What is on your 'to do' list before winter?

blue5000

Now that the leaves have started to blow down, winter isn't too far away. What sort of work has been left on the long finger over the summer? For me it's a bit like this;

• Some slurry to spread
• Gutters
• Clean sheds
• Scan
• Weigh weanlings.

whelan1

have a holiday:D

moy83

whelan1 wrote: »

have a holiday:D

Same as that . We are heading to somewhere in kerry for a couple of days without the kids .
Gutters and the roof of one of the sheds could badly do with a bit of cleaning
Get the last of my turf home

reilig

Have 1 shed set up to collect water from roof for drinkers. Have the blocks built to hold the tanks for the second shed so hope to get that done in the next few weeks. The third shed will have to stay on the mains this winter but will try to get the blocks built over the winter months to hold the tanks.

If it ground dries up a bit I need to do another bit of mole ploughing. At only 1 acre an hour, it is time consuming.

Slurry went out on saturday. Have the straw home for bedding.

Hopefully it'll be a good few weeks yet before winter but we're well on the way for work for it!

stanflt

Sow 40 acres grass
Spread 250000 gals slurry
Drain 10acrea of ground and ditches
Put up new shed 80*78
Go on a weeks holiday
Pay the tax man

bob charles

Find someone to graze and house stores for me;) interested??
Find a slatted shed/yard to rent.
Buy the grub thats needed for winter
If I could get those sorted all the other jobs are just routine.

delaval

stanflt wrote: »

Sow 40 acres grass
Spread 250000 gals slurry
Drain 10acrea of ground and ditches
Put up new shed 80*78
Go on a weeks holiday
Pay the tax man

Should keep you off the street corners;);)

iverjohnston

get the thrusses and timber up onto an old roofed silage pit , and get it sheeted. get the hay into it and out of the centre passages of the slatted sheds . pull a few moles in a few spots. be nice to get some old slated roofs tightened up.

bogman_bass

New crush delivered there on Friday so have to get the old one down and the new one up

mahoney_j

Finish power washing sheds
Get ditches cut
Price a new 1.5 tonne fertiliser spreader
Service tractor
Have 2 open slurry tanks,price a shed,slats and precast cubicles for same
Apply for pedigree Certs and gene test 12 fr bulls for sale next march April
Get away for afew days with mrs mahoney minus our little monster!!
Pay tax return

Birdnuts

Power hose cubicles,sheds and stables. Winter worm all stock. Get hooves done on donkeys and the shetland.Plant more hedging.

keep going

Put a capping on the wall inthe garden, build a little pump house for the new well, widen the farm entrance and smarten it up, finish the gable sheeting on the shed thats up 2 years,

Marooned75

Power hose shed clean gutters put up more lights around the yard.

Sharpshooter82

head over to england for a week and have a gander at the cambridge sales
bale a little straw if the weather behaves itself and get it home

joe man utd

Spread the slurry
Put down a new 90foot slatted tank
Buy some straw and sugar beet
Clean down the silage gear
Put down a new passage
Put tines on the grab

moy83

joe man utd wrote: »

Spread the slurry
Put down a new 90foot slatted tank
Buy some straw and sugar beet
Clean down the silage gear
Put down a new passage
Put tines on the grab

Tines on the sheargrab was something I swore I would do as soon as it was parked up and I forgot completely about it until you mentioned it there .
Anyone have a price on them or are they standard at all ?

sea12

Get the Hedges cut.

Price a new mower at off season price.

Get another bit of the yard concreted.

Put up 2 wind breakers in the shed.

Pay the tax man.

Get that bloody lambing camera working for next years lambing.

KatyMac

Got makings of a new crush delivered last week. Waiting man with a digger to clean up the spot for it. He is going to flatten a part of a field where years ago men with ass carts took gravel while he is taking gravel out for me. Also, going to widen a gateway over a stream while he is around with the digger to make it easier to back a lorry for loading. That'll be about all I can afford for now.

1chippy

It would take too long to list everything but i spent the last three days ripping out the calving pens, restyleing them making up a few feed barriers and fitting toeboards in gates i made last winter another couple of evenings and a day or too should finish up the handling and pens. I even built a calf isolation box with built in red lamp. it should save a few hours looking for pallets and baler twine. ive a couple of walls to build when thats done and ive a sparks coming to sort out all the dark corners. Hedge cutting is starting next week and ive a couple of ditches to be removed and a lot of quicks to be planted to pacify the powers that be. on top of that herself has booked a short break away and another couple of bloody weddings.
The auld boy is working harder these days than he did when he was working fulltime. Ive a discussion group meeting in a while and a lot to get tidied.

hugo29

Make some decent return on weanlings

Power wash shed, fix a few fences,
Service tractor

just do it

reilig wrote: »

Have 1 shed set up to collect water from roof for drinkers.

What have you against paying water bills?

Seriously, great idea. Any chance of a few pics? Gravity feed, ordinary ballcocks?

slippy wicket

Hoping to have some manner of holiday.
Haven't had a proper break since 2004 so long overdue.

