No quitten we're whelan on to chitchat 11

This discussion is going to be shut down and maybe it should.

But my take on would be putting the blame squarely on Putin and Mick Wallace.

Putin for the wars in Ukraine and Syria and using displaced people as weapons of war on the EU and Wallace for shaming the government here into taking all other refugees from Syria and elsewhere besides Ukraine as if they were refused, he classed it as a racist act. He preached in Brussels and Wexford of this and knew exactly what he was doing. He's Putins mouthpiece.

You've a situation where Russian gangs in Georgia are flying in Russians and Georgians to here to crack the system. Papers are torn up before the Irish authorities can see them.

Russians before the war were flying in refugees from Africa to kalliningrad in cargo planes and trying to push them across the border into poland.

It surely wasnt fair what happened to them in the past however they do have great opportunities there if they would take them. Like all groups you will have some who will excel and take these opportunities with both hands while you have others there who will lay around all day and claim whatever welfare they can. I heard countless stories out there about the first nations people getting the best of houses out there and within a week they are wrecked, where have we hears similar before. On state funded infrastructure jobs the first nations people get preference when applying for jobs as there is an initiative there to employ them in good well paying jobs. They have either a week or a month of the year called NAIDOC where the first nations culture is celebrated and promoted in a bid to educate the rest of the population about it. A lot of what was done to those people was also inflicted on the people of this country over the centuries and even within the last 100 years there is fair similarities of what was done here and in Australia the culprit this time being the church. I know the first few points i made dont compensate enough for what happened but at least its a start.

What's the story with the new tb movement rules?

Suppose to be coming into force next Wednesday the 1st of Feb. Remember at the moment it is only applicable to cows and males over 36 months moving farm to farm. Edit to add or through marts.

https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/5b92a-bovine-tb/

My great grandfather a Ballingeery man, left Ireland in the late 1800's, he returned as the century turned with his wife and they bought a farm in Kerry near to where she came from. It peculiar as my better half grandfather went to the US returned and bought a farm as well.

You don't have to go back so far for examples. I've 2 friends who went differing routes to making a fortune. One went to Canada and worked as an electrician over there with no experience in that field. Managed to get a job, trained up and was certified by time he left after 3 years. Was sending all the spare money home to his wife who used it to rebuild and restore an old cottage for them to live in. It was nearly finished by tme he came back. Works now in Intel and mortgage free. A cousin went to Canada and drove a digger in an open mine. Worked 7 days a week, every hour possible from February to November. Did it for 3 years. Bought a run down cottage here after 1, did it up and then sold it after he returned on year 3. Doubled his money on it. That money and the massive $$$s he was getting (free food and accomodation where he was) he used then to buy a ghost estate with houses at 20k a pop. 25 houses in it. Selling them now for 300k and he has only 9 left to do up. He's a bit mad and is going back to Canada this year for another 10 months as he misses driving the digger!

Wicked nice fella too i met him out there once or twice in The Dubliner. It wasnt plain sailing for him thats for sure, he was running the operations for a contractor there who ended up getting into bother with the wife i think and he was asked to go into partnership with him and himself and his partners family said theyd set up there own outfit instead. Lovely part of the world there abd hed have no bother getting paid and there is plenty of work there for him too, if he had to stay in Clare at it at best he might be tipping away with a fusion or two and giving half the year chasing fellas for money.

You should have held fire from here and sent a friend or relative from a different part of the country to enquire about the spreader, later on in the week.

There's nowt as quare as folk.

They could be just doing it to yourself from spite. Like they had it priced at 2 earlier and it didn't sell and they're pricing it again at 3,5 and it's still for sale. A tanker of that size in the current environment of what's coming down the tracks re it will be mandatory for dribble bars wouldn't be a saleable item.

Are you sure they haven't changed or gone through the pump or resprayed it?

I seen one of the stupidest things while out on the road earlier. Came up behind a tractor. A T6080 New Holland or something along that size in blue. Front loader with a bale on. And another bale, sitting proudly on the rams for the headstock. And the loader up in the air so he could see out under the bales. No rear weight. Back wheels just skimming the road and could see daylight under them on more than one occasion. Wobbling and tearing at the steering wheel trying to keep her straight at 50km/h. Absolute mental stuff.

