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

Doc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Read an interesting article in Beef magazine on-line (about cow profitability indices) that cow herds with more than 200 cows only make up 3% of the National herd in the USA based on the 2017 census. Quite surprised by that. Always imagined big numbers on prairies.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Read an interesting article in Beef magazine on-line (about cow profitability indices) that cow herds with more than 200 cows only make up 3% of the National herd in the USA based on the 2017 census. Quite surprised by that. Always imagined big numbers on prairies.

From my understanding, cow calf operations are still small family affairs in the main.

It’s the feedlots where things get really big in terms of stock numbers.
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
Read an interesting article in Beef magazine on-line (about cow profitability indices) that cow herds with more than 200 cows only make up 3% of the National herd in the USA based on the 2017 census. Quite surprised by that. Always imagined big numbers on prairies.
There’s big guys with thousands here. Most hover between 100-200 I’d say. For a few years they might go up to 4 or 500 but tend to drop back down because of work load.

Numbers are brought down by people like me with 6 :ROFLMAO:

Lots of the arable guys keep 50 around because they’ve always had cattle.

Prairies don’t mean lots of cattle. The good land is mostly crop. The other land is anything from slough to dry land that can handle cows every 3 years.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Managing 30k or more head is all about the mob not the individual.

You have to manage time and resources ....

It’s a more ‘natural’ system enabling more natural selection pressure ....

less able to feck it up due to scale.
Been a long while since I have read a @Doc post and not clicked like, but..

.. wish I could give this post 2 likes (y)

That's the thing, people are the weakest link in almost all situations - often including how we "see", and how we interpret - and feeling the need to do something, instead of change what we can change.

Running 30 cattle in for a dose of something they shouldn't need is a feasible thing to do, as is:
or feeding 3 bales of hay per day
or dagging 30 sheep
or spreading 60 ton of lime on
or 30 tubs of minerals a year
or assisting 30 births

but at 1000x the scale you would have to be a special type of person to even consider those things, wouldn't you? :oops:

:)

So to a fair degree the mind is in charge of making a rod for your own back, (speaking as a part-timer)..
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Definitely, no shortage of extremely functional and prolific sheep, everywhere.

Your choice really depends on how well you can feed them over the year, in that respect you certainly have the diversity to be able to source the right genetics.

I have hill type sheep here, try to feed them consistently and they look after me - it really isn't rocket science despite the claims - it is what issues you see and how you address them, that is the problematic part, in my experience.... bandaids become recurring, often habitual expenditure

So your 'non run of the mill' breed of choice is not really limited, just buy from the right people for the right reasons, is my advice.

Steer clear of animals from a "better" (i.e. worse?) farm system than your own, as per my above posts re. selection pressure, as your taxpayer is still "flushing the ewes" if you catch my drift?
So what exactly are "hill" sheep Peteo_O do they have shorter legs on one side:scratchhead::D , and if so, what happens when they turn around :whistle:. And isn't it a rip off at the butchers if you buy the short legs of lamb:ROFLMAO:
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
A sheep that hasn't been wrecked by removal/alteration of selection pressure, I guess?
Not hard to bugger up the sheep job with continual intervention, old man used to source rams from "a big fat joker" with the comment "he would never catch a sheep to lamb one"

(Unless you want to buy yourself a fulltime job running a nursing home for sh!t sheep, which is fair enough)

However I would look at buying a ram from @Tim W regardless of his body shape as he gets it
 

graham99

Member
A sheep that hasn't been wrecked by removal/alteration of selection pressure, I guess?
Not hard to bugger up the sheep job with continual intervention, old man used to source rams from "a big fat joker" with the comment "he would never catch a sheep to lamb one"

(Unless you want to buy yourself a fulltime job running a nursing home for sh!t sheep, which is fair enough)

However I would look at buying a ram from @Tim W regardless of his body shape as he gets it
hit the nail on the head .
i used to have a saying cull the last two rows of cow and breed from the first two rows
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
A sheep that hasn't been wrecked by removal/alteration of selection pressure, I guess?
Not hard to bugger up the sheep job with continual intervention, old man used to source rams from "a big fat joker" with the comment "he would never catch a sheep to lamb one"

(Unless you want to buy yourself a fulltime job running a nursing home for sh!t sheep, which is fair enough)

However I would look at buying a ram from @Tim W regardless of his body shape as he gets it
and his shedders are sold as part of a sheep improvement group.

others are also good at it.

dont be too negative about the job.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
and his shedders are sold as part of a sheep improvement group.

others are also good at it.

dont be too negative about the job.
Not negative about the job, if people wish to create a need to work than that's their business, but if their well-intended toil is going to create me an ongoing task then I will certainly avoid their stock like the plague.

Once lamb returns to a more realistic value it will sort many of them out anyway!
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Not negative about the job, if people wish to create a need to work than that's their business, but if their well-intended toil is going to create me an ongoing task then I will certainly avoid their stock like the plague.

Once lamb returns to a more realistic value it will sort many of them out anyway!
i meant that you see too much wrong with the job.here.
i know a lot of long term committed, good sheepmen who will adapt to make a bit of money at the job (they mostly know not to expect huge money from sheep, as ever.)


they have changed over the years and will continue to do so even if at a much quicker pace.

the others well ..........farting around with lame etc sheep will be a thing of the past :unsure:
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
A sheep that hasn't been wrecked by removal/alteration of selection pressure, I guess?
Not hard to bugger up the sheep job with continual intervention, old man used to source rams from "a big fat joker" with the comment "he would never catch a sheep to lamb one"

(Unless you want to buy yourself a fulltime job running a nursing home for sh!t sheep, which is fair enough)

However I would look at buying a ram from @Tim W regardless of his body shape as he gets it

I suggested, to someone much involved in breeding tups to sell, that any sheep needing its feet tended needed shooting.
And that a man who bred rams from a sheep that needed its feet tending also needing shooting.

They looked at me a bit strange for some reason.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
they still do, one mentioned it the other day, this Country shouldve not joined , and instead focussed on the Common Wealth he said.
Possibly whoever was right in saying so?

Who could say now, the commonwealth certainly didn't hang around waiting forever to see.

Having a moan is cost effective but that is the limit of its effectiveness, I don't mind having my decision to adopt a very low-input system criticised by anyone, as my reasons are relevant - I can back up the "why".
I'm also not going to attempt to shift blame for my failures on Roger Douglas, Maggie Thatcher, my current weather, or tyrannosaurus rex... my failures are my own, as that's what I can learn from - I don't believe in "the best of 9 attempts" or someone kissing it better for me

I do feel close to sympathy for the slower learners, with delusions of adequacy, but they aren't British sheep farmers, they are everywhere and in every job - and can be trained to be adequate employees with a bit of patience.

My point is, some of them are training themselves to be just that. Adequate.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
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    Votes: 67 35.3%
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    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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