Farming alone

deise toffee

Just wondering how many men and women here are farming alone?How do you manage?Is it a struggle or do you manage ok?

kevthegaff

im milking 90 cows, its grand once cattle are quiet and facilites arent bad

DK man

I have a small holding with 30 sheep. Bit hard to pen them in on my own. Dosing and foot care also a bit hassle however I manage. I'm looking at getting a better handling facility so I'm currently thinking about designs. I have good neighbours but use only for emergencies.

Would be so much easier with another pair of hands - my wife is not interested even though she grew up on a farm and I am from a housing estate..

epfff

DK man wrote: »

I have a small holding with 30 sheep. Bit hard to pen them in on my own. Dosing and foot care also a bit hassle however I manage. I'm looking at getting a better handling facility so I'm currently thinking about designs. I have good neighbours but use only for emergencies.

Would be so much easier with another pair of hands - my wife is not interested even though she grew up on a farm and I am from a housing estate..

On my own here parttime
with good neighbours
have being at it since a kid with mom she quit once i was educated then married a towney
30sucklers
30 bull beef
20 finish hefers
100 ewes
would imagne majority are on own
not eneough profit to share

Timmaay

Sometimes I wish I was alone on the farm! Farming is the easy bit, dealing with family aint :P

grange mac

Timmaay wrote: »

Sometimes I wish I was alone on the farm! Farming is the easy bit, dealing with family aint :P

Very true, I do 80% work pick stones spray hedge clip fence by hand....and split "profits" with bro who "counts 1-25" once a week....but all in name of not falling out with family members

shy_boy

DK man wrote: »

I have a small holding with 30 sheep. Bit hard to pen them in on my own. Dosing and foot care also a bit hassle however I manage. I'm looking at getting a better handling facility so I'm currently thinking about designs. I have good neighbours but use only for emergencies.

Would be so much easier with another pair of hands - my wife is not interested even though she grew up on a farm and I am from a housing estate..

hey i no this off topic dk man im just wondering how many acres you use with 30 sheep and what facilities you have as im looking at getting abit a stock meself, trying to go throw all my options thanks in advance

Mac Taylor

epfff wrote: »

On my own here parttime
with good neighbours
have being at it since a kid with mom she quit once i was educated then married a towney
30sucklers
30 bull beef
20 finish hefers
100 ewes
would imagne majority are on own
not eneough profit to share

Epfff - Do you mind me asking, how many acres you have access to keep that level of stock and the quality of the land.:)

I am trying to work out what I could hold or more importantly handle in my own place.:D

epfff

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Epfff - Do you mind me asking, how many acres you have access to keep that level of stock and the quality of the land.:)

I am trying to work out what I could hold or more importantly handle in my own place.:D

140 acres
20 callow
5 rocky
rest is good sandy ground long grazing season(cows still out aim for bulls out mid feb)
wouldnt shake that muck bag fert (6tonne)
would rely on slurry
Bulls would be back in shed july on heavy meal
usually buy 60 bales hay silage this yr and 50big squars of straw and give lots of meal when finishing only

jfh

Timmaay wrote: »

Sometimes I wish I was alone on the farm! Farming is the easy bit, dealing with family aint :P

agree with this Timmaay, that's why it good to get out and clear the head with a good run!

jfh

epfff wrote: »

On my own here parttime
with good neighbours
have being at it since a kid with mom she quit once i was educated then married a towney
30sucklers
30 bull beef
20 finish hefers
100 ewes
would imagne majority are on own
not eneough profit to share

that's a crazy amount of work part-time, how do you manage to lamb 100 ewes & calf 30 sucklers, you'd be busy doing this full time.

epfff

jfh wrote: »

that's a crazy amount of work part-time, how do you manage to lamb 100 ewes & calf 30 sucklers, you'd be busy doing this full time.

You would be hungry doing this fulltime
aim for 0,9calfs per cow
and 1,5lambs per ewe
social life and wife suffer a bit
kid on way so bit concerened where we go then maybe then i wull take someone on parttime but next to impossiable to find anyone reliable

GoodMan55985

Just on this. Have you a house built on the land to cut down your travelling to the farm and do have someone you can rely to check cows when calving. How do you manage if at work and cow starts calving. Fair to play working and managing all this work also

epfff

My House is only few hundred yrds from yard
if a cow has waterbag out when im leaving for work i see her in the evening same at night i go to bed at10 regardless of what is happening
supprisingly i lost only 1 calf calfing in 4yrs caught at hips ch bull on all cows and i had up on 50 cows for a few of them yrs
howenever lost lots with scours and everyway
i often laugh at friends that are father and son operations killed working and take days off for cows and sheep and they still dont save all
it typifys the underemployment and ineffency of the majority of irish farms

1chippy

Farming part time. love working away on my own but the old man is a blessing round the place. getting on a bit now so mainly sweeping up and keeping an eye on things.
Absolutly hate moving cattle with him though, always ends in a shouting match, he doesnt realise hes a lot slower than he was.
He also believes that ratchet straps and baling twine solves all problems. does my head in.

dzer2

1chippy wrote: »

Farming part time. love working away on my own but the old man is a blessing round the place. getting on a bit now so mainly sweeping up and keeping an eye on things.
Absolutly hate moving cattle with him though, always ends in a shouting match, he doesnt realise hes a lot slower than he was.
He also believes that ratchet straps and baling twine solves all problems. does my head in.

