Now Ye're Talking - to an Irish Farmer

ganmo

Why no sheep?

I'm a Farmer, AMA

ganmo wrote: »

Why no sheep?

I have thought about it, there would be a benefit for grass management and cash flow, but I never really liked working with them TBH. We are a bit too near a village and dogs could be a problem, also fencing cost is too high I reckon.

I think they would fit in better on a suckler farm with an autumn calving herd, mine is all spring calving. 3 neighbours bounding me had them and they've all got out of them in the last 10 years or so.

Base price

I'm a Farmer, AMA wrote: »

Ok, either 3 or 4 or something in between.

Thank you.

voz es

Very good 'Now ye're talking' fair play a real interesting read.

What is your land like, what is the mix?
Would you be from a part of the country considered to have very good land by others?
Do you get good silage returns per acre?

Rain and water logged land is very much on peoples minds currently do you winter house all stock. What is your length of time is typical off land season?

What breeds are you focusing on, I noticed you wrote positively about the Aberdeen Angus and Hereford breeds, are you expanding into these, it might be worth looking into the Wagyu breed they appear offer a higher quality again? but maybe too fatty for current health concise trends.

Do you run stock bulls?

Shannon757

Did you watch Ear to the ground today?

Gloomtastic!

I was driving to a funeral in Castlebar from Dublin a few years ago and drove for ages past small fields with stone walls, all empty and unproductive.

When I was holidaying in France it seemed every inch of land was being farmed, 365 days a year.

Is Ireland's obsession with owning land counterproductive to actually utilising it to it's full capacity? Should small unproductive farms be CPO'd and sold/rented to farmers who can actually farm?

I'm a Farmer, AMA

voz es wrote: »

Very good 'Now ye're talking' fair play a real interesting read.

What is your land like, what is the mix?
Would you be from a part of the country considered to have very good land by others?
Do you get good silage returns per acre?

Rain and water logged land is very much on peoples minds currently do you winter house all stock. What is your length of time is typical off land season?

What breeds are you focusing on, I noticed you wrote positively about the Aberdeen Angus and Hereford breeds, are you expanding into these, it might be worth looking into the Wagyu breed they appear offer a higher quality again? but maybe too fatty for current health concise trends.

Do you run stock bulls?

Most of it is dry, sandy soil over limestone, I have some cutaway bog as well that is wet. Probably would be considered good by other counties.
Never weighed it, first cut would be around 12 ton/acre at a guess.
Almost all stock housed this winter, but normally the weanlings are out wintered. We'd normally have everything except a few dry cows out to grass by 1st April, mid-Oct some priority cattle would be in, but it varies from year to year.
Ya mostly angus in the cows, also use blonde d'aquitaine, belgian blue, aubrac and hereford. I hear Irish Hereford steaks beat wagyu in a taste competition in London, so there's no mad rush to start massaging and feeding beer to wagyu cattle round here yet.
Only 2 stock bulls here now, an angus and aubrac, used to have a blonde as well. Thanks for the questions.

I'm a Farmer, AMA

Shannon757 wrote: »

Did you watch Ear to the ground today?

No, didn't see it today.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I was driving to a funeral in Castlebar from Dublin a few years ago and drove for ages past small fields with stone walls, all empty and unproductive.

When I was holidaying in France it seemed every inch of land was being farmed, 365 days a year.

Is Ireland's obsession with owning land counterproductive to actually utilising it to it's full capacity? Should small unproductive farms be CPO'd and sold/rented to farmers who can actually farm?

It's a hard one to call, I think the land commission made a proper b**ls of dividing up the big estates in the 1920's. I don't know were they trying to be fair by giving everybody a bit of good land here, and a bit of bad land there, thus everyone round here anyway has land scattered/fragmented. Or was there an ulterior(?) motive, keep the peasants busy, unproductive and poor so that they'd be easy to govern?

Sometimes I think we spent 800 years fighting the English for our land, then we get it and 3 generations later we're a nation of (small) landlords ourselves. How do you decide who should have their land taken off them?

Your opinion and my opinion of 'who can actually farm' might be totally different, you might think, looking in from the road at a farm with new sheds, new tractors and 200 milking cows that must be a good farmer, but the guy up the road with 20 suckler cows, a few sheep, high hedges and a rusty tractor, could have a much richer, more diverse habitat for wildlife AND be more profitable than the dairy farmer. I don't know what part of France you were in, but the last time I flew over it, the crops looked very bad, bits missed, patchy, badly maintained etc.