Farmers would be delighted with it. Contractors are a disaster to collect money.

Injectable Ivermectin is only effective against sucking lice. Ivermectin pour on's are more effective against biting lice. However I read a report out of the US where they recommend using pyrethroid based pour on's (Spoton and Spotinor etc) for both biting and sucking lice as they are more effective. The active ingredient is deltamethrin.

Edit to add - sucking lice feed on blood. When a animal is injected the product enters the bloodstream. Biting lice feed on the skin and dead hair on cattle therefore a topicial pour on or spraying is the only effective way of killing them. Taktic (spray) has gone off the market but it was good for controlling all types of lice, mites etc on cattle and in sheds.

Spot-On or Spotinor is what we use for lice treatment but you may have to repeat it after the initial application. The life cycle of lice is around 25 days. They lay their eggs on the base of the hair close to the skin and after about 7/10days the eggs hatch to produce nymphs which after a few molts become mature egg laying adults from about 14 days old and so the cycle repeats. Clipping the backs of cattle that are permanently housed in Winter helps reduce them as lice like to live along the topline of cattle. Winter favours lice cause the cattle's hair is long and they can live comfortably doing their thing. You seldom see a lice problem in cattle during the Summer months cause the cattle have shed their Winter coats and the warmer weather/sunlight apparently doesn't suit lice.

Maybe @greysides could add more advice/info on how to treat them.

If you see cattle biting/licking after first application, when would be a good time to reapply

America is a real land of opportunity still. Ireland is grand and you can make money here but not to the extent you can in the US. The tax here is a killer to be PAYE. ive had a bit of a jump in Salary over the past few years but tbh i think my standard of living has somewhat reduced. Inflation has driven prices of everything absolutely scatty. I never thought that at my stage in life we would be rationing the use of the heating oil or budgeting to the extent we do to ensure we have enough in the kitty for a holiday or a wedding in the year (Id rather get a summons than a wedding invite nowadays).

I use the lunch as a good yardstick of the cost of living. When i started in my current job the sandwich in the shop beside work was €4. Its €5.70 now. Thats a 43% increase . Im moving back towards the packed lunch now which maybe i should of been doing all along. Im conscious we are just in a house and renovating etc but would have to wonder if our government (Income taxation, tax on farm inputs), bord bia (Marketing our produce, driving up demand) are helping us at all if someone with a good full time job and part time farming has to budget like we do.

I like the bit about the summons instead of wedding invitation. Weddings are getting crazy. Couples now deciding to have them in location's away from either's home area. Having a two day event. Saw a couple lately have it in this old period house. No accomdation except for bride and groom. Everybody else had to stay 2-3 miles minimum away. Taxi's were a disaster it seems with people waiting a couple of hours for a lift to the hotel/ accommodation they wanted to go to.

Discressonary spending is way the catch. The biggest savings is in taking you own lunch. A sandwich and tea or coffee is 7-8 euro. That 40/week or 2k per year. Where a couple are doing it it's hitting 4k/ year.

Recently met a friend in a small cafe. I got a heated roll and a lot of tea. It was slightly over 12 euro. If you were meeting people on e a week in that type of situation that is another 600/ year.

Budgeting is no harm.now and again it brings reality to any situation.

Most people will tend to make more than they buy. Supervalu is the dearest of the supermarkets. Most sandwiches you buy are normally from sliced pan. Ya you tend to eat different if you make it yourself. However when I was it it I was as likely to put on an extra spud and make my own potato salad or salads in general.

Just on the cost of hot drinks. Last place I worked had a tea club as such. Basically o e lad bought the milk, sugar, tea and coffee. In the end 4 years ago it was 6/ month. He had actually bought a coffee machine for the office 4-5 years earlier from the profits of the club it was running at break even more or less when I left. I doubt if it is hitting a tenner a month yet

Not easy drink poor coffee when there is better nearby. I'm a major coffee junkie myself.

Saler cow crossed with a Charolais/Blond D'Aquataine/Culard Charolais bull would be a fairly good start for a typical suckler farmer looking for decent stock to sell. As for commercial show cattle its hard to see how many of them would be a natural birth. Its all down to trial and error trying different crosses yourself and seeing what crosses other fellas use each system is different one cross might suit a fella who lives with the stock during calving and another will suit a fella working away from the farm.