5 best farm jobs

The part time boy

Following on from Whelan 5 worth job . Let's see can we be positive and state your 5 best jobs .

1. Calving a cow and watching a calf been born
2. Fencing on a sunny day
3. Cutting sillage ( not a machine head but I still look forward to it
4. Don't do it anymore and not all the time but milking cows I really liked at times
5. Topping (dirty word but great at looking at a clean paddock afterwards )

whelan2

1. Picking ragwort- nice to look back an see an area cleared
2. Powerwashing. Great to see nice clean shed
3. Reseeding
4. First day letting stock out
5. Great to see kids showing an interest in the farm

Farmer_3650

1. Silage.
2. Calving/Lambing time.
3. Letting Cows & Calves out to grass.
4. Driving tractors.
5. Seeing the finished job after a day Topping/ Hedgecutting.

Bullocks

Getting the mart cheque/SFP
Letting out cattle in spring
Cleaning water troughs
Feeding out nuts
Like just watching stock thriving

Sam Kade

Bullocks wrote: »

Getting the mart cheque/SFP
Letting out cattle in spring
Cleaning water troughs
Feeding out nuts
Like just watching stock thriving

You must be the only farmer getting SFP in a cheque

Bullocks

Sam Kade wrote: »

You must be the only farmer getting SFP in a cheque

Or BPS or whatever it's called nowadays . You don't let much skip past Sam !

blue5000

Whelan is confused I think between the best and worst jobs, anyway here's mine;

1 Ploughing.
2 Watching a heifer calve by herself out the field and seeing the calf get up and suck unaided.
3 Unblocking a drain, any drain;)
4 Taking (good) cattle to the factory and watching them grade.
5 Tying a dept vet up in knots with the farmer's charter.


I think there is an old thread on this somewhere, if I find it I'll post it and see how much it has changed.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057113964 Not exactly the same, this is most satisfying jobs on the farm.

K.G.

Fixing anything
Milking
dehorning
Counting the money
Calving
Buckraking
Building anything
Letting out the cows
Pulling ragworth
Reseeding
Reclaiming land

Cavanjack

Getting a gate hung that you've been dragging for the last 30 years.
Money from eu

Pidae.m

Weaning the calves and I can see my years effort together.

jimini0

1. Having my 5 year old help out. He has a small wheelbarrow he loves to bring in fresh straw in and dirty straw out. He has a small bucket to bring treats to the cows and calves.
2. Cow calved unaided and calf up sucking.
3. Silage. The smell of freshly cut grass and making it.
4. Opening a bale of silage and seeing great silage. Knowing there will be no waste in this one.
5. Cleaning drains with mini digger. Its lovely to see water flowing away

The man in red and black

Less to do on the parents farm now most cattle are gone at home bar a handful.

1. Watching a cow calf herself, especially live twins. Love twins.
2. Picking out AI straws.
3. Doing a job like disbudding with local +/- sedation and the animal never lets a moan out of them.
4. Tagging calves/checking their stars when they come back/recording ICBF calf quality/cow quality etc data.(I am a nerd I know).
5. Watching my father and the cattle dealer go trough the same routine of haggling every single time with each of them playing the same tricks each time like pretending to get into the jeep/pretending going to let the cattle back into the field. Like d'Unbelievables some times.

Where as farm jobs when working as a vet:
1. Untwisting a calf bed.
2. Fetotomy(Cutting up a dead, stink, calf with wire to get him out the back in small pieces to avoid a section on a stink calf).
3. Abdominal surgery, Displaced abomasums, caecal dilations, c-sections etc, the more unusual the better :cool:
4. Scanning
5. When farmers want you to investigate a herd health problem such as acidosis/pneumonia/lameness/fertility with a good work up/bloods/samples etc.

emaherx

5 best moments of any days farming. (In reverse order )
5. Tea in the morning before going out to face the day's work.
4. Tea after dinner (about 13.00)
3. Tea from the flask behind tractor seat. (Because your too busy to stop)
2. Tea on a bale of hay (because your on top of things and have time to stop)
1. That cup of tea you get when you're finished for the day.

