Harvest 2013

Pacoa

BBC 2 Programme on now untill 9 o clock.
They're on about veg. Its interesting. Have a look.

Pacoa

On again tomorrow night at 8 and they're doing grain this time.

Sharpshooter82

Missed tonight
Gonna have to watch it tomorrow

moy83

Pretty good show , sad to see him making dust of the broccili

shrubs

One of the better agri-based shows, I felt at least!

yellow50HX

yeah good show, i think it was on all week but only saw it last night. scale is a big thing though, there are only a few places in ireland that woul dbe working near that kinda scale.

compared to say 20-30 years ago the majoirty of large scale vegtable farming in ireland is now pretty much confined to north dublin and wexford. there used to be large number of veg farmers here is east cork but most seem to have got out or are just concentrating on cerals nowadays.

there used to be a food factory in midleton and it was supplied by a large number of farmers including lot of small scale guys too. around here there was a large number or differnt veg grown when i was a kid and even up to my teens and 20's. over the years my dad grew spuds, carrots, parsnips, turnips, peas and beans. there were plenty of fields of cabbage, lettuce, broccii and so on around here too. most of it is now in barly, maize or grass now.

tabby aspreme

Good programme, was impressed with the way they store the carrots in the ground over winter.
Erin foods used to have a cannery in Carlow also, it was a great source of income for small veg growers, there are a few big potato growers round here but yesterday a few trailer loads of onions passed our way in boxes, which is new around here

yellow50HX

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Good programme, was impressed with the way they store the carrots in the ground over winter.
Erin foods used to have a cannery in Carlow also, it was a great source of income for small veg growers, there are a few big potato growers round here but yesterday a few trailer loads of onions passed our way in boxes, which is new around here

was chatting to a lad over the weekend who used to do contracting for a veg farmer nearby. he used to do all his ploughing and extra trailer work. one of his jobs used to be bringing in the bales for putting on spuds and carrots. he used to spread the bales over the carrots and parsips in authum (no plastic) and he covered the spuds in the sheds with straw too. when harvestings the carrots they had what looked like a front mounted single chop silage harvester which cleaned off the straw and tops and then spread it for ploughing in later. he used to plough betweeen 200-300 acres a year for that farmer now he is only doing about 30. all he is doing now is about 15ac of spuds and 15 ac of cearels. the rest of the farm about 50ac is in grass and he reckons it'll all be in grass in another year or 2 as they no longer have con acre and are moving into dairy

kevthegaff

is vegetable farming not viable? havent a clue

fryup

excellent programme, highly recommended for farmers and gardeners and anyone involved in agriculture

brian_t

I missed yesterdays programme on vegetables but I enjoyed tonights one on the tillage harvest.

The final episode on Fruit is on tomorrow at 9pm.

20silkcut

kevthegaff wrote: »

is vegetable farming not viable? havent a clue

I done a factory tour of o shea's (iverk produce) in piltown co Kilkenny last year. Looked fairly viable , actually incredibly viable, to me and they run a dairy farm adjacent to it as well. First time I ever saw an 18 ton trailer full of carrots and they were rejects going to feed their cattle.

jp6470

Watched it the tonight for the frist.
great combines they have.all that straw chopped and blew out behind them.if grandfather could see that he'd be running up feild after him.

bob charles

20silkcut wrote: »

I done a factory tour of o shea's (iverk produce) in piltown co Kilkenny last year. Looked fairly viable , actually incredibly viable, to me and they run a dairy farm adjacent to it as well. First time I ever saw an 18 ton trailer full of carrots and they were rejects going to feed their cattle.

dont judge a book by its cover;), there is a big difference between the returns of being a grower and a packer. Them lads are mostly packers nowadays. The reject % from carrots is crazy high

MFdaveIreland

WS literally about to start this thread !!, watching the cereal episode, some images, its nice to see agriculture make it on to tv more nowadays

CorsendonkX

kevthegaff wrote: »

is vegetable farming not viable? havent a clue

Depends on the crop, Root veg such as carrots and parsnips are incredibly wasteful crop. 40% of the parsnips lifted are dumped, carrot grade off would be high enough. The Irish veg grower base is small enough to start with and with the cost of equipment and the need for continuity of supply for supermarkets has led it to becoming very specialist these days. Before that growers would switch between cash crops and sell to the middle man. Now you have to concentrate on a couple of crops and do as much pre-packing on the farm for the middle man or supermarket. Get a couple of bad years and your screwed.

Supermarkets are also slow to react to managing a flush of crops such as broccoli or Cauli's, by the time they have a promotion set up the crop has gone over the hill and has to be dusted.

pakalasa

I watched it last night. Very good programme. It was from the Farmers point of view, which gave a very honest and frank view of things. A big shift from the usual Organic crap you get. The farmer even went so far as to say that organic farming simply would not feed the world. Surprised that they lost 2/3 of the rape crop last year.

grazeaway

pakalasa wrote: »

I watched it last night. Very good programme. It was from the Farmers point of view, which gave a very honest and frank view of things. A big shift from the usual Organic crap you get. The farmer even went so far as to say that organic farming simply would not feed the world. Surprised that they lost 2/3 of the rape crop last year.

Yeah noticed it was all winter wheat and winter rape too. A couple of lads round here have said the the drawf rape seed variety is at about 25% yield. The cold spring caused a lot of problems alright. Neighbours wheat is still to be cut

delaval

I recorded it and watched arable one this pm. A question for the tillage boys. Is it wise to plough frozen ground. My old man would never allow us when we were younger. Last night that guy was ploughing frozen ground?

yellow50HX

delaval wrote: »

I recorded it and watched arable one this pm. A question for the tillage boys. Is it wise to plough frozen ground. My old man would never allow us when we were younger. Last night that guy was ploughing frozen ground?

Yes and no. In normal conditions no you wouldn't plough frozen. However due to the wet conditions last year the land was waterlogged and had gotten panned. They needed to plough to get air into the ground and to break the pan. Also the frozen ground was able to take the weight of the machinery with turning to mush. Other wise he would have needed to wait till it dried to be able to into the field. The cold weather breaks up the soil it let in air and makes it easier to till later in springtime.