Livestock/General Farming photo thread READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1

jimmy G M · 26-08-2013 09:45PM

A neighbour of mine is into vintage gear. Ploughs & tills aprox 1/2 acre with vintage plough etc, every year. Sows oats, cuts with reaper & binder, then threshes with an old threshing mill.

Here's a couple of pic's I took this eve of reaper & binder in action. If weather is decent in a few weeks, might get a few of the thresher.

moy83 · 26-08-2013 09:53PM

jimmy G M wrote: »

A neighbour of mine is into vintage gear. Ploughs & tills aprox 1/2 acre with vintage plough etc, every year. Sows oats, cuts with reaper & binder, then threshes with an old threshing mill.

Here's a couple of pic's I took this eve of reaper & binder in action. If weather is decent in a few weeks, might get a few of the thresher.

Jimmy have you red hair ? You could be my neighbour except I dont think he uses a 35

jaymla627 · 27-08-2013 07:34AM

Breakfast

Richk2012 · 27-08-2013 07:44AM

Kovu Murr wrote: »

What do you guys think of this lassie? She's just Jan boen, her mother is there behind her. I'm thinking of keeping her on to breed but we don't normally keep blues on.
One thing that bodes well for her is I can go back five generations of her breeding. Her great grand dam was a BrFr X SH, her granddam was a SI X, her mother is LM as you can see and she herself is a blue cross.
Every blue we've kept has had to be sectioned though.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(And yes, her mother is very small, she never grew but always leaves great calves at weaning)

Bit too strong to keep id imagine .
What bulls are you putting on your blues to result on csections kovu ????

reilig · 27-08-2013 08:27AM

Kovu Murr wrote: »

What do you guys think of this lassie? She's just Jan boen, her mother is there behind her. I'm thinking of keeping her on to breed but we don't normally keep blues on.
One thing that bodes well for her is I can go back five generations of her breeding. Her great grand dam was a BrFr X SH, her granddam was a SI X, her mother is LM as you can see and she herself is a blue cross.
Every blue we've kept has had to be sectioned though.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(And yes, her mother is very small, she never grew but always leaves great calves at weaning)

Isn't that cow an ideal size for our part of the country, easy on ground and not too hard to feed. And look at the calf she brings. The ideal cow IMO. A lot of lads think that you need to have a huge big cow to produce good weinlings - that's not true!

We have 6 or 7 BB cows and breed them to our CH stock bull. We have never had an issue with any of them calving. We would restrict feeding to all cows before calving which I believe helps a lot.

However, i would agree with some of the posters above and I'd be inclined to think that she might have too much muscle for breeding.

Dampintheattic · 27-08-2013 08:46AM

Kovu Murr wrote: »

What do you guys think of this lassie? She's just Jan boen, her mother is there behind her. I'm thinking of keeping her on to breed but we don't normally keep blues on.
One thing that bodes well for her is I can go back five generations of her breeding. Her great grand dam was a BrFr X SH, her granddam was a SI X, her mother is LM as you can see and she herself is a blue cross.
Every blue we've kept has had to be sectioned though.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

(And yes, her mother is very small, she never grew but always leaves great calves at weaning)

More than one good calf in that picture, to be fair:cool:

Kovu · 27-08-2013 10:13AM

Richk2012 wrote: »

Bit too strong to keep id imagine .
What bulls are you putting on your blues to result on csections kovu ????

We've only ever had 3 blue cows! 2 got an easy calving LM and one got a ch, KFC I think it was.
All the calves were serious powerhouses though, I'll get a photo of one for you if I can find one. One I showed ended up at around 600kg at under a year old. Or maybe I'm mixing that up, I'll have to check dockets.

reilig wrote: »

Isn't that cow an ideal size for our part of the country, easy on ground and not too hard to feed. And look at the calf she brings. The ideal cow IMO. A lot of lads think that you need to have a huge big cow to produce good weinlings - that's not true!

We have 6 or 7 BB cows and breed them to our CH stock bull. We have never had an issue with any of them calving. We would restrict feeding to all cows before calving which I believe helps a lot.

