DEPRESSION SUPPORT- Anonymous posting is possible, see note in post #1.

Timmaay

Another funeral tomorrow, local chap who I knew well enough back in the day, this is just all too common these days.

yellow50HX

Getting back to the music thing I have meaning to fix the radio on the tractor for years now but never get around to doing it. Anyway got my self a radio set of ear defenders which have been great all week as I have been getting a field reseeded all week. Was like a mad eggitt singing away in the dust. Heard this one tonight and it's been a while since I heard it but always been good. Always great to hear a a teenagers song that gives a positive message.

Play it loud and play it often

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

Willfarman

Trouble is im finding with my depression is my depression not letting me know when I have it. Tis an absolute bolix.no energy no motivation no elation. Just a monotonous grey existence.

Feckthis

Willfarman wrote: »

Trouble is im finding with my depression is my depression not letting me know when I have it. Tis an absolute bolix.no energy no motivation no elation. Just a monotonous grey existence.

Yup I feel your pain bud.

mike hilux

Hello. Just got the heard test over with this week and thank god I passed it. It was a very busy lead up to it and the department announced that they were sending out 2 lads to lend a hand, at first I was delighted to get the help but in the end they basically took over the show and I felt I was pushed out of it.

It was probably the fastest test I ever did and they replaced all lost ear tags and clipped tails and decided that bloods were going to be taken on everything that was saleable. They basically started up a dialogue with the vet and they all worked the crush while I kept the animals into them, it was manic!!

Normally I try to pull out animals while the vet is there so I can ask his opinion on them but there was none of that, they arranged to start at 9 but I don't think they realised I was going at 5 in order to get the cows milked and calves fed and all stock moved back into yards for them.

I never bared the brunt of such throw away remarks and eye rolling, "that pallet shouldn't be left there, you shouldn't have dung stacked here, them animals need silage this evening" then when I had silage in front of them for the reading they announced it was in the way and why hadn't I moved it? If there was a lame or thin cow they commented "she should be isolated" as if I had a crush in every pen. They took up residence at the mouth of the crush and the cows wouldn't walk past them, then if I hit the cow that was turning I was told to go easy.

We got through it anyway then they told me I had too many animals and had too cut down and said I would want to get rid of one of my stock bulls, namely the charley I use on the older cows, I explained that I was leaving dairy and using him to start up a suckler heard and they said I was at nothing trying to get sucklers out of dairy stock. I wouldn't mind but iv had 2 neighbors in looking to buy their calves and a man who does a lot of embryos on his charley herd who told me to name my price for the heifers as he wanted to breed off them and asked what I'd take for the stock bull. He was terrible disappointed when I said he wasn't pedigree actually..

They then asked what I was going to do with the place in the future, when I said I was going 100% suckling they told me I don't have adequate housing or slurry storage. I told them I was building a shed but they said not to. I said that they saw what it was like today with all the getting animals into bits of yards and pens spread all over the parish and how I wasn't willing to continue at this rate to which their answer was "would you not think of leasing out the place so"

I know that was a long sermon and maybe not ideally placed here but I am absolutely fuming after the whole experience!! I've really taken their comments as a kick in the teeth. If I disagreed with them, then they just said that was there opinion but I feel that if I keep going the road im on and anything goes wrong then I wont have a leg to stand on when it comes to the department as they can say that they advised me but I wouldn't listen to reason.

Anyway, rant over and thank you for your time. Sincerely Mike.

visatorro

you passed the test, main objective achieved, now move on to the next goal. dept lads are always gonna give out anyway it's their job.

whelan2

visatorro wrote: »

you passed the test, main objective achieved, now move on to the next goal. dept lads are always gonna give out anyway it's their job.

ye no matter what you did it wasnt going to be right.

yellow50HX

mike hilux wrote: »

Hello. Just got the heard test over with this week and thank god I passed it. It was a very busy lead up to it and the department announced that they were sending out 2 lads to lend a hand, at first I was delighted to get the help but in the end they basically took over the show and I felt I was pushed out of it.

It was probably the fastest test I ever did and they replaced all lost ear tags and clipped tails and decided that bloods were going to be taken on everything that was saleable. They basically started up a dialogue with the vet and they all worked the crush while I kept the animals into them, it was manic!!

Normally I try to pull out animals while the vet is there so I can ask his opinion on them but there was none of that, they arranged to start at 9 but I don't think they realised I was going at 5 in order to get the cows milked and calves fed and all stock moved back into yards for them.

I never bared the brunt of such throw away remarks and eye rolling, "that pallet shouldn't be left there, you shouldn't have dung stacked here, them animals need silage this evening" then when I had silage in front of them for the reading they announced it was in the way and why hadn't I moved it? If there was a lame or thin cow they commented "she should be isolated" as if I had a crush in every pen. They took up residence at the mouth of the crush and the cows wouldn't walk past them, then if I hit the cow that was turning I was told to go easy.

