Ear to the ground 2018

whelan2

New series on now

alps

whelan2 wrote: »

New series on now

Whelan.......put away the phone and enjoy your holiday....

Although, having time for the phone might be a bit of a holiday

TCM

Great programme over the years. Well produced & presented. Great variety of topics & very informative.

Parishlad

It didn't paint a great future for the suckler farmer...or anything other than dairy related farming for that matter. Apparently, unless your growing grass for the dairy man/woman or raising his/her replacements you're at nothing. Depressing stuff!

_Brian

Parishlad wrote: »

It didn't paint a great future for the suckler farmer...or anything other than dairy related farming for that matter. Apparently, unless your growing grass for the dairy man/woman or raising his/her replacements you're at nothing. Depressing stuff!

Truth hurts !!
It’s a fact for many no matter if they like it or not.

Didn’t get to see it but I’ll watch it back online later.

Muckit

My accountant confirms!

jaymla627

Parishlad wrote: »

It didn't paint a great future for the suckler farmer...or anything other than dairy related farming for that matter. Apparently, unless your growing grass for the dairy man/woman or raising his/her replacements you're at nothing. Depressing stuff!

Dairying here but the contract-rearing side of it and what the going rates are simply wouldn’t leave any profit for the man contract rearing, much simpler arrangement would be contract rearer gets say 200 a acre yearly rent for land involved and entitlements provides the labor to manage the heifers but all other costs like fert/feed/machinery/vet are the dairy farmers to cover

Track9

Ear to the Ground last night confirmed to me the Dire Situation beef Fattencer & Suckler Farmer are in .
From memory the Costings that Teagasc use , do not account for a Value on Farm Labour & Value on the asset ( land Buildings machinery etc )
I cannot understand why our Farm Community has not imposed Lighting Blockades on Processors & or Retail Outlets .
This what happens in Mainland Europe & South America.
Have we been downtrodden for such a long time , we do not rise up & complain.

_Brian

Track9 wrote: »

Ear to the Ground last night confirmed to me the Dire Situation beef Fattencer & Suckler Farmer are in .
From memory the Costings that Teagasc use , do not account for a Value on Farm Labour & Value on the asset ( land Buildings machinery etc )
I cannot understand why our Farm Community has not imposed Lighting Blockades on Processors & or Retail Outlets .
This what happens in Mainland Europe & South America.
Have we been downtrodden for such a long time , we do not rise up & complain.

Mostly because of the mantra that you will become profitable through increasing numbers and focusing on reducing costs.

Nobody with any clout will say the truth out loud - beef prices are so low that they leave the suppliers with no profit margin to work off.

patsy_mccabe

What about the €1000 gross margin per hectare that the Journal had been quoting all along?

Track9

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

What about the €1000 gross margin per hectare that the Journal had been quoting all along?

==================================
Gross Margin being the Relevant Item ( Gross )there are many deductibles to put in .
Rather than get involved in semantics ,can I refer all to Teagasc own Figures calculated in Summer .
They indicated Beef Finishers needed circa 4.65 per kilo to make a small profit
They used three Prices for purchasing of weanlings .Low , Medium & High .
Circa 400 with wgt of Weanling Bull being mid price .
Im amazed that our finishers have any confidence in buying weanlings when factory prices are below the 400 c per kg & have little signs of increasing .
I agree with the oher comments ( Produce more & be more efficient )
That's an insult to the Committed , Efficient Farmers in Ireland.
The EU wants food stability & sustainability , I dont see any thing stable or Sustainable in any farming outside of Dairying .
We need to take more pro active action & not be pushed around .

jaymla627

Track9 wrote: »

==================================
Gross Margin being the Relevant Item ( Gross )there are many deductibles to put in .
Rather than get involved in semantics ,can I refer all to Teagasc own Figures calculated in Summer .
They indicated Beef Finishers needed circa 4.65 per kilo to make a small profit
They used three Prices for purchasing of weanlings .Low , Medium & High .
Circa 400 with wgt of Weanling Bull being mid price .
Im amazed that our finishers have any confidence in buying weanlings when factory prices are below the 400 c per kg & have little signs of increasing .
I agree with the oher comments ( Produce more & be more efficient )
That's an insult to the Committed , Efficient Farmers in Ireland.
The EU wants food stability & sustainability , I dont see any thing stable or Sustainable in any farming outside of Dairying .
We need to take more pro active action & not be pushed around .