However, i would agree with some of the posters above and I'd be inclined to think that she might have too much muscle for breeding.

Ideal size she may be but she's not easily found! If I could handpick all the heifers from marts and know their breeding I would. The problem is what to cross her with to get a good heifer, a Lm bull would result in a calf 3/4 LM, a CH would maybe lose her milk but give better height. She has another blue on her this year too.
Thanks for all the replies lads, I think she'll be for the hook or sell on to another for breeding and save hassle on ourselves!

hugo29 · 27-08-2013 10:36AM

Kovu Murr wrote: »

We've only ever had 3 blue cows! 2 got an easy calving LM and one got a ch, KFC I think it was.
All the calves were serious powerhouses though, I'll get a photo of one for you if I can find one. One I showed ended up at around 600kg at under a year old. Or maybe I'm mixing that up, I'll have to check dockets.

Ideal size she may be but she's not easily found! If I could handpick all the heifers from marts and know their breeding I would. The problem is what to cross her with to get a good heifer, a Lm bull would result in a calf 3/4 LM, a CH would maybe lose her milk but give better height. She has another blue on her this year too.
Thanks for all the replies lads, I think she'll be for the hook or sell on to another for breeding and save hassle on ourselves!

would you consider a sim or saler cross, i have a saler x lim cow and the calf quality is superb and before anyone says anything she is as quiet as a mouse, she was loaded into the crate to have her hoof paired inside the gate last week

id chance breeding that heifer once and if it doesnt work sell her as a once calved heifer

Kovu · 27-08-2013 10:43AM

hugo29 wrote: »

would you consider a sim or saler cross, i have a saler x lim cow and the calf quality is superb and before anyone says anything she is as quiet as a mouse, she was loaded into the crate to have her hoof paired inside the gate last week

id chance breeding that heifer once and if it doesnt work sell her as a once calved heifer

I would chance it if I knew I was going to be around when she's calving but I doubt I will. Saler has never been on this farm before, wouldn't rule it out though as the mother is quiet as a lamb. SI, eeeeh, I'm not a big fan of them. They tend to grow bigger frames than we would like and are harder fed.

leg wax · 27-08-2013 11:16AM

Dampintheattic wrote: »

More than one good calf in that picture, to be fair:cool:

the calf at the cows butt wants his pic put up.;);)

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 02:31PM

Two jobs on for today. Last night I lined up on paper lambs management tags to ewe department/Mayo Connemara tags. Today I had to put in either MC electronic tags for the MC ewe lambs, department electronic tags for the "other" ewe lambs, and mart tags for the wether tags. Just the other batch in the hill to do now then we'll be set for Sheep Ireland to come weigh them.

Then I had to alter the horns on a ram. The insides were getting mighty close to his jaws so after some *ahem* negotiation I got his big feckin head through the head gate and tied him back to it to steady up for the horn wire. Couple of cuts and there's daylight between jaws and horn. God bless horn cuttin' wire!

Username John · 27-08-2013 04:04PM

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Two jobs on for today. Last night I lined up on paper lambs management tags to ewe department/Mayo Connemara tags. Today I had to put in either MC electronic tags for the MC ewe lambs, department electronic tags for the "other" ewe lambs, and mart tags for the wether tags. Just the other batch in the hill to do now then we'll be set for Sheep Ireland to come weigh them.

Then I had to alter the horns on a ram. The insides were getting mighty close to his jaws so after some *ahem* negotiation I got his big feckin head through the head gate and tied him back to it to steady up for the horn wire. Couple of cuts and there's daylight between jaws and horn. God bless horn cuttin' wire!

Sheep Ireland to weigh them?
Whats this for?

lakill Farm · 27-08-2013 04:10PM

jimmy G M wrote: »

A neighbour of mine is into vintage gear. Ploughs & tills aprox 1/2 acre with vintage plough etc, every year. Sows oats, cuts with reaper & binder, then threshes with an old threshing mill.

Here's a couple of pic's I took this eve of reaper & binder in action. If weather is decent in a few weeks, might get a few of the thresher.

He is shocking lucky to be getting anything done with the black and yellow face masks on. Health and safety man.

