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Farming Chit Chat II

whelan1

welcome to farming chit chat 2, hope ye all enjoy the thread as much as the last one

[MOD]

This thread is a continuation of the original Farming Chit Chat thread, which was approaching the 10,000 post limit.
The last 16 posts in the old thread have been copied here, so with a bit of luck the conversation will carry on seamlessly.

[/MOD]

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Henwin

its been pouring here in kerry since 11 tis morning non stop, and a cold rain at that. the cows were bunched at the ditch before milking. hope it stops soon. a rotton day all together.

darragh_haven

hugo29 wrote: »

Kids runnin around lawn here in shorts and t shirt, not boiling but def not stove weather,

Hope this sh1t weather moves on up the country and leaves us alone. Was hoping to put a rain coat onto the 2 year old and go for a walk, but no hope I'd say. Its too heavy to consider bringing her out. Pouring rain since 8 or 9 this morning in West Cork

hugo29

darragh_haven wrote: »

Hope this sh1t weather moves on up the country and leaves us alone. Was hoping to put a rain coat onto the 2 year old and go for a walk, but no hope I'd say. Its too heavy to consider bringing her out. Pouring rain since 8 or 9 this morning in West Cork

Ah yer grand keep it down there or send it over to England but leave us alone, it's not often we have it dry

sea12

darragh_haven wrote: »

Just lit the stove. ..... de ja vu of ladt summer

Yea we had to put on the fire in the sitting room. Pissing rain and cool. No sign of sun here

Viewtodiefor

sea12 wrote: »

Yea we had to put on the fire in the sitting room. Posing rain and cool. No sign of sun here

Sumthing familiar about this weather!

theaceofspies

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Sumthing familiar about this weather!

Yep its looking like groundhog day

Juniorhurler

Lit the stove here too. Was o.k til about 3.30-4 but a real rotten cold rain since.

just do it

Muckit wrote: »

Ahhh...:rolleyes: sure when does he expect you to get it out?! Please God we'I have a decent enough summer to leave them out so the tanks are not going to get any higher til they go back into the shed in the back end.

You should ring another contractor and see what they're answer is!!

Some contractors would try run your farm for you!

What I want it for is some ground for reseeding later in the summer. I think he's concern was it was quite thick. This rain will have sorted that out as it is all diverted into the tank. In fairness to him he's a neighbour and helpful and only got the slurry gear 2/3 years ago. I don't think he does much other than his own. He was giving his opinion and if I turn around and say do it he will, so I can't really complain about that.

The day he baled my silage he knocked grass for 120 bales. What I said to him the day before has come to pass. "Make hay while the sun shines" and once it breaks God only knows - and look what's happened in a few short days:(.

pakalasa

Had the raingear on today and still managed to get wet through. Desperate day here in Clare. Coming in from the east aswell. Deja Vu is right.

Birdnuts

hugo29 wrote: »

At least ye did not get knocked out by "LONDON" :mad:

Its shapin up to be a helluva Connaught Final allright:pac:;)!!

Muckit

just do it wrote: »

"Make hay while the sun shines" and once it breaks God only knows -

And there's still a lot of lads that haven't learnt this lesson from last year.

iverjohnston

Dry all day here, a few spits of pain just the last half hour. Feels cold now, 13 C . Weather girl on Today F M warning of 2 inches rain in south cork! Bloody hell!
Usual last gasp win for us today against the neighbours, live to fight another day.

hugo29

Birdnuts wrote: »

Its shapin up to be a helluva Connaught Final allright:pac:;)!!

I'd say Leitrim will win hands down:D, good shout for Sam too,

darragh_haven

iverjohnston wrote: »

Dry all day here, a few spits of pain just the last half hour. Feels cold now, 13 C . Weather girl on Today F M warning of 2 inches rain in south cork! Bloody hell!
Usual last gasp win for us today against the neighbours, live to fight another day.

105mm since last Monday, and due up to 50mm of rain between now and tomorrow. ...... fcuk the rain gear, I'm building an ark.

Dampintheattic

Muckit wrote: »

And there's still a lot of lads that haven't learnt this lesson from last year.

