HHe Won't bring too many calves in that van...
jaysus the calf sale is still on in Carnaross with at least another 100 lots to go
It started at 10 this morning
The electricity was off in ardee mart last Tuesday so we went old school. No Internet bids, no microphone, no computers, no cheque home.
Id say dealers had a field day.
…..
How many Calfs were entered?
Feeding calves yesterday evening and could hear the milk pump screaming from the parlour 300 feet away, new relief Milker in who apparently has a decade done managing/milking cows, run down to the parlour and knock it off your man's no where to be seen comes in 5 minutes later on the phone, had been warned to only put pump on manual for clearing the pipeline when washing of the last few litres stuck in the line and had spent 4 milkings with him drumming this into his head....
Couldn't understand what the fuss was about, their really is a dwindling supply of labour out their that's half competent, the hassle of dealing with lads is at a stage of it been handier to do it yourself
not sure there was over 700 lots
One of the lots had 14 fr bull calves that weighed 54kg and made 175€
The calves didn’t even fit in the ring
At 11 euro commission per calf that lot was a nice little earner for the mart
The idea pushed by the media of a one man operation getting "a bit of help in spring" doesn't seem to stack up any more.
I'm not ready to get anyone in yet for the odd Sunday evening off, so labour isn't an issue for me. But even if I had 60 cows up and running, I know from talking to neighbours that I'd struggle to get anyone for the odd relief milking.
Maybe it's time to look at the share milking idea where fellas would get a share of the operation? Not the land, but maybe ownership of a percentage of the cows, or a percentage of the milk cheque above an hourly rate, etc.
Would that be a better motivation for lads to listen and learn?
Makes up for the weeks were there's only a handful of calves and everyone still has to be paid
At least, you could let the dodgy staff off early, you're stuck with the share milker, and not even your own boss any more, the worst of all worlds imho.
We're getting back to the stage where farms will only function well with family involved.
Widely accepted now peoples attention spans are screwed because of social media, combine this with the phone been took out when working and lads minds on other things it's simply a disaster when doing jobs that require any level of thinking, it used to be unacceptable in the workplace to be on your phone when in work on personal business now it's perfectly fine...
A contract milking/manager type set-up would work in theroy with a fixed price per litre of milk swnt , but you need to be sending a lot of milk for that to make sense to both parties, then the issue still exists of labour to act as relief for the contract Milker, it's where historically the contract milkers children might be drafted in but that's a dying tradition
There are a few people around here now getting on well with French workers. Apparently they get treated like dirt in france and are happy out here. I also see alot of Brazilians looking for jobs and I'd say they could be worth a shot too.
I have 100 cows here this year on my own now and forced to keep the calves this year. Happy enough on my own but hard to escape the yard. If there was a good value house nearby I'd nearly buy it for a worker and offer them accommodation.
If there is any bit of an okd farmhouse or cottage in the farm, draw the 70k refurbishment grant and turn it into a two bed house
hard to beat husband and wife kinda setup know plenty of them and there flying it and what I see more and more is a wife or partner given up well payed jobs to go farming at home because her wages a lot of the time won't pay the farm worker
Back in the day when I used to be involved in the building trade one morning a few of us were discussing a local fella that had 39 lads working for him.i can still remember what the main contractor said" what's that only 39 headaches for yourself".labour is more trouble than its worth nowadays
How much are you paying for relief per milking?
Agreement with the above lad was 5 evening milkings a week, and 2 weekend milkings every second weekend, so 6 milkings a week with hours been 4-7 ( cows got in, then half a hour of jobs done when cows eating buffer, then milking and shut cows in after evening milking.
20 unit parlour 160 cows 1.45 minutes from cups on to parlour turned off, 500 a week gross was the terms
It's not the cows that's keeping you going. You bought a farm, now you want to buy a house and hire a labourer.
It's a vicious circle
"The more you have, the more you have to look after"
Talking to a neighbour the 70k is a headline figure and found council impossible to deal with. He got 6.5k after everything and this fella wouldn't give up without a fight! He compared the co co the the nazi party actually!!
I know it's not for everyone but my repayments on robot worked out less than relief milkers. He was stone wall useless but I couldn't do without him at the time either. I know people say at least when your in the parlour you know your cows are milked, well at least the robot tells you when it's not working. This fella was liable to drive off half way through milking, appear late or not appear for a few days with no word. Not straight forward with staff. Remember in the 00's everyone was going to have a caravan and a Polish lad in it working for feck all. How long before the other nationalities mentioned figure out a handier way of getting money.
I see the lads on o Neil's dairy farm have a diet feeder with jex cows. They are putting alot of feed into them.. diet feeders seem to be getting very popular now.
I’ve one a few months after been adamant for years I don’t need one …I’ve always had v good quality forage and not afraid of feeding but it was very manual …..I can now admit I was wrong ….it was the missing link ….cows have never milked better this spring …cut out lot of pulling and dragging and giving cows much more consistent feed …..negative is dropped more money on loader and feeder plus diesel usage up ….
must not have used it for the dry cows, or is that the condition jex look like at calving .
Anyone know how to get past a paywall?
I haven’t read this but it might be an option for some: https://m.independent.ie/farming/dairy/why-this-wexford-couple-switched-from-milking-cows-to-selling-replacement-heifers/a1684642621.html
https://archive.ph/
https://archive.ph/X2B8y
Hear what you’re saying and was talking to the two brothers that done the plumbing in our house, in the boom time they had 14 lads working for them and one of them was full time following, checking work, listening to moaning and sorting out problems with the vans for the lads, now they have 4 lads working for them all farmers sons with 3 vans and all stuff ordered online and delivered to the jobs and are making more money and no headaches with the farmers sons. Pay the lads well and they work hard.
Adain brennan was giving out stink about ye all with too much costs and machinery in the yard ....... keep i simple he reckons 😁😄🤣....... he says most lads are gone o er a ton per cow as well 😉 he's not impressed with that either.if he called to my yard the poor lad would be likely to have a fit 😁😁😁
Thanks for that - it’s a very useful tool 👍
Saves us paying for another subscription anyhow!
