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Silage, not as exciting as years ago

2

Comments

  • #32
    einn32
    Registered Users Posts: 981 ✭✭✭einn32


    I remember the oul lad going to the co op for a tanker of molasses to spray it over the pit. Neighbour used do his own with a 188 and a double chop and draw in with a 165. It used take a week including stopping to let the tractor cool down! I don't think I'd go back to the old ways going on the fathers stories! All done in a few hours now with no breakdowns hardly.


  • #33
    visatorro
    Registered Users Posts: 3,097 ✭✭✭visatorro


    stanflt wrote: »
    No hassle just take it your stride- 2nd cut today

    Did that fella get a new wagon stan?


  • #34
    blue5000
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    One thing I don't miss is barrels of acid, at this stage of the silage season only the lads on the mower and pit would have a pair of jeans left, some waste of money.

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



  • #35
    boggerman1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,070 ✭✭✭boggerman1


    Done our silage Wednesday.the only time I was on the pit was to cover it,and even that took only 45 mins.thank god the drudgery is gone out of it


  • #36
    Sam Kade
    Registered Users Posts: 12,313 ✭✭✭✭Sam Kade


    All the old characters are gone they always had a good story or up to some devilment and were very witty. Nowadays they have their heads planted in phones and hardly know how to hold a conversation.

    When I used to be working for a contractor there was a young fella started and he kept telling us how he could drink us all under the table. Anyway he got his chance and after two pints he disappeared and we were wondering where he went. Next morning at 7 his mother rang the contractor wondering where he was and he asked us what we did with him, it turned out that he was afraid that his mother might smell the drink off him so he slept in the hayshed :D


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  • #37
    Muckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,174 ✭✭✭✭Muckit


    Nekarsulm wrote: »
    The year before that, my job was to wait in the yard for trailer and hook up the tipping pipe and open the tail board, then close if after tipping, and remove the pipe.

    I remember spreading it out on the pit with forks. The lad driving the tractor would hop down and fit tipping pipe and we use the side of the fork to rise the ring and rekease the tailgate.

    I also remember as a 7-8 year old watching like a hawk figuring out how it all worked ... and looking for my opportunity. It came when the guy drawing hopped down, fitted pipe, then decided to have a cigarette and went chatting to lads on pit. I clipped up the ring and climbed aboard the old zetor crystal. I revved the throttle just like the guy did, but couldn't figure out why the trailer wouldn't rise!!!!


  • #38
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,363 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    Muckit wrote: »
    I remember spreading it out on the pit with forks. The lad driving the tractor would hop down and fit tipping pipe and we use the side of the fork to rise the ring and rekease the tailgate.

    I also remember as a 7-8 year old watching like a hawk figuring out how it all worked ... and looking for my opportunity. It came when the guy drawing hopped down, fitted pipe, then decided to have a cigarette and went chatting to lads on pit. I clipped up the ring and climbed aboard the old zetor crystal. I revved the throttle just like the guy did, but couldn't figure out why the trailer wouldn't rise!!!!

    Have ya figured it out yet :P


  • #39
    bogman_bass
    Registered Users Posts: 5,057 ✭✭✭bogman_bass


    Muckit wrote: »
    I remember spreading it out on the pit with forks. The lad driving the tractor would hop down and fit tipping pipe and we use the side of the fork to rise the ring and rekease the tailgate.

    I also remember as a 7-8 year old watching like a hawk figuring out how it all worked ... and looking for my opportunity. It came when the guy drawing hopped down, fitted pipe, then decided to have a cigarette and went chatting to lads on pit. I clipped up the ring and climbed aboard the old zetor crystal. I revved the throttle just like the guy did, but couldn't figure out why the trailer wouldn't rise!!!!

    God you were a cheeky 8 year old! I'd have been afraid of my sh1te to do that!


