Farm Maintenance

Bullocks

Do ye spend much time /money every year on maintaining the farm land ,buildings , fences , machinery and anything else I might be forgetting.
We are not great here over the last five years and it leads into alot of work if it's not kept on top of . Trees have fences damaged and briars and weeds have them stuck to the ground in places , some gutters are fecked that weren't fixed on time .
Being part ime and having young kids it's hard to find time and with sucklers it's hard to find money but I'll have to smarten up soon to get it in some kind of order .
So do ye set out certain time in the year or money from sales to sort these things out every year ?

_Brian

These are the hidden costs of farming, not accounted for in production costs by many farms.
Small- medium farms particularly find it hard to fund these essential maintenance jobs.

Were chipping away here for the last few years but if it's left get out of control it can be hard (and expensive) to get things ship shape again.

Doing a bit all the time is key.

whelan2

get a local lad here about once a month, he does a few hours welding, great job, 10 euro an hour- I give him a bit extra- next job for him is to fix up a few cubicles. Have another lad that is coming to hang a few gates using the esb poles that are around the place, would take me ages to hang 1:rolleyes:

Bullocks

_Brian wrote: »

These are the hidden costs of farming, not accounted for in production costs by many farms.
Small- medium farms particularly find it hard to fund these essential maintenance jobs.

Were chipping away here for the last few years but if it's left get out of control it can be hard (and expensive) to get things ship shape again.

Doing a bit all the time is key.

I never see much about these costs alright . Some lads are might and have great places but for the life of me where they get the time and money I don't know

Blackgrass

Have someone in shed working on machinery 5 months of the year as normally haves brainwave that takes up a month or so. As costly as that is its a drop in the ocean to dealer charges or sitting waiting to sort a machine when busy. Have students in 4weeks before most to do the some fine day jobs, spend November-jan sorting drains with digger always something to be done otherwise it gets to a point of were do I start

AP2014

Bullocks wrote: »

Do ye spend much time /money every year on maintaining the farm land ,buildings , fences , machinery and anything else I might be forgetting.
We are not great here over the last five years and it leads into alot of work if it's not kept on top of . Trees have fences damaged and briars and weeds have them stuck to the ground in places , some gutters are fecked that weren't fixed on time .
Being part ime and having young kids it's hard to find time and with sucklers it's hard to find money but I'll have to smarten up soon to get it in some kind of order .
So do ye set out certain time in the year or money from sales to sort these things out every year ?

Not a penny, going into Glas this year so will spend a bit of that on fencing and doing a few things up. Gutters and galvanise fecked on one of the hay sheds. Not sure how or you will fix that. Anyone know the costs involved? Cost much to paint a hayshed and fix it up?

whelan2

AP2014 wrote: »

Not a penny, going into Glas this year so will spend a bit of that on fencing and doing a few things up. Gutters and galvanise fecked on one of the hay sheds. Not sure how or you will fix that. Anyone know the costs involved? Cost much to paint a hayshed and fix it up?

plenty of travelling sales men will paint your shed for you boss

Greengrass1

Do a bit always here wether it's fencing spraying swearing the yard power washing.
Awful lot of digging work to be done here and once ye start it just spirals

AP2014

whelan2 wrote: »

plenty of travelling sales men will paint your shed for you boss

Ha they certainly will, it they could fix the galvanise and gutters and do a decent job I would let them work away. Wonder do they provide receipts

Greengrass1

AP2014 wrote: »

Ha they certainly will, it they could fix the galvanise and gutters and do a decent job I would let them work away. Wonder do they provide receipts

Ah paint will peel off after 2 yrs. Watered down too much. Get the proper lads to do it. They have all the right gear and are insured amd will fix gutters too.
We have 7 very big sheds here and got quote of about 5k to respray them with that logic I doubt yours would cost more than 5-800e

_Brian

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Do a bit always here wether it's fencing spraying swearing the yard power washing.
Awful lot of digging work to be done here and once ye start it just spirals

We have a fair bit of digger work that could be be done, but like you say it spirals..

We get a "family rate" from my BIL and in fairness he's a top man.. So when funds allow we get him in for a day or two days or whatever, money is in the account to pay him and we just get whatever jobs we can manage in the time there is cash there to pay for.. Its basically a hobby enterprise so we don't supplement it from off farm earnings and on principal we only get work done we can pay for there and then..