It should be easier to swop parcels of land or transfer ownership. I agree with, you a lot of land is unproductive, what we have to ask is WHY is it unproductive, before we start running around with compulsory purchase orders.

voz es

I'm a Farmer, AMA wrote: »

Most of it is dry, sandy soil over limestone, I have some cutaway bog as well that is wet. Probably would be considered good by other counties.
Never weighed it, first cut would be around 12 ton/acre at a guess.
Almost all stock housed this winter, but normally the weanlings are out wintered. We'd normally have everything except a few dry cows out to grass by 1st April, mid-Oct some priority cattle would be in, but it varies from year to year.
Ya mostly angus in the cows, also use blonde d'aquitaine, belgian blue, aubrac and hereford. I hear Irish Hereford steaks beat wagyu in a taste competition in London, so there's no mad rush to start massaging and feeding beer to wagyu cattle round here yet.
Only 2 stock bulls here now, an angus and aubrac, used to have a blonde as well. Thanks for the questions.

Where I am from the stock may well be housed for 5 months it is difficult to utilize the grass then. Very interesting regards the Hereford meat are certain arbitrators seeking the finer cuts of meat or where do you find you market? I notice aberdeen angus and hereford being highlighted I'm just wondering how is that certified?

I'm a Farmer, AMA

voz es wrote: »

Where I am from the stock may well be housed for 5 months it is difficult to utilize the grass then. Very interesting regards the Hereford meat are certain arbitrators seeking the finer cuts of meat or where do you find you market? I notice aberdeen angus and hereford being highlighted I'm just wondering how is that certified?

Have a look here, I'm not in any of the groups as I finish my male cattle as bulls.
http://www.angusproducergroup.com/?map_page=7

http://www.irishherefordprime.com/

Most of my beef goes to the UK, some of the valuable hindquarter cuts go to Italy, these tend to be the smaller, leaner cattle. The cut that goes to Italy is called 'pistola' http://www.fleisch-teilstuecke.at/en/tsdetail-rind/fts/1006/1000/

voz es

I'm a Farmer, AMA wrote: »

Have a look here, I'm not in any of the groups as I finish my male cattle as bulls.
http://www.angusproducergroup.com/?map_page=7

http://www.irishherefordprime.com/

Most of my beef goes to the UK, some of the valuable hindquarter cuts go to Italy, these tend to be the smaller, leaner cattle. The cut that goes to Italy is called 'pistola' http://www.fleisch-teilstuecke.at/en/tsdetail-rind/fts/1006/1000/

Thank you for that, it has pointed me in the right direction.

diomed

This thread has given farmers a good image. :pac:
You are a man with a lot of ideas and opinions.
You didn't come down in the last shower.

I'm a Farmer, AMA

diomed wrote: »

This thread has given farmers a good image. :pac:
You are a man with a lot of ideas and opinions.
You didn't come down in the last shower.

Thanks diomed and everyone else who contributed, not sure when this will be locked up, but before it does I just want to say thanks to boards for allowing me come on here, it's my way of giving a little bit back for all that I've learnt on here over the past few years, I'm sure there are other ppl wanting to come on here.

Water John

Many thanks also for your time and insights. You represent us well.
I hear there is a few vacancies in Bluebell!!

Genghis Cant

Well done Farmer, you're playing a blinder!

Talk to me a little about Aubrac cattle from you're experience. I've never even once tried an Aubrac straw. Should I and what do they cross well with?

I'm a Farmer, AMA

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Well done Farmer, you're playing a blinder!

Talk to me a little about Aubrac cattle from you're experience. I've never even once tried an Aubrac straw. Should I and what do they cross well with?

They are born small, very easy calved, a hardy French breed. They are a bit like a parthanaise, but smaller. There seems to be 2 strains, one beef and the other more milky.
The bull I have is very wide, beef not milk. I bought him to run with a bunch of angus heifers a few years back, now we have some of his daughters calved, they make a hardy, compact suckler cow, I reckon they would make a better suckler cow if they were from a freisian cow (more milk). CW aren't huge, they would be about 380kg dw where a blonde the same age and feeding would be 400kg but they are grading well, U and R.
Do a bit of research on the calving difficulty% they are a good alternative to angus for heifers.

Boards.ie: Niamh

I think we'll close this up here now. Thanks so much to our farmer guest and for all of the interesting questions. Ir seems like there was lots of advice, knowledge and new ideas talked about here

If anyone would like to put themselves forward to do an AMA, please fill in the form here. Thanks!