  • #40
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,681 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    blue5000 wrote: »
    One thing I don't miss is barrels of acid, at this stage of the silage season only the lads on the mower and pit would have a pair of jeans left, some waste of money.
    Why did they stop using acid? I just remember our contractor refusing to use it because it ate the machinery.

    I remember drawing with a David brown 780. It had no pick up hitch so I made one up myself with chains. When I had it lifted I had a seperate chain going from the drawbar to the toplink pt on the tractor to hold it up. When the guy that was drawing for the contractor saw it, he was falling around of place laughing. The same guy had the front wheels taking clear off his tractor when he was nosing out a gap.

    'The Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Galway, As they sailed beneath the Swastika to Spain'



  • #41
    X6.430macman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭X6.430macman


    patsy_mccabe wrote:
    Why did they stop using acid? I just remember our contractor refusing to use it because it ate the machinery.


    Is it something with reproduction and does something negative in their stomach. That's what I was told at a talk anyway


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  • #42
    X6.430macman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭X6.430macman


    The Cuban wrote:
    Yep all changed now, I remember it was a more a neighborly event, lads helping each other out with the pit etc. Nowadays its just a hungry baling contractor who wants to put his arms around the world, in and out as fast as he can without time to stop. I guess I miss the old ways too.


    Know a few lads like that around here alright


  • #43
    paddysdream
    Registered Users Posts: 1,776 ✭✭✭paddysdream


    20silkcut wrote: »
    Just finished up baling the first cut silage and by god it is underwhelming in regard to the annual circus that went on in these very same fields 25-30 years ago. There was always something. Harvesters getting blocked, head gaskets blown ,trailers over turning ,hydraulics seizing up clutches going, ****e tractors stoppages that lasted hours, the crew coming in for Dinner and Tay. Johny the uncle who never worked a day in his life was even put up on a tractor. Chasing lads out of the pub, lads actually going to the pub after a day in the fields.there seemed to be a lot more head cases from non farming backgrounds working with silage crews back then. It was a massive event and it went on for days . It's not the same nowadays or is it just me?
    Its you!!!!Old age catches up on us all.

    Seriously though,nowadays everyone wants their silage cut in a 2/3 week window around the end of May/early June.
    Remember in the mid 1980's being at silage from mid May till maybe end of July and that just the first cut.People picking up maybe 15 or 20 acres a day and happy to plug along.No real rush like nowadays but still you would be busy.Tired too after sitting on a rattly auld Ford with no radio and considered yourself blessed if it had a fan and removable doors.
    First precision chops side filling and picking up 30 or more acres in a long day were seen as the ultimate machine.
    Today with a harvester costing serious money in repayments and tractor and trailer combo's running into maybe 80k plus each there aint a lot of time for messing/breakdowns etc.What farmer would like to see a contractor arriving with scrap and rain forecast for that evening?Or what idiot would let any joe soap off with his 161 reg. and 20k trailer and insurance premiums sky high as it is?20ft of wet grass and a browy field ain't a great mixture with a bald tyres or a messer behind the wheel.
    All that said prob. enjoyed it more with a Ford 4000 and 14ft. single axle trailer than this year with 200hp,full suspension,climate control air seat and 20ft. all the bells and whistles trailer.

    But then at 18 the money was yours for beer and women and it didn't really matter when you landed home but when you are older its a different story with different priorities.Ah all those Saturday nights of landing home at 11pm,quick wash and clubbing till 3 and then hoping Sunday was a pis*er cause you were still pis*ed at 9am.
    Years ago contractor turned up with trailers and didn't give a sh**e who or what pulled them as he happily dragged the forager and a trailer up the field and the 50b shoved up grass into a little bun sometimes in the corner of the field,sometimes on a gravel yard and in some cases into an actual concrete silage pit with walls.

