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

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Whose were they? Do you remember where exactly? (Can't be far from us.)

Just googled Compton manor. Not far away. Lovely countryside round there. Shame about all the people. (Noticeably more than 20 or 30.years ago...)

cant remember the name

now that i think about it, i worked on 2 outdoor piggeries through winters

one was near Hungerford for the "Pig Improvement Co"
Wiltshire - im struggling . . . it was a mixed farm with arable. They were tennants, nearly went broke, dad had a nervous breakdown & the son came home from college / uni to run the place. He seemed to be having some success, but they were under a lot of stress. The names just wont come . . . I was at Compton Manor for 3 years, it was before then, so maybe 1988 ?
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Whose were they? Do you remember where exactly? (Can't be far from us.)

Just googled Compton manor. Not far away. Lovely countryside round there. Shame about all the people. (Noticeably more than 20 or 30.years ago...)

the main thing i remember about Wiltshire was the ridiculous ( so it seemed to me ) working hours. It was winter, so short daylight hours. We started at 4.30 or 5.30 ?, then had a hour "breakfast" break at about 7, then morning tea, then lunch, then afternoon tea & finished at about 6 or 7 ?
It was fu`cked - we were only actually working ( & getting paid for ) a 10 hour day, but the working day was about 14 hours long & we were starting & finishing in the dark, with very little "free" time at the end of the day. F`uck that. Id rather just work 10 hours straight without a break without all these bloody meal breaks . . .
I was sharing a cottage with a young English fella who worked on the arable side. I do remember drinking a whole bottle of gin ( straight ) one night & waking up about 2.00am lying on the concrete floor in the toilet, curled around the bowl, while he was standing over me having a p1iss. The next day wasnt good . . .
 
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cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Friends 50th. She asked me to knock a few things up for her
20201028_183530.jpg
20201028_183753.jpg
 

bitwrx

Member
the main thing i remember about Wiltshire was the ridiculous ( so it seemed to me ) working hours. It was winter, so short daylight hours. We started at 4.30 or 5.30 ?, then had a hour "breakfast" break at about 7, then morning tea, then lunch, then afternoon tea & finished at about 6 or 7 ?
It was fu`cked - we were only actually working ( & getting paid for ) a 10 hour day, but the working day was about 14 hours long & we were starting & finishing in the dark, with very little "free" time at the end of the day. F`uck that. Id rather just work 10 hours straight without a break without all these bloody meal breaks . . .
I was sharing a cottage with a young English fella who worked on the arable side. I do remember drinking a whole bottle of gin ( straight ) one night & waking up about 2.00am lying on the concrete floor in the toilet, curled around the bowl, while he was standing over me having a p1iss. The next day wasnt good . . .
Outdoor pigs in winter is effing hard work, but those working hours sound silly. We're strictly 0700 till max 1700 here (unless something has gone badly wrong!).

The PIC unit may well have been where our first breeding animals came from. I think we got into pigs around '88/'89 ish with PIC Camborough Blues. Unfortunately PIC have stopped supplying products that we want at the moment (i.e. live animals), so we've moved away from their genetics over the past few years. Shame, as they are a global success story, with fairly local roots, whose products have done us very well over the years. (Sounds odd referring to animals as 'products', but that is what they are marketed as...)

Will see if I can find out a few names of pig farmers round here from the time. A fair few have been into it over the years, and the old man remembers most of them I expect. The only tenant farmer who has pigs and arable that I personally know of in Wilts is up near Devizes which is north of us.

Loved the photies in general though. Makes me wish I'd taken more phots of the time I spent working away. Have plenty from NZ, but nothing really from round here. (Had a load of funnies from nuclear power stations over the years as well, but they are all on my old employer's file server somewhere, no doubt never to be seen again.)
 
Going to Danistan shortly myself....

I have been to Danistan 5 times since they became infected.
I have always had my permit, but the first 3 times they did not want to see my ID.
I know other people have even been told off by cops for their kids not having student ID with photos.
I actually questioned the cops the last two times about photo ID after I was asked and they said we needed photo ID as well as the permit.
I have a mate who needs to collect a ram from Victoria, but he has never changed his lisence over from Victoria to NSW. I suggested we take my canoe and on the way back I drop him off upstream and he paddles across.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
That rain needs to stop now
Looks a good crop
will be planting grain sorghum into the fallow country now & this rain has gotten me confident about double cropping mung beans behind the wheat.
at this stage, the rain is still hugely beneficial for the chickies, but yes, it wont be long before the wheat / durum starts to suffer - especially as im aiming for high quality milling / semolina markets, not feed grain
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
will be planting grain sorghum into the fallow country now & this rain has gotten me confident about double cropping mung beans behind the wheat.
at this stage, the rain is still hugely beneficial for the chickies, but yes, it wont be long before the wheat / durum starts to suffer - especially as im aiming for high quality milling / semolina markets, not feed grain
On the subject of the end user of cereals it amuses/annoys me in equal measure that militant vegan activists completely fail to understand that the animal feed market is a critical backup option for cereals when circumstances conspire against the grower and the quality just isn't there for human use. What would become of low quality grain if there was no feed market?

It suits their ideological position to ignore the complexity of the grain trade and simply treat all cereal production as plant based human food.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% Iā€™ve had enough of farming!

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

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As reported in Independent


quote: ā€œRed Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in Aprilā€œ

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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