Very hard working with the old man. You have got to remember that he is set in his ways now plus he does his best. Maybe his best is not good enough any more but shouting it at him wont change any thing. Its more benefical to spend a bit nore time setting up the move and making sure he is not put in the position where he is in danger. I am not preaching just have being in that position and would love to have it back now:(:(:(

1chippy

dzer2 wrote: »

Very hard working with the old man. You have got to remember that he is set in his ways now plus he does his best. Maybe his best is not good enough any more but shouting it at him wont change any thing. Its more benefical to spend a bit nore time setting up the move and making sure he is not put in the position where he is in danger. I am not preaching just have being in that position and would love to have it back now:(:(:(

I usually try to move them on my own and its usually him shouting at me. he means well, but seriously lacks patience. otherwise we work well together.

Bodacious

1chippy wrote: »

Farming part time. love working away on my own but the old man is a blessing round the place. getting on a bit now so mainly sweeping up and keeping an eye on things.
Absolutly hate moving cattle with him though, always ends in a shouting match, he doesnt realise hes a lot slower than he was.
He also believes that ratchet straps and baling twine solves all problems. does my head in.

I feel your pain ..my old man the same way moving cattle or getting them into a pen.... i'll get ahead of them on the road say and he'll slack off or start looking around him and next thing they've gone past him or they dissappear in a hedge or something.. he never pushes up behind them just silly but its frustrating.

Same crack also with tying things up with twine, if it looks messy its good enough,...drives me soft!

yellow50HX

in a simailar boat, working full time off farm but would be screwed with out th family and missus.

Ol lad is retired now but around most days and keeps an eye on everything. Might be pushing on a bit and not as youngs as he thinks but nothing wrong with his eye and can spot when something is wrong a mile away. Mobile phones are a god send. Also had the younger sister around when she was in school and she would check the cows and push in the silage if needed during the day when she was off. My uncles also would pop their heads in around when i need help too.

Weekends and evening during the summer are busy as f**k but the missus lends a hand too. We werent going out long and the rest of the family were on hols when i had her drawing in bales and herding cattle with me. Her mates got a good laugh out of it.

just do it

epfff wrote: »

140 acres
20 callow
5 rocky
rest is good sandy ground long grazing season(cows still out aim for bulls out mid feb)
wouldnt shake that muck bag fert (6tonne)
would rely on slurry
Bulls would be back in shed july on heavy meal
usually buy 60 bales hay silage this yr and 50big squars of straw and give lots of meal when finishing only

What's your winter feed regime for the cows? Seems to be working well given you're running a CH bull and few loses at calving....

caseman

deise toffee wrote: »

Just wondering how many men and women here are farming alone?How do you manage?Is it a struggle or do you manage ok?

Farming here alone and working fulltime.
40 sucklers all calves kept over the winter and 30 heifers to beef.
Im self employed that helps around calving time.
Baby an the way i'll have to weight things if i want to see it

just do it

Farming alone and working full-time. Have two kids (3 and 5yo) and wife is back working full-time as well. 1 in 2 weekends she's away for the weekend with work. Whilst I don't have regular help, I've 1 lad that does quite a bit for me as I travel quite a bit with work. I also have 1 other friend that I call on occassionally when I need someone for a tricky task. He's full-time a serious stockman and a workaholic.

I'm very lucky in that I also have good neighbours and if the s**t hit the fan I've a good few lads I can call outside of these two.

I'm time scarce so other than feeding I get someone/ contractor to do everything else. I'm happy enough with this as overall I've 4-5 lads doing various different small bits that they get cash for. Then when I've an emergency I have the option of giving them a call.

Building up a suckler herd by the way, will have ~25cows calving next year split between Spring and Autumn all going well. If the set-up is good there's no reason one person can't do everything singlehandedly.

I've a MF165 and the barest minimum of machinery. For an example of how I work I haven't used my fertiliser spreader in 2 years. A fella with a big tractor and a half-ton spreader will do what takes me a half day only around 2 hours!

One final thing, I'm a great believer in what comes around goes around. For all these lads I've done a decent favour or two at some stage over the years.

pakalasa

just do it wrote: »

...One final thing, I'm a great believer in what comes around goes around. For all these lads I've done a decent favour or two at some stage over the years.

It's an understanding around here that you can call on people when you need them too. Good neighbours are worth anything.