Teagasc Sheep 2015 Athenry Saturday June 20th

Connemara Farmer

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/own-some-of-the-2-5m-sheep-in-ireland-then-sheep2015-is-a-date-for-your-diary/

Anyone going? I think I'll wander along for a look see if I can make it.

Cran

I'll be there, got married day before last one 3 years ago and wasnt allowed go

Charollais have their all ireland on the day as well.

Green farmer

I'll make a trip there as well, might learn something

ganmo

i was there the last day, directing traffic

eire23

Hope to be there, may have some sheep at it but see how things go.

Was the last event 3 years ago?? Time flies.

rangler1

Yea....the pedigree breeders provide the rent-a-crowd for the day, vendeens are having their all Irelands as well....we never have show sheep ready that early...fecks sake we're just finished lambing.

orm0nd

have a wedding that day , so won't be going

was hoping to buy some stuff for the safety scheme as it will be past the deadline at the ploughing

Username John

Think I'll try to go, tisn't too often I get out

rangler1

Anyone in Waterford yesterday at the grassland association sheep farm walk....very well run farm and makes good money.
He has a few benefits that we wouldn't have, pigslurry, use of a dairy farm in the spring, and a dairy farmer that takes paddocks off him that get ahead.

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

Anyone in Waterford yesterday at the grassland association sheep farm walk....very well run farm and makes good money.
He has a few benefits that we wouldn't have, pigslurry, use of a dairy farm in the spring, and a dairy farmer that takes paddocks off him that get ahead.

Didn't even know about it - and I would have been very interested in going to that

http://www.irishgrassland.com/Events-and-Reviews/post-detail.asp?postId=2914

Green farmer

Username John wrote: »

Didn't even know about it - and I would have been very interested in going to that

http://www.irishgrassland.com/Events-and-Reviews/post-detail.asp?postId=2914

+1

Is the pig slurry ok to use, or could you only use a certain amount of it

ganmo

Green farmer wrote: »

+1

Is the pig slurry ok to use, or could you only use a certain amount of it

used to be concerns over the copper lvls, but lvl of copper in pig diets have been reduced hugely. I would still say there is a limit but higher than used to be thought of

Cran

rangler1 wrote: »

Anyone in Waterford yesterday at the grassland association sheep farm walk....very well run farm and makes good money.
He has a few benefits that we wouldn't have, pigslurry, use of a dairy farm in the spring, and a dairy farmer that takes paddocks off him that get ahead.

sounds interesting, what is his stocking rate?

rangler1

Cran wrote: »

sounds interesting, what is his stocking rate?

14/ha
He winters the ewes on strip grazed fodder beet, he has 20 acres set for silage yesterday and 5ac of beet and 5ac of reseed out of seventy acres.....I'd like to see how much grass is there in three weeks time...looked very tight yesterday

razor8

rangler1 wrote: »

Anyone in Waterford yesterday at the grassland association sheep farm walk....very well run farm and makes good money.
He has a few benefits that we wouldn't have, pigslurry, use of a dairy farm in the spring, and a dairy farmer that takes paddocks off him that get ahead.

How does he use dairy farm in spring and how late, I assume dairy farm is using sheep to clean out fields before slurry?

rangler1

razor8 wrote: »

How does he use dairy farm in spring and how late, I assume dairy farm is using sheep to clean out fields before slurry?

in February I think, last three weeks before lambing

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

14/ha
He winters the ewes on strip grazed fodder beet, he has 20 acres set for silage yesterday and 5ac of beet and 5ac of reseed out of seventy acres.....I'd like to see how much grass is there in three weeks time...looked very tight yesterday

I would have liked to have seen that setup.id imagine you'd have to grow a lot of grass to keep 14 ewes to the hectare happy. couldn't see much surplus grass there,especially when your taking 20 acres out of the system for silage each year. Do they use much fert separate to the pig slurry ?

