Bad Weather - Sick of Rainy Ireland.

tolteq

Farmers,

how are you coping with the bad weather lately?

my father is depressed. A neighbour of ours took his farming enterprise to france. everybody in the neighbourhood laughed at him. i guess he is having the last laugh

I am thinking of going to Dubai. Its hot there.

dryan

Same here. The auld lad is going insane.
Im lucky enough to have a day job to keep the mind occupied.
Tend to leave the farming jobs till the long evenings and the weekends.
Cant get anything done at all.
Have about 10 acres under water (shannon winter flood).
Lost about 15 acres of winter fodded to last summers flood - things not looking too promising for this summer!!

54321

Maybe I'm strange or something but the weather never affects me. You just work with it and see the up side.

irish_bob

tolteq wrote: »

Farmers,

how are you coping with the bad weather lately?

my father is depressed. A neighbour of ours took his farming enterprise to france. everybody in the neighbourhood laughed at him. i guess he is having the last laugh

I am thinking of going to Dubai. Its hot there.

dubai is a hell hole , only people who made money there are crooked property developers

seriously though , by far the biggest challenge facing farmers going forward is climate change , everything else pales by comparrison

il gatto

We have a veg plot with nothing but cabbage plants in it. Too wet to plant seed or sets. Can't top grass. Can't even spray weeds on the street. Sickening. Please God, don't let it be like the last two years.

Sam Kade

irish_bob wrote: »

dubai is a hell hole , only people who made money there are crooked property developers

seriously though , by far the biggest challenge facing farmers going forward is climate change , everything else pales by comparrison

But the climate is always changing, we got wet years before just because this looks like it's going to be another bad summer which will make it three in a row doesn't mean that the weather is doomed forever.

colrow

There was something in the papers a few weeks ago that June and July were going to be schorchers, wonder will that happen ?

irish_bob

Sam Kade wrote: »

But the climate is always changing, we got wet years before just because this looks like it's going to be another bad summer which will make it three in a row doesn't mean that the weather is doomed forever.

ask any farmer over 40 whether or not its wetter nowadays , to a man , the answer will be the same for the most part

Casinoking

Everyone always goes on about the wet summers of 85 and 86, combines getting stuck in fields and hay floating away down the river. The world didn't end though did it?!

Sam Kade

irish_bob wrote: »

ask any farmer over 40 whether or not its wetter nowadays , to a man , the answer will be the same for the most part

As it so happens I am a farmer over 40.

irish_bob

Casinoking wrote: »

Everyone always goes on about the wet summers of 85 and 86, combines getting stuck in fields and hay floating away down the river. The world didn't end though did it?!

factualy speaking both 2007 and 2008 were wetter than 1985 , baschically thier was more rain the past two years, check the met records

a neighbour of mine who is 60 has a theory about why 1985 is so legendary in farmers minds , he reckons that back then , you needed at least a week to make 100 acres of silage and while most farmers wouldnt have had that amount to make , baschically even on averae sized farms , making the silage took two to three days , nowadays unless its a huge farm , it takes a day to bring in silage what with the huge machinery in use , only problem last summer was that you couldnt even get one good day ,add to that the fact that in 1985 it was mostly two wheel drive tractors and smaller horse power ones at that , conditons didnt have to be that bad to encounter problems

regarding the issue of climate change , thier is a consensus among experts that its happening , thier was no such view in 1985

pakalasa

If I remember right, '85 was the year that most farmers switched from making hay to making silage.

Have a look at the following for the Met Eireann records on 2008 rainfall.
http://www.met.ie/climate/monthlyBulletins/Summer2008rainfall.pdf

tolteq

irish_bob wrote: »

dubai is a hell hole , only people who made money there are crooked property developers

seriously though , by far the biggest challenge facing farmers going forward is climate change , everything else pales by comparrison

You know I read a very damming article online in the British independent about Dubai. All these slave workers.