I said

That first pint after a hard days graft

CloughCasey1

1. Square bailing
2. Letting out suck calves for the first time.
3. Watching them meeting the electric fence☺☺
4. Standing at gate listening to cattle grazing
5. Seeing a bargain on DD and the wheeling and dealing that goes with it.

Suckler

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

1. Square bailing

Some effort in making them but was a great feeling when you had the hay shed filled. Have the bale elevator out in the rain, hasn't been used in 20 years I'd say but I still don't want to cut it up or get rid of it

The part time boy

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

1. Square bailing

Does that including drawing them in ?

In my youth I decided one year to draw in most of our straw and sell it out of shed instead from the field .

4000 bails and 20 years latter I still get night mears . Fecking mice ate half the twinces after to boot

Sam Kade

The part time boy wrote: »

Does that including drawing them in ?

In my youth I decided one year to draw in most of our straw and sell it out of shed instead from the field .

4000 bails and 20 years latter I still get night mears . Fecking mice ate half the twinces after to boot

Spent years drawing small square bales and towards the end I found the easiest way to do it, tractor and loader with a 10 foot gate on the loader and bringing 30 bales at a time with two people in the shed. No lifting of bales and if there were more bales we used two tractors.

carrollsno1

1. assisting a birth either lambing or calving. Ill admit i am missing this in new zealand i only had to assist one cow myself out if near 300 so far
2. Walking through the stock after giving them a fresh break while being outwintered. Lovely on a fresh and hardy morning at home and all the cows are content
3. Milking, ill never get a robot if i start my own dairy herd
4. Grass walks and budgets.
5. Bovine paediatrics, its an art form in itself

cosatron

1. peeping your head in the calving box to see if your favorite cow has calved and then slopping in to left the calve's leg and seeing its a heifer, pure delight.
2.Then after 2 years of nurturing the said heifer finally hits the parlour and she has a lovely square bag and loads of milk with loads of potential.
3. letting the cows out after 4 months indoors.
4. Good milk cheques and reading the returns showing improvements being made.
5. culled cows going out on there own terms, ie we had a good 13 year old cow that didn't go in calf and she's down in the field getting ready for the factory, it would of broke our heart if something happened to her.

whelan2

Spraying weeds and seeing them die....

A cow called Daisy

I've been racking my brains for the last couple of days to think of one.

Anyone else notice that there have been over 80 posts in the '5 worst farm jobs' and just over 20 in the '5 best farm jobs'.

Sam Kade

Opening the milk statement when milk price is over 30 cent/litre
Spreading fertiliser/slurry when there's rain due.
Fixing a clapped out mower and cutting 10 acres with it.
Milking herd with no mastitis cow:)

White Clover

Sam Kade wrote: »

Opening the milk statement when milk price is over 30 cent/litre
Spreading fertiliser/slurry when there's rain due.
Fixing a clapped out mower and cutting 10 acres with it.
Milking herd with no mastitis cow:)

All completed by you in the last 3 weeks?

lakill Farm

Picking up a new/ new to you machine and putting it through its paces and realising the benefit it will make going forward

Finding a good deal on donedeal/adverts and the seller sticking to the deal

Taking care of a sick animal and getting them back to full health and when you sell that animal you know it definitely left you money

Getting crop saved in a good weather window. Bit of planning of you and contractor coming together

Best of all. Walking over a field on a summers evening and realising that life isn't to bad.

Who2

Having a decent pen of cattle in the mart and listening to lads talk about them.

Base price

Rearing suck calves.
Buying suck calves to rear at the right price
Checking calves in the sheds at night and seeing them content before I head to bed.
Topping at any time of the year.
My favourite job is rolling out a bale of golden barley straw (for bedding) on a pissy cold miserable Winter's day - it's like releasing a bit of Summer

Sam Kade

White Clover wrote: »

All completed by you in the last 3 weeks?

Except for the last one and the clapped out mower was last year.

Biscuitus

Calving a cow and getting the calf up and sucking is always my favourite job. I don't mind a challenge but its always great when they calf during the day and without any assistance and the calf gets up and suckles in the hour.

Stacking the last Silage bale
Calving the last cow and knowing you can sleep again
Looking on a field you sprayed seeing leafy grass
Counting the cows after the bull has been taken away and seeing signs of anyone in heat