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Aerlik men in glass houses shouldnt throw stones regarding West Coast players alleged drug use, from what I have seen and heard theres plenty of Dockers who like a bit of party gear.

Aerlik how did the Cockers get on against the mighty Eagles at the weekend??

Surely time for AW to step away at the end of the season.

The last two performances have been nothing more than bull shit. Defence is a shambles (What exactly does Steve Bould do with them in training?) and no world class goal scorer is the difference (as usual) in being top of the league and now struggling to keep in the top 4.

Diego Simeone should be targeted asap. Great style of play  , similar to Wenger, but players expected to get stuck in and if not he'll kick their arse himself!

Finally Ox, Walcott and Wilshere are not good enough and need sold on for ridiculous sums (which they will fetch being English). Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky have given their all but need to be put to the knackers yard!

Just wondering about people's experience with the gas dehorner. My current electric one packed in and I'm looking at a gas replacement. Guilbert Express is the model, little 60g gas canister for €5. Anyone know what I can expect to get out of a can?

I've had both, would use the electric one more because it doesn't run out. Gas is grand if your going round the country doing calves in old yards with no electric. I found once the seal was broke on a canister that was it used. Ie you could horn two calves today and go back in a weeks time and the gas had leaked out in the intervening time. Plus you'd never have canisters when you'd want them, electric is a near constant supply.

I use the Express gas dehorning gun, calves usually done at 6 weeks when the buds of the horns are starting to rise. Handy job and not too sore on gas.

Had to dehorn a few fresian calves for elderly neighbour before christmas using the horn cutters and old style iron. Was like a scene from a horror, plenty of blood squirting. Never again!

Hows the calving going? Not started yet due to the bull taking Red Water a week before going with the cows, put everything back 6 weeks.
Noticed he was a touch dull when feeding one day and managed to see that his urine was a dark colour. He picked it up from ticks which were nicely attached between his front legs. Another 48hrs and he would have been a goner!

G'wan the Eagles, cream always rises to the top Aerlik. The purple nurples were beaten by a great Hawks side and I must commend their Brownlow winner Fyfe on a massive season, he has been outstanding. What a warrior! Matty Priddis final 5 rounds of voting were disappointing from an Eagles point of view.

The GF is Hawks to lose. Eagles need to curb Mitchells influence and keep Gunston Roughie and Cyril quiet to be in with a chance, easier said than done

I'll go Hawks by 12

The decent farmer who does his own silage work will get out and clean where the road is mucked coming out of fields but the big contractors dont give a f**k. i'd normally give the road a scrape with the power link box if its bad

Not easy getting the second cut in with this rain men

[about the dehorning]

Ha just read the Fear Rua thread there gas stuff.

We used to have the limos too crazy feckers. One young bull we had was for the test and he surprisingly enuff went into the crush handy enuff. He then came trundling up the crush and proceeded to launch himself over the side (probably about 5&1/2ft). He landed on his belly bending the tubing and slid off it, trotted into the yard, turned around and looked us and said "Is that the best yis have lads, sure I can do that all day!" Couldnt believe what id seen considering his weight and the amount of room he had to maneouer, it was impressive stuff.

Another older bull we had, had a problem with physical barriers, in that he completely ignored them. He usually ran with the cows and when he wasnt he would be in the yard. However once he got out on the road and proceeded to search for our a nice herd of cows. He wasnt to hard to track down in a neighbour's field, or to get shifted, but was he shifting in the direction we wanted? Oh no... he went for the hedge, a nice big thick hawthorn hedge with barbed wire fence. We're thinking, we got him...but he heads straight at the hedge.... and straight thru it... and thru another.... and thru another until he was back on the road . We got him going in roughly the right direction but he would take detours as he decided, our presence was a total irrelevance. We zigaged our way home in a similar fashion wrecking fences and hedges as we went. Weirdly enuff I dont think he was bad tempered he just liked to do things his way.

The ole boy reckons they have a touch of the Spanish bulls in them, which he reckons accounts for their wildness. Reasonable enuff with the calfing too and that from alot of Holstein cows, often requiring a pull, but virtually zero sections. Some of the younger cows tho it could be sore on. and the cattle were big framed but could be hard to fill out.

I also seen reading in the same thread about the dehorning, never knew that about the caustic soda technique, seems humane and relatively hassle free compared to the techniques Ive seen over the years.  Those boys that dehorn cattle in a past life musta been the master of torture in a medieval dungeon. Every bit of kit they pull out your going..."now what the feck is he gonna do with that....oh jaysus no, nooo!... "

Dehorning was some some session back in the day before hand held gas blower which we use now. We had a fella come and do it for us complete with syringe, litre bottle of anaesthetic and length of wire with 2 handles. 2 men holding the nose clamp and him sawing like a mad man. Blood squirting until the hot iron was applied. Was like a scene out of a horror movie. Nowadays the hand held torch is handy. Quick jab of anaesthetic and burn the stumps out. All done at 2-3 weeks of calving.