I just want to go to teach english really.

man i need a break away from this rain. it is doing my head in. it winds and it rains and it winds and rains again. i am sick of it. my father is sick of it. even people in the city are sick of it.

irish people we have had enough. lol.

mikemac

I predict a thread in two months time complaining about drought.
Gonna be a scorcher of a summer.......or so the taxi drivers tell me and they know everything

emaherx

irish_bob wrote: »

factualy speaking both 2007 and 2008 were wetter than 1985 , baschically thier was more rain the past two years, check the met records

a neighbour of mine who is 60 has a theory about why 1985 is so legendary in farmers minds , he reckons that back then , you needed at least a week to make 100 acres of silage and while most farmers wouldnt have had that amount to make , baschically even on averae sized farms , making the silage took two to three days , nowadays unless its a huge farm , it takes a day to bring in silage what with the huge machinery in use , only problem last summer was that you couldnt even get one good day ,add to that the fact that in 1985 it was mostly two wheel drive tractors and smaller horse power ones at that , conditons didnt have to be that bad to encounter problems

regarding the issue of climate change , thier is a consensus among experts that its happening , thier was no such view in 1985

I have to agree with this, Back in 1985 we had a MF165, a 4 foot mower and a small Newholland square baler. Today we have 3 80-95HP tractors with 4 wheel drive a 9ft mower, round baler and wrapper.
In 85 we had a cattle die due to bad fodder.

This winter and last winter we had perfect quality fodder due to having the right machines ready to go when ever we got any break in the weather.

In one day we now bale draw home wrap and stack. We give grass 2 days to wilt so it takes 3 good days in a row, even last year that was possible.

irish_bob

mikemac wrote: »

I predict a thread in two months time complaining about drought.
Gonna be a scorcher of a summer.......or so the taxi drivers tell me and they know everything

no such thing as a real drought in this country and besides the majority of people dont have land that is in anyway effected , especially considering the land presently is saturated

agree on the taxi dirvers , thier like the shoe shiners in american in the 1920,s , john f kennedys father claimed he pulled all his money out of stocks and shares after hearing from a shoe shiner that thier was a crash coming , ha ha

54321

The point made above about tractors and machinery being more advanced these days to cope with bad weather is an excellent point. Farming has moved on alot since 1985. Today there is a huge emphasis on technical efficiency. It was important back then too but not as much so.

On the climate change issue, it is fair to say that we simply don't know what is going to happen with the weather.

Personally I don't buy the absolute belief that there is catastrophic global warming on the way.

It has more to do with a "left wing, lets control people, with tax and guilt for existing at all notion" than it has to do with actual facts.

Sam Kade

54321 wrote: »

The point made above about tractors and machinery being more advanced these days to cope with bad weather is an excellent point. Farming has moved on alot since 1985. Today there is a huge emphasis on technical efficiency. It was important back then too but not as much so.

On the climate change issue, it is fair to say that we simply don't know what is going to happen with the weather.

Personally I don't buy the absolute belief that there is catastrophic global warming on the way.

It has more to do with a "left wing, lets control people, with tax and guilt for existing at all notion" than it has to do with actual facts.

I totally agree with you on climate change that it's to gain more power over people. Bob if you were around in 1984 and 1989 you would have seen drought in Ireland. In 84 it didn't rain from April to september farmers were even spreading water with vacum tankers after spreading fertilizer it was so dry. 81 was a washout cows housed in june. 85 it rained all summer whether the tractors could cope with it or not.

irish_bob

54321 wrote: »

The point made above about tractors and machinery being more advanced these days to cope with bad weather is an excellent point. Farming has moved on alot since 1985. Today there is a huge emphasis on technical efficiency. It was important back then too but not as much so.

On the climate change issue, it is fair to say that we simply don't know what is going to happen with the weather.

Personally I don't buy the absolute belief that there is catastrophic global warming on the way.

It has more to do with a "left wing, lets control people, with tax and guilt for existing at all notion" than it has to do with actual facts.

im anything but a left winger and while i absolutley believe that climate change is happening , ive no idea whether man is causing it or not , that is still an open question but to deny its very existance outright is just silly and makes you sound like paddy o keefe from the farmers journal
thier is an abundance of facts and evidence that suggests climate change is happening , to claim that scientists are making it up as part of some grand conspirocy is just silly , what is much more believable is that oil companys would spend money on making bogus cliams in order to try and debunk a theory which the vast majority of scientists ( greater minds than you or me ) agree on

irish_bob

Sam Kade wrote: »

