Farming Chit Chat

bbam wrote: »

Anyone see the portable milking machines on DD? €1400 seems very expensive. We had one in the 60's when we farmed first. (of course I don't remember it).
He's selling it as an end to expensive milk replacer. He's obviously never milked with one and carried a bucket of milk from a cow. Mixing milk replacer is a doddle in comparison.
Buy a cow, keep her for the year, buy the machine, milk the feckin cow twice a day. I can mix stuff for 16 calves in less than five minutes for a fraction of the cost and no hassle.

Saw it there allright. We had something similar in the 1970's until we built the parlour. We did milk 4 cows to feed 15 calves for a year after we got out of dairy but it was pure hardship. That mini bucket set up would be a killer altogether.

Well, when we got out of dairying, we kept one cow for the house. I milked her by hand. Now that was hardship. I had muscles like Popeye.

This just came into my mind;

Was serviceing a machine one day many years ago. No lid on the small opening on the tank lid. Noticed the cat going round and round in the tank when the agitator would come on.
Refused tea there as the young lassie came down and took a jug of milk from the tank and didn't notice the dead cat . I was just a young fella and didn't like to say anything about it to them.

reilig wrote: »

...Its not very long ago, but some people never thought about an easy way of doing things in those days. They had lots of time on their hands and all day to get things done.

You've to remember that, what seems like hardship to us, was normal everyday work when they were young. We have some land a mile from the house. An old neighbour of mine, still tells me how he remembers my Grandmother milking 2 cows there and carrying the milk back in the buckets across the fields. She was a small light woman and lived to be 93.

stuck at work here, looking out at sun, thinking of all jobs i could be at home doing

vanderbadger wrote: »

i was flicking thru the channels there last night, I just caught the end of something on one of the Uk channels, its was a camera at night time, looked like a slatted shed full of horses,night image type camera. next thing its back to the studio and this reporter is saying how he shot the video in an Irish barn, he was questioning some politician and wanted to know could this Uk politician guarantee that these horses wouldnt end up in the food chain..Like i say i didnt see the rest of it so I dont know what was shown earlier to back it up but was a bit taken aback at the kinda idea of all us Irish lads with our sheds full of horses, that seemed to be the jist of what he was getting at

That was channel 4. It was called the Horse Meat Scandal ( I Think).
A lot of it was filmed in Ireland. Part of it was filmed at the ISPCA Horse Rescue Centre in kenagh in County Longford where they interviewed the lady who set it up. She didn't do the beef industry many favours. She identified a horse that she had rescued. It was chipped and when she sent the chip info to the Dep of Ag they told her that the horse was recorded as being slaughtered. She declared that her horse's passport had obviously been swapped with a fatter horse which was slaughtered in its place - no traceability.

The programme also did untold damage to the beef market in Britain. They really played on the concept of of horses passports being switched and no traceability. They had a big section about how horse medicines can be poisonous to humans and without traceability, meat from houses treated with certain medicines is almost certainly in the food chain.

They also had a big section on animal cruelty - especially horses. They showed horses being hit with a stick while being loaded into a chute at an abatoir.

The only good thing that they did was show that the horse meat did not only come from ireland - they identified almost every country in Europe as having a link to it in some form or another.

It was a typical trashy Channel 4 programme. It took all the bad points of the story and sensationalised them.

Lovely morning again here, long may it last

vanderbadger wrote: »

yep, i cant remember the last when there was 3 days without a drop of rain, makes life alot easier

Have to go down to your neighbour now shortly for 2 loads of bales, bit of a fodder shortage around here at the moment.