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

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tractor - yes. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate tractors . . .

Planting - unfortunately no. The falls of rain we have received have not done anything for the subsoil moisture, which is still bone dry ( & subsoil moisture, a "full" profile, is what we rely on to grow our crops, we grow on stored soil moisture rather than "hoping" it will rain on the crop ). No, the moisture is very shallow & has just germinated a lot of aggressive & "succession" weeds, which at this time of year use a lot of moisture & have little benefit . . .
Recent falls have just cost people a lot of money from controlling these "weeds", without presenting any planting opportunities or giving any hope of it . . .
This is a neighbours block that I lease & there is a serious issue with glyphosate resistant ryegrass ( have I mentioned I hate ryegrass ? ) It is shallow rooted & particularly aggressive at using moisture & causing issues with soil structure, seed soil contact & germination of following crops . . .
Anyway, I am running a Blade Plough through it, to take out the ryegrass with minimal disturbance of the soil surface. A Canadian machine that used to be popular here in the min till days before cheap glyphosate & full on zero till
The other option is big rates of paraquat, but I don't like doing that & this is cheaper ( although a lot slower )

View attachment 739100 View attachment 739104 View attachment 739106

Never seen one of those.

Looks a good tool to use in your environment.(y)
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Think I much prefer ryegrass to bindi's and paddy melons and all the other sh!t that grows......funny how different livestock to cropping farmers see ryegrass.......my dream is for a genetically modified ryegrass that you can spray barley grass out of. Now theres a price of a weed if ever I saw one:mad:
Barley grass :rolleyes: I am horribly intolerant to that sh!t.

:(
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
You haven't commented on my Auto Steer screen being held together with duct tape :)
I just saw beer and levers. Have gone back to look though that's a top bodge there (y)
But I don't really know what autosteer is :unsure: probably something that means you don't have to steer and make nice straight lines without staring at a fencepost the other side of the field :D
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
I just saw beer and levers. Have gone back to look though that's a top bodge there (y)
But I don't really know what autosteer is :unsure: probably something that means you don't have to steer and make nice straight lines without staring at a fencepost the other side of the field :D

Haha - if I had to steer the f**king things as well, I'd never get in the girls :)
This system is quite old ( 15 years ? ) & is in its second tractor. Cost me nearly $50,000 at the time, but I wouldn't be without it

Did I ever mention I hate driving tractors ? :)
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Talking on cheap oil for machinery... I remember reading a book about Calabria and it's olive oil production. Apparently the olives were so intense and rancid that their only use during second world war was for oiling the machinery, especially in the western world. There then became a big demand for it, but then there was a cheaper alternative found and suddenly that part of the country was denuded from income. Couldn't it be a matter of time before mankind developes a new oil, other than palm oil, and destroys another part of the world and it's wildlife? :(
Too late, the rainforest and wildlife has gone already
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
T
The BOM are predicting big rain here next Tuesday/Wednesday ( let's see how badly they f**k this up). So of course my neighbor who has asked me to rake and bale hay for him . Has decided to cut his lucerne today( no conditioner:rolleyes:) , even though he's away in WA:rolleyes:. I replied that he might want to check the forecast before he cuts all his shaftal......
Thats the harvest rain
Its taken 3 months to cross the hemisphere to you
 
The BOM are predicting big rain here next Tuesday/Wednesday ( let's see how badly they f**k this up). So of course my neighbor who has asked me to rake and bale hay for him . Has decided to cut his lucerne today( no conditioner:rolleyes:) , even though he's away in WA:rolleyes:. I replied that he might want to check the forecast before he cuts all his shaftal......

Rain would be nice if we were not starting to harvest tomorrow. We just got the header in the paddock to do a sample tomorrow.
I have a paddock of Shaftal which did not have enough bulk when we cut the rest. Spent a few thousand on $400 water and irrigated it again. The rain since then has kept it growing. Another good rain and it should cut some bulk. I already have 500 rolls of Shaftal and ryegrass hay, so I might have nough to sell. My corn for the neighbors dairy silage is up and going. Another rain next week will save an irrigation. I sold another truck load of corn stubble today and have another going tomorrow, so only another 70 bales to sell.
 

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Rain would be nice if we were not starting to harvest tomorrow. We just got the header in the paddock to do a sample tomorrow.
I have a paddock of Shaftal which did not have enough bulk when we cut the rest. Spent a few thousand on $400 water and irrigated it again. The rain since then has kept it growing. Another good rain and it should cut some bulk. I already have 500 rolls of Shaftal and ryegrass hay, so I might have nough to sell. My corn for the neighbors dairy silage is up and going. Another rain next week will save an irrigation. I sold another truck load of corn stubble today and have another going tomorrow, so only another 70 bales to sell.

When you say corn stubble I assume it is what we call straw?
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
Just seen this pic. Never seen that thing before! How handy!

5976730C-2E19-495E-8DDB-60F9CDC5633D.jpeg
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    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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