How to become a......

DJ98

Just wondering how would one become either a livestock scanner or a livestock haulier? What are the requirements of either career, which would be the most profitable?

Mtx

Scanner would be part time I think, haulier would be better wages but lots of early mornings. Always chasing payments from farmers. Neither job is well paid.

Who2

Mtx wrote: »

Scanner would be part time I think, haulier would be better wages but lots of early mornings. Always chasing payments from farmers. Neither job is well paid.

What would you call well paid? I know a few lads scanning full time between sheep and cattle and I'd love to have their wages.

davidk1394

Scanning would be a better job. Less running costs, paid out the gate and a not less hardship.... hopefully. Between diary, sucklers and sheep if you built up a good customer base you'd nearly be full time. Throw in A.I to the list and you'd have a full time job. For a haulier you need to have a DAFF approved haulage number, thick skin and a cute head.

Timmaay

If you do go scanning, the no arm technique is the only way forward.

Farm365

Does anyone know of a good sheep scanning course in Ireland? I’ve looked them up but I could only find courses for cows.

Mtx

Who2 wrote: »

Mtx wrote: »

Scanner would be part time I think, haulier would be better wages but lots of early mornings. Always chasing payments from farmers. Neither job is well paid.

What would you call well paid? I know a few lads scanning full time between sheep and cattle and I'd love to have their wages.

Minimum €35,000

Limestone Cowboy

I know a fella that got funding from leader to set up a scanning business. Might be worth looking into.

Dakota Dan

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I know a fella that got funding from leader to set up a scanning business. Might be worth looking into.

How did he manage that? I was at one of those farm options courses where two leader representives were crying for people to start businesses to use up leader money or else it would go back to the EU. The following day I contacted them as my daughter who is a dog groomer was going to start up at home. I was told that they had already funded a dog groomer 30 miles away and that it wasn't unique enough, strange but true. I'd say they only give a top up if you have plenty money to pump into it yourself and in that case it doesn't matter a damn how common it is.

_Brian

Dakota Dan wrote: »

How did he manage that? I was at one of those farm options courses where two leader representives were crying for people to start businesses to use up leader money or else it would go back to the EU. The following day I contacted them as my daughter who is a dog groomer was going to start up at home. I was told that they had already funded a dog groomer 30 miles away and that it wasn't unique enough, strange but true. I'd say they only give a top up if you have plenty money to pump into it yourself and in that case it doesn't matter a damn how common it is.

That’s not true.
The money can’t go to fund a business that would displace an already established business whether they funded it or not.

There would have been two angles to take, either do something that would differentiate your business from the one they were referencing so you could say you weren’t in direct competition, or you could have plucked some census data to prove there was sufficient population unique to both business to sustain both. Considering the 30 miles distance I’d have thought the latter would have been a slam dunk.
You have to do some leg work and make a good business case for Leader funding, but if you make the effort the money is there to be got. It’s not just a matter of a phone call and the cheque comes in the post the next day.

bogman_bass

Macra running scanning training courses through skill nets. 2 week course I think and you need to AI cert already

Dakota Dan

_Brian wrote: »

That’s not true.
The money can’t go to fund a business that would displace an already established business whether they funded it or not.

There would have been two angles to take, either do something that would differentiate your business from the one they were referencing so you could say you weren’t in direct competition, or you could have plucked some census data to prove there was sufficient population unique to both business to sustain both. Considering the 30 miles distance I’d have thought the latter would have been a slam dunk.
You have to do some leg work and make a good business case for Leader funding, but if you make the effort the money is there to be got. It’s not just a matter of a phone call and the cheque comes in the post the next day.

Ah come on, I'm around long enough not to expect a cheque in the post after one phone call. It was silly of them to say that two dog grooming businesses 30 miles apart would clash with each other and then say it wasn't unique enough, you'd know enough not to go jumping through hoops for them after that.

Farm365

bogman_bass wrote: »

Macra running scanning training courses through skill nets. 2 week course I think and you need to AI cert already

The Marca course is for scanning cows. They don’t seem to do one for sheep.

