No quitten we're whelan on to chitchat 11

farawaygrass

I think majority of the teagasc crowd are as bad! When speaking, they repeat a word 2 to 3 times before continuing, and do this often. It’s like something they pick up in college

Odelay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247334#Comment_120247334

Didn’t mean it like that . Marty Morrisey has similar thing with scintillating. Very annoying.

Gillespy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120248032#Comment_120248032

Sorry about that. Yeah it’s awful when you pick up on things like that, it can ruin it for you. Another one I’ve unfortunately noticed is David Croft, the sky F1 commentator finishing sentences with ‘as well’. He does it so often it’s untrue.

roosterman71

How would I go about getting a number plate and tax book for a 70 year old tractor, imported 40 years ago and never taxed here

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120250472#Comment_120250472

About eight years ago I brought a neighbour's (non farmer) MF35 to the NCT centre (on the lorry) so that he could get a tax book. The neighbour had inherited his Mam's "home" farm and relocated from England. The tractor was part of the estate and he wanted to restore it to go on charity runs. It didn't have a chassis number/plate but it had to be inspected at the NCT centre. From memory he had to get a letter from a vintage club verifying the make/model/year of manufacture.

_Brian

We did an overnight with the campervan in Drumshambo to check out the blueway and greenway from Acres lake, it’s a fine facility with the wee outdoor swimming pool and all.

visited the Arigna mining experience while we were in the area, very interesting. My own dad worked in the mines for a short time and hated it, not these mines but he described the exact same conditions, I enjoyed seeing it and the tour Gide was an ex miner, he was interested that my dad did the same work. That was a hard earned crust.

carrollsno1

Not long back from the localhad a few Guinness 0.0s as i just wanted to get out for a few pints without the hassle that comes with it. Got home just switching off the lights i hear a vehicle pull up and a bit of a commotion outside, wasnt sure whether i was imagining things or not then i heard a knock on the door. I thought oh **** someones followed me home from the local thinking id be loaded and an easy target for a robbery. Cue me busting out the front door roaring who the **** is here and what do ye want. Dont know who got the bigger surprise when i saw it was two fellas i was drinking with in the local just ten minutes before there was cattle out on a national road and by luck they got to turn them in and they jumped a wall back into the paddock. Turns out the electric fence was never turned back on this evening. One things for certain you could never have good enough fences around the place especially bounding roads. Been saying that to the auld lad since i came back but sure they never had good fencing in his day and they managed fine without it 🙄 thats twice in the three years im back now theres been stock on that road now. He was also wondering tonight why there wasnt much of a spark from the fence when he earthed it to see was it working, well the fence i mentioned on the rooter thread would be ran off that same fencer and as far as i know its still the way i described it back then no wonder theres no power in it.

_Brian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120255964#Comment_120255964

We use a wifi switch on the fencer. Very handy to switch on/off when down the fields doing a repair or whatever.

But a very handy feature is to have a routine set up. It switches the fence to the on position every evening at 8pm no matter what, covers the option of forgetting to do it.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120255984#Comment_120255984

It's very convenient @_Brian, I've a timer set with mine, I can set it to turn off for a few min or a few hours depending on what I'm doing but at least I'll never forget about it.

Also useful to be able to turn fence on/off remotely when looking for a fault / testing the fix.

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120251423#Comment_120251423

I was at the mine a few weeks ago. Great trip. Im only 10 mins from drumshanbo

_Brian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120259455#Comment_120259455

I’d say the land around there is “challenging”

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120262262#Comment_120262262

It depends on 10 minutes in which direction. If you go out the Carrick road there's some goodish type ground around Leitrim village and back to Sheemore hill. However 10 minutes out the Ballinamore, Dowra or Drumkeeran road wouldn't do much to break the stereotype of poor Leitrim land.

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120262630#Comment_120262630

Im about 500m from sheemore.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120263410#Comment_120263410

You're on the better ground so lol. How are you finding Leitrim as I think I'm right in saying you're not indigenous to it? Apologies in advance if I'm mistaken.

have2flushtwice

Can anyone shed some light on this query.

When I'd be out at night I'd have an led torch and would scan the field around me to see if there is a fox around the house, thought they were scarce this year so I keep a look out.

See a few orange eyes from time to time. But this year, and again last night I'm seeing white eyes. Theres no farm animals in the field. They are low to the ground, the hold for a second or two then run, and look again, then gone. I saw a fox 5 mins later accross the road so it's not the torch. Dont think we have badgers around, haven't seen any for ages. No rabbits here.