Lots of lads have learned, but just still struggling to put last year in the past. Case of having to graze and regraze silage ground this spring...
If you have good quality land, be grateful. Plenty fellas on tough, tough, wet unforgiving land. For many of them, having a harvestable crop of grass on July 01, would be a good target this year.

Bad summer this year for some will be an annoyance.
Bad summer for more, will be a get out of business situation.

Timmaay

Muckit wrote: »

:D Very funny Bob, the likeness is uncanny. I'd say that's more your theme tune though..... 'up all night (in my speedos) to get lucky'

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=551334594908975&set=a.465615296814239.102621.465614550147647&type=1&theater things musta really got outa hand at slane muckit? :P

Timmaay

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Lots of lads have learned, but just still struggling to put last year in the past. Case of having to graze and regraze silage ground this spring...
If you have good quality land, be grateful. Plenty fellas on tough, tough, wet unforgiving land. For many of them, having a harvestable crop of grass on July 01, would be a good target this year.

Out of interest for any of the lads using agrinet and regularly grass measuring, what sort of tons/Ha figures are yous coming in at for the 1st 1/2 of the year? I've never properly grass measured before, but anyways coming in at about 3tons/ha, which seems incredibly poor considering on some years the top lads get 13-14tons/ha.

bob charles

Timmaay wrote: »

Out of interest for any of the lads using agrinet and regularly grass measuring, what sort of tons/Ha figures are yous coming in at for the 1st 1/2 of the year? I've never properly grass measured before, but anyways coming in at about 3tons/ha, which seems incredibly poor considering on some years the top lads get 13-14tons/ha.

mixing up ac's and ha's or else dry and wet weights

delaval

bob charles wrote: »

mixing up ac's and ha's or else dry and wet weights

Tim
Have you inc your silage ground???
It's not 3 tonnes you are making a mistake somewhere. It is very possible that some have done 3 to date but unlikely to be your average

delaval

delaval wrote: »

Tim
Have you inc your silage ground???
It's not 3 tonnes you are making a mistake somewhere. It is very possible that some have done 3 to date but unlikely to be your average

While I don't know your sr I will assume its 2 on whole milking area I am assuming 100 cows on 50 ha????
If You are grazing from mid Feb to date that's 120days.
2cows x 17 kg/dm grass = 34/ ha/day
50ha X 34kg X 120 days = 204 tonnes utilised. That is 4/ha, you now need to add in silage.
I think that's correct, could someone else check figures as I ain't a maths kinda guy!!!!

delaval

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Lots of lads have learned, but just still struggling to put last year in the past. Case of having to graze and regraze silage ground this spring...
If you have good quality land, be grateful. Plenty fellas on tough, tough, wet unforgiving land. For many of them, having a harvestable crop of grass on July 01, would be a good target this year.

Bad summer this year for some will be an annoyance.
Bad summer for more, will be a get out of business situation.

You are correct. It's so easy for us on better land to talk of early silage when we can lock up early and harvest at our ease. I don't like the way this weather has broke.
One good 10 day spell and every one talks of superlevy I'd say that view could change by the wend if it stays raining as it did last night.
Some guys on wet land up this country have leased out 30% of their cows in April for rest of the year. Looks to have been a prudent
The priority has to be filling the pits.

Damp, has anybody needed to house cows in your area yet??

Dampintheattic

delaval wrote: »

You are correct. It's so easy for us on better land to talk of early silage when we can lock up early and harvest at our ease. I don't like the way this weather has broke.
One good 10 day spell and every one talks of superlevy I'd say that view could change by the wend if it stays raining as it did last night.
Some guys on wet land up this country have leased out 30% of their cows in April for rest of the year. Looks to have been a prudent
The priority has to be filling the pits.

Damp, has anybody needed to house cows in your area yet??

Lots of fellas on the wetter stuff saying they would house them, but have no fodder!!!
Talk about a vicious circle.
Saw a herd of around 20 suckler cows yesterday, in a field which looked like a grazed off field of kale in mid winter.

whelan1

its amazing how different parts of the country differ, in early may we where frozen out of it here,cows still housed etc while lads down the country where talking of great growth rates ... now we have had feck all rain and ye are being blasted with it

Timmaay

delaval wrote: »

While I don't know your sr I will assume its 2 on whole milking area I am assuming 100 cows on 50 ha????
If You are grazing from mid Feb to date that's 120days.
2cows x 17 kg/dm grass = 34/ ha/day
50ha X 34kg X 120 days = 204 tonnes utilised. That is 4/ha, you now need to add in silage.
I think that's correct, could someone else check figures as I ain't a maths kinda guy!!!!

