Farming Chit Chat

johngalway

I'd get another source. He forecasted a white February too. Though, the weather forum does have some good sources and through to next weekend isn't supposed to be the greatest temperature wise I believe.

There's an interesting thread there on a "super moon" as well.

mikemac

Listening to Joe Duffy over last week, yes I know, I know

All this talk about fuel being stolen has me paranoid.
And the tank with green diesel on the farm has never been secured, a bit careless on my part.

Trying to weld a sort of metal cover which can be secured then.
I've a extremely good and expensive padlock designed for motorcylce theft so just need this cover

And one thing done over the weekend was move the tools out of the farmyard and back to the house.

cjpm

feelingstressed wrote: »

Listening to Joe Duffy over last week, yes I know, I know

All this talk about fuel being stolen has me paranoid.
And the tank with green diesel on the farm has never been secured, a bit careless on my part.

Trying to weld a sort of metal cover which can be secured then.
I've a extremely good and expensive padlock designed for motorcylce theft so just need this cover

And one thing done over the weekend was move the tools out of the farmyard and back to the house.

No padlock will keep them out i'm afraid....
The latest trick is to drill a hole in the tank.

I'd say you'd be better off moving the tank to an out of the way spot. Get a cross dog too while you're at it.

jeff greene

cjpm wrote: »

No padlock will keep them out i'm afraid....
The latest trick is to drill a hole in the tank.

I'd say you'd be better off moving the tank to an out of the way spot. Get a cross dog too while you're at it.

I have a dummy tank in the yard that is empty with the real tank out the back hidden. They can see the empty tank straight away as they enter the yard so that should put them off.

leg wax

with my wife been a sargent she was telling me that there is a lot of claims going in for stolen oil to insurance companies,but a very high % are people after running out of oil and cannot refill it with the price and with them out of work.not everyone is at it but a lot have been caught, when the guards come along to look at the scene there is no sight of any tampering or spilling of oil around the tank.

johngalway

jeff greene wrote: »

I have a dummy tank in the yard that is empty

Put a bit in it and dose it with sugar :cool: Serves them right if they're using it themselves, and, to be honest, lads buying it off them are just as bad.

funny man

Any crack CONOR what are you at these days, hows the cows doing?

C0N0R

funny man wrote: »

Any crack CONOR what are you at these days, hows the cows doing?

All seems to be quiet down here, was away down to queenstown and around the south island for four days there, drank to much and spent even more! But it's nice to see about the country, some fantastic scenery about here, breathtaking and so different compared to home.

The farm is ticking over with nothing major happening, started to try to find out why the fence has so little power in it, and it's alot of fence to drive along to check but it has to be done as the cows are starting to break over. Had another two autumn calves, both bulls. Good news is that they are in a pen and are been fed, so they might be luckier than the last. Started making a small set of yards on an outfarm, not easy putting 2.4m strainers in the ground anyway!

Went into Christchurch one day to help with the shovelling **** cleanup, it's amazing what one earthquake can do to so many people, was good to help. Did it through federated farmers and it was so good to see the help farmers were giving. Made me wonder what sort of help there would be at home if the same thing happened.

Other than that there is nothing major to report, cows are milking steady enough, solids going up litres going down. How's life at home? Did fine Gael get a majority? Made life any easier yet?

I'm away to get the first herd for milking now.

C0N0R

Ah gutted, managed to lose my pocket knife this afternoon, lost without it now, managed to get seven years out of it though.

vanderbadger

had my 3rd parthenaise calf, 3 heifers so far as if i havent enough :rolleyes:, pulled this one as cow was making no great shape, a big calf but no hassle, i think why they calf easier seems to be that they are very slinder calves, the last 2 were out of red lim cows and both are completely red, black nose is the giveaway though

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

had my 3rd parthenaise calf, 3 heifers so far as if i havent enough :rolleyes:, pulled this one as cow was making no great shape, a big calf but no hassle, i think why they calf easier seems to be that they are very slinder calves, the last 2 were out of red lim cows and both are completely red, black nose is the giveaway though

What's the muscle like on them Van? How would they compare with, lets say, a Belgian Blue for shape at a week or 2 in age (especially the one you had to pull)??

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

What's the muscle like on them Van? How would they compare with, lets say, a Belgian Blue for shape at a week or 2 in age (especially the one you had to pull)??

well the 2 off the lims are only a few days but they dont have that muscle that a blue would have at birth, whether they will shape up i dont know, they are quite tall so it will be interesting to see how they look in a week or two when they fill out a bit, they would prob be good heifers to breed off again down the road, they seem to be reasonably lively calves

DerMac

Everyone - Check out a new DeHorner called the 'Horn up' O'Donovan Engineering have added it to their product list. http://www.odonovaneng.ie/agricultural-products/calf-products/hornup/ There is a video of it in action
Looks like a mighty job and there is a promotion week there this week. They are throwing in hair trimmer for nothing when you purchase one of them.
Check it out - D

JCB1

I like the look of the 'Horn Up' Dehorner - seems to be very easy on man and calf. Has anyone any experience of its effectiveness ? Also any idea on cost ?

