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Farming Chitchat 10/10- Now VIRUS-FREE!

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    #9872
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Would it be more profitable sending the maize for biogas or for animal feed ?

    There isn't a legal farming enterprise as profitable other than a crop of houses. You need the correct public money subs in place to encourage building as it's millions to build but cheaper the bigger you go.
    Rosco's place has an inflation linked, minimum annual price rise garunteed contract for another 25 years of a 30 year life cycle. The guy who owns the place could afford to build one himself, usually the farmer ends up renting the site and supplying labour and handling feedstock/digestate and not actually benefitting the most.


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    #9873
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    They add some version of charcoal/bio char to stabilise the digesters daily. They add enzymes and acids also, with a balance of the correct dry matter and silages needed. The digestate literally is like what comes out of an animal mixed together minus the worst of the smell, they seperate out the largest material and the rest is like slurrry.
    They are most profitable skipping the engine and injecting straight into gas mains. Co2 is captured and processed to 95+% purity and which makes the carbon capture requirement easy peasy for carbon use efficiency.

    I was at an A.D info meeting in Johnstown castle there a while back and the big push was to have them connected to the gas mains.
    There's one in Tipperary on a dairy cheese farm, the original one in Adamstown, and sure there's a few more around.
    It's the irish crowd here are trying to push grass for the "more disadvantaged area's" .
    When the experienced A.D. crew would prefer tillage ground and crops.
    You'd know it from the start they'd prefer it for a replacement for suckler farming.
    Try getting a forage harvester and trailers in some of those areas however. :rolleyes:
    The heads of the founding org in this country would be from nw and upper Midlands.

    If it does take off here by way of logistics it'll occur in the south and southeast.

    Edit: just saw you had the grass thing covered..


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    #9874
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    There isn't a legal farming enterprise as profitable other than a crop of houses. You need the correct public money subs in place to encourage building as it's millions to build but cheaper the bigger you go.
    Rosco's place has an inflation linked, minimum annual price rise garunteed contract for another 25 years of a 30 year life cycle. The guy who owns the place could afford to build one himself, usually the farmer ends up renting the site and supplying labour and handling feedstock/digestate and not actually benefitting the most.

    Interesting and taps straight into the gas network. We are way behind here on this stuff.. you'd think the greens would be all over this stuff. Bloody useless, all they go on about is greenways and cycle paths.


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    #9875
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Say my name wrote: »
    I was at an A.D info meeting in Johnstown castle there a while back and the big push was to have them connected to the gas mains.
    There's one in Tipperary on a dairy cheese farm, the original one in Adamstown, and sure there's a few more around.
    It's the irish crowd here are trying to push grass for the "more disadvantaged area's" .
    When the experienced A.D. crew would prefer tillage ground and crops.
    You'd know it from the start they'd prefer it for a replacement for suckler farming.
    Try getting a forage harvester and trailers in some of those areas however. :rolleyes:
    The heads of the founding org in this country would be from nw and upper Midlands.

    If it does take off here by way of logistics it'll occur in the south and southeast.

    Edit: just saw you had the grass thing covered..

    And there's a nice outlet for your biochar production.


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    #9876
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,650 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    There isn't a legal farming enterprise as profitable other than a crop of houses. You need the correct public money subs in place to encourage building as it's millions to build but cheaper the bigger you go.
    Rosco's place has an inflation linked, minimum annual price rise garunteed contract for another 25 years of a 30 year life cycle. The guy who owns the place could afford to build one himself, usually the farmer ends up renting the site and supplying labour and handling feedstock/digestate and not actually benefitting the most.

    Well thats the big question - with wind(and soon solar) hoovering up a vast amount of subs via the PSO etc, will supporting digestors finally break the back to the energy consumer who bankrolls all of this. The fact that natural gas prices are near all time lows with a glut of supply worldwide FTFF doesn't help either in terms of economics


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    #9877
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,156 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    I studied renewable energies 20 years ago. Sadly, AD has made little or no progress since in the ROI. Without the guaranteed price that Waffle references in the UK and NI it's a non runner.


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    #9878
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    NcdJd wrote: »
    And there's a nice outlet for your biochar production.