Sorry, yes the 3ton/ha figure was for the 1st 6months. I went and found a grass excel file on the teagasc website here: http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/ (bottom right hand side), it tells me that with my cow numbers, SR, milk supply and concentrate use (which I've worked out is about 700-750kg/cow/yr), anyways that program says I need on average 7t/ha to sustain that number of cows with that feed. I know that if we carry on as per last yr, we will be able to sustain what we have definitely, although its always interesting to be able to actually go put a figure on the likes of the tons/ha of myown farm, knowing that the top lads do 13t is pointless unless I know how to compare it to myown.

And just on yourown example, I have a very low overall farm SR of 1.8, the rented farm never gets pushed that much, but I did use it this year as part of the milking platform to allow me to fill the grass deficit during April. Moving forward it does all give me a nice amount of room to try push on the amount of grass grown on the farm, through reseeding/drainage/utilization etc.

Anyways, going back to what I was more trying to get at, has anyone else worked out what grass they have grown on average up to now, and roughly what figure is it down on normal years etc, given the late start to the spring?

reilig

How is grass going for people?

I'm in the enviable position on an outfarm with 20 scuklers and calves that this evening they will be just finished on the first rotation of paddocks. Now I know what you're thinking, he should be baleing up paddocks for silage. Welll I have about 1/5 of the paddocks closed off for baling in the next 10 days, but the rest was just too poached and rough to be able to cut and bale. Tonight they move towards a larger paddock which hasn't been eaten since may 10th. It's practically meadow at this stage, but it was poached really badly last year and hasn't been dry enough while it was bare to do any repairs on. Going to strip graze it to try to make the most of it.

3 paddocks that the cows will be leaving tonight have lasted 9 days. Last year, during the wet weather the same 3 barely lasted 6 days. Also they haven't got any fertilizer yet this year. Hopefully we can go back to a bit of dry weather in the coming days. Ground isn't wet - just surface wetness. But we don't need any downpours!

Muckit

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Lots of lads have learned, but just still struggling to put last year in the past. Case of having to graze and regraze silage ground this spring...
If you have good quality land, be grateful. Plenty fellas on tough, tough, wet unforgiving land. For many of them, having a harvestable crop of grass on July 01, would be a good target this year.

Bad summer this year for some will be an annoyance.
Bad summer for more, will be a get out of business situation.

This is my farm on 24 November 2012

Right good land isn't it? I had majority of cattle housed here til 1 June.

I made the first of my bales silage on the 29 May and made another batch of bales and a small pit on June 8. I now have 40bales of silage and 9 acres of pit.... all off 40 acres of ground, 15ish of which floods, the rest is very wet.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But sure some lads love complaining....

Kovu

Cant see any of the pics Muckit. The imageshack links look a bit odd, did you copy the forum link?

Muckit

Sorry previous links wouldn't work... hopefully they do now....;)

This is my farm on 24 November. Make up your own mind as to the quality.

Kovu

Muckit wrote: »

Sorry previous links wouldn't work... hopefully they do now....;)

This is my farm on 24 November. Make up your own mind as to the quality.

FIXED

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

C0N0R

Just got some emails from a few mates back in nz, they have had 60mm or rain in the last two days, normally get 60mm in June total, and the weather is predicting the worst snowfall in 20 years later on in the week. I think I picked the perfect month to come home!

At home we have oceans of grass, quality is just a massive issue. Trying to get the auld lad to take out stuff for bales that maybe should have been done two weeks ago. Milk output is suffering massively due to the lack of qualiy but that's life. It's amazing to see the difference between the summers I've gotten used to in nz and here. Tis still good to be home though. Does make me realise how difficult farming in Ireland can be and massive credit to you guys who have to cope with it year in year out and still manage to survive and have a profitable enterprise.