Parishlad

Bullocks wrote: »

Do ye spend much time /money every year on maintaining the farm land ,buildings , fences , machinery and anything else I might be forgetting.
We are not great here over the last five years and it leads into alot of work if it's not kept on top of . Trees have fences damaged and briars and weeds have them stuck to the ground in places , some gutters are fecked that weren't fixed on time .
Being part ime and having young kids it's hard to find time and with sucklers it's hard to find money but I'll have to smarten up soon to get it in some kind of order .
So do ye set out certain time in the year or money from sales to sort these things out every year ?

I was actually thinking of starting a very similar thread! Much the same situation - part time with a young family. When I 'took over' the farm three years ago it wasn't in great shape and to be honest it still isn't great. However, I am tipping away at it every chance I get. Same problems with briars, overgrown ditches, bad/no fences, rushes/weeds in land, areas I can't even access with a tractor because the access 'road' (bothrín) is so overgrown.
The killer for me is the time that is required to do this maintenance type work while tending to the everyday requirements on the farm and more importantly trying to spend as much time as possible with my family.
I have accepted that it will be at least 5 more years before I have the place in a state that I would be happy with. I have a bit of a plan in my head but sometimes that goes out the window when I realise that there is something else that needs to be done more urgently.
In any case, when I was feeling a bit fed up with it all recently, thinking I was getting nowhere, a friend of mine sat me down and listed out everything I had achieved over the last three years. Turns out I have made a good bit of progress, so as they say - Rome wasn't built in a day - so I guess I'll plough on for another while!

I said

Parishlad wrote: »

I was actually thinking of starting a very similar thread! Much the same situation - part time with a young family. When I 'took over' the farm three years ago it wasn't in great shape and to be honest it still isn't great. However, I am tipping away at it every chance I get. Same problems with briars, overgrown ditches, bad/no fences, rushes/weeds in land, areas I can't even access with a tractor because the access 'road' (bothrín) is so overgrown.
The killer for me is the time that is required to do this maintenance type work while tending to the everyday requirements on the farm and more importantly trying to spend as much time as possible with my family.
I have accepted that it will be at least 5 more years before I have the place in a state that I would be happy with. I have a bit of a plan in my head but sometimes that goes out the window when I realise that there is something else that needs to be done more urgently.
In any case, when I was feeling a bit fed up with it all recently, thinking I was getting nowhere, a friend of mine sat me down and listed out everything I had achieved over the last three years. Turns out I have made a good bit of progress, so as they say - Rome wasn't built in a day - so I guess I'll plough on for another while!

Well done time and small children make it difficult alright

Limestone Cowboy

Bullocks wrote: »

Do ye spend much time /money every year on maintaining the farm land ,buildings , fences , machinery and anything else I might be forgetting.
We are not great here over the last five years and it leads into alot of work if it's not kept on top of . Trees have fences damaged and briars and weeds have them stuck to the ground in places , some gutters are fecked that weren't fixed on time .
Being part ime and having young kids it's hard to find time and with sucklers it's hard to find money but I'll have to smarten up soon to get it in some kind of order .
So do ye set out certain time in the year or money from sales to sort these things out every year ?

It's gone to the stage here now where it has to be spent. The auld lad would never have been a fan of it. Have a good few bushes cut, rushes sprayed/licked and a access road in the pipeline ( if I can get permission to do it ). Hoping to fence one block of ground with poor boundaries in the next few weeks too. Endless amounts of it to do, you wouldn't feel it turning into an overwhelming task when it's let slip for a few years.

Jimlh86

Small suckler enterprise here, father is a great stock man but he was never one for fencing or keeping the few bits around the yard right. In fairness he never had the time with work and family. Trying to get it in shape now starting with fences, paddocks, and grass management. It's tough because when ya start one job ya see 5 more need doing! Cash flow from farming without supplementing off farm is a major problem.