Dairying isn’t the proverbial cash cow that’s been banded about, the real winners are renting their ground tax free/drawing entitlements on top of this and not having to lift a finger, just like with the massaging of figures with beef, the exact same occurs when we here of low 20’s cop in dairying.
The funniest thing this week and previously when the top farmers are being lauded about its all 2017 figures of grass grown/meal fed per cow, nobody wants to grasp the nettle and come out and say 18 is going to be a year where the vast majority of dairy farmers break-even/have losses but it will still be portrayed as a net profit of 40 odd grand per farm of course the plethora of stuff to come out of this like paying yourself and capital repayments on loans etc doesn’t seem to be highlighted....
It was talked about by Herilhy about dairy farmers burning about and working stupid hours, it’s all true and for one man units the time and effort that goes in where facilities aren’t up to scratch yet is savage, especially where large numbers of cows are being milked

_Brian

Track9 wrote: »

==================================
Gross Margin being the Relevant Item ( Gross )there are many deductibles to put in .
Rather than get involved in semantics ,can I refer all to Teagasc own Figures calculated in Summer .
They indicated Beef Finishers needed circa 4.65 per kilo to make a small profit
They used three Prices for purchasing of weanlings .Low , Medium & High .
Circa 400 with wgt of Weanling Bull being mid price .
Im amazed that our finishers have any confidence in buying weanlings when factory prices are below the 400 c per kg & have little signs of increasing .
I agree with the oher comments ( Produce more & be more efficient )
That's an insult to the Committed , Efficient Farmers in Ireland.
The EU wants food stability & sustainability , I dont see any thing stable or Sustainable in any farming outside of Dairying .
We need to take more pro active action & not be pushed around .

I don’t beleive the EU is interested in food security any more.

With memories of the war long faded and no signs of any turbulence within Europe and not much outside. EU beaurocrats have plenty of offers of cheap food supplies on their desks, they don’t see food security as any issue at all.

Milk is king because of its versatility to be powdered and become a commodity to be traded.

Everything else is a mere sideshow.

From my perspective greening schemes and maybe carbon sequestration will be what everyone else outside dairy will be force fed.

Anto_Meath

Dairy does appear to be the cash cow alright, but there is a number of problems, in a year like this dairy farmers will loose a lot of money, the more devious ones wouldn't pay contractors, for rented land or silage bought. At the mart recently there has already been a number of stories floating regarding this. If all farmers become involved in some aspect of the dairy industry then we are leaving ourselves open for massive wipe out with all our eggs in the one basket. There is money in beef, be it a suckler farming or raising the cross bred dairy cattle to beef, but its not by increasing numbers, it is by looking after what you have correctly, having good cows that produce a good beef animal. But the key is you need to be killing (or selling direct to export) all your animals that way you are getting the maximum return possible on all animals. Everyone is out to buy whatever they can as cheap as they can. In the marts at the minute shipper are actually buying very poor cattle and the very good ones are making good money but the middle of the road lad is actually value. At the mart the other night a very fancy black Limo bull weighed 370 kgs and made €1,040, his buddy not as fancy weighed 340 kgs and he made €710. No way was the second lad that much of a poorer animal if he got well done between now and been killed he had the potential to kill into a U grade animal.

_Brian

It’s a pity ETTG isn’t worked into an hour long programme. It’s a short season and there is enough Agri throughout the country to fill the hour.

charolais0153

_Brian wrote: »

Mostly because of the mantra that you will become profitable through increasing numbers and focusing on reducing costs.

Nobody with any clout will say the truth out loud - beef prices are so low that they leave the suppliers with no profit margin to work off.

I think that has been said numerous times

patsy_mccabe

Watched it there earlier. Good to see it talk more about real farming issues like income. Maybe they'll wise up this year and keep it more relevant to farmers.

kk.man

I know prices are not relevant to costs but what cheeses me off when organisations suggesting the price should be 4.65 etc. If prices increased by that amount so would farmers continue to pay uneconomic prices for store stock and hence no fix.
A price rise would not be a sole solution to the beef industry.

50HX

TCM wrote: »

Great programme over the years. Well produced & presented. Great variety of topics & very informative.

LOL......:P

oldsmokey

TCM wrote: »

Great programme over the years. Well produced & presented. Great variety of topics & very informative.

