World market are we kidding ourselves???

[lloyd]

I like the frozen fodder beet im stealing that one
Housing dairy cattle all year is crazy. Next door to me are pretty tyical of an intensive dairy. 200+ cows in all year all feed carried in and all muck carried out. 3 new tractors one new telehandler lots of expensive machinery clocking massive hours every year as well as lots of contractors for silaging 3 times a year and imbilical slurry several times a year. They didnt gonout before but now they are milked with robots its not even an option anymore. They cant find any help because the system is too complicated. One of them either the farmer or his wife or son have to be there 24/7 waiting for something to go wrong. They often complain the milk price isnt high enough to fund their expansion and shed building and conctrete addiction. They need so much silage fround now even some youngstock doesnt go out to graze in summer. One lambing time i was walking round my lambing ewes watching them planting their barley across the road from were i was. They had at least £150,000 worth of machinery in one field. I had a crook and some string for tying legs if i needed to go get a trailer to bring one in. A pocket full of rings and a plier to put them on the lambs tails and a marker spray. Total cost £50 maybe if i had to buy it all again? And a quad and trailer stood in the yard worth £5000 maybe. And they wonder why milking is hard work. I can see it all falling down around them one day

Unfortunately you wouldn't have a quad and a trailer stood in the yard around here for long.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Unfortunately you wouldn't have a quad and a trailer stood in the yard around here for long.

Walkies?

 

[hendrebc]

They have had a couple of qyads stilen next door maybe thats why they decided intensive dairy was a good idea
My dogs wouldnt let anyone take mine its their bast friend!

 

[lloyd]

Walkies?

I haven't got one (All part of the carbon neutral season ) of course!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I have one, it is full of spiders though.
I have to clear the cobwebs out of it with a paintbrush if I want to use it.
Mostly Shanks pony here in summer.

@hendrebc was talking tractor hours, so I had a look through the invoice book and service sheets as a matter of interest.

Last oil change in the tractor was 2 years ago, 7725 hrs, the day I brought it here but before takeover date.
8022.5 now, or just under the 300 mark

161 hours charged out for contracting work in the receipts, mostly either on the next door dairy or close by at my other mate's farm.
About 45 hours per winter plus I've mowed with it and used the front end loader a bit, and carted in my bales, subsoiled 2 paddocks and 12 hours in my pea paddock.

Silage crew did around 10 drum hours chopping and 11 hours with two trucks, 12 hours with a 20 tonne excavator.

Can-am has done 435 km in 18 months.

Most is done on a two wheeler down here in the Mediterranean

In the same rough timeframe the neighbour's JD has done 1700 hours.
It answers to Oh Deer or President Juncker

 

[Farmer Roy]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

 

[lloyd]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

You'll be waiting along time then.
I do everything by Nepalese Yaks

 

[Bury the Trash]

coach load of ploughing farmers on their annual beano..will .cause far less c02 problem than a group of no tillers flying of abroad on a study tour...

short haul going skiing almost as bad as well

will be too snobby to use the greyhound tho i guess.............

 

[Bury the Trash]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

small fields push it up around here ......hedgeculture .....


Horses for courses matey

 

[hendrebc]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

I do pribably 3 to 4 hours thats pretty generous but im sheep and a bit of beef cows. Will be a bit less this year with some cows still out. Hopefully bring it down more too. At a very rough guess knowing my neighbours well and they are open about what hours their tracotrs do (and cant understand how mine do so little) my intensive dairy neighbours are.probably doing well over 10 hours an acre maybe up to 15 or even 20. I wouldnt know anything about arable farms @Clive might be able to shed some light on it. Sorry to drag you into this god awful thread clive

 

[Bury the Trash]

bit rich,that message coming from that part of the world with all its waste and indulgence.

 

[Henarar]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

150 acres
8 tractors
probably up around 1000 hours per year
4 hp per acre

 

[hendrebc]

150 acres
8 tractors
probably up around 1000 hours per year
4 hp per acre

8 tractors?!

 

[Henarar]

8 tractors?!

well 9 if you count my old allis B but that don't run, its my do up tractor for when I retire
also got a trike a mule and a trooper
a digger and two slews

I take it by the question mark you don't think this is enough ?

 

[hendrebc]

well 9 if you count my old allis B but that don't run, its my do up tractor for when I retire
also got a trike a mule and a trooper
a digger and two slews

I take it by the question mark you don't think this is enough ?

Depends on how much you like tractors im not a massive tractor fan so 3 is enough for me
I have a friend who has similar acreage to youand has 10 tractors and a jcb so he doesnt have to keep hooking up maxhinery at hay making time. And 2 landrovers and 2 quads. He really likes tractors though so why not

 

[Henarar]

Depends on how much you like tractors im not a massive tractor fan so 3 is enough for me
I have a friend who has similar acreage to youand has 10 tractors and a jcb so he doesnt have to keep hooking up maxhinery at hay making time. And 2 landrovers and 2 quads. He really likes tractors though so why not

chap I know about the same size farm has over 30,
it a bit of a pointless point though because one new hundred and fifty hp vent would be more money than all that I have listed above are worth it would also lose more in a year

 

[hendrebc]

chap I know about the same size farm has over 30,
it a bit of a pointless point though because one new hundred and fifty hp vent would be more money than all that I have listed above are worth it would also lose more in a year

Yes it is that was my friends argument too. Hed rather run so many old tractors and always have something working than rely on one tractor that can still break diwn and leave you stuck in the snow with no way of getting food to anything. My old ford isnt ever going anywere its worth so little as money its worth more as a backup loader tractor and spare for a hundred other things. The case with the loader will pribably stay here forever as well for the same reason.

 

[Pasty]

View attachment 611724 bit rich,that message coming from that part of the world with all its waste and indulgence.

My sister in law gave her a massage once. Apparently she is a very nice person.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I'm still waiting for some UK hours / acre

2 tractors (1999 and 1987), 2 diggers (1988 and 1990) and Honda 3 wheeler on 188 acres. Tractors total around 350 hours/year and diggers 200 but nearly half of each is off farm (main tractor does 100 hour/year on Dads farm and JCB does various odd off farm contract jobs).

I'm a hobby farmer really who no longer has a non-hobby job

 

[Farmer Roy]

small fields push it up around here ......hedgeculture .....


Horses for courses matey

Oh I agree & can't argue with that. You have to work with what you've got.

My original post was replying to criticism of exporting nations for their carbon miles, but when you look at it we don't do too badly. If someone is going to raise carbon miles as an arguement, I expect them to back up their comment, that's all