AntrimGlens

Bullocks wrote: »

Do ye spend much time /money every year on maintaining the farm land ,buildings , fences , machinery and anything else I might be forgetting.
We are not great here over the last five years and it leads into alot of work if it's not kept on top of . Trees have fences damaged and briars and weeds have them stuck to the ground in places , some gutters are fecked that weren't fixed on time .
Being part ime and having young kids it's hard to find time and with sucklers it's hard to find money but I'll have to smarten up soon to get it in some kind of order .
So do ye set out certain time in the year or money from sales to sort these things out every year ?

I wrote out a list of maintenance jobs at the start of 2014 that I needed to attend to, some of these were half hour jobs like mend a hole in a fence or drive in a couple of posts, others were jobs that could take a fortnight of evenings/early mornings such as spraying couple acres of whins.
Last year i got a lot of the stuff done because it was a nice summer weather wise and i could crack on with nearly every job and got a lot of things on the list done. this year i've barely got three things on the list ticked off because it's been such a sh1te summer.
However there's great satisfaction when you can come in at night time and tick off another job done and they don't seem so insurmountable when they're written down in ink.
In fairness thankfully the father is still active and does most of the smaller maintenance jobs around the yards/houses.
As regards field work my father was a great man for this, he'd think nothing of having diggers and dozers here for a couple months to try and knock some form of field together out of rocks and clay as he says at least it will repay ya and seeing the results over the years i have to agree.
As regards machinery maintenance- lets not go there. (I thinks there's a genetic apathy for machinery maintenance in our family):o

ganmo

my dad doesn't tidy and hates throwing stuff out so the sheds are a mess but the fences and ditched are looked after
I just need to get a skip into the yard

bogman_bass

I find the biggest factor with these jobs is the time element. as a part time farmer I find that there is nearly always something more pressing to get done

frazzledhome

_Brian wrote: »

We have a fair bit of digger work that could be be done, but like you say it spirals..

We get a "family rate" from my BIL and in fairness he's a top man.. So when funds allow we get him in for a day or two days or whatever, money is in the account to pay him and we just get whatever jobs we can manage in the time there is cash there to pay for.. Its basically a hobby enterprise so we don't supplement it from off farm earnings and on principal we only get work done we can pay for there and then..

All fence maintenance, water, gates, basic machine servicing done in house. We'd do small welding jobs but no fabrication ourselves.

As regards a digger, Ffs don't get me started . Digger arrived Mon am to put in 400m of roadway a day and a halves work. The road has now grown to 1km, we've filled in some hollows in fields and now he's doing a tidy up on a bit of ground we bought.

I told him he has to be gone tomorrow evening as the money will run out before the jobs to be done. Tbf a good track machine driver can do great work around a farm in a day or two but a bad one can do fair harm in 10 minutes.

My father used to say the work only begins when the digger leaves. That's certainly true as we've a few days fencing, burying water pipes and relocating of water troughs to do

emaherx

ganmo wrote: »

my dad doesn't tidy and hates throwing stuff out so the sheds are a mess but the fences and ditched are looked after
I just need to get a skip into the yard

And a holiday for your poor over worked Dad, possibly the same week as the skip

Timmaay

Do the most of it here myself, which basically means not nearly enough gets done and I'm never on top of it, and have my dad breathing down my neck non stop about finishing off stuff ha. I had a friend in a day or so a week over the summer and largely had him trying to get on top of stuff. Some bit of hedge cutting gets done every year, just about keeping on top of that, but it's a never ending circle, once ya got the whole farm done the 1st bit ya did is totally overgrown ha. Alot of work needed here on fencing 2bh, I'll get in a chap to do alot of that, things like a good electric fence on all the lane ways and main boundary fields, anything internal moving forward I'll do with pigtails, to allow flexibility in paddock sizes, cutting silage etc. I'm fairly tidy on the digger also, so do the most of that myself, esp odd jobs, it's annoying having to pay a driver and waste your time walking around showing him what to do. I got a neighbour with a 3.5ton who I get the use of on its down time, in exchange for me doing abit of topping and fert spreading.