Apart from that, slurry spreading
Reseed some paddocks
More slurry spreading
Put in a proper office, none of this ****e spread across three rooms.

just do it

Make out an Autumn grazing plan for the first time. And make out a "to do" list before the winter

yellow50HX

Fix the spotlight lights on the digger, only one working out front and none on the back.

Fix a wonky slat

Empty the slatted tank

Grease the sh*te out of the tractor and digger

Put a longer tine on the fork for lifting the bales

Wallpaper the kitchen, put down new floor upstairs, get the lights wired up in the garage, organise the garage and put in so old cupboards to keep my work clothes and boots in.

I'm sure there are loads else.

iverjohnston

that reminds me , have to get a slat out of the bottom of the tank..,

keep going

Never a better time to get someone in to do a few jobs fellas are working very right at the moment

bbam

We replaced some outside lights last weekend, it was great to get the ladder work done on a calm day.
Plan is to replace lights in slatted shed and clean out drinkers on the next wet Saturday.
Cab lights on one tractor stopped working so that needs checking out.

I'd say the mole plough and weed licker can be stored away and loader put back on.

Sharpshooter82

bbam wrote: »

We replaced some outside lights last weekend, on.

Did the same but some of the proxy bulbs have blown after only a week or so. Is it so hard to develop a decent bulb

whelan1

finish the powerwashing
lepto the sucklers
scan milkers and sucklers
get silage tested
have 23 acres to reseed
check scrapers are working right
got milking parlour serviced yesterday and replaced extension lead that should have been replaced ages ago as it was dangerous. Milking machine even sounded better yesterday evening:o

td5man

Finish powerwashing
Finish reseeding
Do a few jobs on the house
Service the silage machinery before there put away for the winter.
Slurry
Get a few jobs done on diet feeder for winter, see if the rats managed to eat the armoured cables that i made for it last year.

bbam

whelan1 wrote: »

finish the powerwashing
lepto the sucklers
scan milkers and sucklers
get silage tested
have 23 acres to reseed
check scrapers are working right
got milking parlour serviced yesterday and replaced extension lead that should have been replaced ages ago as it was dangerous. Milking machine even sounded better yesterday evening:o

Silage test indeed.
How long would second cut need to be done before testing.
Do people usually test each cut separately?

whelan1

bbam wrote: »

Silage test indeed.
How long would second cut need to be done before testing.
Do people usually test each cut separately?

yup, test seperatly, i get it done for free, got stung a few years ago when glan%ia sent a lad out to test silage and was charged dearly for it...i think after 10 days 2 weeks you are ok to test , i might be wrong

MFdaveIreland

reilig wrote: »

Have 1 shed set up to collect water from roof for drinkers. Have the blocks built to hold the tanks for the second shed so hope to get that done in the next few weeks. The third shed will have to stay on the mains this winter but will try to get the blocks built over the winter months to hold the tanks.

If it ground dries up a bit I need to do another bit of mole ploughing. At only 1 acre an hour, it is time consuming.

Slurry went out on saturday. Have the straw home for bedding.

Hopefully it'll be a good few weeks yet before winter but we're well on the way for work for it!

Hi relig, regards collecting rain water, I could be wrong but I recall some one telling me that u weren't supposed to give rain water off roof to cattle , not sure if its sulphur or something I can't remember, and what do you do when its dry? I'm interested if it works
Thanks

reilig

MFdaveIreland wrote: »

Hi relig, regards collecting rain water, I could be wrong but I recall some one telling me that u weren't supposed to give rain water off roof to cattle , not sure if its sulphur or something I can't remember, and what do you do when its dry? I'm interested if it works
Thanks

We have a uv water filter on the pipe running from the storage tanks to the shed as well as a fine micron filter on the gutter running into the tanks. When it is dry, we use the water that is stored - 10 days worth. When that runs out we turn on the mains!

bbam

Sharpshooter82 wrote: »

Did the same but some of the proxy bulbs have blown after only a week or so. Is it so hard to develop a decent bulb

Ours are the old style halogens.
I was advised this time to put in 300w bulbs as they aparrenty last better. Time will tell.

MFdaveIreland

reilig wrote: »

We have a uv water filter on the pipe running from the storage tanks to the shed as well as a fine micron filter on the gutter running into the tanks. When it is dry, we use the water that is stored - 10 days worth. When that runs out we turn on the mains!

Roughly how many roofs are running into the tank , what size of tank and how many cattle will it cater for ? How often do the filters get changed and are they expensive

grazeaway

reilig wrote: »

We have a uv water filter on the pipe running from the storage tanks to the shed as well as a fine micron filter on the gutter running into the tanks. When it is dry, we use the water that is stored - 10 days worth. When that runs out we turn on the mains!

just check what type of coatign you have on yuor sheets, gutters and downpipe. ordianry galvanised or metal sheeting is not really suitable as you can get metal toxins washed into the water (i remeber my dad accidently killing the gold fish with the run off from a shed ended up in the pond. if you have plastic guttering and and inert coating on teh roof sheets then the only word is orgainc and filters and UV will sort that out. We use the run off fromt eh sheds for filling the power washer tank and for diluting the slurry

delaval

iverjohnston wrote: »

that reminds me , have to get a slat out of the bottom of the tank..,

We know you'll not take any chances, right??