I beg to differ, its dull, simplistic, treats the viewers as morons, and the topics are usually on some woolly subject...that clown darragh would annoy a saint with his patronising...i like ella tho..😗

kk.man

oldsmokey wrote: »

I beg to differ, its dull, simplistic, treats the viewers as morons, and the topics are usually on some woolly subject...that clown darragh would annoy a saint with his patronising...i like ella tho..😗

+1 're Darragh

memorystick

oldsmokey wrote: »

I beg to differ, its dull, simplistic, treats the viewers as morons, and the topics are usually on some woolly subject...that clown darragh would annoy a saint with his patronising...i like ella tho..😗

Not as bad as 'a week on the farm'. Terrible scutter altogether.

jaymla627

kk.man wrote: »

+1 're Darragh

He’s a gas man, beating the drum about dairying and how profitable it is, and he ran for the hills himself from it, years ago after they had went to the hassle of putting in robots obviously as a carrot so poor Darragh wouldn’t even have to milk, in favor of growing flowers/vegetables

Mac Taylor

_Brian wrote: »

It’s a pity ETTG isn’t worked into an hour long programme. It’s a short season and there is enough Agri throughout the country to fill the hour.

It’s the same with a lot of rte and tv3 agri relafed programmes. Maybe they thing we can only keep our attention for 30 mins

Melodeon

The days of 'current affairs' type farming programming (Landmark and Mart & Market, with Tom Riordan promoting udder salve products and other adverts for sartopic mange mite treatments and milk replacer during the breaks, etc) are long gone.
It's all 'lifestyle' oriented these days, with utter sh1te like A Week On The Farm on the dank and mouldy underside of the very bottom of the barrel.

Farmer

I'm guessing they have to keep more than farmers tuned in to keep up the viewership to keep up the advertising revenue.....

Water John

But viewers both non farming and farming have showed they tune in to realistic rural/farming programmes. It doesn't nee to be dumbed down esp like the NPC and A week on the Farm.

kk.man

jaymla627 wrote: »

He’s a gas man, beating the drum about dairying and how profitable it is, and he ran for the hills himself from it, years ago after they had went to the hassle of putting in robots obviously as a carrot so poor Darragh wouldn’t even have to milk, in favor of growing flowers/vegetables

I bet he wouldn't know what work is...plenty of talking ****e alright

_Brian

Water John wrote: »

But viewers both non farming and farming have showed they tune in to realistic rural/farming programmes. It doesn't nee to be dumbed down esp like the NPC and A week on the Farm.

Week on the farm is too “reality tv” for me, I watched 10 minutes when it was in Cavan as I knew plenty of locals on it but couldn’t stick it out.

DJ98

RTÉ should look at a producing a series like this farming life on BBC, a great programme showing what life is really like for a range of different farmers, all in different environments,

Base price

Just started now.

lalababa

Just caught the end of it....some crowd singing about an old boreen. Next week Roundup for the chop and something 'bout a red speckled cow that shaped Ireland over thousands of years oh and the bales are not there they're just not there. Where are they and was it the colour of her hair?

DJ98

Is sheep farming non existant to the programme?? All dairy

There's scope for a really well-researched informative farming programme on RTE. We're an agricultural country and the science of farming is changing rapidly. There are loads of topics that could do with discussion and advice and information. A lot of the older generation of farmers are overwhelmed with the demands of new regulations and paperwork and the imposition of online applications. But it's very rare on ETTG to get anything really helpful or relevant. It seems to be all about the perception of farming rather than the reality. Wooly lambs and fluffy chicks and how to make brown bread. Like a visit to one of those pet farms that are springing up around the country.
Where they do visit farms it's always the big ones, - big herds, big machines, big acreage.
And as for "Big week on the Farm" - cringe.

whelan2

Is it worth watching on plus 1?

50HX

whelan2 wrote: »

Is it worth watching on plus 1?

no

a bus link run

a dairy farmer who seems to be in good land and is on the pigsback every year re grass growth...got caught out in the drought this year

a beef farmer that opens a pub one night a week

i've givin up on this dung of a programme..makes you wonder what goes through the minds of the producers of this programme, ella would nearly be better off on her own on it

wiggy123

agree--farming is part of Irish culture... big employer in this country, should be more programmes done on it-- ear to the ground is ok-but 25 mins long--way to short! also need to talk to real farmers, not just the big boys

_Brian

Whats the story with countryfile these days ??