We got through it anyway then they told me I had too many animals and had too cut down and said I would want to get rid of one of my stock bulls, namely the charley I use on the older cows, I explained that I was leaving dairy and using him to start up a suckler heard and they said I was at nothing trying to get sucklers out of dairy stock. I wouldn't mind but iv had 2 neighbors in looking to buy their calves and a man who does a lot of embryos on his charley herd who told me to name my price for the heifers as he wanted to breed off them and asked what I'd take for the stock bull. He was terrible disappointed when I said he wasn't pedigree actually..

They then asked what I was going to do with the place in the future, when I said I was going 100% suckling they told me I don't have adequate housing or slurry storage. I told them I was building a shed but they said not to. I said that they saw what it was like today with all the getting animals into bits of yards and pens spread all over the parish and how I wasn't willing to continue at this rate to which their answer was "would you not think of leasing out the place so"

I know that was a long sermon and maybe not ideally placed here but I am absolutely fuming after the whole experience!! I've really taken their comments as a kick in the teeth. If I disagreed with them, then they just said that was there opinion but I feel that if I keep going the road im on and anything goes wrong then I wont have a leg to stand on when it comes to the department as they can say that they advised me but I wouldn't listen to reason.

Anyway, rant over and thank you for your time. Sincerely Mike.

Like the lads say test passed job done.

You would be suprised how little some Dept fellas know espically when it comes to sucklers.
Breeding out a dairy cows is actually ideal as you want to raise cows with milk. Dosent matter how good a calfskin breeding is if he dosent get plenty of milk he will not thrive. Crossing your dairy cows with a beef bull is the best was to get your herd going. Your neighbour is mad keen to buy in the heifers as replacements so that should tell you that something is going right.

We sold the last of your fr cows last year and they were espically sucklers for the last 10 years, and breed most of your stock. They mightn't look much as cows but you should see the quality of calf they produce espically their daughters and granddaughters.

Watch out the for TAMS II grant coming along as this might give you the extra bit for building extra slurry storage.

That's 2 Dept inspections passed in a couple of weeks so shows things are actually moving in the right direction.

Base price

Well done Mike and congratulations on passing the herd test. There are a lot of farmers who would like to have had such a result.
With regards to the comments from the Dept lads I would not take them to heart. As the others have said they have to grumble about something. I think at this stage unless you have a state of the art set up like you see on TV then they are never going to be happy.
When I started in suckling over 30 years ago (at the tender age of 17) I bought dairy cross stock mostly blonde, simmental and limousin for the very reason that others have stated - milk. I used to buy in additional calves mostly heifers cause they were cheaper and double suck the cows. A bit of hardship bringing in cows twice a day to the calves but after a while the calves got to know which cow to go to and you could then let them off into the fields.
OH and I operate out of two yards which are 100 yds from each other. They have a mix of old small sheds, old larger sheds and 2 newer larger sheds.
We would have calves/cattle stuck in every nook & cranny of a shed. It is not ideal but it works for us. If I was to win the lotto tomorrow I wouldn't invest in new sheds as I believe you will never see a return on your money. As long as the cattle are comfortable have feed, bedding and water who the hell is anyone to criticise your set up.
A old lady one told me a saying "Good stables don't make good horses"

greysides

Some people let a little power go to their heads, those that are a little wiser can wear that authority a lot more lightly.

whelan2

spoke with a neighbour this evening , the whole conversation was doom and gloom, more heavy rain coming saturday, ground isnt up to this rain, it will be along time before we cut silage .................. some people are best ignored

CHOPS01

whelan2 wrote: »

spoke with a neighbour this evening , the whole conversation was doom and gloom, more heavy rain coming saturday, ground isnt up to this rain, it will be along time before we cut silage .................. some people are best ignored

Your probably right Whelan but I suppose everyone's troubles are relative.
What might seem trivial to you or me could be something of huge impact in someone else's life.

Timmaay

Whelan with people like that I generally will try to light heartedly tell them to stop being so negative and try to steer the conversation to something more positive, or if I know them well enough I'll really stick my neck really out and ask them why are they so negative and ask if they have a problem! Obviously much easier with a younger person, but always worth a shot. Some people of course are at all approachable as such, and would prefer to remain negative, the less I interact with them the better for myown sake ha.

merryberry

Timmaay wrote: »

Whelan with people like that I generally will try to light heartedly tell them to stop being so negative and try to steer the conversation to something more positive, or if I know them well enough I'll really stick my neck really out and ask them why are they so negative and ask if they have a problem! Obviously much easier with a younger person, but always worth a shot. Some people of course are at all approachable as such, and would prefer to remain negative, the less I interact with them the better for myown sake ha.