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120263620#Comment_120263620

Yeah, im originally from Kildare. Its a lovely place and everyone is sound but theres a different way of farming down here rather than at home in Kildare. I think i need to breed a different type of ewe rather than my own dorsets/lleynxtexel types. My plan is to buy a few Mayo or scotch type ewes and put the dorset across them next year. I have a few mules here and they are pig fat on land the others melted on. The ground here isnt so bad it just needs ferting etc as the people before left it run wild.

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120263961#Comment_120263961

is it mink?

have2flushtwice

Mink maybe pinemartin?

Must get the trail and out again.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264015#Comment_120264015

There's definitely a different way of working, you're dealing with an average of a 6 months winter to begin with. If you have half decent land to begin with it's a big help as you've only the climate to battle after that.

I'm not a sheep man but I think the mayo hornies are hard bet in this part of the world. There nothing fancy but are well able to deal with the conditions and do the business. There's a man in the North of the county who runs a lot of horned ewes and swears by a Hampshire Down ram. He wouldn't let off anything else with ewes and although they don't look anything exceptional with wooly heads they seem to make super sheep. I like the look of the Dorsets but I don't know if they'd be able for much hardship.

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266001#Comment_120266001

i find the dorset hardy tbh. ive a friend who puts his to the hill in wicklow and they rear 2 lambs each. The mayos are class but christ theyre tiny. Hope to get something in between. I keep about 10 shetland sheep also. They are serious good doers. On the worst of land and big fat backs on them.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266056#Comment_120266056

I see a few crossing the Mayo hornie with a Charolais or Charolais x Texal hybrid ram with good results. Cheviot or mule ewes are popular

patsy_mccabe

Anyone see Eating With The Enemy the other night. Dairy farmer Bill O'Keefe from Kilkenny (I think he wrote for the Journal) was on with a Vegan. If first impressions are anything to go on, the vegan chap didn't look too healthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQHRNdYgcN4

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266056#Comment_120266056

That's good to hear I might chance a few of the Dorsets at some stage I like the look of them and the Hampshire Downs. It's hard to get much size and power in the Mayo's, some of them are real wisps of things so you need to study them when buying.

The Shetlands seem to be the real job in the UK where you can buy them in big bunches off the Islands and Northern Scotland at small cost. If you had a good place to run them they'd do some thrive I'd say. Slaughter anything that wasn't up to grade after 6 weeks and put a ram with the rest, lamb them and to grass before killing the whole lot and starting afresh. You couldn't source them in sufficient numbers here to do that and they'd cost to much but over there you'd buy a fair Shetland for £20 and a few pounds more in commission and haulage. There's not much worth putting a ram with in this country for sub €70 most year's even broken mouths.

farmingquestion

Store cattle, first time I heard this term. It says cattle houses for a 2nd winter.

Would this include calves born during the winter? Say you sell them at 18 months or 20 months when they were born in December?

Or would it be animals sold at say 27 months with 2 full winters?

Kevhog1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266705#Comment_120266705

I bought some of them shetlands for small money. I have an alert set on donedeal and if theyre close by ill take a look. Be interesting to see what they lamb. If i find them as good as cammy on the sheepgame says im going to try breed more of them.

have2flushtwice

Have the trail cam out tonight and a few scraps nearby, will check it in the morning.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120267427#Comment_120267427

I'd say they'd test both the fences and you're patience at times but if they do the business that's the main thing. I've a sort of a love hate relationship with the white vermin, give me a few bovines any day.

Anto_Meath

@Albert Johnson I would be the same, no time really for sheep, find they are always working against you, at least cattle you put them in a crush to do anything with them. Herself likes sheep, she does be helping her dad with them (I get roped in the odd time) she is at me to get some, so far I have managed to hold off and hopefully it stays that way.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269125#Comment_120269125

I always maintain that if you had a middling yard and could get the cattle into it then 1 man could do a fair bit on his own. Trying to do the same with sheep and 1 man without a decent setup is only annoying himself trying to do anything.

The next issue is that you'd want to keep 100 plus ewes to make it viable to spend money on labour saving equipment. Keeping 20 or 30 almost always leads to rooting with pallets and baling twines and the associated hardship as the money isn't there to reinvest.

I like cattle and always had an interest in them which is half the battle imo. Even on days where the job goes wrong I rarely wish I had no cattle where as with sheep I hadn't the same patience.

Anto_Meath

I have uncles in the west of Ireland that have a few hundred sheep and the one thing they have is good dogs. They have 5 or 6 dogs, a different one for differ jobs, some for bringing in sheep off the mountains and others for working on low land, it is a pleasure to look at them working the dogs. When you see what they can get the dogs to do it would make you think anyone with sheep that hasn't a good dog is wasting their time. The dog would be more important than handling facilities.