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The Irish house a lot of sheep as a way of maximising production over smaller acreages in a wetter climate. Im not sure how they fare to be honest as it’s not something you see much of this side of the water outside lambing time. Without seeing your system and knowing your costs it’s difficult...

Going slightly off topic here but it’s relevant to the OP: How do you manage the grass in a solar park? Aside from grazing, your options I’d imagine are fairly limited, can you lime? Fertilise? Reseed? What happens if you get a rush or dock infestation? How does a dog work under them? My fear...

I set up a 8kW diesel generator and changeover switch after storm Arwen when we were out for 7 days. Electrical work was about £400, second hand Honda genny was about £1k. Had it on a few times since.

3C and sleet here on Monday, hills white. Yesterday was glorious but not warm. To be honest I’ll take cool and dry any day over the sh!tshow washout that has been spring 24.

I take triplets on a case by case basis, if I can I’ll leave them on the ewe, but it depends on a lot on her age and condition and the condition of the grass. This spring the weather has been so bloody awful that additional burden has been lessened and I haven’t left any on. Last year all but...

Exaclty, its the system that is wrong. You can't blame individuals for leaning into incentives, that's what they're there for after all. I don't like seeing a viable farm laid waste to willow and birch scrub, but if thats what the owners and wider society want, then so be it. Sense always...

It's well off the main road and hidden behind a steading so should be ok on that front.

I’m looking to throw up a basic sheep catch pen on a bit of outlying rented ground. Needs to be big enough to handle about 40ewes and 60-70 lambs. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, not needing a race or hard handling facilities or anything, just something to aid with loading/unloading and small...

I can see the merit in planting productive trees on upland ground - and indeed I have done it myself - but this notion of spending millions of pounds of often public money to fight away to establish what amounts to little more than a green fuzz does make me wonder. That said, nothing is...

Don’t know where you are, in Scotland you need prior notification... Unless of course you can demonstrate that the track already existed and you’re just upgrading existing infrastructure 😉

You really should do some more reading before you launch into a tirade about something you clearly know nothing about. I can’t really be bothered to deconstruct the utter rubbish you’ve written here but here goes anyway; 1) Our wood is not shyte. 50-60% of it goes to sawmills which in turn is...

I wouldn’t worry too much about what C4, BBC, et al say about anything. They’re all dead in the water, they just haven’t realised it yet.

It’s a different income profile certainly, it’s a 30-35 year return which is why it wouldn’t work for you at farm scale. But acre for acre on marginal land, a timber crop will definitely pay more. You just have to wait for them. I do accept that commercial forestry inherently suits larger...

Nobody’s asking you to. Setting aside the national security reasons (we as individuals should not care a jot about - that’s the governments job), there are sound economic reasons to plant.

No probably not, but there are clear fells and clear fells. A 1 acre shelterbelt in the middle of a field is unlikely to yield particularly well and will be expensive to harvest and extract. I once had a client (farmer) moan to me that his recent clearfell hardly made a profit. The job was...

For the same reasons we need steel and food. Timber provides shelter, heat and energy.

As a forester i am passionately pro tree and pro commercial timber sector. It’s vital for our national defence as well as supporting tens of thousands of rural jobs. It also happens to turn a pretty decent, sustainable profit. As a farmer I recognise there is a balance to be struck. There is...

Usual highs and lows, just over half way with our Easycares, all outdoor. Just wish the weather would pick up, had 3” rain on Thursday night and a bloody gale yesterday. Had to intervene with a few more than usual this year, probably a function of just having more than we did, the mild winter...

A big part of the problem with the devolved parliaments is that the talent doesn’t stay, it moves to Westminster (I accept that argument is fairly weak atm). The true motivation for people entering politics is power and influence, not money. whichever way you cut it there’s more of that in the...

I sort of agree, and an instant slash and burn could result in throwing out the baby with the bath water. But my instinct to reduce the size of the state tells me that in principle, Argentina are on the right track. Time will tell. If it’s a success, I expect we may see other countries follow...