f**k Up Fortnight

Kingcustard

Member
You beat me too it ! Look at the feckin grass . Mind you , he’s in Fife. I expect the ewes lie in the shade of the palm trees 🌴 when it’s too hot !!😂
Haha a common misconception is that Fife is all good rolling grade 1 arable. The second picture is on a field that looks on to the Old Course at St Andrews a few miles away, beautiful grassy place in the summer, come November it is not possible to go over it with anything other than a tractor, deep clay heavy soil. I can actually get stuck in the Landy going down hill it gets so wet. It becomes a barren wasteland.

The rest of it is rushes and Meadows that flood frequently.

It's actually called the heelands (Highlands for the English listeners) of Fife, that surely says it all.

That particular field is called the Goats Hole because a neighbours goat broke out many moons ago and after an argument grandad sent dad to shoot it and bury it in the old coal minings.

I love where field names come from.

Anyway I can see plenty rich farmers from here, but unfortunately I am not one of them.

The other farm runs to 1000 feet and is a mix of rock heads and wet holes.
 

Kingcustard

Member
Does anyone know if you can use the stuff that dairys use to dry off cows and stop them milking.

Have a ewe that had a single and it only sooked one side, the other side got massive and now she is lying dead with a black udder.

Was wondering if you can put a tube of the stuff up one teat and it will dry that side off without effecting the milk on the other side.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Had lambs hung at lambing, tongues pecked as the Hogg lays pushing... got 1 field that's always been bad as the barstewards nest in the trees up 1 side.

Never normally get any bother - unless a ewe is coupied for a while (don't get too many coupied these days). For all the lamb wasn't obviously ill, it must've been ill for it to just take a pecking

Poor bugger was in some pain. No suffering now, only reason I keep my rifle.

I found a 6 week old lamb just the same a few days ago. He was already dead and had been fine the day before. Pecked through in the same place though, which I thought unusual.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Does anyone know if you can use the stuff that dairys use to dry off cows and stop them milking.

Have a ewe that had a single and it only sooked one side, the other side got massive and now she is lying dead with a black udder.

Was wondering if you can put a tube of the stuff up one teat and it will dry that side off without effecting the milk on the other side.
If they've been turned out, and we can catch them, such ewes are generally milked to relieve the unused quarter, and then they tend to dry themselves off. We've never used cow tubes for drying off ~ and don't use tubes for mastitis unless absolutely necessary, neither.
 

Kingcustard

Member
If they've been turned out, and we can catch them, such ewes are generally milked to relieve the unused quarter, and then they tend to dry themselves off. We've never used cow tubes for drying off ~ and don't use tubes for mastitis unless absolutely necessary, neither.
I was milking her out and feeding 5 pets off her but she had to go eventually
 

Kingcustard

Member
…and ground that grows such good arable crops that they won’t let you have any for growing swedes? ;)
You pay very good attention @neilo , no sheep allowed near the arable, or the cattle fields, the joys of being the youngest of 3 brothers.

We are currently spraying ragwart in cattle fields, who does that when you have sheep that could take it out for free.

Arable is very light soils, luckily 1000s of tonnes of dung a year helps but very much 2 tonne of barley and 3 tonne of wheat in a good year.

It was all in rotation when dad was at the helm but now the sheep are punted to the shite ground.

You know more about me than I do though Neil, for the million pound question, what kind of sheep trailer do I have????
 
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S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Does anyone know if you can use the stuff that dairys use to dry off cows and stop them milking.

Have a ewe that had a single and it only sooked one side, the other side got massive and now she is lying dead with a black udder.

Was wondering if you can put a tube of the stuff up one teat and it will dry that side off without effecting the milk on the other side.
I have heard putting some iodine in a syringe will dry it up pretty quick. Never heard it done with a ewe though, only cattle.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
You pay very good attention @neilo , no sheep allowed near the arable, or the cattle fields, the joys of being the youngest of 3 brothers.

We are currently spraying ragwart in cattle fields, who does that when you have sheep that could take it out for free.

Arable is very light soils, luckily 1000s of tonnes of dung a year helps but very much 2 tonne of barley and 3 tonne of wheat in a good year.

It was all in rotation when dad was at the helm but now the sheep are punted to the shite ground.

You know more about me than I do though Neil, for the million pound question, what kind of sheep trailer do I have????

That would drive me insane.
 