    Less pressure it seemed but then everything was more relaxed or so it feels like anyways.Still manage to hit the pub for a "late one" an odd night.Into bed before 1am and shur aren't you grand for 7 the next morning although even a week of solid 16/18 hour days tests me nowadays.!!!
    Breakdowns still happen but repair man from main dealer is usually in the field within an hour or 2 or mobile phone meltdown will occur.Trailer turnovers seem to be very rare thank fcuk(try spronging out a full redrock and I imagine the novelty would be long worn off before the bill for repair even hits).Sinking trailers(yes even here in the dry savannah of the sunny south east) still happen in wet years and are still as problematic cause although tractors and shovels are many times more powerful the trailers are many times heavier.


  • #44
    farawaygrass
    Registered Users Posts: 1,899 ✭✭✭farawaygrass


    Parishlad wrote: »
    Nope, not just you. It was exactly like that here too. It was nearly as much work for my poor mother trying to feed the gang. I miss the bottles of tea and sandwiches in the meadow though!
    Always guaranteed a breakdown as u say but it always got done. Definitely pints were drank after!

    I can still taste the sandwiches that were brought out to the field, divine! Tea out of a glass bottle seemed nicer too. I'm not that old but they were good times, you would kinda miss them and the people


  • #45
    theaceofspies
    Registered Users Posts: 577 ✭✭✭theaceofspies


    farawaygrass wrote: »
    I can still taste the sandwiches that were brought out to the field, divine! Tea out of a glass bottle seemed nicer too. I'm not that old but they were good times, you would kinda miss them and the people

    Like most facets of life nowadays the soul is being dragged out of it - the real tragedy though is that people aren't questioning why. It's all a race to the bottom. Money is dominating peoples life either out of necessity or choice.


  • #46
    Bscan86
    Registered Users Posts: 110 ✭✭Bscan86


    My father used to cut for hire, he had a thirsty staff!!!! Lad on da pit was bit grumpy once a farmers son gave him pain killers for his hangover only problem was dey wer for loosening a backed up calf I think. Needless to say took a while for pit to b finished he was crouched in d field for gud while. Plus no dock leaves in da field only nettles:)


  • #47
    Username John
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,237 ✭✭✭Username John


    I can appreciate lads missing the craic of it all - but that's life...

    To say the soul has been taken out of it, and money dominates life now makes me laugh... ;)
    What did ould lads say to ye back in the day when ye were cutting silage - did they say we used to cut hay, and it was a big community event and now yer coming in with yer monsters of machines and the soul is being taken outa farming and money is dominating everything ;)

    I think ye / we are all just getting old lads... That's the way life goes :)

    If ye want to go back to the old ways, there is nothing stopping ye. Most lads have tractors and better kit now that are bigger than a lot of the tractors being spoken about here ;)


  • #48
    20silkcut
    Registered Users Posts: 2,543 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    Username John wrote: »
    I can appreciate lads missing the craic of it all - but that's life...

    To say the soul has been taken out of it, and money dominates life now makes me laugh... ;)
    What did ould lads say to ye back in the day when ye were cutting silage - did they say we used to cut hay, and it was a big community event and now yer coming in with yer monsters of machines and the soul is being taken outa farming and money is dominating everything ;)

    I think ye / we are all just getting old lads... That's the way life goes :)

    If ye want to go back to the old ways, there is nothing stopping ye. Most lads have tractors and better kit now that are bigger than a lot of the tractors being spoken about here ;)

    There will probably come a time in 25-30 years time when people will look back and say wasn't it great Craic when tractors and machines were driven by people . At that stage machines will probably be guided by GPS with no human input.
    People of our age will be going to vintage rally's looking at taarup double chops and ford 7810s etc. The generation just below us will be starting threads on discussion forums reminiscing on the good old days of mchale fusions and new holland tm etc.
    I suppose you don't hear the generation in their 60's and 70's now getting nostalgic about the 80's and 90's they go back to the 40's and 50's and threshing machines etc for their nostalgia.