Hat tip to u Timmaay. I agree with your approach on this. Positiveness should be shared with those who don't believe it exists anymore. No one was born with negative feelings.

MfMan

Timmaay wrote: »

Whelan with people like that I generally will try to light heartedly tell them to stop being so negative and try to steer the conversation to something more positive, or if I know them well enough I'll really stick my neck really out and ask them why are they so negative and ask if they have a problem! Obviously much easier with a younger person, but always worth a shot. Some people of course are at all approachable as such, and would prefer to remain negative, the less I interact with them the better for myown sake ha.

For people genuinely suffering with depression, don't think this approach is advisable.

whelan2

so what do you do, obviously by them telling you all their doom and gloom its getting it off their chest, hard enough to listen to when you a tethering on the edge yourself, reminds me of the priest tommy tiernan played in fr ted

kevthegaff

Sometimes its good to just talk, gloomy as it may be

Nobbies

whelan2 wrote: »

spoke with a neighbour this evening , the whole conversation was doom and gloom, more heavy rain coming saturday, ground isnt up to this rain, it will be along time before we cut silage .................. some people are best ignored

don,t go too hard on him,sounds like he needs alift too

Base price

whelan2 wrote: »

so what do you do, obviously by them telling you all their doom and gloom its getting it off their chest, hard enough to listen to when you a tethering on the edge yourself, reminds me of the priest tommy tiernan played in fr ted

Firstly you look after yourself and your own family.
The bit that pisses me off as a female farmer is that some men think you are their alternate/substitute Mammy just because you are a neighbour, who farms and live a few miles up the road from them.

td5man

Saw this posted somewhere else https://youtu.be/dcyFMWyjYXk

patsy_mccabe

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-teen-jamie-17-who-talked-a-stranger-down-from-a-dublin-bridge-is-thanked-in-an-incredible-way-31426600.html

whelan2

In the last few days I have seen a few posts on face book looking for people who have gone missing, Christmas is a very hard time for alot of people, please make sure no one is alone at Christmas. There is always someone they can talk to, if not in real life, on the internet.

A cow called Daisy

Is it just me or is anyone else on here totally pi$$ed off with life at moment. Nothing to do with weather/grass/calf deaths etc - cos I don't really care about all that crap- just life in general.

Reggie.

A cow called Daisy wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone else on here totally pi$$ed off with life at moment. Nothing to do with weather/grass/calf deaths etc - cos I don't really care about all that crap- just life in general.

Right there with ya Daisy

blue5000

A cow called Daisy wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone else on here totally pi$$ed off with life at moment. Nothing to do with weather/grass/calf deaths etc - cos I don't really care about all that crap- just life in general.

If I got a chance I'd sleep for 20 hours a day at present. I reckon it's because it was a really rough spring on all of us weather wise anyway. There's a bit of warmth there now at last so should help give us a lift.

whelan2

yup pretty crap at the minute. Listening to people with all their plans for the time off over the bank holiday weekend didnt help either

CHOPS01

A cow called Daisy wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone else on here totally pi$$ed off with life at moment. Nothing to do with weather/grass/calf deaths etc - cos I don't really care about all that crap- just life in general.generalises

With you all the way Daisy. Life be **** at times.
Here at the moment dealing with dad having dementia,transferring herd number, leasing out 2 outside plots of land,sorting out entitlements. Wife under a lot of pressure at work and it's getting to her, her sister getting married in a few weeks and then to top it all off her 76 year old mother falls last week and and breaks her ankle in 2 places. The sister lives in England as does her brother. So right now it feels like the world is just caving in around us!
But that's what I love about the land and kids. A bit of time with both puts the spark in me.
I think your post might have been a bit of a cry for help maybe I'm wrong. If it was don't be one bit afraid to go and seek a bit of help.
It's amazing what sitting down and chatting can do.

cute geoge

I have to tell ye this one it might cheer someone up

Local hard working married lad gets a knock on the door in the middle of the night around 3 o clock from young lunatic down the road ranting and raving about his problems (woman trouble) and he was all out for doing away with himself .
All the married man says was
'' come in and have a mug of tae and i will be with you then ''

whelan2

cute geoge wrote: »

I have to tell ye this one it might cheer someone up

Local hard working married lad gets a knock on the door in the middle of the night around 3 o clock from young lunatic down the road ranting and raving about his problems (woman trouble) and he was all out for doing away with himself .
All the married man says was
'' come in and have a mug of tae and i will be with you then ''

Reminds me of a story of a local farmer when things would get tough he would sign himself into the local mental hospital and leave everything for his wife to fix up, he told his wife he was heading off again and she replied, "hold on Paddy I'll go with you this time"

patsy_mccabe

Stumbled on this on YouTube;
From down under, but fairly powerful stuff all the same.