Farming.

[hectorsheroes]

Idiots - tell you what being a civil servant and posting on this is ten times easier than farming - sure I'll rock in at a quarter to ten get a sausage roll, have a smoke break, 11am - time for break. Back in office - check gaaboard - smoke break, theres dinner time - grub and the bookies. Back in do half an hour - smoke break - Jaysus nearly half three - hometime - wasters

[trileacman]

Nobody poor mouths quite like a farmer. Single farm payment, grants from every Tom, Dick and Harry, driving about on the red, VAT reclaims, full child tax credits... There isn't a stroke farmers don't know.

It's always a good time to be a farmer.
There is no such thing as a poor farmer,though they will all try their damnedest to convince you they are poor.

Thats what i was thinking,they cry poverty yet they all drive about in new crew cabs and pick ups

It's always a good time to be a farmer.
There is no such thing as a poor farmer,though they will all try their damnedest to convince you they are poor.

If farming is such a ride in the park then how come smart lads such as yourself haven't packed in the nine to five, 5 days a week lark and gone off and started into it? Could you state your own occupation before slating off some other one?

[cadence]

Is there any farmersr on this???Was chatting to a fella the day and he was telling me to get in2 farming now as it is a good time to get in as theres bad prices for cows.I wouldnt know the front end to the back end of a cow,but is there much till the old farming??

http://www.dalehead.co.uk/about-us/farms/pigs/opportunities/?gclid=CKqg7dPQtLICFeTHtAodeT0Ajg

Contact these boys I reckon and you get a ready made pig-farm!!!

i will not! animals are too cute and they get grown and sent away to be killed. def not the message that babe, or babe: pig in the city was about.

I think if you watch Babe again, you will find that's exactly what the message was! Only that Babe was such an exceptional pig he was spared the butchers knife.

That'll do pig, that'll do 

no way.... babe was the best sheep dog, message being identity is not fixed, you can be who you wanna be and go where you wanna go, including not into some pot to be eaten by some nasty old humans who don't understand pigs! 

[theticklemister]

Any foriegners looking in this thread will think..............typical Irish lol!!

[fitzroyalty]

Is it just me or are most farmers in the North sally rods?

[brokencrossbar1]

Is it just me or are most farmers in the North sally rods?

Only the rich ones.

[laoislad]

I will say one thing about farmers is the fine feed you get when you do work for them.
I spent a few years wiring and re wiring milking parlours and wiring in new milking machines etc.
I guess they all got grants at the same time or something because it kept me in work for two years doing all the work for numerous farmers.
Anyway the feeds you would get at lunch time were unreal, you could get anything on the plate but they were huge and you'd be hardly able do any work afterwards. I put on a few stone over the couple of years.

[STREET FIGHTER]

What is the costs associated with selling livestock these days- sheep, cows, pigs etc?

[cadence]

Farming in Mid-Ulster at the moment isn't doing too badly in terms of prices at least for sheep. Not too badly at least compared to a number of years ago, but no gold mine either. Wool was worth little a couple of years ago but has risen a bit in price with more demand in insulation. The cold weather back in the spring during the lambing season hindered grass growth at a time of year it was badly needed. Don't know as much about cattle, but the recent milk price protests suggests things aren't all rosy there.

never knew sheep wool could be used for home insulation. great use of natural resources... and good alternative to them stingy rolls of rockwool.

[front of the mountain]

Does any one know anyone or anything about growing buleberries/bilberries on bog/peatland??

[trileacman]

Farming in Mid-Ulster at the moment isn't doing too badly in terms of prices at least for sheep. Not too badly at least compared to a number of years ago, but no gold mine either. Wool was worth little a couple of years ago but has risen a bit in price with more demand in insulation. The cold weather back in the spring during the lambing season hindered grass growth at a time of year it was badly needed. Don't know as much about cattle, but the recent milk price protests suggests things aren't all rosy there.

Would read eff all into the wool thing, it's maybe worth twice what it was two years ago but still that's maybe two pound a fleece as opposed to one, minimal really related to the price of keeping a sheep all year round. Milk market has no arse in it, not going well at all. Beef is currently a good market but it is heavily dependent on two markets, grain and diesel which are driving up running costs at the current time. Currently many can remain in profit but the margins are being eroded as grain prices rise and beef prices are cut by beef processors under pressure from a very monopolized supermarket sector in the UK and Ireland.

[trileacman]

What is the costs associated with selling livestock these days- sheep, cows, pigs etc?

Sheep- low input but also a business with a lower turnover. The main cost is grain feed at around 250euro a tonne. Then you would have red diesel at your local rate and take ground at about 150 euro an acre, at the scales lower end. A finished lamb is worth about 79pound a head, so you'll need to have 500 a year to ensure a turnover of £40,000. For 500 lambs you'll need somewhere in the region of 300 ewes which if you are lambing over a month is 10 a day. From your turnover of 40,000 remove costs for grain, ground, diesel, vet bills, buying replacement stock and whatever you price your own time at.

[laoislad]

Farming in Mid-Ulster at the moment isn't doing too badly in terms of prices at least for sheep. Not too badly at least compared to a number of years ago, but no gold mine either. Wool was worth little a couple of years ago but has risen a bit in price with more demand in insulation. The cold weather back in the spring during the lambing season hindered grass growth at a time of year it was badly needed. Don't know as much about cattle, but the recent milk price protests suggests things aren't all rosy there.

never knew sheep wool could be used for home insulation. great use of natural resources... and good alternative to them stingy rolls of rockwool.

The Roscommon fellas have other uses for sheep.

[heganboy]

The Roscommon fellas have other uses for sheep.

Cant believe this took until the the second page to raise its ugly head...

[Tony Baloney]

At least 2 killed in a slurry tank this evening. That is about 1 farm death a month over the past 2 years - the worst spell in 25 years.