    It won't be me anyway but it is about to become more mainstream here.

    It's a pity though ,with all the livestock farmer bashing going on in this country and how well biochar addresses all those stones that are thrown at farmers, you'd think more farmers would be proactive on it instead of waiting to be led by some patented products pushed by you know who and which are detrimental to soil life.

    Edit: there's some with PhD's working for a research group even suggesting adding aluminium to slurry. Not one iota of a mention of pyrolised carbon. The answer given was cost..
    And it's used in the U.K. in A.D. digesters.
    At least they understand bacteria and life.


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    #9879
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Say my name wrote: »
    It won't be me anyway but it is about to become more mainstream here.

    It's a pity though ,with all the livestock farmer bashing going on in this country and how well biochar addresses all those stones that are thrown at farmers, you'd think more farmers would be proactive on it instead of waiting to be led by some patented products pushed by you know who and which are detrimental to soil life.

    Somebody will cop onto it and package it as Super Grow or something like that! The posh gardeners will go mad for it for their pot plants ha. Just need to send a bag of it into diarmud gavin with a photo of your coleus and you'll be out the door with that stuff.

    Might give it a go myself over the winter. Just need to read up a bit better on your thread.


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    #9880
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Somebody will cop onto it and package it as Super Grow or something like that! The posh gardeners will go mad for it for their pot plants ha. Just need to send a bag of it into diarmud gavin with a photo of your coleus and you'll be out the door with that stuff.

    The biggest trouble is getting plants to grow in 100% biochar. Lots saying it can't be done. College papers even saying it can't be done. But the info is there online and in published books on char on how to do it.
    It is very simple though and it's only a matter of lighting a match. It's just everyone is scared sh1tless of litigation in this country when fire is mentioned. Even my biochar kiln maker put down on the invoice "farm repairs" in case of an accident. They didn't say it, said it was for tax on my side..but :rolleyes:

    Char is blotting paper that holds onto nutrients and provides homes for bacteria and fungi, moves electrons and stores and primes carbon.
    All the good stuff.


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    #9881
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    NcdJd wrote: »

    Might give it a go myself over the winter. Just need to read up a bit better on your thread.

    Dig a little hole in the ground.
    Put some dry kindling in the bottom. Light it. When one layer starts to get ash on the fuel add another layer of your feedstock.
    (Don't use timber or whatever crop that has chemical residue that's a big no.)
    When you've enough done, pour water in on the side of the hole and let the water quench from the bottom up. The steam will rise and break open the char above it.
    And fill your hole with water.
    It should be all soft char that'll break in your hand.
    Scoop out into a bucket and add it to your compost heap or dungheap or slurry tank if you had it.
    Don't go mixing artificial fertilizer with it. That's defeating the whole purpose of what you're doing.

    I think that's it mostly. It's what orchid growers used here in the past and further back there were others.


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    #9882
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    I can mix this with soil too Say my name ? Do you have to wait a period of time or can you use the char straight away ?

    A friend of mine has cattle so I can get some cow manure off himself..he owes me a couple of trailers for all the unpaid work I done for him over the summer :)


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    #9883
    gozunda
    Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    Does anyone know if the new restrictions on visitors to households/ gardens apply to farm yards adjacent to a house?

    The covid regulations seem to getting more complex by the day tbh


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    #9884
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    NcdJd wrote: »
    I can mix this with soil too Say my name ? Do you have to wait a period of time or can you use the char straight away ?

    A friend of mine has cattle so I can get some cow manure off himself..he owes me a couple of trailers for all the unpaid work I done for him over the summer :)
    If you quench it with the dirty water from the manure you can use it straightaway.
    Otherwise leave in the compost for six weeks.

    That coleus was grown in char quenched in seaweed water. With washed Ormus put through the char and then rinsed through.
    Ormus is seawater with the sodium and chlorine removed and the precipitate rinsed four times.
    It's all elsewhere online so it's no secret anyways..

    Yea you can mix it in soil. It's just if it wasn't loaded up with nutrients first it could be six months to a year soaking up nutrients from the soil. It wouldn't do a plant any good if was near it in that time.
    But once loaded up. Good to go.


