Farming.

[ONeill]

Moysider, all in a day's work for you I'm sure but full of admiration here. Could read that stuff all day.

[moysider]

 

Moysider, all in a day's work for you I'm sure but full of admiration here. Could read that stuff all day.

And it's not even my day's work. This is stuff I do to get over my day's work 

[gaah_man]

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!

[omaghjoe]

Been wondering alot about alternatives types of farming in Ireland, since industrailisation it has been more and more dominated by grass as a crop and cattle/milk as the product with sheep for the higher ground. Is there still even any sugar beet grown in the South East?

One thing I will use as an example is hazelnuts, the trees grow wild in Ireland and are very common on bad land I presume that means they like acid soils. So is it possible to have them as a profitable cash crop? I presume one obstacle to harvesting would be uneven ground. I found this guy in Wicklow was at it https://twitter.com/Hells_Kettle but it seems actually organic beef is still his main deal.

Anyone have  any experience or thoughts of non livestock type farming that would not be considered the norm/traditional?

[Franko]

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

[maigheo]

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

I would say this is the funniest topic I have ever read ,but you would have to have been a farmers son to appreciate it

[gaah_man]

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.

[Mayo4Sam]

Moy, we had a cow earlier in the year that I thought wouldn't calf over night but when I got up in the morning the head was out and calf dead. Found then that one of his front legs had gone down so he couldn't be pulled for fear of tearing the cow completely. The cow was down at this stage.
Called out the vet and he proceeded to take out a small blade and we cut the head off the calf, tough work. Then the two of us pushed the calf back into the cow, both of us rolling in sweat up to our shoulders and eventually managed the get the leg up and pull the calf, the cow jumped up and unsteadily went about eating the cleanings.
The reason I tell the story is that while we were struggling to push the calf back in my oul lad suggested to the vet doing a section but the vet said no, she'd never get up and she'd be destroyed.

We'd have Herefords which are a lot easier to calf but I can't remember the last section and we even had a few heifers who were accidentally got in calf too young.

[omaghjoe]

Wow that sounds like a brutal operation Mayo4Sam.
Wuda thought with all of the dead calf's blood going back in the cow there would be a serious rick of infection

[moysider]

Wouldn t be. Just be careful to keep a hand over the spine stump to stop the cow getting ripped as you pull out the rest of him. Apart from the poor presentation the calf might be modest enough in size. In fairness cows can take some punishment compared with say a mare or even a bitch.
I d say as well Mayo4sam when the calf was dead it is an easy call to cut the calf out in bits. I ve seen em cut off at the waist as well,  the hindquarters cut in half with surgical wire, and one piece at a time removed.
In our cases we were trying to get live calves and the vet probably did not want to risk losing a calf in a tight pull. I still have 3 fine calves and 3 fat cows now to sell and that's better than having a cow down I suppose.
But even the ones that were operated in February are a bit raw and its a daily task to spray them to keep the flies off. They got the pour-on as well. But of course they lick the wound if a fly lights. When I put the last one in to remove the stitches, the hide with the stitches just fell off!
You can imagine how raw that is. But again she's in rude good health besides.

The last big fella we pulled is a clinker of a calf and an oul pet from the handling he got. He s got some muscle on him for a Sim.

[J70]

I do not miss those nights waiting up for cows to calf, sneaking a look in every hour or two or, in later years, monitoring on the closed circuit tv.

Although the payoff was always great when they were safely delivered!

[armaghniac]

This thread is full of bullocks.

[moysider]

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.

Limousins have a brutal reputation alright - at least the cross-bred ones have. I asked a breeder about it once and he reckoned that the pure-breds get more handling. A lot of dry cattle and sucklers are kept by part-time farmers who don t spend much time with their stock and when they do it is doing something which is not very pleasant for the animal. Testing involves getting poked by needless and stuff. Also some of the weapons used on the animals in simply shocking. No wonder they are feral and run and jump to fcuk. The same breeder did admit however that when farmers were importing cattle from France that maybe French breeders exported off their crosser stock (and who could blame them). In France Limousins have a reputation for being docile enough. Breeders are also reluctant to cull pure bred breeding animals so the wildness is passed on from generation. Giddy mothers drive their calves mental straight away - even in other breeds - as I have learned to my cost.

Years ago when I was more fond of work than I am now I used to buy a couple of suck calves that I use call floats. I d halter them and get them to suck cows that would have too muck milk for one calf until her own was big enough to take it all. So these calved would move from cow to as the spring calving advanced and they'd get thick fat. It was a great way to raise nice quiet replacement heifers. I d halter them for a few days and lead them out to where the cow would be in the crush and after a few days you just had to open the gate to the yard they were in and they'd come in themselves when called in the usual way. I had Limousins that I bought and  did that with and they were as quiet as anything else. It's the handling that quietens them.

[Mayo4Sam]

Wow that sounds like a brutal operation Mayo4Sam.
Wuda thought with all of the dead calf's blood going back in the cow there would be a serious rick of infection

It was a tough job alright, although the calf was dead and I wouldn't be squemish it was still tough.

Moy, we had a tough job getting the calf back in far enough to get the dropped leg back up. But even with that the section was the last option, whereas your lad sounds like it was the first option. Probably because it's safe for him and there's a fair chance to a successful outcome but it sounds like the more experienced lad would be a better judge of the risk. And the young lad isn't going to learn much like that.

[moysider]

Wow that sounds like a brutal operation Mayo4Sam.
Wuda thought with all of the dead calf's blood going back in the cow there would be a serious rick of infection

It was a tough job alright, although the calf was dead and I wouldn't be squemish it was still tough.

Moy, we had a tough job getting the calf back in far enough to get the dropped leg back up. But even with that the section was the last option, whereas your lad sounds like it was the first option. Probably because it's safe for him and there's a fair chance to a successful outcome but it sounds like the more experienced lad would be a better judge of the risk. And the young lad isn't going to learn much like that.

Was a girl but that makes no odds. As it turns out the practice we use are all female and have found the others brilliant - whether if its a tough jacking or a section. O would never have questioned their judgement before.

The fact that your cow was down would have made that task all the more difficult. Even though she d be well bet by then she'd be still pushing against ye as well. ,A section would have been curtains. Sections on down cows often end bad. Cows that are sectioned and have no calf to distract them after have the fight knocked out of them in my experience.