Farming Chitchat 10/10- Now VIRUS-FREE!

Birdnuts

Water John wrote: »

Guy from Africa travelled to Scotland to hear the cuckoo.

Got my hair cut tonight, courtesy of Lidls best and the OH.
Only fair I coloured her hair last week.

I wonder what part he is from?? - I've visited Kenya and Zim were there are many species of Cuckoo. Different calls allright from the one we get.

Say my name

Water John wrote: »

The cuckoo only makes her call here, is mute whilst in Africa.

The male goes - Cuckoo, Cuckoo.
The female goes - bubububububububububububububu.

carrollsno1

Anyone bulk mixing milk replacer here a few days worth at a time? Gonna be fairly busy over breeding around here just trying to simplify things here if i can if i cant what about it.

Base price

only

Water John wrote: »

The cuckoo only makes her call here, is mute whilst in Africa.

Stand corrected I thought that the male cuckoo only calls that distinct call when he finds a suitable nest site thereby trying to attract a female to mate with.
By the way, in case I've not mentioned it previously I hate that feckin monotonous call especially when footing turf on our bog.
Edit: why would the cocks call whilst in Africa as that Continent isn't their breeding destination. No different to Swallows and House Martins that mate and hatch here.

Base price

whelan2 wrote: »

I have learnt if the cow isnt fretting the calf is normally ok.

True when it's her own calf but not necessary the same when your introducing calves onto ex dairy cows that had high cc.

Base price

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Anyone bulk mixing milk replacer here a few days worth at a time? Gonna be fairly busy over breeding around here just trying to simplify things here if i can if i cant what about it.

TBH it's sorta getting late in the season for pricing. We normally agree a price in October/November and buy per pallet - they are 50 x 25kg bags and either 25% or 50% skim.

farawaygrass

Trying to sort out the lawn here and instead of spending a lot more on special lawn feed and weed etc I’m trying to put a farm twist to it. Lawn is very bad with dandelions so i sprayed it today with Mortox 50. Got 7-6-17 fertiliser and will throw that out too. It’s very bad with moss too and hoping the fertiliser will drive the grass on which will choke the moss out. Also got a bag of gran Lime as I read moss likes more acidic soil. Even if it doesn’t kill the moss directly it should strengthen the grass too. The whole lot came to 60e compared to 250e for a 3 stage treatment from a local garden centre, and I’ll have loads left over again. Not singing my praises yet though, hope it works. Any thoughts?

emaherx

farawaygrass wrote: »

Trying to sort out the lawn here and instead of spending a lot more on special lawn feed and weed etc I’m trying to put a farm twist to it. Lawn is very bad with dandelions so i sprayed it today with Mortox 50. Got 7-6-17 fertiliser and will throw that out too. It’s very bad with moss too and hoping the fertiliser will drive the grass on which will choke the moss out. Also got a bag of gran Lime as I read moss likes more acidic soil. Even if it doesn’t kill the moss directly it should strengthen the grass too. The whole lot came to 60e compared to 250e for a 3 stage treatment from a local garden centre, and I’ll have loads left over again. Not singing my praises yet though, hope it works. Any thoughts?

I really hope you like mowing

Grueller

farawaygrass wrote: »

Trying to sort out the lawn here and instead of spending a lot more on special lawn feed and weed etc I’m trying to put a farm twist to it. Lawn is very bad with dandelions so i sprayed it today with Mortox 50. Got 7-6-17 fertiliser and will throw that out too. It’s very bad with moss too and hoping the fertiliser will drive the grass on which will choke the moss out. Also got a bag of gran Lime as I read moss likes more acidic soil. Even if it doesn’t kill the moss directly it should strengthen the grass too. The whole lot came to 60e compared to 250e for a 3 stage treatment from a local garden centre, and I’ll have loads left over again. Not singing my praises yet though, hope it works. Any thoughts?

Mine was shocking with dandelion and moss about 3 years ago. Lawn is just over half an acre. I sprayed with forefront T, spread I reckon about 1 tonne of lime on it and gave it a bag of 0-7-30. No nitrogen cos I'm a lazy sh1te. Lawn is as green as a leek ever since.
On a side note, I spread the ground lime through a little walk behind garden spinner. I had to run with it to get the speed up in the discs to fire it out even. Wore out for two days after it.

farawaygrass

emaherx wrote: »

I really hope you like mowing

Well it defin needed a bit of n and hoping the 7 % n won’t drive it too mad

farawaygrass

Grueller wrote: »

Mine was shocking with dandelion and moss about 3 years ago. Lawn is just over half an acre. I sprayed with forefront T, spread I reckon about 1 tonne of lime on it and gave it a bag of 0-7-30. No nitrogen cos I'm a lazy sh1te. Lawn is as green as a leek ever since.
On a side note, I spread the ground lime through a little walk behind garden spinner. I had to run with it to get the speed up in the discs to fire it out even. Wore out for two days after it.

Feck it maybe I’d have been better going with forefront. Used it in fields a few years ago and it’s super. I’ll see how this goes and can spread 0-7-30 again if need be. So the moss died away with all your work?

