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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Well, PD session today, and annoying, I achieved a 96% in calf rate.

I'm moving farm and ideally need to reduce numbers... Looks like I will be selling some fresh calved cows in May.

Seems wrong to complain about a good I/C rate, normally I'm quite proud of mine!
Bloody good stuff, that type of empty rate doesn't happen by accident
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Well I had a day to remember.

3 boys off school and so were with me. Went to the field at the back of the yard to try which drill would be best for present conditions.

anyway the field is split with a three strand electric line of poles.so we have a track down the middle under the poles which effectively splits the field in half. I was on one drill with my 7 year old, my father was on the other drill other my 13 year old and my 10 year old was sitting in my truck between the fields (under the electric).

well builder in the yard had a 20 tonne 360 pulling an old barn down and levelling when he caught the wires. Sending them flying. 8 poles down and the two wires either side come off the poles and fall either side of my pickup with my 10 year old inside. Sparking and banging.

luckily I had the number in the cab for electric emergency number is 105 (save it in your phone) rang them and they said keep him on the cab and they will be here shortly. Within 15 mins some one was here but it took 2.5hours before it was safe to get him out. Luckily his guardian angel was looking over him andnobody got hurt. But Jesus could have been sh!t.
Firstly. Very very lucky. And good on you and your young lad for keeping calm.
As for your power company......that is just f**king ridiculous. Taking that long to make it safe when theres a small child involved who could panic at any moment..... I have been around our local linesmen when they are doing work here. Many a time I hear them ringing the local controller and getting the power either switched off or on (I do realise this is for an "area" and not an individual farm). I would have thought this was an emergency case that warranted such action even if it inconvenienced a few customers for 30 minutes......
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
N
Firstly. Very very lucky. And good on you and your young lad for keeping calm.
As for your power company......that is just f**king ridiculous. Taking that long to make it safe when theres a small child involved who could panic at any moment..... I have been around our local linesmen when they are doing work here. Many a time I hear them ringing the local controller and getting the power either switched off or on (I do realise this is for an "area" and not an individual farm). I would have thought this was an emergency case that warranted such action even if it inconvenienced a few customers for 30 minutes......

Well they had to do something at either transformer either side of the break and then they had to make double sure with earthing either side. But yer It did seem a lifetime, luckily Jack my boy was quite happy sitting there being center of attention!! His mum wasn’t quite so calm.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
But, it's essential! :facepalm:

Even more essential if you cannot control your other business costs sufficiently, and need to liquidate your natural capital to pay the bills.

Wormers are essential to livestock farming if you don't graze your stock properly, lots of things can be essential, in this respect.

Farmers are essential if you don't grow your own food supply.
Sheep are essential if you knit your own woollen clothing.

That's what I meant by "a clusterfuçk" - everyone thinks they are doing something essential [for the greater good/feeding the world] but the reality is different.
We aren't.

Governments aren't essential, but in the absence of everyone adopting a holistic decisionmaking framework, they are essential.
There's the rub.
Are you sure that was coffee you were drinking?
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
They must be farming on some bloody strange soils, my place is sandy and dries up quick (by dries up I mean stops being mud) but nothing like short of water yet.
The fact is even though the world has turned to sh!t we have been having the most wonderful weather you could wish for. Glorious sunny days, which is part of the reason folk weren’t abiding by the lockdown rules. Who would want to be cooped up in this weather
This is what we had 7 years ago and I apologise to the guys from N Wales for reminding them. Glad to be alive and counting my blessings as always. :)
166A0CA5-8149-42C0-A8FD-A31BC30036AC.png
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
Just spotted a typical BBC article titled “Isolating with my homophobic parents” Having to stay indoors with parents that don’t accept my sexuality.
FFS!
I am neither homophobic or unsympathetic but why the BBC has to constantly focus on such things baffles me.

Ah well, it is light enough to go out and play now. :)

Yes I saw that and thought poor parents having to stay cooped up with a little self righteous snowflake.
 

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
They must be farming on some bloody strange soils, my place is sandy and dries up quick (by dries up I mean stops being mud) but nothing like short of water yet.
The fact is even though the world has turned to sh!t we have been having the most wonderful weather you could wish for. Glorious sunny days, which is part of the reason folk weren’t abiding by the lockdown rules. Who would want to be cooped up in this weather
This is what we had 7 years ago and I apologise to the guys from N Wales for reminding them. Glad to be alive and counting my blessings as always. :)
View attachment 866033
Yes.....it was a fricking nightmare. :eek:
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
They must be farming on some bloody strange soils, my place is sandy and dries up quick (by dries up I mean stops being mud) but nothing like short of water yet.
The fact is even though the world has turned to sh!t we have been having the most wonderful weather you could wish for. Glorious sunny days, which is part of the reason folk weren’t abiding by the lockdown rules. Who would want to be cooped up in this weather
This is what we had 7 years ago and I apologise to the guys from N Wales for reminding them. Glad to be alive and counting my blessings as always. :)
View attachment 866033
22/3/13 is a date I'll never forget. It came from nowhere was only forecast on the 10pm news the day before anf we had 6 foot of snow outside our front door overnight and all my ewes and lambs outside getting buried in it as we had almost finished lambing then apart from the shearlings and ewe lambs. We still had drifts that hadn't melted in mid may they were so deep. Lost a third of my lambs at least I don't want to know how many it was and probably 10% of my ewes. Didn't get my spring barley in till June. I weighed less than 9 stone and made myself ill after it was all over I'd worked so hard trying to dig ewes and lambs out and carrying feed to them. Utter miserable hell of a spring. Hope it never happens again.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.7%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 64 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.2%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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

  • 1,287
  • 1
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/
Top