I havent seen it in a long time... is it a better program ?

wiggy123

gone away from farming--more environmental type stuff, In my opinion

Mac Taylor

wiggy123 wrote: »

gone away from farming--more environmental type stuff, In my opinion

Haven’t watched it in months......more an outdoor lifestyle program now with a nod to something farming related that you might see while out

tractorporn

inthehat wrote:

There's scope for a really well-researched informative farming programme on RTE. We're an agricultural country and the science of farming is changing rapidly. There are loads of topics that could do with discussion and advice and information. A lot of the older generation of farmers are overwhelmed with the demands of new regulations and paperwork and the imposition of online applications. But it's very rare on ETTG to get anything really helpful or relevant. It seems to be all about the perception of farming rather than the reality. Wooly lambs and fluffy chicks and how to make brown bread. Like a visit to one of those pet farms that are springing up around the country. Where they do visit farms it's always the big ones, - big herds, big machines, big acreage. And as for "Big week on the Farm" - cringe.

Caught Ffermio on Sc4 this eve. Really well put together farming show. The subtitles did help. Made me wonder is there scope for TG4 to do a proper farming show?

anthony500_1

tractorporn wrote:

Caught Ffermio on Sc4 this eve. Really well put together farming show. The subtitles did help. Made me wonder is there scope for TG4 to do a proper farming show?

They produced a great one imo a few years ago, it was maybe 8-10 programs going around the Irish speaking parts of the country from sheep to cattle and horses, nice show, and it showed real world stuff. Great man from cork on it, he had converted to organic and had started growing his own oats on 6ac, of his 40ac, he had sucklers and sheep and showed him at stuff like scanning fencing harvesting cleaning out sheds etc, nothing fancy but he had a tidy set up. Another dairy man up in Dublin wears a blue hard hat all the time, showed him explaining about milking, calving, dehorning etc. Very nice show even if your farming it was interesting.

TITANIUM.

A decent program tonight to be fair. The tillage lad at the start was very impressive. Spoke well knew his stuff and had his research done. You could of got rid of that clown darragh and his fancy cap for that part and left your man off to do it himself.
Second half cattle and contractors.

kerryjack

TITANIUM. wrote: »

A decent program tonight to be fair. The tillage lad at the start was very impressive. Spoke well knew his stuff and had his research done. You could of got rid of that clown darragh and his fancy cap for that part and left your man off to do it himself.
Second half cattle and contractors.

Ya whats with the cap the tatch must be getting scarce ; is he going to wear that for the rest of his life.

TITANIUM.

kerryjack wrote: »

Ya whats with the cap the tatch must be getting scarce ; is he going to wear that for the rest of his life.

I reckon he'll ditch it once he has the comb over fully cultivated.

_Brian

TITANIUM. wrote: »

I reckon he'll ditch it once he has the comb over fully cultivated.

Maybe he’s had the tatch recently reseeded and waiting for it to thicken up. Wayne Rooney style.

anthony500_1

Grand show first time in the long time I'd say it was an informative show. The dairy lady was not to worried about how she looked on TV but was a nice all devil I'd say all the same. The tillage lad was top notch had the scientist on the back foot from word go

White Clover

anthony500_1 wrote: »

Grand show first time in the long time I'd say it was an informative show. The dairy lady was not to worried about how she looked on TV but was a nice all devil I'd say all the same. The tillage lad was top notch had the scientist on the back foot from word go

There'd be nothing slow about the Coleman's!

TITANIUM.

White Clover wrote: »

There'd be nothing slow about the Coleman's!

He was dame good in front of the camera in fairness to him. But the best bit had to be the capped crusader Darragh closing that part of the show hunched down in a load off weeds. The hero shot!😎

White Clover

TITANIUM. wrote: »

He was dame good in front of the camera in fairness to him. But the best bit had to be the capped crusader Darragh closing that part of the show hunched down in a load off weeds. The hero shot!😎

No doubt about it, he was excellent. I was referencing his father's rallying prowess in the 70's!

kerryjack

Is that who he is billys young fella very impressive and well able for tv i say give him the gig of ear to the ground and put darragh or the other one the tall lanky one out to pasture.