Say my name

farawaygrass wrote: »

Trying to sort out the lawn here and instead of spending a lot more on special lawn feed and weed etc I’m trying to put a farm twist to it. Lawn is very bad with dandelions so i sprayed it today with Mortox 50. Got 7-6-17 fertiliser and will throw that out too. It’s very bad with moss too and hoping the fertiliser will drive the grass on which will choke the moss out. Also got a bag of gran Lime as I read moss likes more acidic soil. Even if it doesn’t kill the moss directly it should strengthen the grass too. The whole lot came to 60e compared to 250e for a 3 stage treatment from a local garden centre, and I’ll have loads left over again. Not singing my praises yet though, hope it works. Any thoughts?

Forget the sprays. Seaweed in an ibc tank rot it down use the juice or/and use docks and nettles use the juice. Make biochar in a metal container. Pee in a bucket. Get the wife to pee in a bucket. Grind up the biochar to dust and throw in the pee and biochar in a container and leave for a while before spraying on. Go out with some basalt dust as well.
No more moss.
Cost negligible.
The memories priceless!!

Grueller

farawaygrass wrote: »

Feck it maybe I’d have been better going with forefront. Used it in fields a few years ago and it’s super. I’ll see how this goes and can spread 0-7-30 again if need be. So the moss died away with all your work?

Ya. Took a while but eventually the grass out competed it.

farawaygrass

Say my name wrote: »

Forget the sprays. Seaweed in an ibc tank rot it down use the juice or/and use docks and nettles use the juice. Make biochar in a metal container. Pee in a bucket. Get the wife to pee in a bucket. Grind up the biochar to dust and throw in the pee and biochar in a container and leave for a while before spraying on. Go out with some basalt dust as well.
No more moss.
Cost negligible.
The memories priceless!!

Am ya, maybe 😂 you know I seen a couple of bees and insects out and felt terrible spraying, but the dandelions had really taken over.

Water John

I have a field with a lot of dandelions, 2 day block grazing it ATM. Moved cattle today, walked through them 30 mins later. The cattle were selecting the dandelion leaves to eat. Not sure what energy is in them but they were preferring them to the grass.

Grueller

Water John wrote: »

I have a field with a lot of dandelions, 2 day block grazing it ATM. Moved cattle today, walked through them 30 mins later. The cattle were selecting the dandelion leaves to eat. Not sure what energy is in them but they were preferring them to the grass.

Apparently high in iodine. I saw Duncan Stewart eating them on TV one night for this reason. Pity they hadn't a laxative effect. If he got proper scour it might stop his verbal daihorrea.

Lime Tree Farm

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/04/09/incontinence-up-75-following-bumper-crop-of-piss-the-beds/

whelan2

The man that cuts the grass on our lawn reckons the reason we have no moss in our garden is the young lad had it aerated with his football boots. Ours is the only lawn he cuts that has no moss

farawaygrass

whelan2 wrote: »

The man that cuts the grass on our lawn reckons the reason we have no moss in our garden is the young lad had it aerated with his football boots. Ours is the only lawn he cuts that has no moss

When he goes off to college or whatever you’ll know for sure!

Neddyusa

Water John wrote: »

I have a field with a lot of dandelions, 2 day block grazing it ATM. Moved cattle today, walked through them 30 mins later. The cattle were selecting the dandelion leaves to eat. Not sure what energy is in them but they were preferring them to the grass.

When dandelions are young they have a similar energy content to grass and almost as digestible. Often see ewes go mad for them in spring after lambing as they are high in Cobalt, Selenium and Iodine.

Made soup out of them here today

whelan2

farawaygrass wrote: »

When he goes off to college or whatever you’ll know for sure!

He's only 11.

Hard Knocks

whelan2 wrote: »

He's only 11.

If he’s that active, future County Footballer

whelan2

Hard Knocks wrote: »

If he’s that active, future County Footballer

I'm a bit biased but he has potential. Not too much competition in louth

Hard Knocks

Got soil test results back
High in Copper and zinc but low in boron
Is this something to be concerned about

Say my name

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Got soil test results back
High in Copper and zinc but low in boron
Is this something to be concerned about

Only if you want your soil to fix more nitrogen from the atmosphere.
It's the most important element in the soil after oxygen and carbon.
It arrives here into our world from cosmic rays from other constellations interacting with our upper atmosphere and thus soil and thus life.
Easily leaches from soil if it hasn't something to stick to.

Birdnuts

Water John wrote: »

I have a field with a lot of dandelions, 2 day block grazing it ATM. Moved cattle today, walked through them 30 mins later. The cattle were selecting the dandelion leaves to eat. Not sure what energy is in them but they were preferring them to the grass.

Dandelions are an excellent source of trace elements for stock - not to mention their value for our pollinators. Love seeing fields full of them:)

jfh

Birdnuts wrote: »

Dandelions are an excellent source of trace elements for stock - not to mention their value for our pollinators. Love seeing fields full of them:)

There's a fruit & veg man near me that sells bagged dandelions in the market. He gave me a bag, not bad at all!

Reggie.

whelan2 wrote: »

I'm a bit biased but he has potential. Not too much competition in louth

Great training chasing them cows

whelan2

jfh wrote: »

There's a fruit & veg man near me that sells bagged dandelions in the market. He gave me a bag, not bad at all!

What do you do with them?

Lady Haywire

whelan2 wrote: »

What do you do with them?

I've seen two people on Twitter using them recently. Dandelion wine, dandelion pesto & dandelion honey!
I eat the leaves here, add a bit of flavour to a salad, along with wood sorrel leaves