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

I would have liked to have seen that setup.id imagine you'd have to grow a lot of grass to keep 14 ewes to the hectare happy. couldn't see much surplus grass there,especially when your taking 20 acres out of the system for silage each year. Do they use much fert separate to the pig slurry ?

He had two bags of CAN/ac up till yesterday

davidk1394

I'll go for a look. See what sh1te teagasc are preaching

Green farmer

They have a " meet industry and markets" technical village on the day. I assume they meant meat industry. I wonder if that's along the lines of a good discussion thread we had here a while back about producing carcass, To what the market wants etc and grading carcass ? If so it might be an interesting topic.

sea12

I intend going myself. Meant to go ladt year but something came up. Looking forward to sheep specific instead of it being a token piece at most farming events

Connemara Farmer

sea12 wrote: »

I intend going myself. Meant to go ladt year but something came up. Looking forward to sheep specific instead of it being a token piece at most farming events

If anyone from the ploughing is reading this, the sheep tunnel the last year I was there was depressing.

rangler1

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

If anyone from the ploughing is reading this, the sheep tunnel the last year I was there was depressing.

Ploughing is a waste of time for sheep, most of the rams are sold, we've to go two days and put up the stand on the Sunday if it's in the midlands and it's too expensive as well,
Tulamore show is the only show we sell rams out of

Connemara Farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

Ploughing is a waste of time for sheep, most of the rams are sold, we've to go two days and put up the stand on the Sunday if it's in the midlands and it's too expensive as well,
Tulamore show is the only show we sell rams out of

They didn't even need rams, it's was just a ramshackle affair, sure throw them lads a few pens in a tunnel any ould way, be grand. A little bit of effort and creativity wouldn't have gone astray.

serfspup

should we have a photo competion 'best photo from sheep event' r 'worst value for money at sheep '15':rolleyes:

Sheep breeder

as for the ploughing, the cost a sheep society has to pay for a couple of square meters is huge and all pushed up on top of one another in a small tent,very hard to be creative in a couple of meters
the ploughing is all about commercial stands and money and not about livestock.

Green farmer

Anyone know if Clik have a stand there on Saturday where you could buy some product at a discount or get some goodies thrown in ?

orm0nd

Green farmer wrote: »

Anyone know if Clik have a stand there on Saturday where you could buy some product at a discount or get some goodies thrown in ?

I would'nt burn too much diesel going there with hope of such

The sheep shearing was held in NenAGH Mart a good few years ago , a good many of us pooled in to help and spent a good few hours pulling and sorting sheep, we were all invited to the Ciba tent (as it was at the time) afterwards.

our reward for the day ... a mug with vetrazin wrote on it.

ganmo

I think click can only be sold through licensed merchants so the company can't really sell at shows

I remember that shearing! ...just!

AnFeirmeoir

read the line up in the IFj. looking forward to going now

fanadman1

Very tempted by this just a pity ots not mid week saterdays are a no hope of geting of and im in donegal so its a brave spin

Username John

I'll be heading up - what time does it kick off at does any one know?

ganmo

10 I think

rangler1

ganmo wrote: »

10 I think

Heading off now, seems to be a full programme

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

Heading off now, seems to be a full programme

+1 , should be a good day. I'll keep an eye out at a certain pedigree breeders stand for you.

Username John

Learned a bit more about grass measuring, condition scoring. Saw some nice sheep, plenty handling equipment...

Overall a good day out, glad I went.

Green farmer

Good enjoyable day, the weather could have been a bit more kind to us , but learned a few bits aright and ended up chatting to some good sheep folk.

farawaygrass

Super day, really enjoyed it. The combi clamp had plenty of interest, anyone here have one or seen one in use? If it works as good as they were saying it would make life easy I would imagine, but then again what does? 😄 Also liked doyles big slurry tanker, the grass measuring, the case tractors and the sheep dog demonstation. Eamon Egan is very interesting.
Also, just to see the sheds there, what a setup. Not many farms set up near like that around!