As others said in the above there really are loads of hidden costs and hours worked, but without it the farm will go down hill, like the last thing you need is to be chasing around animals for hours during a busy time of the year because fencing wasn't up to scratch etc.

farawaygrass

ganmo wrote: »

my dad doesn't tidy and hates throwing stuff out so the sheds are a mess but the fences and ditched are looked after
I just need to get a skip into the yard

I'll assume both our fathers are the one go age wise. Mine is the same, he's the best in the world really but we had a tool shed full of rubbish, or stuff that could come in handy down the line as he says. It was so bad you couldn't find tools to do a job, therefor making the job at hand a big one huts to get organised! I cleared it last year and I think now he knows I was right. I'm
I think it was something with that generation, I suppose poor growing up and grandparents that would have been told horrid tales of the famine that influenced them.
In fairness, they might have had a phobia of 'wasting' money, but they bloody worked hard.
Back to the topic, I find it impossible to get on top of repair jobs to really even start maintaince. Especially on an older farm yard. You don't feel the summer slipping by and the chance of fixing up a few more bits gone for another year.

9935452

Timmaay wrote: »

Do the most of it here myself, which basically means not nearly enough gets done and I'm never on top of it, and have my dad breathing down my neck non stop about finishing off stuff ha. I had a friend in a day or so a week over the summer and largely had him trying to get on top of stuff. Some bit of hedge cutting gets done every year, just about keeping on top of that, but it's a never ending circle, once ya got the whole farm done the 1st bit ya did is totally overgrown ha. Alot of work needed here on fencing 2bh, I'll get in a chap to do alot of that, things like a good electric fence on all the lane ways and main boundary fields, anything internal moving forward I'll do with pigtails, to allow flexibility in paddock sizes, cutting silage etc. I'm fairly tidy on the digger also, so do the most of that myself, esp odd jobs, it's annoying having to pay a driver and waste your time walking around showing him what to do. I got a neighbour with a 3.5ton who I get the use of on its down time, in exchange for me doing abit of topping and fert spreading.

As others said in the above there really are loads of hidden costs and hours worked, but without it the farm will go down hill, like the last thing you need is to be chasing around animals for hours during a busy time of the year because fencing wasn't up to scratch etc.

We would be the same here . most everything is done ourselves, digger work hedges welding , fabrication .
The problem with that is there will never be enough time to get stuff done. If we were to hire in someone at least jobs will get finished rather than 90percent there

Boaty

Would I be right in saying a combination of time and money is holding you back from doing jobs, why pay someone to do a job when you could do it yourself?
I'd say youd be able to get a young lad out to help for very little money because they are dieing to get out of the house, fair enough they mightn't be as good as you want at the start but can only improve.

Grueller

Do it nearly all myself here. Did pay a lad to come in and paint all the sheds this year. Have fenced over a mile of ditches and gripes this summer and as I am typing this am waiting on an out block for a low loader to arrive with a track machine to finish a roadway.

I am going to go into glas and use every cent that this yields to get the place tidied. I am coppicing a kilometre of ditches to tidy up straggly bits. In the long term this should be cheap fencing.

Bullocks

Boaty wrote: »

Would I be right in saying a combination of time and money is holding you back from doing jobs, why pay someone to do a job when you could do it yourself?
I'd say youd be able to get a young lad out to help for very little money because they are dieing to get out of the house, fair enough they mightn't be as good as you want at the start but can only improve.

Yup you're right , it's down to time and money .
I don't like getting young lads helping out , I don't find them as useful as an older fella that knows what he's doing, I don't know if many of them are in a rush to leave the house to go working either!

Boaty

Yeah I can understand they aren't going to be as good as someone older but everyone has to start somewhere, I'd say if you put up a post on facebook asking for someone help you for feck all money, it be would mostly young lads applying

MickeyShtyles

I wrote everything I wanted done this summer into the phone.
Inly have a a wknd here abd there and I've a fair bit done.

KatyMac

Last year I got old drains opened up and fenced both sides. Great job this year as the fields are so much better, and I got a good cut of silage.
I got lad with a machine to sink fence posts this year and have spent the last few weeks putting up barbed wire. And getting him to put down gate posts, so everything is swinging properly - no more dragging gates round with my shoulder under the top bar.
Next year I'll get him back and put up more posts and by then I should be on top of the fences!!! Still haven't fenced the drinking spots for Glas (should only take a dozen posts), but am waiting until I've been told that the scheme is going to happen before wasting effort there.
Next job that's been put on the long finger is a corner of a field that blackthorn are taking over, might try and get that done during the winter.
Like everyone else time is the curse.
My family are well grown with the result the oldest girl comes out and happily belts in staples - she hits the nail about 2 out of every 10 swings of the hammer!

