Red Fred
Member
- Location
- Hants/Dorset border
If we brought back Gyrotillers and grandad with his tins of Cymag, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in.
tff proper farmin group
- Thread starter spin cycle
- Start date
Pigken
Member
- Location
- Co. Durham
Sorry to go off topic on what is a very important thread.
But do buzzards kites etc actually eat carcasses, I ask as had ewe die in awkward place to get to with wheel barrow. So left few days thinking buzzards would soon deal with. Had to get wheel barrow and baler twine to remove after 4 days as only eyes had gone from carcass. Genuine curiosity and yes I do use wheel barrow.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I’ve often wondered if we left a few dead ones lying about would it actually do any real harm? The flies would clear them up if nothing else, and flies feed swallows and other birds. Also there would be no diesel burnt nor gas at the incinerator. Lower carbon footprint and maybe a bit of sequestration as well as recycling of nutrients. Holistic farming innit? Obviously wouldn’t work in intensive systems but maybe we get a grant for leaving fallen stock where they are on extensive grazing.
By keeping the place tidy we are actually destroying and breaking the natural food chain and depriving it of a very important source of feed and nutrient.
Nearly
Member
- Location
- North of York
The (think they're) great and the (think they're) good have never heard of a food chain and think a carbon (or nitrogen) cycle is something to take to work when the press are watching.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Hedges out. Ditches filled. Minor roads taken up. Large open village commons. Arable fields put into small strips. House pig for everyone. pee and shiyte in a pot for the "gong man".
Red Fred
Member
- Location
- Hants/Dorset border
I can't fault the local FS collectors, but it does seem daft taking a truck load of carcasses, that could have died from any number of causes, on a journey of a hundred miles or so around other stock farms, then driving them miles more to the incinerator. I think I was told once that a dead cow from here had to go to Plymouth 150 miles away.I’ve often wondered if we left a few dead ones lying about would it actually do any real harm? The flies would clear them up if nothing else, and flies feed swallows and other birds. Also there would be no diesel burnt nor gas at the incinerator. Lower carbon footprint and maybe a bit of sequestration as well as recycling of nutrients. Holistic farming innit? Obviously wouldn’t work in intensive systems but maybe we get a grant for leaving fallen stock where they are on extensive grazing.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
The problem is everything is viewed from a humanistic perspective. Oh that smells nasty or that looks “bad”. Well nature runs on stink and a certain amount of animal on animal brutality but they will never acknowledge that half of the system.
- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
I just think that there may be times when the plough is necessary (maybe potatoes is one of them), but these things must be followed by a soil building phase and regen ag and all of us sitting in our silos (only direct drilling, organic, plough and plant etc) is not the best way.
- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
absolute idiocy, I was told over the weekend, that a properly working compost pile will compost a dead cow in a matter of weeks. The inability to bury dead animals on the farm, is due to bureaucrats not realising the unintended consequences of their rules, and the refusal to listen to the advice those with a more practical bent.
Buggerallbandwidth
Member
so basically all you lot want is every very nasty chem back and be allowed to bury/leave out fallen stock
why not dinoseb, 2,4,5-T, Agent Orange ??? While you're at it ........
- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
I remember hearing about someone losing lambs at lambing, left a dead ewe in the field, and the foxes stopped taking the lambs.
Buggerallbandwidth
Member
Buggerallbandwidth
Member
Lot of sense in that actually. Alternative easier food source. And as already mentioned above, far better for the carbon footprint than transport and incineration.
primmiemoo
Member
- Location
- Devon
Lesser Black-backed Gulls will soon strip a carcass here if they do spot one. A d. sheep here must be covered up if there's no time to bring it to the collection point. Ideally brought in there and then, or it's setting up trouble for any sheep that gets stuck on their backs for decades to come. Young birds are taught all about getting their food by their parents ~ which don't care about whether the meal is alive or not. A small heifer died in an inaccessible spot years ago. It was a few days before a relative could bring his tractor with a winch and get it back for collection, and what was left was largely defleshed but still articulated bones, and the hide.
Magpies, carrion crows, and ravens had all feasted as well. I don't think Buzzards go for carrion, generally.
There are no kites locally, but I know they eat carrion. They kept the streets clean in medieval towns and cities.
primmiemoo
Member
- Location
- Devon
I’ve often wondered if we left a few dead ones lying about would it actually do any real harm? The flies would clear them up if nothing else, and flies feed swallows and other birds. Also there would be no diesel burnt nor gas at the incinerator. Lower carbon footprint and maybe a bit of sequestration as well as recycling of nutrients. Holistic farming innit? Obviously wouldn’t work in intensive systems but maybe we get a grant for leaving fallen stock where they are on extensive grazing.
There are implications around disease, and animal health ~ and educating vermin about potentially easy meals that won't be dead yet!
The insect life around the old dead pit was very varied before on farm burial was stopped. There's bound to have been biodiversity reduction since then, imo.
- Location
- Yorkshire coast
70's farming suits me, but with the addition of cab suspension..
Nick Adams
Member
- Location
- Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Fallen stock used to have a value. If regs were changed we could again use this valuable "green" resource. Hides, petmeat, meat and bone fertilizer etc.
I'm sure no till is best for a lot of farmers. For me however, using kit that's bought and paid for is the most cost affective solution on my small scale. I wouldn't dream of lobbying for a plough based system only just to suit me and f**k everyone else. This is kinda the whole issue with the other thread.
- Location
- East Sussex
- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
I think, if government wants practices that are better for soil biology to be adopted, there is space for the carrot of grants to encourage the equipment to do that.