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David's going Dairying.

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    #212
    wrangler
    Registered Users Posts: 11,064 ✭✭✭✭wrangler


    davidk1394 wrote: »
    Yes I agree. Wheaten straw is very plentiful here and barley straw is usually already sold. I only made my mind up last week about putting everything on straw. Up until then I was going to do the full build in Autumn.

    Is it not difficult to train cows to cubicles if they haven't started in cubicles


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    #213
    ruwithme
    Registered Users Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭ruwithme


    Lad down the road here planned on doing up a old house. Got planning for a extension too.time passed a bit and he changed his mind. Decided he'd knock her.

    And so he did and just rebuilt her on the original footprint. Claims now he never paid a development levy and doesn't expect to either. Sure they never need to know.brave rascal


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    #214
    Dozer1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,199 ✭✭✭Dozer1


    Each to their own I'm on my 3rd house been through the conservation battle the whole hog an tshirt to prove it. But unless ure living in it I wouldn't rent out a house within an asses roar of the farm yard as the compo culture makes it a disaster waiting to happen. Anyway best of luck David didn't mean to sidetrack ure thread.


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    #215
    Mooooo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    wrangler wrote: »
    Is it not difficult to train cows to cubicles if they haven't started in cubicles

    Most would take to em, may have to run scrapers more often or put something down so they wouldn't lie elsewhere like tyres or something. Had in calf heifers on straw and all bar one were up on the cubicles first day moved in


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    #216
    GrasstoMilk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,847 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    Mooooo wrote: »
    Most would take to em, may have to run scrapers more often or put something down so they wouldn't lie elsewhere like tyres or something. Had in calf heifers on straw and all bar one were up on the cubicles first day moved in

    We trained the majority of ours to cubicles in a week or so, none of them.knew what a cubicle was


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    #217
    GrasstoMilk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,847 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    Base price wrote: »
    I remember seeing pics a while back on F&F of a lovely old stone cut farm house that was refurbished. Was that yours?

    On straw bedding - there is nothing more comfortable for cattle and imo they thrive. All our cattle are bedded on straw. We use our defunct slatted unit to rear calves and we covered the slats with straw.
    I read somewhere that you shouldn't put milk cows on straw bedding as it causes mastitis - I presume that regular applications of lime and cleaning would prevent it?

    Yeah I think I posted it up here, were in 2 years now and happy out. We were able to do a lot ourselves and got major work like roof/insulated slabs/plastering and wiring done by direct labour

    We were way over stocked on straw bedding but I'd say weve more mastitis cases now than on straw but we havent actively culled for high scc in a while so that has a bearing on it too


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    #218
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,126 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    On the bedding.

    I hear the best reports are of sand bedded cubicles. Only thing is the housing and slurry tank has to be designed to cope with sand from day one.
    So slurry scraped to an outdoor or separate area off the housing that can be emptied out with a loader.

    On the bean straw David. That should be the highest nutrient fym you'll have.


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    #219
    Base price
    Registered Users Posts: 11,160 ✭✭✭✭Base price


    Say my name wrote: »
    On the bedding.

    I hear the best reports are of sand bedded cubicles. Only thing is the housing and slurry tank has to be designed to cope with sand from day one.
    So slurry scraped to an outdoor or separate area off the housing that can be emptied out with a loader.

    On the bean straw David. That should be the highest nutrient fym you'll have.
    IYO, how long do you need to compost Rape/Bean straw before spreading presuming that it was used for bedding.
    It's awfully woody and dusty compared to traditional straw.


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    #220
    wrangler
    Registered Users Posts: 11,064 ✭✭✭✭wrangler


    Base price wrote: »
    IYO, how long do you need to compost Rape/Bean straw before spreading presuming that it was used for bedding.
    It's awfully woody and dusty compared to traditional straw.


    And is it really that absorbent


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    #221
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,126 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Base price wrote: »
    IYO, how long do you need to compost Rape/Bean straw before spreading presuming that it was used for bedding.
    It's awfully woody and dusty compared to traditional straw.

    I couldn't tell you.

    I presume six months when it's chopped?

    Ideal stuff for the biochar kiln. :D


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    #222
    davidk1394
    Registered Users Posts: 4,044 ✭✭✭davidk1394


    It needs about 6 to 8 months to rot. It hasn't much soakage but it's fine for the first few weeks to build up the bed.


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    #223
    cosatron
    Registered Users Posts: 2,014 ✭✭✭cosatron



    F**k it dave go all in like this lad, knock the whole lot .:D


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    #224
    Mooooo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    cosatron wrote: »

    F**k it dave go all in like this lad, knock the whole lot .:D

    Right job. In the netherlands sheds at 25 years old are considered spent, often new ones built instead. They use timber piles in the polderlands as they last fine in the wet ground. Was on a farm where an old pit wasn't piled he said it would sink a few feet if silage was in it.
    Pity the return from farming isn't alwayd good enough to say when these things could be done instead of if.... be it machinery, land or accommodation


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    #225
    Tileman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,139 ✭✭✭Tileman


    cosatron wrote: »

    F**k it dave go all in like this lad, knock the whole lot .:D

    Some bill for building that. Must be a venture capitalist behind it.


