No quitten we're whelan on to chitchat 11

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!

Similar story of success abroad.

Grassmen seem to be filming with Nagle Agri, an Irish fella from the Wesht who went out and has a fairly big business going, all in the space of 10 years or so I'd say.

If he had hung around and tried the same at home he wouldn't have a fraction of it.

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.

I was watching Farmflix recently, an episode on lads down in Wexford who have a big slurry business with Landini tractors, Rothwells or something similar.

That man spoke about how they invoice at the end of every month. Logical to keep things moving along.

If your contractor started invoicing monthly would you be happy to go along with it or feel pressured/inconvenienced by it?

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

I recently dosed a batch of replacement heifers a few weeks after housing, with animec super injection.

They were scratching a bit too, but im hoping the injection will sort that. How effective would that dose be for lice etc?

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.