Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
You fill your tyres up with water? Does the old Nuffield need more traction?
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Now for "a long weight" while it fills...:sleep:
Probably 350 litres in each rear, helps bring the weight of the rig up to around 4000kg - but helps greatly when loading silage etc. and just general traction.

My bales of peas just about get her cocking a leg as it is! :)
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
You fill your tyres up with water? Does the old Nuffield need more traction?
Nuffy needs a tube as well, but I want to swap the outer duals and put them on the inside as she has 2 new tyres -on the outside of course... it has caused the tyre to slip when turning

Just as well I spent time in a tyre shop as a youngster, tractor tyres are the good ones to work with.
The smaller ones are much less fun
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
It’s not fair teasing us like that. Takes me bloody 5 minutes to get out of the yard sometimes because of traffic. I don’t dare try to go there about 8 in the morning at rush hour. Made the mistake a couple of weeks ago. My personal best is 7 minutes. Took over 20. Most of it sat in a queue.
When my wife and I got married in nz couple of my friends didn’t like how quiet it was. I love how quiet it is.
It is VERY quiet down here.
I can hear birds
I can hear the ocean
I can hear the neighbours start their quads
I can hear trucks coming into/leaving town and tell who is driving by their gearchanges

(Must be a calm day)

The other thing is lack of light pollution (pollution in general, to be fair) down here, even though we back onto the village it is a great spot for using a telescope, so the boys quite often get up late and have a gaze at the night skies.

I guess it helps shape a real appreciation for the basics= nature, and human nature's contrast to nature.
It is easy to see how much worse it could (will) be in the future, which is quite a vital thing to make the kids aware of!

Sometimes being more isolated is a disadvantage- today my trip for an inner tube took almost 2 hours, an hour of which was gas-bagging to people I haven't seen in ten years, but the isolation is great.

I appreciate it more than people will ever know.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
It is VERY quiet down here.
I can hear birds
I can hear the ocean
I can hear the neighbours start their quads
I can hear trucks coming into/leaving town and tell who is driving by their gearchanges

(Must be a calm day)

The other thing is lack of light pollution (pollution in general, to be fair) down here, even though we back onto the village it is a great spot for using a telescope, so the boys quite often get up late and have a gaze at the night skies.

I guess it helps shape a real appreciation for the basics= nature, and human nature's contrast to nature.
It is easy to see how much worse it could (will) be in the future, which is quite a vital thing to make the kids aware of!

Sometimes being more isolated is a disadvantage- today my trip for an inner tube took almost 2 hours, an hour of which was gas-bagging to people I haven't seen in ten years, but the isolation is great.

I appreciate it more than people will ever know.

If you haven't experienced it, I'm not sure you can truly appreciate it
 

CornishTone

Member
BASIS
Location
Cornwall
If you haven't experienced it, I'm not sure you can truly appreciate it

Some folk can be quite unnerved by that much silence and darkness, especially if they’ve grown up in the UK and Europe where it never really gets dark!

Even out in the sticks you can see the glow of a town or city from pretty much any vantage point. Perhaps in the Highlands you might find real solitude, but few other places I reckon!
 

pear

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Hertfordshire
When I worked in NZ the bloke I worked for went away for 3 weeks and left me in charge. I had a fridge full of food and beer so I didn’t need to go anywhere. It was so quiet and peaceful. Dark and clear skies at night and the only thing you heard were the f’ing huntaways having a chat!

When I got back from Aus a couple of weeks ago and had a bit of jet lag, I got woken up by the roar of the pub when England won their penalty shootout. The pub is a couple of miles away!
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
On days with the right atmospheric pressure I can hear vehicles on the highway a mile and a half away. But it’s not a busy highway so that’s rare. Most vehicle noise is field work at certain times of the year.

It seems like a quiet, peaceful place except for the wind. You hear it in the trees and in the grass. But I’m constantly surprised by the birds. People like @hendrebc say it’s open, barren, empty here... but it’s so full of life. I’m too used to it, I don’t always notice it. But when I’m filming something - be it a funny video of the animals doing something dumb or just a Snapchat clip - the amount of birds singing in the videos is unreal. I always remember the amount of noisy birds in Australia like there were more there but when I hear the clips from around the yard, birds here are just as prolific and noisy. I’m just more used to them so don’t hear them as much.
 
