Farming Youtubers

straight

I'd say the man is sick sh1t of lads asking him how many is he milking. I know I would be anyway. I think he's a breath of fresh air compare to the dairy hero's that are always singing. Nice family farm and everything done well.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761060#Comment_117761060

Yeah but working 7 days a week

I wouldn't get away with it here and I'd be fairly fed up doing that too

patsy_mccabe

10 out of 10 for honesty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEPldnVhZk

Tileman

Yea very good and different video this week. Fair play to him. He must have being reading the Critism on here.

greenfield21

Well at least everyone knows how many cows he milks.I don't agree with his point on smaller farms though and there is likely no turning back now.

ruwithme

Looks like a headline from the farmers journal. " I was a reader of same for some years.I'm ok now though. "

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117773738#Comment_117773738

17 min of waffle I thought 🙈

Ah no, definitely a living to be made in 50 cows, was the typical herd size in the day

Wou.ldnt agree on his point of more cows means more poorer quality ones

We've increased from 50 cows and sending nearly 1000l more per cow compared to when we had 50 cows

I've never heard anyone dismiss 50 cow herds tbh

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774010#Comment_117774010

He was just making the point that it's not all about cow numbers. Great to hear a bit of common sense amidst all the mania of expansion.

I'm milking 70-80 and lads wonder how do I manage. A lad says to me one day sure you must be struggling all the time with them small numbers. I don't take any notice but there is a lot of numbers men around and I would back Adrian to outlast alot of them. Nobody would ask you 10 years ago how many cows you were milking. Now it's nearly the first thing out of their mouth

straight

Oh ya. Another lad told me one day anyone under 100 cows now is the new 30 cow man. Sure god help us.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774053#Comment_117774053

Best reply for that is sure if it does all go to s**t in 99% of smaller herds the bank wont have the deeds to the place so the pin can be pulled milking if all comes to all relatively pain-free, the contractor that does silage here was saying today how the cousion is going back into milk, farms been mortgaged 400k loan drew down, and a green field site been built for circa 100 cows supplying glanbia, no money in beef farming was the justification for it

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761060#Comment_117761060

I know of a lad expanding locally who was asked by the usual nosey type how many he's milking now. His reply was "sure I milk all of them"

Maxxx17

I'm a fan of all of the above.

timple23

I thought the video was also a load of waffle. He didn't actually say anything about the financial aspect of farming. Take what spending he has done, say 40k with the trade in for the new tractor, 5k for the slurry tank, 10k for hedger and overseeder, probably another 5k between logsplitter, tyres and other bits. That's a debt level of 1200 euro/cow assuming he is milking 50 cows, which has to be paid for through savings or finance. Most big operators might have that kind of debt. None of those purchases with the exception of maybe the overseeder will help the cow produce more milk.

He was also talking about having his own baling outfit for second cut, so he'll have to buy a wrapper, baler and probably a mower to not have to pay 2k a year to the contractor which any good accountant will know what to do with that bill. Does he think those machines will cost him nothing to operate? Buying that mixer is another example, what he will save in the cost vs readymix, he will lose in having to pay an extra man to help mix and barrow the stuff in.

All he is doing is glorifying hardship. This is the same fella who didn't have a tractor with a loader up until maybe 2 years ago and was adamant he didn't need one. Imagine walking in the door and telling family you won't be going on holidays for the next 7 years? How many times has he mentioned he didn't go on holidays? He talks about investing all their income into the farm, that isn't sustainable. He talks about looking after the cow, I don't see any investments made towards the cows. He talks about how he is working all these hours, surely the point of making these investments is to reduce his workload, that doesn't make sense at all. He is doing a lot of pandering towards the camera.

I'm not arguing if there is a living to be made from 30-80 cows, of course there is. But the key to it is making sure your expenditure is less than your income.

funkey_monkey

He does seem to have veered away from the animals recently. I was hoping he was going to go into milk figures and explain how his numbers tally. I suspect that even if he did, there would be fault found.