Cran · 27-08-2013 04:12PM

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Two jobs on for today. Last night I lined up on paper lambs management tags to ewe department/Mayo Connemara tags. Today I had to put in either MC electronic tags for the MC ewe lambs, department electronic tags for the "other" ewe lambs, and mart tags for the wether tags. Just the other batch in the hill to do now then we'll be set for Sheep Ireland to come weigh them.
QUOTE]

You in the Mayo producers Mara? I'm missing the Mule sale this Friday for the first time in 8 years or so:(

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 04:37PM

Username John wrote: »

Sheep Ireland to weigh them?
Whats this for?

They have SFA information on the Mayo Connemara breed, so they want lambs matched up to ewes and weigh the lambs, possibly the ewes too. The MC society was only formed last year to try to guard against inbreeding mostly. Hopefully it will be of benefit, I think there's to be a breed sale in Ballinrobe, at least there was talk of one anyway.

Cran wrote: »

You in the Mayo producers Mara? I'm missing the Mule sale this Friday for the first time in 8 years or so:(

No, just in the MC society. Independent chancer otherwise

Maam Cross had their Mule sale last Saturday, top prize pen went €122 I think.

moy83 · 27-08-2013 04:45PM

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Two jobs on for today. Last night I lined up on paper lambs management tags to ewe department/Mayo Connemara tags. Today I had to put in either MC electronic tags for the MC ewe lambs, department electronic tags for the "other" ewe lambs, and mart tags for the wether tags. Just the other batch in the hill to do now then we'll be set for Sheep Ireland to come weigh them.

Then I had to alter the horns on a ram. The insides were getting mighty close to his jaws so after some *ahem* negotiation I got his big feckin head through the head gate and tied him back to it to steady up for the horn wire. Couple of cuts and there's daylight between jaws and horn. God bless horn cuttin' wire!

How did you get the wire to slice a piece off the horn like that ?

Can they not be cut off altogether ?

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 05:04PM

moy83 wrote: »

How did you get the wire to slice a piece off the horn like that ?

Can they not be cut off altogether ?

It's a flexible type of wire made specifically to cut horn, theres a handle on each end and I work it by drawing it back and forth against the horn. The friction of the wire on horn is what does the cutting. I made those particular cuts by putting one of the handles around the inside of the rams horn, when I start drawing the wire back and forth (pulling towards me) I am cutting directly outwards - but I only go a small ways into the horn to dig in with the wire and give it a bit of bite. Otherwise it just slips all over the shop as it's not rigid at all. Then I can change direction and angle as I please to suit what I need to do.

It's terrible handy compared to hacksaw or wood saw. With the wire there is no part of the horn inaccessible for me to start the cut. It doesn't matter if the ram twists his head (within reason), which would trap or bend saw blades.

They look better with the full rig out, IMO. I have cut them off before but prefer slicing with the wire for pure cosmetic reasons. Less chance of any bleeding with slicing too, so no fly issues. A ram with horns not touching face at all is the best. It can be a problem particularly in wether/ram lambs if the ewe and ram both have tight horns, they can curl into the jaw or eye. I've three lambs that were heading for that trouble until I sorted them. The problem with the lambs is because the horn is growing so fast, not like an aged ram where you get lots of warning. It's hard to find a ram with everything correct though.

eire23 · 27-08-2013 05:36PM

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Two jobs on for today. Last night I lined up on paper lambs management tags to ewe department/Mayo Connemara tags. Today I had to put in either MC electronic tags for the MC ewe lambs, department electronic tags for the "other" ewe lambs, and mart tags for the wether tags. Just the other batch in the hill to do now then we'll be set for Sheep Ireland to come weigh them.

Then I had to alter the horns on a ram. The insides were getting mighty close to his jaws so after some *ahem* negotiation I got his big feckin head through the head gate and tied him back to it to steady up for the horn wire. Couple of cuts and there's daylight between jaws and horn. God bless horn cuttin' wire!

hard to beat full horns on them, although last year at ballinrobe very few had them. Is there many breeders in the mayo connemara society?