_Brian

Dakota Dan wrote: »

Ah come on, I'm around long enough not to expect a cheque in the post after one phone call. It was silly of them to say that two dog grooming businesses 30 miles apart would clash with each other and then say it wasn't unique enough, you'd know enough not to go jumping through hoops for them after that.

Whatever, but you can’t expect public funding without an amount of hoop jumping.

I know enough about the process to know it’s fair and far from impossible to get funding.

Who2

Mtx wrote: »

Minimum €35,000

Any good scanner will make that and double it.

_Brian

Who2 wrote: »

Any good scanner will make that and double it.

That would be fair money

charolais0153

_Brian wrote: »

That would be fair money

This time of year would be very busy especially with short evenings

Mooooo

Those scanners are about 10k to buy I think? However l9ng they last I dunno if doing a lot you would need 2 anyway.

whelan2

Who2 wrote: »

Any good scanner will make that and double it.

That's it in a nutshell - A good scanner- there's plenty of bad ones out there

Jeo John

Anyone here have a number for a cattle scanner in west galway??

farmertipp

whelan2 wrote: »

That's it in a nutshell - A good scanner- there's plenty of bad ones out there

guy who does it for me scans from outside. 100 cows an hr no problem. travels alot of west Munster.can often do 700 a day between morning and evening and heifers. also does sheep. September to December. absolutely cleans up as no competition and has plenty of energy. can do in parlour as well

Bullocks

Jeo John wrote: »

Anyone here have a number for a cattle scanner in west galway??

I'll pm you

Danzy

whelan2 wrote: »

That's it in a nutshell - A good scanner- there's plenty of bad ones out there

If the bad ones are doing alright for a few Bob, even part time it would be a good sign.

TooOldBoots

35k is the average paye Industrial wage. I'd rather be out working for myself and earning that 35k or even less than having to go into a paye job.
If lads are making double that then there's room for more people.

Dinzee Conlee

TooOldBoots wrote: »

35k is the average paye Industrial wage. I'd rather be out working for myself and earning that 35k or even less than having to go into a paye job.
If lads are making double that then there's room for more people.

Horses for courses...

Can’t beat steady income coming in too... Especially when you have steady income going out

ruwithme

€300 million to reopen schools. Who's gonna make some moolah there lads.

BnB

How do scanners around the country charge ? Do they do a call out fee plus a cost per animal on top of that or what way do they do it ?

wrangler

ruwithme wrote: »

€300 million to reopen schools. Who's gonna make some moolah there lads.

That money will disappear, be gone in a month.

Truckermal

Don't go down the Haulage route anyway, if you want a headache head for a lock of stout tonight at least the headache will be gone again tomorrow!

F5500

Truckermal wrote: »

Don't go down the Haulage route anyway, if you want a headache head for a lock of stout tonight at least the headache will be gone again tomorrow!

You wouldn't see cattle haulage as a game worth getting in to? I'd be interested in hearing lads experiences.

Truckermal

F5500 wrote: »

You wouldn't see cattle haulage as a game worth getting in to? I'd be interested in hearing lads experiences.

No it's Normally a thing handed down through generations actually, anything involving Trucks is a pain in the hole...

50HX

Is scanning not getting less popular on dairy herds where pregnancy testing is done by milk sampling

whelan2

50HX wrote: »

Is scanning not getting less popular on dairy herds where pregnancy testing is done by milk sampling

I prefer to see the calf, you can know then if there's twins or if there's any other problem

Panch18

50HX wrote: »

Is scanning not getting less popular on dairy herds where pregnancy testing is done by milk sampling

We stopped scanning a few years ago - too much hastle and to be honest no real benefit from it. and cows sh##ting everywhere in the parlour for a week after

If they are not springing by end of April then they get left off with the cull cows. We fatten a few cull cows anyway so they'd always have a couple months extra anyway

Mooooo

Scan here every year. Tight on accommodation so at least any empties suitable can get the road early if need be, and plan for spring.