Dampintheattic

grazeaway wrote: »

just check what type of coatign you have on yuor sheets, gutters and downpipe. ordianry galvanised or metal sheeting is not really suitable as you can get metal toxins washed into the water (i remeber my dad accidently killing the gold fish with the run off from a shed ended up in the pond. if you have plastic guttering and and inert coating on teh roof sheets then the only word is orgainc and filters and UV will sort that out. We use the run off fromt eh sheds for filling the power washer tank and for diluting the slurry

My shed is asbestos on one side and fibre cement on the other.
No paint coating of any kind.
Plastic gutters.

Am I good to go, I wonder?

td5man

delaval wrote: »

We know you'll not take any chances, right??

Took a slat out of a tank here last year.
Dropped a chain through one of the gaps in the slat amd pulled the chain up with a bit of rebar.

reilig

MFdaveIreland wrote: »

Roughly how many roofs are running into the tank , what size of tank and how many cattle will it cater for ? How often do the filters get changed and are they expensive

UV filter is €150 and has been around the house for 3 or 4 years in a different guize and is still working perfect and should do so for years to come. Gutter filters are plusvalor 5 micron filters and need to be checked and cleaned every couple of weeks and changed about every 2 to 3 years costing €70 each and €30 for a refill. We use IBC tanks. 3 bay double shed with and A roof holds 20 sucklers and has 8 IBC tanksn - 4 stacked on 4. That's 8000 litres.

As i said, the other sheds have to be hooked up yet!

iverjohnston

delaval wrote: »

We know you'll not take any chances, right??

There is about 2 foot in the tank, so not be getting in, than you very much! Lift another 5 or so, and have a rummage about with the back bucket of the digger. get one end up in the air, and get a chain around it.

hoseman

Fix lights.
Put up a proper head rail in one pen to stop cattle coming out and put in one more barrier.
Better storage for wrap and net
new/better raingear
be more prepared for frozen pipes ie fill ibcs and bring in some field troughs and fill as well.

whelan1

oh serviced one of the tractors and our digger yesterday, didnt put antifreeze in them yet, will wait til october for that. Other tractor had major work done on it during the summer and all filters where changed then

1chippy

keep going wrote: »

Never a better time to get someone in to do a few jobs fellas are working very right at the moment

I don't know where you are but there's a serious lift around me. Lads can't be got that handy anymore. I know personally speaking I'm booked out till Christmas at this stage. Couple of big jobs round Dublin have eaten into the lads that are left. The social boys are pretty fussy these days too they want nice cushy nos that don't interfere with the luxuries they have become accustomed to

moy83

1chippy wrote: »

I don't know where you are but there's a serious lift around me. Lads can't be got that handy anymore. I know personally speaking I'm booked out till Christmas at this stage. Couple of big jobs round Dublin have eaten into the lads that are left. The social boys are pretty fussy these days too they want nice cushy nos that don't interfere with the luxuries they have become accustomed to

Im gone a bit quiet , but I was flat out for the last six months . I have one house to start this side of the Christmas . Unfortunately the social boys around here are still pricing and getting alot of private work :mad:

hugo29

i have to say i am busy, have been most of the year, its def picked up a bit, you must be in the same game as me Moy

bbam

grazeaway wrote: »

just check what type of coatign you have on yuor sheets, gutters and downpipe. ordianry galvanised or metal sheeting is not really suitable as you can get metal toxins washed into the water (i remeber my dad accidently killing the gold fish with the run off from a shed ended up in the pond. if you have plastic guttering and and inert coating on teh roof sheets then the only word is orgainc and filters and UV will sort that out. We use the run off fromt eh sheds for filling the power washer tank and for diluting the slurry

We've been collecting water in a tank in our shed for 10+ years with no problems.. I'd say the fact that the water is in contact with the roof for such a short time means it would pick up very little contaminants..
Our tank has an overflow fitted so when its full the water is constantly refreshed and should never be stale.. We dump the full of the tank before housing cattle just to be sure..

Over the years the tank has accumulated some grit which can occasionally block a drinker.. no big problem and usually only happens if it runs totally dry and then a slosh of rain stirrs it up.. I had thought about taking the tank down for cleaning over the summer but its 600galons, just seemed too much bother !!

Sharpshooter82

lights fixed and did a little fencing there, Even managed to forget i was standing in a stream and knelt down. Bloody trousers was soaked and i filled the welly :P

moy83

hugo29 wrote: »

i have to say i am busy, have been most of the year, its def picked up a bit, you must be in the same game as me Moy

I'm plastering , I've seen the busiest year this year in the last four years . Usually I have a quiet month every year when I dont go looking for work , As time goes on it will be a two month break and more if my pocket will allow it

redzerologhlen

moy83 wrote: »

I'm plastering , I've seen the busiest year this year in the last four years . Usually I have a quiet month every year when I dont go looking for work , As time goes on it will be a two month break and more if my pocket will allow it

Your lucky to have it moy, have 2 uncles at it and they are finding it tough at the moment. Small jobs here and there but they haven't done a house in a long time. They would have a good name and be very tasty at it too.