Sacrolyte

MickeyShtyles wrote: »

I wrote everything I wanted done this summer into the phone.
Inly have a a wknd here abd there and I've a fair bit done.

Go away and plug your phone in Mickey before she dies.

Figerty

Drains, drains and more drains this year.

Found a spring a week ago on high ground.. it's still flying but now has some where to go! Should make a massive difference to the ground below it over the next year.

MickeyShtyles

Sacrolyte wrote: »

Go away and plug your phone in Mickey before she dies.

Thanjs.....

9935452

Figerty wrote: »

Drains, drains and more drains this year.

Found a spring a week ago on high ground.. it's still flying but now has some where to go! Should make a massive difference to the ground below it over the next year.

I read an article about a man who had a spring the same way. he went in with a track machine and found the source , piped it into a water trough below the spring and piped the overflow into a dyke.
Constant fresh free water

Figerty

9935452 wrote: »

I read an article about a man who had a spring the same way. he went in with a track machine and found the source , piped it into a water trough below the spring and piped the overflow into a dyke.
Constant fresh free water

That may happen yet! I have an old bath tub that might work..

Phil Hogan won't be able to tax it....

9935452

Figerty wrote: »

That may happen yet! I have an old bath tub that might work..

Phil Hogan won't be able to tax it....

Thats what i was thinking too

BPH35172

Parishlad wrote: »

I was actually thinking of starting a very similar thread! Much the same situation - part time with a young family. When I 'took over' the farm three years ago it wasn't in great shape and to be honest it still isn't great. However, I am tipping away at it every chance I get. Same problems with briars, overgrown ditches, bad/no fences, rushes/weeds in land, areas I can't even access with a tractor because the access 'road' (bothrín) is so overgrown.
The killer for me is the time that is required to do this maintenance type work while tending to the everyday requirements on the farm and more importantly trying to spend as much time as possible with my family.
I have accepted that it will be at least 5 more years before I have the place in a state that I would be happy with. I have a bit of a plan in my head but sometimes that goes out the window when I realise that there is something else that needs to be done more urgently.
In any case, when I was feeling a bit fed up with it all recently, thinking I was getting nowhere, a friend of mine sat me down and listed out everything I had achieved over the last three years. Turns out I have made a good bit of progress, so as they say - Rome wasn't built in a day - so I guess I'll plough on for another while!

Great post! Just goes to show the importance of friends and mentors when in this game. It is far too easy to isolate yourself. Keep focused, acknowledge the good work that has been done!

On a more general point, a lot of maintenance is down to time; time availability and time management.
If you can complete specific maintenance tasks efficiently, complete them yourself. If you are slow or inexperienced - outsource / contract. You're not saving money heading out in a clapped out 50b with a 6" bucket for drainage work for a day every 2 years, after you work out your time/costs. Drainage work contracted is VAT refundable.

Work out what your top 3 maintenance skills are, and maximise them (ironically this might be a clapped out 50b working and been operated well!) As years pass you can develop new skills and rotate them.

Personally - I hate doing fencing, gate posts, gates - for me, this is contractor work. I could waste 6 hours arsing about what they'd do in an hour, do it once do it right.

B

keep going

Love fixing up the place but time is getting fierce tight.had a missed call from digger man so could be putting in a new farm road in the new rented ground the next couple of days but outside of that no big building job being done this year so hopefully will do alot of tidying up, especially loves jobs that are done in a jiff

Miname

There's a never ending list of jobs around my place,I was going splitting ground into paddocks but ended up getting a lad in instead. He done a far better job for damn all money. I've a gable end to put in a shed and a fair share of concreting that will be nipped off over the next few years but it is the little jobs that soak the time up. The olds headed off for a few days and there's even more small jobs piling up. The old mans brilliant for checking cattle and cleaning the yard. Today is the only evening this week I've been in before ten and I don't know what I actually got done. I'd be lost without the old man.

patsy_mccabe

I tend to do everything myself. While it saves money, it eats into time in a big way. Only part-time farming, so evenings getting shorter don't help. Often it's the time setting up and tidying up after that eats time.