", although the man had no savings and worked right into his 70s simply to pay his bills.

That's the biggest misunderstanding. Farming is a job where the assets you own are valuable, in theory, but yet they generate small incomes.

It's no good telling a farmer he can't get a grant because he's sitting on a valuable asset, if that asset is only source of his income.

I can already hear some people cry, "well then, sell the asset"

So who's going to provide your agricultural produce? What would happen to rural Ireland? What's going to fill the multi-billion euro gap in the Irish economy?

Farmers love their work, so let them get on with it without accusations of rampant tax evasion, which is altogether without foundation.

But the vast majority of their children get their college fees paid and grants while in education unlike the vast majority of PAYE workers. How do you explain that?

fepper · 08-07-2016 3:58pm

gimmick wrote: »

Exactly. No such thing as a poor farmer.

We are certainly not poor but our yearly incomes are not giving us the lavish lifestyles we crave

onrail · 08-07-2016 4:08pm

tayto lover wrote: »

But the vast majority of their children get their college fees paid and grants while in education unlike the vast majority of PAYE workers. How do you explain that?

Eh...

Their incomes are lower than the grant thresholds.

Those 'vast majority' of PAYE workers have incomes which are above said grant thresholds.

Or am I missing something

kowloon · 08-07-2016 4:12pm

RayM wrote: »

You feed beef burgers to swans. And if you see a lovely field with a family having a picnic, and there's a nice pond in it, you fill in the pond with concrete, you plough the family into the field, you blow up the tree, and use the leaves to make a dress for your wife who's also your brother.

They have 20 foot high chickens and those chickens are scared because they don't know why they're so big.

Everyones Opinions on Farmers

Comments