Never heard nor seen caustic soda being used, would be problem not be that it would burn right through to the skull and cause serious issues?

I must need the glasses checked. I thought you were pointing at it with a bit of pipe which is the bit of steel. Looks horrible!

Casualty from earlier in the year. happily it turned out ok!

What happened that one moysider?

Victim of the grape?

Been mentioned on this forum before but if you have a spare hour this is a brilliant read.

Not a farmer myself but have spent manys a day with the uncle chasing these mad f**kers across fields and ditches.

http://www.anfearrua.ie/topic.aspx?id=436611

Brilliant reading brought back some memories of a crop of Sim calves we had many moons ago out of black Lim heifers. They were christened 'the reindeer' amongst other expletives. absolutely horrible cattle to work with. wasn't a person, fence, ditch or gate to stop them in the country when they got going. At the sight of the van pulling up at the gate they headed for the far corner of the field and if you entered the field they lapped it like champion thoroughbreds. Took the boss 6 weeks of daily meal delivery to get them to come near the gate where a temporary pen was erected. They eventually came for the rattle of the bucket (except for the wildest hoor of the lot who never left the far corner until van was out of sight) and pure luck one evening they were all in the pen the boss got nipped in and closed game behind them. Getting them on the trailer was total relief. They went into a pen for a month of fattening and off to abattoir they went.

We have never had a crop as wild since, not sure what the problem was. Only real stress they would have had as calves was dehorning and the old burdizzo (no hassle nowadays as the boys are ringed and all dehorned within 10days of hitting the ground).

Have heard stories of men having to get a marksman in to shoot cattle in the field as it was a total health hazard to enter the field never mind get them into a pen.

Having been a long time board lurker I have to laugh at your relentless hatred of the Eagles Aerlik. As a WC fan its always amusing to come on and read your totally purple biased reviews even when the drug ridden, junkie Eagles have a great win.

I enjoy watching the noisy neighbours play and in Fyfe they have a superstar, its just a pity he'll never see a flag while wearing the purple guernsey!

[The calves were lively for a few days after calving then start to become wobbly on legs, dont suck and scour badly.]

Have enjoyed reading this thread over the last few months so decided to join in, we run a herd of sucklers and replacements (all simmental x) and this year are having a few problems with calves becoming poorly after calving. We are lucky to have big rangey cows and an easy calving bull (only one pulled this year from a first calver, which was a brute of a bull calf) but have lost 4 (and lucky to have had a few others come good after treatment, to a mystery illness.) The calves were lively for a few days after calving then start to become wobbly on legs, dont suck and scour badly. They are calved are run in bedded pens for a few days then put out to grass/silage in the field.. Anyone have similar problems? It couldnt be lack of minerals as cows are given a daily sprinkle of mineral dust over the silage.. we are thinking it could be a bug in the shed/pens and have been using lime mixed through the bedding or something in the cows (BVD free herd) so are going for blood test.. also the changing weather may be a factor... Any of you had the same problems/symptoms?

Have you ruled out joint ill?

Vet gave a bottle of antibiotic for joint ill so the calves get a jag of it if they show any signs. We give all the calves a jag of Vitesel as soon as they hit the ground.. I was wary of this but vet assures it causes no problems. Since I posted we had another bull calf start to scour and look dull. He got a jag of LA Terramycin and some electrolytes down his throat. He was dancing around the pen within a couple of hours. Hard to get to the bottom of it thus far.

On another note has anyone had a year where they have had a ridiculously high number of calves of the one sex. We have 20 on the ground so far with 16 being bulls.. not that I am complaining but like to have a nice choice (10 to 15) heifers to pick half a dozen replacements out of each year. Is it pot luck or would the bull be a big factor.  Have another 10 to calve within the next 3 weeks so will be interesting to see how it goes, as long as their healthy I dont care!

Have enjoyed reading this thread over the last few months so decided to join in, we run a herd of sucklers and replacements (all simmental x) and this year are having a few problems with calves becoming poorly after calving. We are lucky to have big rangey cows and an easy calving bull (only one pulled this year from a first calver, which was a brute of a bull calf) but have lost 4 (and lucky to have had a few others come good after treatment, to a mystery illness.) The calves were lively for a few days after calving then start to become wobbly on legs, dont suck and scour badly. They are calved are run in bedded pens for a few days then put out to grass/silage in the field.. Anyone have similar problems? It couldnt be lack of minerals as cows are given a daily sprinkle of mineral dust over the silage.. we are thinking it could be a bug in the shed/pens and have been using lime mixed through the bedding or something in the cows (BVD free herd) so are going for blood test.. also the changing weather may be a factor... Any of you had the same problems/symptoms?