The good old days.....

Rusheseverywhere

Not old enough to remember the 70s and 80s but talking to lads 50 years ago you could sell 8/10 bullocks and buy a new tractor. A weanling sold would buy 8 tonnes of meal. Looking at old mart dockets we were buying in suck calves in 1986 (All Ch) to double suck at around £300 that is nearly €400 37 years ago!!

Anyone here remember those days as farming must been lucrative then.

emaherx

God bless your cotton socks.

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319102/the-good-old-days

I remember my father regularly getting £1,000 for bullocks in the factory in the mid 80’s. Now I have no idea what weight/grade they would have been. But they were dairy calves reared on the bucket and killed at 3 years old. Imagine they wouldn’t have been top grades but the age probably pushed up the weight.

can remember around £300 being paid for good bull calves in them days too but they’d be 4-6 week old fairly strong lads to make the £300.

my father always said that rhe mid 80’s were good farming years.

Rusheseverywhere

Crazy to think that a Fr cross bullock nearly the same price today as a third of a century ago.

https://thatsfarming.com/beef/balla-mart-sept-2023/

Quality, heavy bullocks 700kg+ made between €1,350 to €1,550 with the weight, many of which were snapped up by northern factory buyers.

Nothing wild with those prices.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121268685#Comment_121268685

Yes many bullocks in the 80s were 3 years old when hung. They were good days but very few had money. I don't subscribe to the post where 8 to 10 bought a new tractor. That happened in the early 70s from stories relayed here.

I remember the 80s where diary calf to beef was all the rage. It didn't last as stock were too old dying. Its different now with 21 month beef. If you arrived in a factory with a 21 month old fr bullock then you'd be ran.

The factories tried to control the trade but Purcell was king. When they arrived in the marts the factories were deflated and the scrambled for stock. Beef went through the roof.

After Purcell the factories regained control but they had no markets except for specialised uk markets. Intervention arrived. I remember bullocks at 80p per pound dw. Heifers at 75p. Then hormones arrived for the farmer to make a few pound. A big finisher said to my Dad one day..I couldn't make a penny from beef without the dust.

Great memories but I was only a kid.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121269592#Comment_121269592

Grew up in the eighties on a dairy farm and Dad still needed off farm income then too. I don't remember any local farmer having a "new" tractor or jeep, even the contractors who had nice machines were often old in comparison to contractors today (simpler technology too).

I've plenty of fond memories of the eighties but we were definitly not better off, rose tinted glasses come to mind. Apart from cattle finished at 3 years, the farm was much more labor intensive, we were still very dependant on saving hay as square bales which was very difficult in a few very wet summers. Definitely glad of the round baler/ wrapper this year. A lot more cattle were out wintered too and sheds / handling facilities were nothing like they are today.

yoke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319102/the-good-old-days

Assuming an average of 5% inflation per year for 37 years, that €400 would have been the same as €2432 today.

SuperTortoise

Was talking to a lad yesterday he sold weanlings for around the 800 euro, he was delighted, I said nothing to him because I didn't want to burst his bubble but I thought to myself we were getting that for weanlings 30 years ago, and we were to.

French Toast

The price of diesel comes to mind straight away.

BENDYBINN

Going out on a cold winters evening with a bale of silage into a round feeder and up to ur knees in muck……….yea I loved the eighties.

Wildsurfer

Are you sure you had bales of silage in the 80s?

kevthegaff

We fed cows on pit face, scaping slurry into an open tank with a zero and dodgy brakes. Silage took a few days drawing in with zetors, Leyland and a Belarus. Acid was used to preserve silage which was a serious health and clothes hazard. Hitch came out of Hook Hook few times and hit the cab right beside where I was sitting when it was tipped up. Going for small bales of hay and straw and us sitting on loads and all the load falling off no straps at the time. Used to fill manually in loft of parlour the meal hoppers after school, dusty job also. Lot of fencing jobs were done with barb or seconds! Jeeps were rear as teeth with Peugeot the van of choice filled the roof with bags of meal. D

Loyal Lady

I don’t know how we didn’t get injured snagging sugarbeet with machete style knives in the freezing cold.

Rusheseverywhere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121270276#Comment_121270276

I am still at that as not enough shed space in the Organics. Helped make my mind up get out of sucklers. Half gone and rest gone next March April Talking to a lad and he said bought new Ford in 1973 for 8 Factory bulllocks was hard to believe, why started the thread. Cost of sheds etc gone mental now made more sense get out than build shed for weanlings. Also no way suckler cows make sense anymore.

older by the day

Only thing I can add is smoking and drinking and driving in the 80s. You could drink and smoke all you could for 15 -20 pounds and drive home. Off to work in the morning again..

The thing about it was that around here every one was the same. Driving crocks (no testing) , not much money but no massive expenses.

