if next year was like this year.........

whelan1

what would you do ? I might just have to go and visit lc

Bizzum

If the spring of 2013 is a tough one the problems of this year could really come home to roost!

blue5000

I think when cows have this year's sh1te silage ate, and if next spring/summer is as bad as this then they'll need a lot of help in the form of energy and minerals to get in calf next year.

Timmaay

One way flight to Australia!

stanflt

it will be great- no superlevy

caseman

whelan1 wrote: »

what would you do ? I might just have to go and visit lc

Green fields far away,
we'll just have to take the good with the bad.

keep going

guess what id"keep going"

reilig

I was forced to rent land in August which I will have for next year too. It took so much pressure off me. Its a grand bit of land that never got fertilizer in its life. If I fertilize it next year, it will feed twice the amount of animals.

Plan is to continue with the same number of animals. If its a bad year I'll have the extra bit of ground to hold them, if its a good year I'll have extra silage.

Lucky to have the off farm job methinks.

kevthegaff

stanflt wrote: »

it will be great- no superlevy

im with u stanfit gona keep sending in disgusting amounts of milk:D

bbam

If it continues as bad we have a section of marginal/bog land that would be as well planted although I'm not sure if that's viable either as access would be poor... not near a road at all

It's about 1/4 of the farm and in good years we clear it up, and it grows good grass... In a year like this even light cattle don't want to travel it and since May the tractor's only been in once, and that was to lift a fallen animal.

In its current state it just annoys me..

Thankfully we have off farm jobs..

bob charles

kevthegaff wrote: »

im with u stanfit gona keep sending in disgusting amounts of milk:D

dont know why you boys are complaining about milk price so, if your looking to supply as much as possible at current prices.

kevthegaff

bob charles wrote: »

dont know why you boys are complaining about milk price so, if your looking to supply as much as possible at current prices.

your putting false words in my mouth, i have a low cost system so im happy with current prices

Tipp Man

kevthegaff wrote: »

your putting false words in my mouth, i have a low cost system so im happy with current prices

What roughly are you costs per litre? And of course vitally what is included in those costs

Grecco

if next year was like this year.........
i`ll be calling in the forestry outfit

F.D

not getting at anyone but forestry is not always the answer, all the generations before us worked hard to reclaim land and get it into production, even digging shores by hand, If next year is like this year i think the IFA etc should get a kick in the hole and tell them to go marching to get rivers and drains cleaned. it should be a requirment for all drains to be cleaned as part of your SFP, Our land is wetter than ever our drains are clean but cant flow anywhere because the farmers down along wont bother and the board of works are no where to be seen

whelan1

i suppose a few of the answers here are tongue in cheek, would take alot for me to go to austrailia.... realistically i suppose i would try and do more silage bales and reduce any inwanted stock like fr bull calves, cull cows etc as quick as possible

reilig

F.D wrote: »

not getting at anyone but forestry is not always the answer, all the generations before us worked hard to reclaim land and get it into production, even digging shores by hand, If next year is like this year i think the IFA etc should get a kick in the hole and tell them to go marching to get rivers and drains cleaned. it should be a requirment for all drains to be cleaned as part of your SFP, Our land is wetter than ever our drains are clean but cant flow anywhere because the farmers down along wont bother and the board of works are no where to be seen

Nail on the head.

In the 1940's, 50's, 60' and 70's all rivers in the west were dredged to alleviate flooding in towns. The such was dredged to prevent flooding in Ballinasloe for example and the Shannon was dredged in numerous locations. There was a plan in place to drain all secondary rivers which flowed into these primary rivers. Farmers could then drain into these secondary rivers. BOW don't seem to have a drain cleaning agenda anymore in this area. It would make a huge difference to the land if the water had somewhere to go.

kevthegaff

reilig wrote: »

Nail on the head.

In the 1940's, 50's, 60' and 70's all rivers in the west were dredged to alleviate flooding in towns. The such was dredged to prevent flooding in Ballinasloe for example and the Shannon was dredged in numerous locations. There was a plan in place to drain all secondary rivers which flowed into these primary rivers. Farmers could then drain into these secondary rivers. BOW don't seem to have a drain cleaning agenda anymore in this area. It would make a huge difference to the land if the water had somewhere to go.

id say the silt would be top class in relation to respreading?

Rovi

reilig wrote: »

Nail on the head.

In the 1940's, 50's, 60' and 70's all rivers in the west were dredged to alleviate flooding in towns. The such was dredged to prevent flooding in Ballinasloe for example and the Shannon was dredged in numerous locations. There was a plan in place to drain all secondary rivers which flowed into these primary rivers. Farmers could then drain into these secondary rivers. BOW don't seem to have a drain cleaning agenda anymore in this area. It would make a huge difference to the land if the water had somewhere to go.

The Inland Fisheries people have an enormous say in the management of the country's waterways these days, and they place an awful lot of emphasis on the preservation of ecosystems and fish (and other 'watery' lifeforms). Add to this the power and influence of the likes of An Taisce and other environmental/heritage groups, the increased urbanisation of the population, the 'greening' of politics in general, and you have a climate that is very hostile to anything perceived to be 'destruction' of habitats and ecosystems.
Add to all that the enormous amount of building development of areas around towns that used to be (and still are!!!) flood plains, and we now have the various planners and officials looking to move the flooding out of the towns and into the countryside.