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 05:51PM

eire23 wrote: »

hard to beat full horns on them, although last year at ballinrobe very few had them. Is there many breeders in the mayo connemara society?

That now is something I can't say for sure, it only started last year but there was good interest. I know there's a big geographical spread down Mayo and through Connemara, so I presume there's a fair number. Each member was to put in 20 ewes and a ram (who was genetically tested - I'm saying that wrong but brain ain't working at the minute) as a start, it was felt if lads put in a high number of ewes they might get fed up trying to match lambs to ewes in Spring/Summer and throw their hat at it.

Bizzum · 27-08-2013 06:13PM

There is a multi-strand electric fence wire on the go that I've used over the years to cut off the tip of a horn that was growing in the wrong direction.
A bit 18" or 2' long with a bit of a stick for a handle will do the job nicely.

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 06:37PM

Bizzum wrote: »

There is a multi-strand electric fence wire on the go that I've used over the years to cut off the tip of a horn that was growing in the wrong direction.
A bit 18" or 2' long with a bit of a stick for a handle will do the job nicely.

Yeah, same idea as the stuff I have.

Heard some of the Scots etc about "fixing" horns, everything from hot water and towels to spring metal screwed into them. Personally I'd rather be aware that a ram had that issue than not.

moy83 · 27-08-2013 06:42PM

I used a wire like that last year on a few cattle but I thought it would be fierce tricky to slice neatly along like that . I suppose the full tackle would look better alright even though im not a cosmetics man myself !

Conmaicne Mara · 27-08-2013 06:45PM

moy83 wrote: »

I used a wire like that last year on a few cattle but I thought it would be fierce tricky to slice neatly along like that . I suppose the full tackle would look better alright even though im not a cosmetics man myself !

I had his head tied back to the gate so he had limited movement really. In that situation all I need to do was decide where to stand to get the angle I want, move at the hips then to get another angle, away I go any direction, could do a curve too I'm sure. It's great!

That gate is a blessing though, I'd not manage him without it.

moy83 · 27-08-2013 08:32PM

I used a wire like that last year on a few cattle but I thought it would be fierce tricky to slice neatly along like that . I suppose the full tackle would look better alright even though im not a cosmetics man myself !

delaval · 27-08-2013 11:00PM

Drilled 25/7

Spraying yesterday

bob charles · 27-08-2013 11:20PM

delaval wrote: »

Drilled 25/7

Spraying yesterday

Slugs about:mad: by the looks of things. Am I the only one that is starting to question of seed rate for grass. maybe germination has fallen or something but 12kilo per acre is over the last couple of year and looking very light once germinated. I remember before running at 9 - 10 kilos and getting good plant numbers

anyone being infested by caterpillars over the last few days? hearing bad stories of serious damage to leaf crops and veg crops locally.

red bull · 27-08-2013 11:42PM

seeding rates in old money, you really need one bag extra in four acres

bob charles · 27-08-2013 11:45PM

red bull wrote: »

seeding rates in old money, you really need one bag extra in four acres

usually 12 - 12,5 kilos in a bag, so I always used set at a bag to the acre. your putting out 25% more seed than me. Does grass seed need room to root properly or does annual grass get out of the ground to grab some space if too sparse

red bull · 28-08-2013 12:04AM

at12.5 kgs per acre i would allways be on 6 bags for five acres, i like a nice thick sward less competition from seedling weeds before spraying

awaywithyou · 28-08-2013 12:08AM

bob charles wrote: »

Slugs about:mad: by the looks of things. Am I the only one that is starting to question of seed rate for grass. maybe germination has fallen or something but 12kilo per acre is over the last couple of year and looking very light once germinated. I remember before running at 9 - 10 kilos and getting good plant numbers

anyone being infested by caterpillars over the last few days? hearing bad stories of serious damage to leaf crops and veg crops locally.

agreed on the 12kilos being too little.... we go with nearly a bag and a half an acre...

that field of reseed by delaval didnt look like it was ploughed up prior to reseeding..(could be wrong) would that have anything to do with the bare patches??

Livestock/General Farming photo thread ***READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1***

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Livestock/General Farming photo thread READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1