I totally agree with you on climate change that it's to gain more power over people. Bob if you were around in 1984 and 1989 you would have seen drought in Ireland. In 84 it didn't rain from April to september farmers were even spreading water with vacum tankers after spreading fertilizer it was so dry. 81 was a washout cows housed in june. 85 it rained all summer whether the tractors could cope with it or not.

every summer in newzealand farmers encounter problems due to lack of rainfall and the fact that most land in newzealand is gravel once you go down a few inches , most land in ireland is not and extended periods of dry weather only effect the minority who have exceptional dry ground , you could go 3 months without a drop of land on my brothers farm and it wouldnt have any negative consequences

regarding it raining every day in 1985 , it may have done but it still wasnt as wet at 2008 , statistically speaking , on the 2nd saturday in august last year, they had a months rain in one afternoon in dublin

adne

irish_bob wrote: »

on the 2nd saturday in august last year, they had a months rain in one afternoon in dublin

God was trying to cleanse the filthy Dubs :P:P:P

emaherx

irish_bob wrote: »

regarding it raining every day in 1985 , it may have done but it still wasnt as wet at 2008 , statistically speaking , on the 2nd saturday in august last year, they had a months rain in one afternoon in dublin

Rain everyday without let up causes more problems for the (hay/silage season) than a months rain in one afternoon.

last year was the wetest on record but that was mostly down to an usauly large amount of rain in one month (not that the rest of the summer was fantastic). I made a good bit of hay/Silage last year in excellent conditions though it was early in the summer.

There wasn't even that in 1985, though I see the point that last years weather was a lot more freak.

tolteq

adne wrote: »

God was trying to cleanse the filthy Dubs :P:P:P

lool. now there's no need for that.

Sam Kade

irish_bob wrote: »

every summer in newzealand farmers encounter problems due to lack of rainfall and the fact that most land in newzealand is gravel once you go down a few inches , most land in ireland is not and extended periods of dry weather only effect the minority who have exceptional dry ground , you could go 3 months without a drop of land on my brothers farm and it wouldnt have any negative consequences

regarding it raining every day in 1985 , it may have done but it still wasnt as wet at 2008 , statistically speaking , on the 2nd saturday in august last year, they had a months rain in one afternoon in dublin

I saved hay in June 2008 and again in July without rain both times. I had a round baler out on hire in 85 and there was no hay saved without rain. You obviously have not been around long enough to see the effect of a dry summer in Ireland.

kfk

irish_bob wrote: »

most land in Ireland is not and extended periods of dry weather only effect the minority who have exceptional dry ground , you could go 3 months without a drop of land on my brothers farm and it wouldn't have any negative consequences

3 months without rain would have a negative impact on the majority of land in Ireland. Unless you are living in a bog, dry spells of 3 months are not good.

Turbury

What I cant understand is, the Climate experts are continuously telling us that Ireland will get drier summers and wetter winters as a result of climate change - but as far as I can see the trend seems to be going in the opposite direction.

Anyway to sum it all up, while driving through Mayo yesterday I saw some poor lad in a JD66 with good rubber up to his axles in a field trying to spread some fertilizer - I'd say he's definitely sick of rainy Ireland!

leg wax

yee all should move to the sunny south east. first cut silage in yesterday dust all over the place, it was light 9 bales to the acre, new grass in dry happy days,got some fright when saw the farming independent man standing in field of water, different world.

MfMan

leg wax wrote: »

yee all should move to the sunny south east. first cut silage in yesterday dust all over the place, it was light 9 bales to the acre, new grass in dry happy days,got some fright when saw the farming independent man standing in field of water, different world.

Different world is right. Here in Galway, like many places along the western seaboard, land is still saturated after wet few weeks, particularly last Friday night which was wicked. Still too wet to shake fertilizer for silage, already nearly 3 weeks late. Anything we get from being in a severely disadvantaged area we earn I tell youse!

il gatto

We made silage for the first time in 1985. It was horrible. Tractors sunk everywhere, lights shorting out in the deluge. Biggest problem was that nobody had the equipment. We had to get those big plastic sacks as there wasn't a wrapper anywhere. Trying to pull bags onto bales in the dark whilst up to your ankles in mud was like a scene from a war movie.