Bill dog

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scottish Borders
@Kingcustard , couldn’t you kick both your brothers square in the knackers to knock some sense into them, then use the ewes to graze off the ragwort. Very environmentally friendly, much better than nasty chemicals!
And are you sure @easyrams didn’t sell you a dark headed sufftex?
That’s what my sufftex lambs look like, all colours. Surely a Suffolk would have dark heads only ? Good lambs either way!👍
 

Kingcustard

Member
@Kingcustard , couldn’t you kick both your brothers square in the knackers to knock some sense into them, then use the ewes to graze off the ragwort. Very environmentally friendly, much better than nasty chemicals!
And are you sure @easyrams didn’t sell you a dark headed sufftex?
That’s what my sufftex lambs look like, all colours. Surely a Suffolk would have dark heads only ? Good lambs either way!👍
Ragwart spray doesn't even work as you never get it all and 2 years later it's back again
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
You pay very good attention @neilo , no sheep allowed near the arable, or the cattle fields, the joys of being the youngest of 3 brothers.

We are currently spraying ragwart in cattle fields, who does that when you have sheep that could take it out for free.

Arable is very light soils, luckily 1000s of tonnes of dung a year helps but very much 2 tonne of barley and 3 tonne of wheat in a good year.

It was all in rotation when dad was at the helm but now the sheep are punted to the shite ground.

You know more about me than I do though Neil, for the million pound question, what kind of sheep trailer do I have????

FFS, light soils like that would both be ideal for wintering sheep cheaply on roots, but would also add so much heart to the soil for the following crop(s). Do you all farm separately on the same patch, or as a partnership for the general good of the business?

Does it have a hydraulic deck?;)
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
FFS, light soils like that would both be ideal for wintering sheep cheaply on roots, but would also add so much heart to the soil for the following crop(s). Do you all farm separately on the same patch, or as a partnership for the general good of the business?

Does it have a hydraulic deck?;)

Reading between the lines, it's as a partnership for the benefit of the other 2! 🤦🏻‍♂️
 

Kingcustard

Member
Reading between the lines, it's as a partnership for the benefit of the other 2! 🤦🏻‍♂️
Just a partnership, it's not that bad, just frustrating when you see things like sprays for ragwart when the sheep could do it for free.

We did stubble turnips one year and it was a wet winter and the cows made a mess of the field which was steep and so it had to be ploughed one way and let's just say the man in the plough was not best pleased haha.
 
Woohoo 🤸🤸🤸last lamb this morning. A fitting end to F* uckup Fortnight Part 2 🙄 big single hung, leg back, OH finished lambing literally on his knees.
Time to wash the lambing bag and finish scraping out the sheds.
Asta la vista til next year 😍 until we all meet again for FUF 2023!
Trouble is there's a lot more fortnight's between now and 2023 for plenty of f**ck ups😭😭😭😭
 

Guleesh

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Isle of Skye
Final check last night around 10pm, my son and I wandered round the few left to lamb and find a ewe lambing that I didn't like the look of, so caught her, and could just feel some little feet kicking quite far back so just left her as waterbag was just emerging. Back to the house for a cup of tea. Went back out nearer midnight hoping to see she'd lambed, but no, so caught her again- raining hard by now of course. Two back feet and one front foot. Ah, she was scanned for single but it must be twins I thought, so tried to push the front leg back so I could take the nearer, backward lamb out first. I had great difficulty getting that front leg back out of the way but eventually managed to tuck it back far enough and proceeded to pull the backward lamb. What a pull for a tiny lamb. I kept stopping as I thought the other lambs leg was back, blocking the passage, but eventually I had to commit so after after a big twisting pull it came away. Turns out it wasn't two lambs coming together but the front and back legs of the same lamb, spine was seized solid in an L shape, and guts all hanging outside as his belly not closed up. The poor sod was born still living.
DSC_0664.JPG

Lamb was small so checked the ewe for another and pulled a healthy twin out, put it under her nose, she started licking so we backed away. Well past midnight by now and after a quick lick of the lamb she jumps up and wanders off, fine, we'll walk her down to the pens, but no, instead she legs it straight through the electric fence....

Why do all the worst problems start at dusk? Just two nights previously I was out after midnight in torrential rain putting a uterine prolapse back in.

Getting a bit knackered now, done a lot more night time and early morning checks than usual but it's been worth it as I've saved a lot of big hung lambs this year, the spring was actually really good for a change and the lambs were big. I shouldn't complain too much really, it's been a good lambing on the whole.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

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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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