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    #9885
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    gozunda wrote: »
    Does anyone know if the new restrictions on visitors to households/ gardens apply to farm yards adjacent to a house?

    The covid regulations seem to getting more complex by the day tbh

    Wouldn't have thought so man. Jaysus funny this evening a friend of mine was coming in the driveway as he wanted to get a couple of pumpkins for his nieces and nephews. Oulfella came marching up the driveway and told him to back that fckin car out of here your not allowed come in here..

    Its gonna be a long winter..:(

    Can't argue with him. Just had to laugh. Lad didn't know what hit him.


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    #9886
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,373 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Wouldn't have thought so man. Jaysus funny this evening a friend of mine was coming in the driveway as he wanted to get a couple of pumpkins for his nieces and nephews. Oulfella came marching up the driveway and told him to back that fckin car out of here your not allowed come in here..

    Its gonna be a long winter..:(

    Can't argue with him. Just had to laugh. Lad didn't know what hit him.

    Kinda ignorant really


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    #9887
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Reggie. wrote: »
    Kinda ignorant really

    Well his long time friend passed away the previous day in icu from covid so he's a bit freaked about it.


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    #9888
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    _Brian wrote: »
    Eco eye is painting a bleak picture of farming and environment. To the outside eye to see figures fromTeagasc quoted that 83% of beef farmers are making no profit, and then farmers saying farmers are just farming cattle for the subsidies.

    It paints a bad picture of farming.

    I'll phrase it wrong, but it was asked in the farm census thread what some peoples problem with sending back the form is, there it is above in bold.

    I know, this is from Teagasc and it isn't the same. But, it's the reason I decline to participate in/leave schemes where I'm obliged to hand over information about my farm. Don't believe that it's just a box ticking exercise to pay a farmer for a scheme. That information informs policy or is available to others to bash farming.


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    #9889
    Nekarsulm
    Registered Users Posts: 11,191 ✭✭✭✭Nekarsulm


    Coming to the end of a weeks stay in LoL, up in Whelan country!
    Going back to a locked down county, and 6 weeks in a full leg cast.
    Jeez, could do without this, tbh.


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    #9890
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,650 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    I've been binging on John Lennon stuff since the WE(should be his 80th birthday)- quiet apart from his amazing back catalogue the man is definitely the most interesting person I've ever seen on any chat show ever, the old interviews with him by the likes of Parkinson are memorising(even the ones with Yoko present!!;)


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    #9891
    whelan2
    Registered Users Posts: 29,173 ✭✭✭✭whelan2


    Nekarsulm wrote: »
    Coming to the end of a weeks stay in LoL, up in Whelan country!
    Going back to a locked down county, and 6 weeks in a full leg cast.
    Jeez, could do without this, tbh.

    What happened? I could have called into you last night. Young lad trains in track across the road


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    #9892
    whelan2
    Registered Users Posts: 29,173 ✭✭✭✭whelan2


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Wouldn't have thought so man. Jaysus funny this evening a friend of mine was coming in the driveway as he wanted to get a couple of pumpkins for his nieces and nephews. Oulfella came marching up the driveway and told him to back that fckin car out of here your not allowed come in here..

    Its gonna be a long winter..:(

    Can't argue with him. Just had to laugh. Lad didn't know what hit him.

    Will you sell all the pumpkins now that most of the pumpkins spectaculars aren't going ahead?


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    #9893
    Nekarsulm
    Registered Users Posts: 11,191 ✭✭✭✭Nekarsulm


    whelan2 wrote: »
    What happened? I could have called into you last night. Young lad trains in track across the road

    Slipped at training and destroyed my left knee.
    Quad muscles ripped off the bone at the kneecap.
    Great care here, top class surgical team.
    You really realise how much you have to trust them as they hold the mask onto your face and say " here comes the vodka and tonic" ...


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    #9894
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    whelan2 wrote: »
    Will you sell all the pumpkins now that most of the pumpkins spectaculars aren't going ahead?

    Bit of a disaster, lost about 40 percent of them with the rot on the vines earlier in September due to the wet conditions in August. One place that was gonna take em cancelled. Spoke to two other growers the weekend who'd be doing alot more than what I done and they are having the same problems with stem rot and outlets.