Danny healy ray

we had a lad working for us back in the 1980 serious craftsman blocks plaster roof plumbing etc etc 12 pounds a day was his money

Water John

'The good old days', bollocks to that. Mouldy hay, thinning turnips, grating turnips, mucking out the cow stalls, thinning sugar beet, pulling sugar beet by hand and snagging it in November/December.

BTW silage bales were an invention of a Northumberland farmer named Frank Lloyd in 1973. He put them in bags and sucked out the air. Bales and wrapping arrived in Ireland late 70's/early 80's.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121270624#Comment_121270624

What Ford though?

Plenty of farms in those days ran Ford 3000's or MF135's you could hardly compare those machines to new tractors being bought to work farms today, you can however still today buy 2wd 40Hp footplate tractors of similar technology, 8 or 9 factory fit bollocks would go a long way towards the cost of one of them, but the work and HP requirements have changed.

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121270941#Comment_121270941

Similar comparison,

they were the big tractors of the 80s like the big fendts of today,

a poor man's tractor today would compare to a mule in the 80s

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121270969#Comment_121270969

There is no similar comparison, farms have changed. Should we compare the Ford 3000 to a New Holland T5?

Jb1989

Presume we should , as each, were/are out of reach to a poor farmer.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058319102/the-good-old-days

Oh I remember it very well because I was a freshly minted accountant back then and I dealt with the financial affairs of many a farmer around the country. And to put bluntly who every you are talking to are telling you a lot of nonsense. Most farmers were struggling, very few actually paid more that a couple of hundred in taxes, many had massive borrowings and a least a couple of times a month I had to accompany farmers to their banks to try and negotiate a settlement or at least achieve some kind of rescheduling of their loans.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271049#Comment_121271049

It's funny, because the whole thread was started about how new tractors were more affordable in 1973, which is what I was disagreeing about. I think small farms today are far more likely to have a nice-ish tractor than in the 70's, but there is a far bigger range of tractors available too. Tractors similar to 70's machines would mostly be scoffed at these days. (I know there will be some exceptions too.)

Don't remember many farms still being farmed using mules in the 80's either.

Rusheseverywhere

Must have been a 3000 will ask again.

https://www.agriland.co.uk/farming-news/how-much-did-this-ford-7000-in-fine-fettle-fetch-at-auction/

Ford 7000 in 1973 a 94 HP tractor was £2,748 new. Just looked at Hansard for February 1973 and debate about value of cattle imports into England from NI, ROI and Scotland in the previous 5 years and value given was £13 per cwt or 50 kg. So a 700kg bullock was worth £182. Punt was parity with sterling until 1979. So 18 or 700kg/factory bullocks bought that tractor. Wonder if any Factory dockets left around here.

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271172#Comment_121271172

Affordable yes, but also the income from cattle and milk and crops was bigger to compensate for these purchases. I understand your opinion though.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271239#Comment_121271239

That would have been a sizeable amount to have surplus after all other expenses and wages taken out of any farm.

Water John

Sorry it was Llloyd Foster invented baled silage. his valuable contribution should be recognised. As per the Old Brehon Law, 'to each writer his copy, to each cow its calf'.

Most of us were substituting labour for capital.

blue5000

Beef farming has never really recovered from BSE. Ok it took 18 bullocks to buy a new tractor in 1973, but how many bullocks would it take today? But tractor prices doubled in a short period, check out what a 5000 cost in 1971 vs 1975.

Labour was cheap in the 70’s compared to today. Farmers had a high standard of living compared to everyone else in the countryside.

Yes there was a lot of drudgery too, but that was because we knew no different and labour was cheap, a lot of family labour was used on farms, still is but methods are more efficient now.

Farming boomed when we joined the EU in 1973 up until the mid 80’s when milk quotas came in and BSE hit in 1985. Another problem then was interest rates at 18%. A lot of people went bust and very few had money to buy them out, only large well established dairymen with big quotas. Sounds familiar?

One final thing, paper work was a lot simpler compared with today. Living expenses were lower too.

Edit; rusheseverywhere read your link again, that’s the 7000 launch price in 1971, not the price in 1973.

_Brian

The finances have completly gone banannas....

I well remember filling a 5 gallon drum of diesel for under £5, fertiliser for £45/ton and bullocks going out the gate at £800, no idea what age they were but not factory fit anyway. I also remember interest rates at 23%..

K.G.

