Dairy Chit Chat- Please read Mod note in post #1

poor farmer

Weighed my in calf heifers today.All born feb/mar 14
24 in total mostly friesians and crossbreds 3 jerseys.
Probably starting to calve in a week
weight range 450 - 600 kg
average 520 kg

Comments please

Deepsouthwest

Dawggone wrote: »

I know West Cork fairly well through sporting interests and I can honestly say that I would starve if I farmed there. I raise my hat to those that do.
The effort that it takes must be Herculean.
Btw East Cork (Roberts Cove etc) wouldn't be my choice of good land...hilly and sharp....hard to work and small fields.
I will be in the Ilen Valley next weekend if all goes well. Castledonovan at 8oclock and 'hammers back'.

Is that part of the country one of the mildest and wettest?

Yes, right up near the top of the list for mildest and wettest in Ireland I'd say. Can't believe u think that about the land in east Cork, I would honestly swap all my acres for half the acres of east cork land, but there's more to life than farming and I like where I live, so I'll stay for now.
I'm living 20/25 miles further west of Castledonovan, but it is a grand part of the country, actually took the kids there last wk and walked a load of the pathways following the rivers and streams, great family day out!!

Deepsouthwest

poor farmer wrote: »

Weighed my in calf heifers today.All born feb/mar 14
24 in total mostly friesians and crossbreds 3 jerseys.
Probably starting to calve in a week
weight range 450 - 600 kg
average 520 kg

Comments please

U lookin for comments or compliments, those weight are excellent considering there's kiwix and je's!

poor farmer

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

U lookin for comments or compliments, those weight are excellent considering there's kiwix and je's!

Jesus not compliments.just comments.I never weighed this type of stock before.

Dawggone

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

I would honestly swap all my acres for half the acres of east cork land, but there's more to life than farming and I like where I live, so I'll stay for now.

Lol.
I'd be interested in half the acres of east Cork too!

If you're happy where you are, take it handy on the tillage/beef/ general wasters of the farming community....
Nothing/nobody makes you remain there....

pedigree 6

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/inside-the-e2-3m-ucd-dairy-research-farm-at-lyons/

This looks to be a very impressive set up.
The only bugbear i'd have would be that it might give students an unrealistic view of dairy farming. If the farm could have financed the development through borrowings and pay for the set up themselves, it might have been better. The other thing that I hope wouldn't happen would be that the stakeholders would have too much of a say in the running of the farm e.g say a good match for a cow could be a dovea bull but only allowed to use PG bulls.

I think maybe they'll only be evaluating what cow type is best for liquid milk in this country.
However any development like this is welcome if it teaches our young herd managers and vets better and newer dairy cow management techniques.

Dawggone

pedigree 6 wrote: »

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/inside-the-e2-3m-ucd-dairy-research-farm-at-lyons/

This looks to be a very impressive set up.
The only bugbear i'd have would be that it might give students an unrealistic view of dairy farming. If the farm could have financed the development through borrowings and pay for the set up themselves, it might have been better. The other thing that I hope wouldn't happen would be that the stakeholders would have too much of a say in the running of the farm e.g say a good match for a cow could be a dovea bull but only allowed to use PG bulls.

I think maybe they'll only be evaluating what cow type is best for liquid milk in this country.
However any development like this is welcome if it teaches our young herd managers and vets better and newer dairy cow management techniques.

It's a good exemplar of the general slant of the government and Agri establishment in Ireland.
Are Glanbia, Dairymaster and the Hols society not involved? Careful now...

pedigree 6

Dawggone wrote: »

It's a good exemplar of the general slant of the government and Agri establishment in Ireland.
Are Glanbia, Dairymaster and the Hols society not involved? Careful now...

I suppose it's not really a commercial dairy farm. They just wanted to have the best facilities for the cows, students and lecturers.
The quality of the vets coming out of college now is something else with new and better ways of treating cows. They really are good.