DerMac

I spoke to one of the Lads in O'Donovans. He used it dehorning 3 calves and was very impressed with it. Regarding effectiveness (Does it actually kill the horn growth): The product is only on the market in France since Sept 2010 so no one really knows yet I suppose. The key to it is Dehorning while the bud is small and not attached to the skull. Approx up to 4 weeks. The horn up will NOT work once the horn is attached to the skull.

Bizzum

JCB1 wrote: »

Also any idea on cost ?

I asked the same question this morning, but now I know:
€290+VAT inc free trimmer for this week.
Normally €350+VAT.

whelan1

was missing a cow this evening , had to go the whole way back up to field to get her , i hate when that happens :mad:

C0N0R

whelan1 wrote: »

was missing a cow this evening , had to go the whole way back up to field to get her , i hate when that happens :mad:

Know the feeling. Me and me father were milking one Sunday morning and come the end of milking we were two cows short, went back out to the field and found the two of them had broken over into a small bog. Had to get a neighbour with a digger to get them out, such torture.

Over here you wouldn't notice if you were missing 60 cows!

dar31

just proved that men cant multi task.
tried to ring missus while feeding calves, got fed up waiting for her to answer so i stuck phone between ear and shoulder so i could get on with it, guess where the phone landed, into a bucket of lovely fresh biestings.
saved the sim, phone knackered.
backed it up last month so not to bad.

whelan1

hate that . my phone landed in the wash trough in dairy a few years ago:mad:

whelan1

C0N0R wrote: »

Know the feeling. Me and me father were milking one Sunday morning and come the end of milking we were two cows short, went back out to the field and found the two of them had broken over into a small bog. Had to get a neighbour with a digger to get them out, such torture.

Over here you wouldn't notice if you were missing 60 cows!

my late uncle would never write the stock count down , so he was insisting we where missing a beast, my dad and i spent the whole day walking through gorse and bog looking for an imaginary missing animal:mad:... he was not popular when we realised

pajero12

dar31 wrote: »

just proved that men cant multi task.
tried to ring missus while feeding calves, got fed up waiting for her to answer so i stuck phone between ear and shoulder so i could get on with it, guess where the phone landed, into a bucket of lovely fresh biestings.
saved the sim, phone knackered.
backed it up last month so not to bad.

Dissasemble it as much as you can and leave it in a hot press or on a towel on a radiator, Should be fine in a few days

pakalasa

dar31 wrote: »

just proved that men cant multi task.
tried to ring missus while feeding calves, got fed up waiting for her to answer so i stuck phone between ear and shoulder so i could get on with it, guess where the phone landed, into a bucket of lovely fresh biestings.
saved the sim, phone knackered.
backed it up last month so not to bad.

Seriously though, get yourself a Samsung B2100. You can even work them under water. Great for a farm. You just wash it under the tap when it gets dirty. Not that dear either, cheaper than the normal Nokia, from what I remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYNf00A1QSc&feature=related

C0N0R

pajero12 wrote: »

Dissasemble it as much as you can and leave it in a hot press or on a towel on a radiator, Should be fine in a few days

Also heard leaving it in a bowl of rice is good to. You shouldn't try and turn it on anyway as it can short. Failing that get a waterproof phone

johngalway

whelan1 wrote: »

my late uncle would never write the stock count down , so he was insisting we where missing a beast, my dad and i spent the whole day walking through gorse and bog looking for an imaginary missing animal:mad:... he was not popular when we realised

I spent part of a day looking for a cow & calf years ago.

We'd moved them the day before :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

keep going

whelan1 wrote: »

was missing a cow this evening , had to go the whole way back up to field to get her , i hate when that happens :mad:

as long as she can walk home i dont mind. usually there s something wrong if one is missing

whelan1

lads i got badly stung with the new wages after the budget turns out the 450 home that my worker was getting was costing mr 593 per week with the new usc etc:eek: might be no harm for ye to check it out

Atilathehun

whelan1 wrote: »

lads i got badly stung with the new wages after the budget turns out the 450 home that my worker was getting was costing mr 593 per week with the new usc etc:eek: might be no harm for ye to check it out

Anyone who has agreed a wage "in the pocket", is going to pay more and more over the next few years to deliver the in the pocket amount. Personal taxes and levies will go up and up. If you have agreed the in the pocket amount, then you will just end up paying the employees taxes for them:pac:

Tipp Man

whelan1 wrote: »

lads i got badly stung with the new wages after the budget turns out the 450 home that my worker was getting was costing mr 593 per week with the new usc etc:eek: might be no harm for ye to check it out

You should never pay somebody a "take home" wage for 2 main reasons:

1) you are liable for all of the tax increases that happen
2) the employee will benefit from any refunds etc - so if the tax paid for that employee was too much for 2011 the refund goes to the employee and not you. This happens quite regularly (if for example the employee doesn't claim all their tax credits you end up paying too much tax and they get the refund at year end)

whelan1

just aswell he's not here any more:D