It is VERY quiet down here.
I can hear birds
I can hear the ocean
I can hear the neighbours start their quads
I can hear trucks coming into/leaving town and tell who is driving by their gearchanges

(Must be a calm day)

The other thing is lack of light pollution (pollution in general, to be fair) down here, even though we back onto the village it is a great spot for using a telescope, so the boys quite often get up late and have a gaze at the night skies.

I guess it helps shape a real appreciation for the basics= nature, and human nature's contrast to nature.
It is easy to see how much worse it could (will) be in the future, which is quite a vital thing to make the kids aware of!

Sometimes being more isolated is a disadvantage- today my trip for an inner tube took almost 2 hours, an hour of which was gas-bagging to people I haven't seen in ten years, but the isolation is great.

I appreciate it more than people will ever know.
A bit like the last time I was camping down by the Red Deer river , all the birds in the background , the wolves , coyotes , the trucks coming down the hill to cross the bridge and the mosquitoes.....:rolleyes::LOL:
The West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island will probably go next time hiking/ camping. (y):D
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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yeah, my wife gets freaked out & is really uncomfortable with true isolation
Whereas that's where I feel most comfortable & at ease . . .
Definitely the case here.

I don't deliberately avoid people, it just probably appears that way!

I see (for example) the blokes at the garage when I go to fuel up the tractor: to me it appears they overreact "what's been happening, haven't seen you around lately, mate?!" as it seems like I'm always topping up.
A quick check shows I'm in the wrong, as it's been 7 weeks since I was last there, almost 25 tractor hours but it feels much less to me, because I'm absorbed in "my lot"

I am completely at ease just pottering about by myself, especially with a rifle over my shoulder, or a flyrod in hand; it would be very, very difficult to move away.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
As has been previously confirmed, I'm not a "real farmer" .

The Guardian is good because

1) it's free

2) it provides balance to my other online newspaper if choice, the Daily Mail.

3) it's good to read Monboit etc articles and see what the opposition are thinking.

4) they have some really interesting articles on a wide variety of topics.

And that's what makes you more interesting than most of the "real farmers" who inhabit TFFland
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
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All done now @hendrebc
--filled both up fairly completely as I don't do enough roadwork to bother with 3/4 filling them; as above a 1km round trip every few months for fuel is about it.

18psi+water in the rears and 23 in the fronts

Tractor has almost clicked over 8145hrs, will be due an oil change this summer, 420 hours since we moved here.

265 of those hours have been contracting = $20k of income, to offset $4k of fuel/R&M costs (y)
24.8 hours since I bought the cattle in at the end of May, I thought you would appreciate that little snippet.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
As has been previously confirmed, I'm not a "real farmer" .

The Guardian is good because

1) it's free

2) it provides balance to my other online newspaper if choice, the Daily Mail.

3) it's good to read Monboit etc articles and see what the opposition are thinking.

4) they have some really interesting articles on a wide variety of topics.
We should all make a point of "reading the opposition" sometimes. Just because they oppose you doesn't mean they are never right (y)

(Unless it's a rag like The Sun, The Mirror etc) :whistle:
 
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holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
It is VERY quiet down here.
I can hear birds
I can hear the ocean
I can hear the neighbours start their quads
I can hear trucks coming into/leaving town and tell who is driving by their gearchanges

(Must be a calm day)

The other thing is lack of light pollution (pollution in general, to be fair) down here, even though we back onto the village it is a great spot for using a telescope, so the boys quite often get up late and have a gaze at the night skies.

I guess it helps shape a real appreciation for the basics= nature, and human nature's contrast to nature.
It is easy to see how much worse it could (will) be in the future, which is quite a vital thing to make the kids aware of!

Sometimes being more isolated is a disadvantage- today my trip for an inner tube took almost 2 hours, an hour of which was gas-bagging to people I haven't seen in ten years, but the isolation is great.

I appreciate it more than people will ever know.
:love::love::love:

I can still see that night sky view in my head when I got up early before leaving :love:

We can hear the truck's gear changes here too......

..... All the friggin' time :confused::mad:
 
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holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Some folk can be quite unnerved by that much silence and darkness, especially if they’ve grown up in the UK and Europe where it never really gets dark!

Even out in the sticks you can see the glow of a town or city from pretty much any vantage point. Perhaps in the Highlands you might find real solitude, but few other places I reckon!
Kielder national forest park had been declared a "dark skies zone" and probably comes closest to @Kiwi Pete 's back door here.

Around here true darkness never happens :oops::cry:
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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