With the government side of things I think they are a big improvement on what went before them who hadn't a clue about farming. On the dairy thing at the moment a lot of it is to do with quotas going and farmers who hadn't a chance to milk cows coming into the industry. I wouldn't worry too much about the whole country being turned into dairying. Dairy farmers are going through a recession at moment and nobody knows how long this will last.
Anyone who was milking cows in 2008 will never forget that year. That was the year that I made a profit of 350 euro after I paid the bills and me with no borrowings. That was my income. I know many farmers who got out at time and others who had to borrow heavily to survive and only paid off those loans in the last few years. Everyone wants to be seen to be the best in class and wont admit to being under pressure. This year and next and who knows how long is going to test people even the people with no borrowings. Where I farm every farm around me used to milk cows. Over the last ten years they have sold the cows and turned to tillage, sheep and sucker farming and now there's only myself and another farmer milking cows in the townsland. They did it from a labour and stress point of view and don't regret it. So I wouldn't be too concerned about the whole country milking cows. It's a tough job, I don't have to tell you that no matter what teagasc say.

jaymla627

pedigree 6 wrote: »

I suppose it's not really a commercial dairy farm. They just wanted to have the best facilities for the cows, students and lecturers.
The quality of the vets coming out of college now is something else with new and better ways of treating cows. They really are good.

With the government side of things I think they are a big improvement on what went before them who hadn't a clue about farming. On the dairy thing at the moment a lot of it is to do with quotas going and farmers who hadn't a chance to milk cows coming into the industry. I wouldn't worry too much about the whole country being turned into dairying. Dairy farmers are going through a recession at moment and nobody knows how long this will last.
Anyone who was milking cows in 2008 will never forget that year. That was the year that I made a profit of 350 euro after I paid the bills and me with no borrowings. That was my income. I know many farmers who got out at time and others who had to borrow heavily to survive and only paid off those loans in the last few years. Everyone wants to be seen to be the best in class and wont admit to being under pressure. This year and next and who knows how long is going to test people even the people with no borrowings. Where I farm every farm around me used to milk cows. Over the last ten years they have sold the cows and turned to tillage, sheep and sucker farming and now there's only myself and another farmer milking cows in the townsland. They did it from a labour and stress point of view and don't regret it. So I wouldn't be too concerned about the whole country milking cows. It's a tough job, I don't have to tell you that no matter what teagasc say.

Was settling up with the vet their this morning for a few pound and the man has never been as under as much pressure trying to get money of lads, said he was owed 280,000 grand at the end of Dec when it was all added up.....
Intresting times ahead the way things are shaping up

Milked out

jaymla627 wrote: »

Was settling up with the vet their this morning for a few pound and the man has never been as under as much pressure trying to get money of lads, said he was owed 280,000 grand at the end of Dec when it was all added up.....
Intresting times ahead the way things are shaping up

Many of ye go dd with vets etc.? We are with vets, not with anything else tho.

mahoney_j

jaymla627 wrote: »

Was settling up with the vet their this morning for a few pound and the man has never been as under as much pressure trying to get money of lads, said he was owed 280,000 grand at the end of Dec when it was all added up.....
Intresting times ahead the way things are shaping up

A vet shouldn't be discussing matters like that with customers 280 k owed sounds a bit wishy washy

Timmaay

mahoney_j wrote: »

A vet shouldn't be discussing matters like that with customers 280 k owed sounds a bit wishy washy

Agreed fully, and 2bh sounds like the vet is piss poor at running his business and if he's actually let that much run up.

orm0nd

jaymla627 wrote: »

Was settling up with the vet their this morning for a few pound and the man has never been as under as much pressure trying to get money of lads, said he was owed 280,000 grand at the end of Dec when it was all added up.....
Intresting times ahead the way things are shaping up

never met a vet yet that hadn't a poor mouth , yet when land comes up for sale they're well able to blow out the opposition

jaymla627

Timmaay wrote: »

Agreed fully, and 2bh sounds like the vet is piss poor at running his business and if he's actually let that much run up.

He's been going alright for the past 40 plus odd years he has been coming here, was surprised to say the least you'd hardly get two words out of the man on a good day, would have a very large practice with 3 other vets working for him with the price of vaccines etc these days it's pretty handy to easily run up a couple of thousand for a single farmer spread this over a 100 lads and you'd run up 280k pretty handy

mahoney_j

orm0nd wrote: »

never met a vet yet that hadn't a poor mouth , yet when land comes up for sale they're well able to blow out the opposition

I think I know who your on about inn our area or mond !!!!

atlantic mist

looking back on contracting bills, seems price went up as oil prices were rising have notes made that was reason for increase in various years, will big saving on diesel will this be reflected in 2016 contracting prices??

alps

atlantic mist wrote: »

looking back on contracting bills, seems price went up as oil prices were rising have notes made that was reason for increase in various years, will big saving on diesel will this be reflected in 2016 contracting prices??

Yes....but it's up to farmers to push it down....good ammunition with the notes....