Do you know what I don't miss. the pike.i gave my youth piking dung out of the stall,piking it into a dungspreader,piking in straw,piking silage into transport box and piking it out infront of the cows again.maybe pike a few hundred small square bales onto a trailer and then up in The shed.piking piking and F A to show for it

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271887#Comment_121271887

I don't miss forking stuff out either....😁

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271887#Comment_121271887

You should have got a grape……. Much easier

Water John

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271988#Comment_121271988

Don't f** go there😉

Cavanjack

Weather times were better or worse one thing for sure is that farmers were better off than most. My father built his house and paid for it all in 78. He milked 35 cows and bought a second house in 83 for cash. Bought a Brand new car in 86 and was able to put money away until the mid 90’s when he bought near 50 acres.

He Reared a family of 5 and my mother never worked outside of the house. sound like a better time to be a farmer than now.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271887#Comment_121271887

I did all that too. I even milked a cow by hand, for the house for a few years. In contrast to all that, I remember last year sitting up on the contractors new Fendt with air conditioning and nearly nodded off with the comfort. You can keep the hardship of old.

Rusheseverywhere

Should be fairly similar Blue was launched Dec 71 and the report from 13 months later Feb 73, referencing the 1972 and earlier cattle prices. 100k now for a new 110 hp tractor.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271633#Comment_121271633

I previously posted about mortgage interest rates hitting 23%. My off farm work take home pay covered the monthly repayments and left IR£35 in my bank account. On the flip side deposit interest rates hit 15% which was great for any with money in the bank.

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272259#Comment_121272259

Not remotely comparable though to the old Ford.

I'd bet you could buy a basic spec 2wd 90hp tractor for less than half of the €100k.

Water John

Anyone who got the cow numbers up early in the 70s was ahead of the posse, by that I mean over 40 cows.

Rusheseverywhere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272334#Comment_121272334

You are right a Tumosan is about 50k to 55k. for a 95HP. Never seem one outside of a Show

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272342#Comment_121272342

Yes they were well off farmers with good set up for the times. They were not the norm however, I'd say every parish had a couple.

Comparing cattle prices as a measure of tractors is like comparing sports stars of the past versus now. You just can't do it with accuracy.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121271988#Comment_121271988

A bottle of grapes might have made the fork less painful, that day.

Good loser

I bought 5 horned cattle around 5.5 cwt ( 3 and 2) for less than £30 each in Sept 1967 and sold in mart for around £75 in mid 1968. Delighted.

memorystick

We had Opal Records as did all of the farmers around. Borrowing a spare wheel for a trip to Dublin was common.

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121270670#Comment_121270670

Bales silage was bagged up to the late 80’s, it wasn’t until 89 that the wrappers arrived.

kerryjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272775#Comment_121272775

Was at the first demo down our way and farmers wasn't that Impressed at the time, lucky bags they called them the wrapping changed the game there. As regards the old days there was a way more drinking and going to mart was some day out, no drives to football training you got on your bike and away with you, there was a lot more help and contact with neighbours, there was the odd row as well and pulling calfs with out a jack was another thing seen things that will never again be seen and if they were we would get jail.

whisky_galore

Back breaking labour. Welts on your hands from using the pike. Death trap tractors and trailers falling apart on the road. Using dangerous chemicals without ppe. DDT the miracle substance. Fcuk all that.

The old people were very hard on animals too. Anything that moved was flaked with sticks, including dogs and children.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272459#Comment_121272459

As you mention sports stars…

Some of the top cutters in Waterford Glass factory were apparently paid £1,000/week in the 80s, which is what the First Division soccer players in England were getting at the same time.

’De glass’ is long gone and Premier League players wouldn’t get out of bed for that money now.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121273061#Comment_121273061

Yes i heard they were on 1k a week back then....massive money... i doubt there is any of it left either!...they enjoyed it in the moment

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272410#Comment_121272410

But on the other side, you wouldn't directly apply that same logic to other goods. You wouldn't try to directly compare the affordability of a top-of-the-range car back in 1980 with the affordability of a car with the same specs today (which would probably be an entry level car). The cost of technology can come down a lot since then.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121273304#Comment_121273304

But tractors are very different, for a start there were no "luxury" models in the 70's just a small selection of HP options.

Tractor development through the 60's, 70's to the mid 80's consisted of new tinwork paint colours and adding indicators / brake lights and improved cabs plus a few new higher HP models. From the mid 80's they very much split into ranges with features never seen before alongside the more basic models. By the 2000's the most basic models were dropped in this part of the world by the main brands even though they still make them in other parts of the world, MF for example still build 200 and 300 series tractors or at least commission them to be built by smaller manufactures such as Tafe. Several new budget brands now exist in the Irish market selling 90HP tractors under 50K with specs which on paper at least seem to compare to 90's tractors with 4WD 12X12 manual shuttle gearboxes but will have a lot to prove to build brand confidence.

In the 70's farms bought tractors spec'd to the minimum HP to meet the work requirements of the farm and were more likely to work them hard, today many tend to over spec them and still contract all of the field work out.