Arrow in the Knee

I was there as well.

Is that Eamonn Wall or Edward Egan Farawaygrass?

Didn't look around as much as I liked as I was showing sheep for much of the day.

There was a good few Snake Oil merchants today.

Just wondering how many acres does Teagasc have at Athenry?

Lano Lynn

how much did that sheep shed cost?
totally over engineered and unrealistic:mad:

rangler1

Lano Lynn wrote: »

how much did that sheep shed cost?
totally over engineered and unrealistic:mad:

Brilliant day for sheep farmers, shed reputed to have cost a million :eek:

ganmo

Lano Lynn wrote: »

how much did that sheep shed cost?
totally over engineered and unrealistic:mad:

designed for doin feeding trials so lots of individual pens so not ment to be realistic, wouldn't mind seeing it full of sheep

learnt a bit today too, plenty of opportunities to ask questions of ppl

sea12

Good enjoyable day. Plenty to see and the workshops were good and educational.

farawaygrass

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

I was there as well.

Is that Eamonn Wall or Edward Egan Farawaygrass?

Didn't look around as much as I liked as I was showing sheep for much of the day.

There was a good few Snake Oil merchants today.

Just wondering how many acres does Teagasc have at Athenry?

I think it's Eamon Egan? He was doing the demonstrating, the opposite end entirely from the trials.
I heard someone say they have 500aprox. Some was taking out for the new motorway, and across the road is the area being converted to the suckler demo herd. In fairness the place looked super yesterday.

AnFeirmeoir

Enjoyed the sheep dog training workshop - was amazed at how young the dogs were at how good . He had a 10 month old pup that was excellent.
The main point I took from it was that he goes out of his way to break ewes that get the best of the dog even knocking her and let the dog get close and even have a nip at her so she knows he's the boss. You can't let your dog lose confidence

Also decided to buy a cormac race _ have tams1 approval for a year and deadline is August

jfh

Thought it was an improvement on the last expo. But the weather didn't help the grassland management slots out in the field, walked out there & looked a bit lonely. If there was a timetable of when talks where taking place & move lads from one topic to another it would have that bit more life. Moorepark day is excellently run, great crowd there, let's hope it doesn't become too commercial

Green farmer

I really enjoyed yesterday. I was there 2 years ago when they did the stripped down, non commercial version of it with a series of talks dotted around the farm, and liked that set up a small bit more. However it's good to see the commercial stands etc, especially if you want to buy some penning or handling equipment. You have all the manufacturers in one spot instead of you driving all over the country. Overall both types of open days are very positive for the sheep industry and long may they both continue.

sea12

Also decided to buy a cormac race _ have tams1 approval for a year and deadline is August[/quote]

Congrats. Looked at them too. Their stand was good. Even having the few ewes to run through the race was a good idea as u get a better feel for it.
Did you buy the turnover crate and foot bath with it?

Lano Lynn

ganmo wrote: »

designed for doin feeding trials so lots of individual pens so not ment to be realistic, wouldn't mind seeing it full of sheep

learnt a bit today too, plenty of opportunities to ask questions of ppl

I understand some of the reasons for the design and don't expect pallets and twine but 2"galv box section individual pens is ott .
As a demonstration unit it should reflect more the industry norm

otherwise a grand day out lots of great sheep folk and bright young teagasc etc staff well able to engage in debate.
perhaps it is the real dividend of stap but there was wee clusters of folk interacting freely with total strangers at any station I was at .

Mac Taylor

Enjoyed the day, had the 2 boys with me, met rangler and greenfarmer (briefly) had supermacs in one hand and condiments in the other plus 2 boys who were STARVING when I met greenfarmer. Saw some lovely vendeen and ch Rams. Trying to figure out what will cross best with Suffolk cross grey faced ewes.

tom_k

Enjoyed the day out, spoke to a lot of interesting and knowledgeable people. It was great to have so many aspects of sheep farming and related products on one site.