Having said that, the rain just came at the wrong time for most people. The last two years have had a continuous high level of precipitation, meaning that regardless of whether the rain was very heavy or not, the ground never dried up.

djmc

I am farming in kerry on the westeren seabord on a mountain in a bog
bring on the drought:)

pakalasa

irish_bob wrote: »

.......... makes you sound like paddy o keefe from the farmers journal.....

Couldn't agree more - he refered to those scientists as 'high priests' there a few weeks back. I think he sees it as a direct attack on irish agriculture with the high number of cattle we have, methane emmissions and all that.

Even his pontificating on the economy at times is so vague, as to be pointless.

irish_bob

pakalasa wrote: »

Couldn't agree more - he refered to those scientists as 'high priests' there a few weeks back. I think he sees it as a direct attack on irish agriculture with the high number of cattle we have, methane emmissions and all that.

Even his pontificating on the economy at times is so vague, as to be pointless.

while im to the right myself polticially , like most people im a pinko compared to paddy o keefe , paddy o keefe is extreme right , any acceptance of climate change is unaceptable to him as it does not make it onto the approoved list of right wing causes , without any evidence , the man arrogantly dismisses climate change outright , i believe it has nothing to do with any beliefe that climate change policy would effect agriculture here , it simply offends his idealogical outlook , the guy is an idealogue in the extreme right sense , hes an irish neo con

ive no problem at all with his scathing critiscisms of the unions in this country , hes often spot on in his assessments of the countrys economic issues but at times he completley looses the plot , i was very very tempted to put pen to paper a year ago or so after he wrote an article about a trip hed made to south america , what he wrote was not only outrageous but outright lies

he spoke of how on a trip to CHILE , he was impressed at the positive legacy left by AUGUSTO PINOCHET and how pinochet had undone the damage cause by his murderous predascessor , salvadore alande

anyone that knows anything about history knows that while ALLANDE was a left winger , he was democratically ellected , PINOCHET with the backing of the CIA ousted him in a millitary coup and for the next 12 years rounded up and murdered thousands of left wing ( alleged communist ) activists and regular citizens , only he was too old , pinochet would have stood trial for war crimes , it was an astonishing article in its sheer dishonesty , had the article been writtein in the likes of the irish independant or irish times , o keefe would have had to resign , while farmers are the salt of the earth , they do tend to have a small narrow and parochial world view and i suspect the reason thier wasnt a single letter to the editor the following week confirms that farmers are by and large only concerned with actual issues covered in the farmers journal that are directly related to agriculture

Sam Kade

Bob why didn't you write a letter of complaint to the editor?

irish_bob

Sam Kade wrote: »

Bob why didn't you write a letter of complaint to the editor?

i dont like making my opinions known to such a wide audience , in rural ireland , that results in sneering and deriedement

54321

irish_bob wrote: »

im anything but a left winger and while i absolutley believe that climate change is happening , ive no idea whether man is causing it or not , that is still an open question but to deny its very existance outright is just silly and makes you sound like paddy o keefe from the farmers journal
thier is an abundance of facts and evidence that suggests climate change is happening , to claim that scientists are making it up as part of some grand conspirocy is just silly , what is much more believable is that oil companys would spend money on making bogus cliams in order to try and debunk a theory which the vast majority of scientists ( greater minds than you or me ) agree on

Firstly, I'm not Paddy O Keeffe, so lets get that out of the way first.

Secondly, I didn't "deny its very existence outright" as you put it. I said and I quote " On the climate change issue, it is fair to say that we simply don't know what is going to happen with the weather". That's my quote.

What I did say was that personally I don't buy the absolute belief that there is catastrophic global warming on the way.

These are two different things. The climate is always changing and we simply don't know whether we are influencing the climate to change right now.

But those people of all political ideologies (but mostly far left) have, over the past twenty years, claimed that there was catastrophic global warming. But the facts did not stack up and these eco warriors then cleverly changed their message to one of "Climate Change" which tends to to be unarguable.

Of course there is Climate Change. The Climate is always changing!

But that is not the point. They claimed there would be an Ice Age in the 70's, then they claimed that there would be global warming. They can't make up their minds.

And not all scientists agree. There are many scientists who disagree utterly with the conclusions of the eco crew. Also the money for research will follow what is trendy.