    Bad year whelan. All I'll say is people really need to support the Irish horticultural industry in their purchases because I can see a few hanging on by a shoe string this year and may not be in business next year. Although you could apply that to alot of other local businesses at the moment too.


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    #9895
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,501 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Bit of a disaster, lost about 40 percent of them with the rot on the vines earlier in September due to the wet conditions in August. One place that was gonna take em cancelled. Spoke to two other growers the weekend who'd be doing alot more than what I done and they are having the same problems with stem rot and outlets.

    Bad year whelan. All I'll say is people really need to support the Irish horticultural industry in their purchases because I can see a few hanging on by a shoe string this year and may not be in business next year. Although you could apply that to alot of other local businesses at the moment too.

    That’s a balls for us on top of the leg.

    Do the pumpkin represent much % of your overall operation?? Sounds like an expensive situation to carry.


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    #9896
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    _Brian wrote: »
    That’s a balls for us on top of the leg.

    Do the pumpkin represent much % of your overall operation?? Sounds like an expensive situation to carry.

    No Brian, it was a crop I was trying out to get back into some sort of part time veg operation and if that worked scale up. I've a full time job too but the pumpkins were to be a side line. It's back to the drawing board for me on this, I'll keep chipping away though at it. I had a few regular people during the summer who'd buy a box of veg off me so might concentrate on doing something like that.

    It's a good job I didn't plant 30 thousand of them :) baby steps as they say is a very wise approach.


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    #9897
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,424 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    NcdJd wrote: »
    No Brian, it was a crop I was trying out to get back into some sort of part time veg operation and if that worked scale up. I've a full time job too but the pumpkins were to be a side line. It's back to the drawing board for me on this, I'll keep chipping away though at it. I had a few regular people during the summer who'd buy a box of veg off me so might concentrate on doing something like that.

    It's a good job I didn't plant 30 thousand of them :) baby steps as they say is a very wise approach.

    Look into supplying pre packed/proportioned meals for people. Ie veg and meat for a Sunday roast for 5 people, pre packed beef stir fry ingredients kind of thing.


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    #9898
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Waffletraktor wrote: »
    Look into supplying pre packed/proportioned meals for people. Ie veg and meat for a Sunday roast for 5 people, pre packed beef stir fry ingredients kind of thing.

    Might do man. It's a big eye opener for me. Its a long way from when my father was going at it we'd just grow the crop and straight into the market, donnellys or up to ballymun. Guaranteed an outlet once the produce was good quality.


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    #9899
    whelan2
    Registered Users Posts: 29,173 ✭✭✭✭whelan2


    Nekarsulm wrote: »
    Slipped at training and destroyed my left knee.
    Quad muscles ripped off the bone at the kneecap.
    Great care here, top class surgical team.
    You really realise how much you have to trust them as they hold the mask onto your face and say " here comes the vodka and tonic" ...

    Alot of people give out about olol,I couldn't fault it tbh and we are very lucky it's not far away from us. Thought I'd be heading in with young lad ladt night. He bent his thumb back in training. Has broken it twice before. But deep heat and a chipper fixed it


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    #9900
    wrangler
    Registered Users Posts: 11,075 ✭✭✭✭wrangler


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Might do man. It's a big eye opener for me. Its a long way from when my father was going at it we'd just grow the crop and straight into the market, donnellys or up to ballymun. Guaranteed an outlet once the produce was good quality.

    Beef producers need an education like you've experienced, The market is very fickle, some think that when they produce a product there'll be a market, those breeding pedigree bulls this year have seen it, I also learnt it when I commenced breeding pedigree rams and it definitely doesn't work to add up all your costs and add a margin and charge that price


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    #9901
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    wrangler wrote: »
    Beef producers need an education like you've experienced, The market is very fickle, some think that when they produce a product there'll be a market, those breeding pedigree bulls this year have seen it, I also learnt it when I commenced breeding pedigree rams and it definitely doesn't work to add up all your costs and add a margin and charge that price

    Good advice I'll be definitely looking at other things over the winter. I enjoy growing things wrangler so there's a bit of disappointment but as you say the thing is to learn from the mistakes, I'll keep chipping away while I find it enjoyable.


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