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Fodder Crisis

paddysdream

Apologies if there is a thread on this but after a quick looksee can't see one.
Surprised at that as from reading on here it seems many if not the majority are farming in DA areas.The papers are full of it and it seems to be a topic of conversation even down here in the sunny South East.

Down here no shortage of feed but a serious lack of straw moving.Whether people are waiting for price rises or its not there is hard to know.A lot of straw was lost on the ground and also a good bit was baled after turning etc and would be of dubious quality at best.
Bales of hay are ranging 23 to 30 euro,4x4 straw 20/25 euro,silage somewhat similar and 8x4x3 good straw hitting 60/65 a bale.All those ex yard.Add in transport of maybe 100/150 miles each way and you have rather expensive inputs.
So are things as bad as everyone says or is it just a small proportion of farmers in trouble ie is this going to be a repeat of 2012 or will a reasonable Spring avert the crisis?
Lots of talk/meetings it seems but is anything actually happening?

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wrangler

Bass Reeves wrote: »

There used to be a sign in old electrical and furniture shops. A deposit secures any item. If you have dealt with lads a good bit it may not be necessary but for new customers or where a lad is taking a few grand of silage then it is a business requirement.

If he was dealing with the same bank for a few years, overdraft facilities would be available to pay on the day.
If he couldn't get facilities, why should the seller take the chance

Keepgrowing

liosnagceann75 wrote: »

Asked a neighbour for silage bales a few years ago and was turned down. Fast forward to New Years Day some time later when he stopped me on the road looking for assistance. 2 bullocks had fallen into a slatted tank and i used my loader to lift them out. He said if I ever needed anything to give him a shout. Asked him last Spring for silage and was turned down again. Needless to say i wont be lifting anymore animals out of tanks for him.
I also had agreed to buy 51 silage bales lately be because i believed i was going to be short. When the time came for the contractor to draw them i had plenty of my own silage left and didn't need them. I kept my word and took them. Im new enough to farming and there are some **** out there who have no word

Maybe he had no silage to spare

liosnagceann75

Plenty of silage by him. He sold to others

BENDYBINN

Always try to have a months extra silage in reserve just for peace of mind. Problem is neighbors think this is their reserve as well!

kevthegaff

wrangler wrote: »

I advertised a cattle trailer during the year on DONE DEAL, priced at €4000, I got a lot of phone calls the first night, but one in particular was a neighbour that did his best to bully me to drop the price telling me even that I shouldn't be selling a trailer without brakes but he'd 'take it off my hands' anyway I told him that I wasn't dropping the price the first evening.
Next morning at 8am I got a phone call from a tipperary guy saying is that my dog looking out of her pen near the gate, I'd told what junction I lived near and he guessed this was my house, he bought the trailer and gave me a cheque, My neighbour phoned half an hour later to say he was coming to look at it........ telling him it was gone was very sweet

Tipp lads are solid ðŸ˜‰

drive it

I see on done deal the price of straw and hay is comming down. Lads with full shed starting to panic ?

Panch18

drive it wrote: »

I see on done deal the price of straw and hay is comming down. Lads with full shed starting to panic ?

Anybody who didn’t take the great money that was on offer last back end needs their head tested. I wouldn’t have much sympathy for them as only greed would stop you selling at that kind of money!

emaherx

drive it wrote: »

I see on done deal the price of straw and hay is comming down. Lads with full shed starting to panic ?

Lads with sheds full of hay and straw are not so bad it will keep. Still see lots of highly priced silage on donedeal, and some of its starting to reduce in price but it will be hard to sell next year if we've a good summer.

Dickie10

got done last year with a smart small farmer beside me. this lad finshes about 50 cattle on small acreage and i used to think fair play to him, but i noticed how he would always be praising himself aboout the good job he does on them , now this is exactly the type of farmer that kills any sooperation betweeen farmers , he buys dear stores between 900 and 1200 and finshes them off grass and out of shed in winter, he does them for a local butcher and of course has a healthy off farm income so i dunno how much profit they are leaving him but you couldnt tell him anything like that, seems pure hobby farming and this guy is just the type to break ranks for an extra 5cent if he got it. anyway what annoyed me was last april he was looking for silage and came over to get pit silage , he had an open lorry ford transit builders type. i put in 3 very big shear grab fulls of blocks of silage not sure what weight it would have been but id say equivalent to two bales of silage i suppose, he came 4 times for this amount. never asked me what i wanted for this just said he would fix up at end of the month, all summer came and went in septemeber he came over and handed me €180. i thiought it was worth a good bit more but what could i say. i was annoyed it took so long to pay too when he was desperate to get them. have my mind made up never to have excess silage in april again, always lads coming scavenging that time of year. id rather put on more urea in february and let cattle out to grass

Jb1989

Dickie10 wrote: »

got done last year with a smart small farmer beside me. this lad finshes about 50 cattle on small acreage and i used to think fair play to him, but i noticed how he would always be praising himself aboout the good job he does on them , now this is exactly the type of farmer that kills any sooperation betweeen farmers , he buys dear stores between 900 and 1200 and finshes them off grass and out of shed in winter, he does them for a local butcher and of course has a healthy off farm income so i dunno how much profit they are leaving him but you couldnt tell him anything like that, seems pure hobby farming and this guy is just the type to break ranks for an extra 5cent if he got it. anyway what annoyed me was last april he was looking for silage and came over to get pit silage , he had an open lorry ford transit builders type. i put in 3 very big shear grab fulls of blocks of silage not sure what weight it would have been but id say equivalent to two bales of silage i suppose, he came 4 times for this amount. never asked me what i wanted for this just said he would fix up at end of the month, all summer came and went in septemeber he came over and handed me €180. i thiought it was worth a good bit more but what could i say. i was annoyed it took so long to pay too when he was desperate to get them. have my mind made up never to have excess silage in april again, always lads coming scavenging that time of year. id rather put on more urea in february and let cattle out to grass

