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

[Kiwi Pete]

You know I can't like that Pete and yes it was electrikkery in the dairy.

How old is the dairy - I found everything went bang in its 6th season, it was both uncanny and unpleasant simultaneously.

 

[Deerefarmer]

Thanks @hendrebc ,that all makes sense
So it's a wildlife issue really

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Took the tub and fed a bit of hay out to Slippery Ridge, loving a bit of extra fibre in the diet they are, their grass is like spring 2.0 and I want to get the round out

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

How old is the dairy - I found everything went bang in its 6th season, it was both uncanny and unpleasant simultaneously.

Yeah a bit more than that now transformer that controls the floats for milk pumps keeps failing. Then it floods. Told electrician to leave the big arse one on it this time . So he's going to get a weather proof case for it as it won't fit in the milk pump control box.

 

[hendrebc]

Thanks @hendrebc ,that all makes sense
So it's a wildlife issue really

Yes. The cattle keep xatching tb from the wildlife so it doesnt matter how many cattle are culled with it when they just get turned back out to pick it up off the ground from the badgers. Badgers have been protected for a long time now so we cant cull any of the infected ones. They can get it from deer and foxes as well but their numbers are controlled the badgers have been allowed to get out of hand and in some areas the tb is rife in them.
Some areas have been allowed to cull badgers in the worsr tb areas and the farms are going clear after sometimes decades of tb in their cattle. Its working but the badger lovers dont like it one bit and trying to stop the badger cull has become a vote winner for some politicians so its a political problem as much as a wildlife one. Cattle are being culled in huge numbers the whole time but no one seems to care about that l

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Yes. The cattle keep xatching tb from the wildlife so it doesnt matter how many cattle are culled with it when they just get turned back out to pick it up off the ground from the badgers. Badgers have been protected for a long time now so we cant cull any of the infected ones. They can get it from deer and foxes as well but their numbers are controlled the badgers have been allowed to get out of hand and in some areas the tb is rife in them.
Some areas have been allowed to cull badgers in the worsr tb areas and the farms are going clear after sometimes decades of tb in their cattle. Its working but the badger lovers dont like it one bit and trying to stop the badger cull has become a vote winner for some politicians so its a political problem as much as a wildlife one. Cattle are being culled in huge numbers the whole time but no one seems to care about that l

Accurate summary but I can't "like" the message

 

[Deerefarmer]

you do have a problem then.....
But on a brighter note , doesn't all the culling keep cattle price up?

 

[Crofter64]

Didn't take long for a bit of a thaw to happen! Wow.

Likewise, it didn't take long for summer to disappear from here, fed out a bale of hay to the cattle this morning.. ride on the fire truck this afternoon..View attachment 662386View attachment 662388 Both occurences due to rainfall, the car we were called to got a little close to the edge of the road and it gave way... happily they managed to escape without us having to cut them out, it would have been a mission to get down there with cutting gear.

Hey Pete,
Aren’t you supposed to be resting as much as possible?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Hey Pete,
Aren’t you supposed to be resting as much as possible?

I guess so... have just started on Nightshift which is going to take some adjustment 4.30pm til 1.30am
Starting to feel a lot better now, been a horrible flu, it will certainly help remind me never to refer to a cold as "the flu"

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Having a catchup on The Prejudice Network - anyone know why it is indefinitely worse to feed cattle HGP than finishing them on cereals that may have had 10 passes with the sprayer?

Care to enlighten us?

I hear calls for food labelling, agree with the country of origin part 100%, but why do farmers think they hold "the moral high ground" simply because some things are banned in their country is beyond me

 

[Kiwi Pete]

you do have a problem then.....
But on a brighter note , doesn't all the culling keep cattle price up?

It would be poor form for me to comment on what really makes food "expensive" but you will probably know me well enough by now to sense what I would say to that.






Farmers

 

[CornishTone]

Having a catchup on The Prejudice Network - anyone know why it is indefinitely worse to feed cattle HGP than finishing them on cereals that may have had 10 passes with the sprayer?

Care to enlighten us? [emoji50]

I hear calls for food labelling, agree with the country of origin part 100%, but why do farmers think they hold "the moral high ground" simply because some things are banned in their country is beyond me

10 passes?!?!?! Let’s try not be melodramatic. Most growing crops in the UK will have 4 passes and a pre-em.

What’s HGP?

I do agree on labelling though! I think it needs to be clearer across the board about country of origin and certainly if the US are going to be allowed to import their produce to the UK unrestricted, then the customer needs to have the information to decide for themselves.

Several countries seem to believe their farmers produce the “best food in the world!” America, Australia, and, according to the endless Facebook posts I receive, the UK. They can’t all be right but they certainly have the right to bang their own drum and work to protect their market the same as anyone else.