  • #49
    Muckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,174 ✭✭✭✭Muckit


    Most definitely driverless machines is only around the corner. The technology is there already. Saab have developed a fully driverless car that recognises if a moose crosses unexpectedly (they are swedish). Just a few tweeks to make it safe for dogs, kids etc

    There is a company in Tuam working on driverless technology, only a stones throw from their agri machinery manufacturing neighbours, the big M's from Mayo - Mchales, Major, Malone. Only a matter of time before their R&D teams will be colloborating on the next big thing.

    Many may thing it airy fairy talk but driverless technology is the way things are heading. I'II hold out buying a new tractor til then! :D


  • #50
    The Cuban
    Closed Accounts Posts: 492 ✭✭The Cuban


    A driver-less tractor would be handy for going home from the Pub


  • #51
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,363 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    Muckit wrote: »
    Most definitely driverless machines is only around the corner. The technology is there already. Saab have developed a fully driverless car that recognises if a moose crosses unexpectedly (they are swedish). Just a few tweeks to make it safe for dogs, kids etc

    There is a company in Tuam working on driverless technology, only a stones throw from their agri machinery manufacturing neighbours, the big M's from Mayo - Mchales, Major, Malone. Only a matter of time before their R&D teams will be colloborating on the next big thing.

    Many may thing it airy fairy talk but driverless technology is the way things are heading. I'II hold out buying a new tractor til then! :D

    That will really knock the fun out if it then


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  • #52
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,681 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    The Cuban wrote: »
    A driver-less tractor would be handy for going home from the Pub
    They had those in the old days - well trained horses.

    'The Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Galway, As they sailed beneath the Swastika to Spain'



  • #53
    stanflt
    Registered Users Posts: 4,358 ✭✭✭stanflt


    visatorro wrote: »
    Did that fella get a new wagon stan?


    No a neighbour just doing some for me


  • #54
    Muckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,174 ✭✭✭✭Muckit


    Are you using wagon for paddocks Stan?


  • #55
    X6.430macman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭X6.430macman


    Muckit wrote:
    There is a company in Tuam working on driverless technology, only a stones throw from their agri machinery manufacturing neighbours, the big M's from Mayo - Mchales, Major, Malone. Only a matter of time before their R&D teams will be colloborating on the next big thing.


    I think it may be a while away yet.

    And if Mchale are not working on a non stop bailer than they will get left behind. They bring out a mower the exact same as everyone else's into an already competitive market.


  • #56
    stanflt
    Registered Users Posts: 4,358 ✭✭✭stanflt


    Muckit wrote: »
    Are you using wagon for paddocks Stan?

    No all second cut with wagon- more this week- push it up myself

    Trying to save a few bob with milk price so low


  • #57
    raypallas
    Registered Users Posts: 285 ✭✭raypallas


    I remember our contractor used to run leylands when i was a young lad. Think he had two 4wd's and 2wd's, i remember him one year he was down to one tractor drawing at one stage, 1 with a leaking diesal tank, 1 with a puncture and another with a bust hose on the trailer! He was roaring at the one lad he had left to drive on to speed up the loads! Oh the comedy when you think about it now!


  • #58
    kowtow
    Registered Users Posts: 6,135 ✭✭✭kowtow


    When I first got married i lived on a farm in Gloucestershire and had a neighbour who ... I thought at the time... had the world's first driverless mercedes. I used to see it every morning driving itself up the lane


    Turned out it was Willie Carson.


  • #59
    f140
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 875 ✭✭✭f140


    farawaygrass wrote: »
    I can still taste the sandwiches that were brought out to the field, divine! Tea out of a glass bottle seemed nicer too. I'm not that old but they were good times, you would kinda miss them and the people
    id say all you get now in a lot of farms after doing the silage is a "thanks and goodbye".


  • #60
    X6.430macman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭X6.430macman


    f140 wrote:
    id say all you get now in a lot of farms after doing the silage is a "thanks and goodbye".


    Ahh not being smart but what more do you want or can give??


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  • #61
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,363 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    X6.430macman wrote: »
    Ahh not being smart but what more do you want or can give??

    A cup of tae?


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