Who there right mind would fund a scientist to disprove man made global warming. Imagine the abuse they would get!

irish_bob

54321 wrote: »

Firstly, I'm not Paddy O Keeffe, so lets get that out of the way first.

Secondly, I didn't "deny its very existence outright" as you put it. I said and I quote " On the climate change issue, it is fair to say that we simply don't know what is going to happen with the weather". That's my quote.

What I did say was that personally I don't buy the absolute belief that there is catastrophic global warming on the way.

These are two different things. The climate is always changing and we simply don't know whether we are influencing the climate to change right now.

But those people of all political ideologies (but mostly far left) have, over the past twenty years, claimed that there was catastrophic global warming. But the facts did not stack up and these eco warriors then cleverly changed their message to one of "Climate Change" which tends to to be unarguable.

Of course there is Climate Change. The Climate is always changing!

But that is not the point. They claimed there would be an Ice Age in the 70's, then they claimed that there would be global warming. They can't make up their minds.

And not all scientists agree. There are many scientists who disagree utterly with the conclusions of the eco crew. Also the money for research will follow what is trendy.

Who there right mind would fund a scientist to disprove man made global warming. Imagine the abuse they would get!

several oil companies have funded phoney and bogus studys which surprise surprise concluded that climate change doesnt exist , thier was a docu on channell 4 a few years ago , a bunch of scientists were lined up , each attempted to provde evidence that climate change is a hoax , all were found to be in the pockets of oil companys and thier claims have been debunked

al gore probably the most prominent voice on presenting the case for climate change is hardly what you would call far left

adne

I think ye are gone off the point of the original thread.....

whelan1

i heard the weather forecast on radio 1 this morning and after it they had an ad for the samaritans

bbam

This is madness... fields are cutting up faster than the cows can eat the grass..
Our grazing land is low-lying and this continuous rain is way byond a joke, it's making walking the land a chore, there wouldn't be a chance of getting a tractor out at the moment, thankfully we got rushes cut in April..

10 day forcast is showing 7 more days rain :eek: , the other 3 cloudy :mad:
Temperatures 4 degrees below average

How's grass growth going?, our silage is coming slowly considering its mid-may..

adne

bbam wrote: »

How's grass growth going?, our silage is coming slowly considering its mid-may..

Grass growth is way behind normal..... I have meadow fields closed off since Mar and fertilized 8-9 weeks... It should be ready for harvesting under normal conditions... its not even 3/4 ready

MfMan

At least you got fertilizer out. Have slurry out for a month but haven't had a chance to apply fertilizer on top for silage. Never in my life seen May as bad - a critical month in terms of work for the rest of the year. Ash trees aren't in leaf yet and some cattle haven't shed their winter coats either.

dryan

Have a number of fields beside the river shannon - checked yesterday and they are now under water.
Another disasterous year ahead!!

pakalasa

dryan wrote: »

Have a number of fields beside the river shannon - checked yesterday and they are now under water.
Another disasterous year ahead!!

We have land bordering the Shannon also but funny enough this land holds up the best in weather like this. The drainage is excellent, we are on the estuary with sluice gates etc. The ground is a heavy clay and the cattle don't seem to sink as much.
It is our up-land that suffers the most, 8" of loose topsoil with very firm subsoil.

Has anyone noticed how big the rain droplets are. Jazus this like tropical rain.:mad::mad:

irish_bob

as someone said to me recently, thier are no light showers anymore , i believe we will soon have to throw out the rulebook of how things are done in this country regarding agriculture , apart from those on dry land , dairy farmers will have to have a complete rethink of how they produce milk , i can invisage an indoor style of production akin to the usa or the netherlands being the norm in the future , therefore we will be back to year round calving with american holstien cows who eat three tonne of meal but yield 10,000 litres of milk plus

this year , farmers with 1200 gallon cows are no more low cost than the few farmers in the northern ireland who keep their cows in all year round, at least the 2000 gallon cow will reward you for 2 tonne of meal per year

climate change is happening , lets deal with it

tolteq

Hi all.


Bad days. Bad days.