Short of wholesale dredging of the major watercourses all the way to the sea and the removal of man-made bottlenecks along the way, which will never happen for the foreseeable future for both economic and political reasons, flooding farmland is seen as the lesser of two evils.
Our farms are now the sponges that protect our urban neighbours from the worst of the results of appalling planning decisions over the last few decades. :mad:


Oh, and it's been a powerful year for tree growth

rancher

Rovi wrote: »

The Inland Fisheries people have an enormous say in the management of the country's waterways these days, and they place an awful lot of emphasis on the preservation of ecosystems and fish (and other 'watery' lifeforms). Add to this the power and influence of the likes of An Taisce and other environmental/heritage groups, the increased urbanisation of the population, the 'greening' of politics in general, and you have a climate that is very hostile to anything perceived to be 'destruction' of habitats and ecosystems.
Add to all that the enormous amount of building development of areas around towns that used to be (and still are!!!) flood plains, and we now have the various planners and officials looking to move the flooding out of the towns and into the countryside.

Short of wholesale dredging of the major watercourses all the way to the sea and the removal of man-made bottlenecks along the way, which will never happen for the foreseeable future for both economic and political reasons, flooding farmland is seen as the lesser of two evils.
Our farms are now the sponges that protect our urban neighbours from the worst of the results of appalling planning decisions over the last few decades. :mad:


Oh, and it's been a powerful year for tree growth

Dead on, 5 or6 government bodies stopping the maintenance work, what hope has anyone of making progress, any remedial work that's done protecting towns has a knockon effect on surrounding farmland

Markcheese

kevthegaff wrote: »

reilig wrote: »

Nail on the head.

In the 1940's, 50's, 60' and 70's all rivers in the west were dredged to alleviate flooding in towns. The such was dredged to prevent flooding in Ballinasloe for example and the Shannon was dredged in numerous locations. There was a plan in place to drain all secondary rivers which flowed into these primary rivers. Farmers could then drain into these secondary rivers. BOW don't seem to have a drain cleaning agenda anymore in this area. It would make a huge difference to the land if the water had somewhere to go.

id say the silt would be top class in relation to respreading?

In the early 80's most local farmers cleared the river banks in my local area... Let loads of light on to the river..and loads of weed , so it flooded..council sent a digger down the river every 2 year... Made flOoding worse as they cleared more... ..flooding started to ease after council stopped the digger...

pakalasa

I was talking to a guy working on the machines for the BOW in Clare. He said twice they had gone in to clear the river Fergus in Ennis and stopped by "The Environmental Guys". The town later badly flooded as a result. These guys have been working these rivers and drains for years. They know them inside out. Maybe they should be allowed to get on with their work.

periodictable

F.D wrote: »

not getting at anyone but forestry is not always the answer, all the generations before us worked hard to reclaim land and get it into production, even digging shores by hand, If next year is like this year i think the IFA etc should get a kick in the hole and tell them to go marching to get rivers and drains cleaned. it should be a requirment for all drains to be cleaned as part of your SFP, Our land is wetter than ever our drains are clean but cant flow anywhere because the farmers down along wont bother and the board of works are no where to be seen

Fair point but remember the land was once covered in forest.Maybe a good selection of species if possible, or even groups of shelterbelts or a couple of small areas of xmas trees.
Four years back I sprayed, drained and reseeded a large meadow. For two years got a top cut of ryegrass, since summer 2011 rushes coming back in, and by Feb next will be under an xmas tree crop.
Maybe someday in the future the climate will dry somewhat and it can be returned to pasture.

periodictable

pakalasa wrote: »

I was talking to a guy working on the machines for the BOW in Clare. He said twice they had gone in to clear the river Fergus in Ennis and stopped by "The Environmental Guys". The town later badly flooded as a result. These guys have been working these rivers and drains for years. They know them inside out. Maybe they should be allowed to get on with their work.

Remember the "experts" who demanded reduced stocking in the Burren? And the scrub began to take over covering the karst and archaeological bits? Now they have gone back to increased stocking..........that's f*kn experts for you-fling 'em over the Cliffs of Moher.

Dozer1

if next year is like this, I'll reduce numbers by a good bit, no point in carrying cows that have to be fed in the shed for half the year. might buy lighter stock and look at avoiding as much damage to the land as this year

pakalasa

periodictable wrote: »

Remember the "experts" who demanded reduced stocking in the Burren? And the scrub began to take over covering the karst and archaeological bits? Now they have gone back to increased stocking..........that's f*kn experts for you-fling 'em over the Cliffs of Moher.

Ya, I ntoice a lot of the Burren is bably overgrown with hazel now. When they stopped wintergrazing parts of it, all those rare flowers disappeared too.

13spanner

There'll be work for gear like this

As for the burren experts, they'll have to let us graze away. The limestone is the only dry patch some of us have at this stage.