He should have been sooner to settle up. And ask your price he gave 22.50 a bale tho, which mightened been what you were expecting but wasn't that bad price I bought some at 25, and heard others looking 40.
You couldve been done worse.

dar31

Dickie10 wrote: »

got done last year with a smart small farmer beside me. this lad finshes about 50 cattle on small acreage and i used to think fair play to him, but i noticed how he would always be praising himself aboout the good job he does on them , now this is exactly the type of farmer that kills any sooperation betweeen farmers , he buys dear stores between 900 and 1200 and finshes them off grass and out of shed in winter, he does them for a local butcher and of course has a healthy off farm income so i dunno how much profit they are leaving him but you couldnt tell him anything like that, seems pure hobby farming and this guy is just the type to break ranks for an extra 5cent if he got it. anyway what annoyed me was last april he was looking for silage and came over to get pit silage , he had an open lorry ford transit builders type. i put in 3 very big shear grab fulls of blocks of silage not sure what weight it would have been but id say equivalent to two bales of silage i suppose, he came 4 times for this amount. never asked me what i wanted for this just said he would fix up at end of the month, all summer came and went in septemeber he came over and handed me €180. i thiought it was worth a good bit more but what could i say. i was annoyed it took so long to pay too when he was desperate to get them. have my mind made up never to have excess silage in april again, always lads coming scavenging that time of year. id rather put on more urea in february and let cattle out to grass

What size grab. I've a 5ft 6 redrock and at its best would only hold 6-700kg.

whelan2

I assume the latest offer from glanbia for alfalfa is the stuff that farmers ordered but didn't take?

Mad_maxx

Dickie10 wrote: »

got done last year with a smart small farmer beside me. this lad finshes about 50 cattle on small acreage and i used to think fair play to him, but i noticed how he would always be praising himself aboout the good job he does on them , now this is exactly the type of farmer that kills any sooperation betweeen farmers , he buys dear stores between 900 and 1200 and finshes them off grass and out of shed in winter, he does them for a local butcher and of course has a healthy off farm income so i dunno how much profit they are leaving him but you couldnt tell him anything like that, seems pure hobby farming and this guy is just the type to break ranks for an extra 5cent if he got it. anyway what annoyed me was last april he was looking for silage and came over to get pit silage , he had an open lorry ford transit builders type. i put in 3 very big shear grab fulls of blocks of silage not sure what weight it would have been but id say equivalent to two bales of silage i suppose, he came 4 times for this amount. never asked me what i wanted for this just said he would fix up at end of the month, all summer came and went in septemeber he came over and handed me €180. i thiought it was worth a good bit more but what could i say. i was annoyed it took so long to pay too when he was desperate to get them. have my mind made up never to have excess silage in april again, always lads coming scavenging that time of year. id rather put on more urea in february and let cattle out to grass

Would be As if he paid you 15 euro per bale of silage, left you a hundred short by my Conservative reckoning

Dickie10

its not the money its the point of it. not even asking what i wanted per grab or weight, just kind of saying here that will do ya. i actually ended up a bit short myself in the end.

Dickie10

anyway the pit will be empty around the first week in april this year and i have 20 bales to use then if needs be should have plenty of grass unless we get a very cold march

gr8 m8

Hello,

If I was you I would chalk it down to experience. Look at it as a cheap lesson to find out the worth of a man.

Injuryprone

Dickie10 wrote: »

have my mind made up never to have excess silage in april again, always lads coming scavenging that time of year. id rather put on more urea in february and let cattle out to grass

Why would you potentially leave yourself short just so you don't have to give this guy silage in April? Seems a bit of an overreaction to me. Could you not just refuse him the next time he comes knocking?
And perhaps tell him you think he underpaid for the last lot as well while you're at it. Bad form imo to take his money, say nothing, and then go b*tching about him afterwards behind his back.
180 isn't far off market value for 12 grabs. Assuming you've a 4ft grab, there's no way 3 grabs = 2 bales, I'd say a more accurate estimate would be 2 grabs = 1 bale. So that would mean he gave you 30 a bale. The point I'm trying to make is that he might think he did right by you.

foxy farmer

I weighed 6 x5ft grabs of silage last year. Had just under 3.5tonne. Wasn't great stuff. Charged 45 per load delivered. Heard of lads charging up to 35e a tonne.

Keep Sluicing

foxy farmer wrote: »

I weighed 6 x5ft grabs of silage last year. Had just under 3.5tonne. Wasn't great stuff. Charged 45 per load delivered. Heard of lads charging up to 35e a tonne.

I charged €40/ton last spring. There will be nothing leaving the yard for less

mengele

But to be fair sellers should also be letting the buyer what he is charging before the silage leaves the sellers yard. E.g farmer: have you any silage for sale. Seller: yes but I would need 30 a bale for it.

TooOldBoots

Last of my silage went out of the yard yesterday. Artic driver asked about the hay I have in the shed. I'm not sure what to ask him for it as its very mixed stuff with hay some fine bales of hay then more of it 3/4 rush.
Funny thing is the driver was from East Cork and was shifting my silage bales as part of a back load. which makes me wonder how far some lads would transport feed. Surly anything over 50 miles is a no no for silage?

blue5000

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Last of my silage went out of the yard yesterday. Artic driver asked about the hay I have in the shed. I'm not sure what to ask him for it as its very mixed stuff with hay some fine bales of hay then more of it 3/4 rush.
Funny thing is the driver was from East Cork and was shifting my silage bales as part of a back load. which makes me wonder how far some lads would transport feed. Surly anything over 50 miles is a no no for silage?