But the key is, or will be, clear labelling and consumer choice!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Milling wheat may "need" 12 passes or more judging by the thread "so many passes" - I was astounded tbh - some passes for N and manganese/trace elements of course.



What happens to rejected milling wheat?

You cut straight to the point, of course, "clear labelling" and consumer preference - my point is that if said labelling disclosed that glyphosate had been used in the ingredients of their beef..... be aware of prejudice in its many shapes

 

[Deerefarmer]

It would be poor form for me to comment on what really makes food "expensive" but you will probably know me well enough by now to sense what I would say to that.






Farmers

Yeah, I get it,
Sometimes it does seem like farmers are their own worst enemy ....

 

[CornishTone]

So their putting their fert out through the sprayer? So that accounts for a few passes but could just as easily be with a spinner. Makes sense to reduce the number of machines on farm where possible.

Rejected milling wheat? I’d imagine it ends up in bread the same as everything else, or biscuits, or something else the miller can flog, they just cut the price to the grower![emoji6]

 

[CornishTone]

You cut straight to the point, of course, "clear labelling" and consumer preference - my point is that if said labelling disclosed that glyphosate had been used in the ingredients of their beef..... be aware of prejudice in its many shapes

This is the problem isn’t it?! 3500 studies have shown glyphosate to be safe, 1 study shows that there is a teeny tiny possibility that there is a chance that it might be vaguely linked to cancer and everyone looses their minds! Smoking in 100% linked to cancer but that is still legal. Go figure?!

Of course they could just remove crop desiccation from the label and the problem is solved, but those with a vested interest would leap on it as an admission that there is a problem. This then potentially leads to the wholesale removal of Glyphosate which will cause more harm than good as we all know!

So your suggesting, by providing clear and concise labelling we’re potentially feeding ill-informed prejudices because the public, well meaning though they may be, are more likely to take notice of the 1 dubious headline than the 3500 well executed studies, because ultimately...

 

[Kiwi Pete]

This is true. It all smacks of propaganda..
..then, can you link me to a study that demonstrates that glyphosate does not adversely affect arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi?
Fungi also ustiluses the shikimic acid pathway in order to feed itself - and is of huge importance to food production - that is my prejudice against using it for convenience (and it would be convenient)

I don't care nearly as much about the potential impacts on me, as the impact on the world my kids kids will inherit, which is why I question the rationale behind the promotion/disgust - it really is "toolbox wars" - whether the tools are roundup or GM or HGP.

 

[CornishTone]

The GRDC have just completed a study here designed to investigate the effect of various herbicides (including glyphosate) on soil biota. They concluded that, when used at label rates, the herbicides tested had negligible to zero impact on soil biota.

It all comes down to how you use these things. They are tools and need to be used correctly. I believe Glyphosate really does have an important role to play in modern agriculture.

 

[CornishTone]

My biggest worry is that much of the objection to Glyphosate is simply a populist objection to Monsanto, who probably produce relatively little glyphosate now, compared to China.

And with Bayer buying Monsanto anyway, what’s to object to? Should we be objecting to the sheer size of Bayer now? Or any of the chem companies for that matter. With the mergers and acquisitions going on at the moment, we are left with only a handful of mind bogglingly huge companies involved in plant breeding, Ag chem, industrial chem, domestic chem and medicine. There’s an awefull lot of power in the hands of an ever decreasing number of companies!

Or perhaps I’m playing into the hands of the conspiracy theorists?!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The GRDC have just completed a study here designed to investigate the effect of various herbicides (including glyphosate) on soil biota. They concluded that, when used at label rates, the herbicides tested had negligible to zero impact on soil biota.

It all comes down to how you use these things. They are tools and need to be used correctly. I believe Glyphosate really does have an important role to play in modern agriculture.

So do I.... but my values involve impacting the soil biota in a postive way, both in terms of encouraging diversity but also numbers - still quietly sceptical of the "correct label useage" being as benign as studies show - maybe this is my entry into "conspiracy theorem 101"?

I believe that much of the current blinkering also has dramatic impact on environmental impact, there is absolutely no doubt that frequent tillage is considerably more detrimental than frequent pesticide use, yet the perception remains that "organic" is somehow better, and that using GM tech or growth hormones is terrible - how much is emotional and how much is factual, or rational?

....we are left with only a handful of mind bogglingly huge companies involved in plant breeding, Ag chem, industrial chem, domestic chem and medicine. There’s an awful lot of power in the hands of an ever decreasing number of companies!

Or perhaps I’m playing into the hands of the conspiracy theorists?!

Without any doubt in my mind, "farmers" are basically enslaved in many countries, much of it is their own doing but conversely much of it is encouraged as well, some of it is obviously governmental benefit, much of it benefits corporate profit, fuel companies, manufacturers, everyone seems to benefit to a greater extent than farmers do. It is our lack of diversity that is limiting.

Great to be a rancher, by and large we avoid most of the negatives