There is a lot of debt, but there was one point he said something along the lines of better buying something instead of giving the money away. So I suspect that there are some tax reasons behind the spending.

timple23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775975#Comment_117775975

He can write of the machines against tax, after thats done he still has to deal with the cost of depreciation, cost of operating and maintaining those machines. Probably have to get someone in to help him to do the work. Contractors bill can be offset every year. Only machines he bought that will pay for themselves is hedgecutter and palatine seeder.

vincenzolorenzo

I enjoy his channel and watch him regularly but I know what you're saying. In fairness when he started out he was focussing a lot on animals and small jobs, very little machinery. Machinery is what gets the views and revenue on YouTube so I reckon that's why he's veered that way a lot in recent times. I'd say he's bought more gear in the last year than the previous 10 and a lot of that is to feed YT. Don't get me wrong though, its great content and more power to him

youllbemine

IMO the video title and video content are different things. When I saw the title o was looking forward to a more financial focused side of it. Not him giving us his income, but based off future projections etc how the farm is viable financially. What we got was Adrian saying - "I think it is viable" and an assumption that a herd of 80-100 cows is of poorer quality. He's probably making a nice wee living and that is great. But not a whole pile in that video that surprised me or hadn't already picked up on from his other videos. Twas more of a rant about boys putting him down than anything else. Disappointed he didn't go more into the numbers.

Injuryprone

I agree with all the above. Video was very vague. What surprised me was when he said he built those sheds himself from a greenfield. I thought he inherited that layout. Talk about making life difficult for yourself. You'd think they could've came up with something simpler.

The other thing I thought is the 4.30 to 8pm days for years didn't exactly paint a rosy picture for any prospective young lads. Not to mind the no holidays.

farawaygrass

what ever way he is making all his income he is doing ok for himself.

if he has all the cows and sheds paid off then he has a bit of financial freedom to play with boys toys so to speak.

he has a fine house too and like the farm, it’s immaculate, from the outside anyhow. See he’s putting on an extension and said the mixer will be used for putting in the floors. He must be very handy no matter what he turns his hand too.

another plus for him, he is home for school runs and time with the kids, but also able to help out with his elderly parents. He works hard and long hours, but are all the long hours truly necessary? From looking from the outside I don’t think so, at the stage he is at now anyhow. He seems like a lad who want to be busy. Plus for all he has, even if it was a different line of business, it would have taken long hours and hard work at some stage

straight

I for one appreciate the time and effort these YouTubers put into their videos. If I don't like them I just won't bother watching. Ifarm gave a very honest review of what it takes to get to where he is. And yes, dairy farming is hardship if you're not into the lifestyle. I spent 100k on machinery myself this year but that was my first time spending so much on it and that'll be it for a long time again. I don't know of it's an Irish thing or just human nature but people don't like to see others getting on well. I've seen it myself, it must be inheritance or insurance or the wife's job or sure he got it all for nothing. People never see all the hard work and sacrifice.

funkey_monkey

Is Adrian not doing a video today because he is managing Cork in the hurling?

If so, he'd be better off at home milking the cows!

Lime Tree Farm

https://thatsfarming.com/dairy/bull-attack-survivor-adrian-morris/

A lesson for all of us.

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117789411#Comment_117789411

Definitely 👍🏻. Think there a misprint on it being 130 cow though

, presume that's including calves and heifers.

Lime Tree Farm

one time it used to be the amount quota, now it's the number of cows. Would anyone dare query a worker on their salary. I remember returning to work following the death of my father, and one fellows first question was "who got the land?".

straight

See Tom Pemberton is in bed with covid and he's getting inundated with messages asking is there going to be any video today. The sense of entitlement is unbelievable in people.

funkey_monkey

See Gerry must have spent a fair bit getting that Herron tidied up. Glad to hear him giving out about it - too often the youtuber's garden is full of roses and everything is wonderful.

In a competitive market a bit of bad publicity like this will make them think about how they treat the customer.

timple23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117810209#Comment_117810209

Wonder would it have been cheaper to get just a full new body from another manufacturer.

Bought something brand new that was house nearly 300 days of the year that started to rust after 10 months, (along with another in the parish bought at same time), they wanted to repaint, I said no and demanded a new replacement which they supplied. A product is only as good as the service supplied with it.

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117811085#Comment_117811085

Was it an Abbey tanker - edit you said rust - they had paint fade.

timple23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117811481#Comment_117811481

No, I went straight to manufacturer, first thing they said was were you chatting to the dealer, I said "no sur he didn't paint it did he?", they changed there tune when I said are ye going to send me down a replacement while its up with ye, was sub 1k purchase.

twin_beacon

Just discovered "Mc Milking it", great channel. He milks around 400 cows in Tipp.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCx-PFAAG-AKXuUmMDBHgQow