Was coming home in the car today and the rain was aggressive hailstones. I thought they were going to smash the window in

When is it going to stop. I am starting to get depressed myself.

massey woman

Agree with all posts but what about the cost of this bad weather and how can we recover these costs as an industry
We have all our cattle back in the sheds
We had the vet more times this year than ever
We have lost cattle to viruses and illnesses our vet never experienced although he is in his 60's and top notch
We have un budgeted bills for,meal ,fertilizer,extra silage,pumping of slurry because of trafficability ,time and diesel rolling and chain harrowing
Cattle are not thriving and in fact some are losing weight and are mad to get back in
Add to that the income levy and the shi**t prices for our products
As the primary producer we are totally fuc**d by the power of others and our key position on the supply chain is worthless
Do a Porters 5 Forces on Agri and see how easy it is to control our business
All the above is before we consider the adverse effect of this weather on our physical make up
CHIN UP !!

charliecon

Ok this is just my take on farming at present; for a start most people are way overstocked to cope with anything out of the ordinary like this weather. I am farming on typical wet heavy Cavan land but I haven't had to rehouse any cattle ,they have plenty of grass and good shelter along the hedges and are out since Paddys day - its a suckler farm and stocked at 1 cow per 2 acres. They are doing feck all poaching of the ground ,nothing that would bother ya anyway and I reckon the reason for that is because I quit using fertilizer 3 years ago and I put slurry out just before they go into the sheds in November .
Now I don't have any scientific basis for saying this but the combination of fertilizer and slurry seems to turn land, around here anyway, into a bog . I have as much money in my pocket now as when I was stocked at twice the number cos costs are absolutely slashed - no meal bill, no fertilizer bill, no bill for another slatted shed and the vet is practically just a once a year visitor now.
All cows calved outdoors with no assistance to a charolais bull and all live calves ,same last year.

Bitten & Hisses

charliecon wrote: »

Ok this is just my take on farming at present; for a start most people are way overstocked to cope with anything out of the ordinary like this weather. I am farming on typical wet heavy Cavan land but I haven't had to rehouse any cattle ,they have plenty of grass and good shelter along the hedges and are out since Paddys day - its a suckler farm and stocked at 1 cow per 2 acres. They are doing feck all poaching of the ground ,nothing that would bother ya anyway and I reckon the reason for that is because I quit using fertilizer 3 years ago and I put slurry out just before they go into the sheds in November .
Now I don't have any scientific basis for saying this but the combination of fertilizer and slurry seems to turn land, around here anyway, into a bog . I have as much money in my pocket now as when I was stocked at twice the number cos costs are absolutely slashed - no meal bill, no fertilizer bill, no bill for another slatted shed and the vet is practically just a once a year visitor now.
All cows calved outdoors with no assistance to a charolais bull and all live calves ,same last year.

Sounds to me like you should be thinking about going organic, if you haven't already. You seem to be more or less operating that system, so why not get it rubber-stamped and get a premium for your produce?

irish_bob

charliecon wrote: »

Ok this is just my take on farming at present; for a start most people are way overstocked to cope with anything out of the ordinary like this weather. I am farming on typical wet heavy Cavan land but I haven't had to rehouse any cattle ,they have plenty of grass and good shelter along the hedges and are out since Paddys day - its a suckler farm and stocked at 1 cow per 2 acres. They are doing feck all poaching of the ground ,nothing that would bother ya anyway and I reckon the reason for that is because I quit using fertilizer 3 years ago and I put slurry out just before they go into the sheds in November .
Now I don't have any scientific basis for saying this but the combination of fertilizer and slurry seems to turn land, around here anyway, into a bog . I have as much money in my pocket now as when I was stocked at twice the number cos costs are absolutely slashed - no meal bill, no fertilizer bill, no bill for another slatted shed and the vet is practically just a once a year visitor now.
All cows calved outdoors with no assistance to a charolais bull and all live calves ,same last year.

most farmers in ireland bar about 50% of dairy farmers are lightly stocked in this country , you are every lightly stocked and as someone pointed out , perhaps should consider going organic , i agree with you about slurry , bar very dry land , i firmly believe slurry ( not dung ) does more harm than good , that said , you have to do something with it

charliecon

I still want to be able to use antibiotics and dosing and besides I'm not convinced that there is much of a premium to the farmer for producing cattle organically in this country - seems to me that the supermarket creams off that bonus for themselves as usual:rolleyes:

Bitten & Hisses

Organic dairy farmers are getting over 30 cent per litre at the moment.