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    #226
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,699 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    We farm land just like that. You dig down below the topsoil and it's all blue mud. It's out in the Shannon estuary. Land is well below high tide. Crazy thing is there is a load of houses built on it. Even scarier is that the town of Shannon and it's airport, is all built on land like that.

    I wouldn't build on it, that's for sure. Impossible to even hang a gate there. The post just falls over in time. It goes rock hard in summer, but in the wet of winter, if you get stuck with the tractor, it will go to the axle. Great fertile land though, if cared for.

    'When I was a boy we were serfs, slave minded. Anyone who came along and lifted us out of that belittling, I looked on them as Gods.' - Dan Breen



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    #227
    Sacrolyte
    Registered Users Posts: 851 ✭✭✭Sacrolyte


    Tileman wrote: »
    Some bill for building that. Must be a venture capitalist behind it.

    Much of the farm debt in Holland is generational debt.


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    #228
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,699 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    Sacrolyte wrote: »
    Much of the farm debt in Holland is generational debt.

    Isn't that deliberate to keep down inheritance tax, which is very high there for farms.

    'When I was a boy we were serfs, slave minded. Anyone who came along and lifted us out of that belittling, I looked on them as Gods.' - Dan Breen



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    #229
    Bass Reeves
    Registered Users Posts: 18,202 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    patsy_mccabe wrote: »
    Isn't that deliberate to keep down inheritance tax, which is very high there for farms.

    No, when some one retires they sell the farm to the next generation whether family or not. The money is used as you pension. As farms often skip generations or are transferred out of the family the next generation of farmers start with a high level of debt.

    The advantage is it focuses the farmer to be profitable. But most systems are highly intensive, this structure is coming under pressure at present where mandatory cuts to nitrate and phosphorus levels have lead to cut in cow numbers.

    Slava Ukrainii



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    #230
    Mooooo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    The capital cost of land over there can be written off also, but higher tax on sale price


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    #231
    Green&Red
    Registered Users Posts: 11,387 ✭✭✭✭Green&Red


    Any update? Hows the parlour coming along?


    Bought the last of my heifers this week, parlour wired up last week, last of the reseeding is showing above ground now, finishing off the roads. Small bit of drainage left to do


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    #232
    davidk1394
    Registered Users Posts: 4,044 ✭✭✭davidk1394


    Deal done on a parlor and tank and shed. Concrete man is coming Friday evening to go over the final plans and I'll be doing the final bit of digging next week. Finance is secured and the contract to supply milk has been signed.


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    #233
    kerryjack
    Registered Users Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭kerryjack


    Great tread David for any young lads thinking of doing the same must be scary to see all this money going out and very little coming in, but as the old saying goes you have to spend money to make money. Good luck to you and hope everything goes well and keep us posted.


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    #234
    davidk1394
    Registered Users Posts: 4,044 ✭✭✭davidk1394


    I encountered a set back after my last post that I will go into detail later on. Anyway on a lighter note I started digging yesterday at long last :D


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    #235
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    davidk1394 wrote: »
    I encountered a set back after my last post that I will go into detail later on. Anyway on a lighter note I started digging yesterday at long last :D

    That round roof you have there with the stonewalls is a lovely looking building man.


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    #236
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,370 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    davidk1394 wrote: »
    I encountered a set back after my last post that I will go into detail later on. Anyway on a lighter note I started digging yesterday at long last :D

    What sort of stone have ye down there that it catches fire


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    #237
    davidk1394
    Registered Users Posts: 4,044 ✭✭✭davidk1394


    NcdJd wrote: »
    That round roof you have there with the stonewalls is a lovely looking building man.

    Yes it is an old hay barn and it was re-roofed 4 years ago. It's used for storing machinery now


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    #238
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,126 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Reggie. wrote: »
    What sort of stone have ye down there that it catches fire

    He's making biochar.


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    #239
    Tileman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,139 ✭✭✭Tileman


    NcdJd wrote: »
    That round roof you have there with the stonewalls is a lovely looking building man.

    Yea noticed that too. It’s fantastic. Live the old buildings properly looked after as part of a farmyard. It gives it fantastic heritage and a great link/ reminder to the past.


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    #240
    davidk1394
    Registered Users Posts: 4,044 ✭✭✭davidk1394


    Tileman wrote: »
    Yea noticed that too. It’s fantastic. Live the old buildings properly looked after as part of a farmyard. It gives it fantastic heritage and a great link/ reminder to the past.

    I have a few other old stone buildings that I want to keep and I think add to the yard. Down the line I would to do up one of them to live in

    There was a few building that were knocked. The roof's on them had fallen in and they weren't really any use.


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    #241
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,699 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    Reggie. wrote: »
    What sort of stone have ye down there that it catches fire

    Flintstone maybe. :D
    Yaba dabba doo ....

    'When I was a boy we were serfs, slave minded. Anyone who came along and lifted us out of that belittling, I looked on them as Gods.' - Dan Breen



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