If charges are not pushed down, the surplus will just go into bigger gear, and prices will have to follow fuel upwards when the next lift comes...

I'm aghast at the amount of new trucks sold this year. Hauliers that normally replaced one or two every year have bought 6/8/10 this year.

whelan2

Milked out wrote: »

Many of ye go dd with vets etc.? We are with vets, not with anything else tho.

Used to have dd with vet. He would send you your bill and money would be gone out of your account a couple of days later, if you weren't happy with the bill and rang him he would say the amount had already been sent. 2 months in a row he overcharged me by quite a lot of money. Charged for a bucket of dry cows tubes when I got enough for 4 cows, next month he charged me for tb test that was being paid for by dept. Imagine if you never checked your bills.Think we got a 5% discount for paying by dd. I changed vet not long after

whelan2

jaymla627 wrote: »

He's been going alright for the past 40 plus odd years he has been coming here, was surprised to say the least you'd hardly get two words out of the man on a good day, would have a very large practice with 3 other vets working for him with the price of vaccines etc these days it's pretty handy to easily run up a couple of thousand for a single farmer spread this over a 100 lads and you'd run up 280k pretty handy

A few farmers around here will only get drugs by paying cash only, vet was fed up of bouncing cheques. One of the lads often goes in with a big wad of notes to buy stuff and yet cant afford to pay the bill he owes the practice for years, dont know were the cash comes from. Saw a good one a few years ago were the vet had a white board in the office with the names of those who owed alot of money on it.

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

A few farmers around here will only get drugs by paying cash only, vet was fed up of bouncing cheques. One of the lads often goes in with a big wad of notes to buy stuff and yet cant afford to pay the bill he owes the practice for years, dont know were the cash comes from. Saw a good one a few years ago were the vet had a white board in the office with the names of those who owed alot of money on it.

On of my local vets gives a tidy discount for on the day payment of drugs also. Took them until my 3rd visit buying stuff on account to tell me though! In fairness they are very competitive on price in general and often 20% less than glanbia etc.

Milked out

Timmaay wrote: »

On of my local vets gives a tidy discount for on the day payment of drugs also. Took them until my 3rd visit buying stuff on account to tell me though! In fairness they are very competitive on price in general and often 20% less than glanbia etc.

Are they brand name or generics? More generics coming on stream now I think too so some drugs should be dropping in price

C0N0R

alps wrote: »

Yes....but it's up to farmers to push it down....good ammunition with the notes....

If charges are not pushed down, the surplus will just go into bigger gear, and prices will have to follow fuel upwards when the next lift comes...

I'm aghast at the amount of new trucks sold this year. Hauliers that normally replaced one or two every year have bought 6/8/10 this year.

Out of curiosity how much would people expect contracting bills to come down by with the diesel reduction??

Milked out

Have a cubicle house here for yearlings / maidens. Thinking of converting it to cow cubicles however beds are too short. Wondering has anyone installed cubicles at an angle on beds too short to suit cows? Have some cows in a straw bedded shed but would prefer them on cubicles as less labour and straw and could put all yearlings on straw instead. Just thinking it could be faster and cheaper than messing with concrete as silo wall is on one side and if I widen that side the houses adjacent on the other side would be affected as would have to move everything over iykwim

Injuryprone

http://www.donedeal.ie/view/11310002

So what's the rub here? Didn't think you could trade pi animals. How are they getting around that?

Kovu

Could be a hunt/kennels. The PI animals can't be sold but I believe they can be shot and fed to dogs.

Deepsouthwest

C0N0R wrote: »

Out of curiosity how much would people expect contracting bills to come down by with the diesel reduction??

€0

td5man

C0N0R wrote: »

Out of curiosity how much would people expect contracting bills to come down by with the diesel reduction??

Were the contractors paid extra in '14 when milk prices were good?

whelan2

td5man wrote: »

Were the contractors paid extra in '14 when milk prices were good?

In fairness in 2014 diesel prices were high

Greengrass1

Anyone send cows to factory/mart lately?
Any prices?

orm0nd

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Anyone send cows to factory/mart lately?
Any prices?

sold 5 ex yard last week ,

at a guess 660 to 670kgs 4 br fr with 1 big holstein , dry since late nov. and on silage only.. 950 euro ex yard

8 to 10 weeks feeding would finish them but we're badly stuck for housing

(seems to be a demand for them, agent lined up buyer & said he had other parties interested if we didn't deal)