My father is not one to get too excited about things. No rush, no stress, just takes everything at a nice, sedate pace.
So when he went off to get parts to attempt to fix our old Zetor, I expected him to return around dinnertime, when we could merrily argue our way into the evening trying to figure out the issues in the fuel line. It came as a complete surprise then to get a text from him out of the blue telling me he had “bought a four-wheel-drive tractor”.
And they say females are compulsive shoppers.
Truth be told, we don’t know ourselves since we have it, though having never used a tractor with either a four-wheel drive or a front loader, there was a steep learning curve to overcome.I now understand the saying "Boys & their toys"
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) June 21, 2019
Sorry lads, I'm joining your gang now ?? pic.twitter.com/CauYdRZTNg
The less said about how long it took me to find reverse the better, though I should have realised something was different when I had a gear stick on each side of me.
After a few days of practice, we both had it off and it was initiated with the main crop of bales in the first week of July.
We had a bumper crop with the mild spring, getting 120% of our usual total.
Coupled with the bales left over from last year and more hay made just last week, we have a nice reserve built up if the weather decides to take a turn for the worse in autumn.
3/4 of our meadows mowed for bales now, all looking v heavy. Hopefully the rain stays away while it's down! ?? pic.twitter.com/ifckNF1JkK
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) July 1, 2019
And just in case we were feeling a bit too smug about how smoothly our baling went, we also did a couple of small meadows in cocks of hay. This certainly made us more appreciative of having balers around, though I can’t say I was disappointed to find out a front-loader will carry cocks of hay quite easily.
Most of our calves are now eating a 17.5% super calf nut. We made the switch from ration a few years ago, finding it less messy while at the same time attracting less birds and rodents.
We’ve started feeding slightly later than normal this year, a combination of good grass and younger calves, meaning we only supplemented the trio of twins.
It’s difficult to forecast how the weanling trade for our few calves will look at the back end of the year. With the uncertainty of Brexit and difficult beef markets worldwide, will there be any demand at all for the famous suckler calves of the west/northwest?
There is a passion in this area for sucklers, a sense of pride from farmers achieving a good price for weanlings bred off cows with decades of hand-picked AI.
You could walk into any mart this side of the Shannon in October and see stock like this from your part-time suckler farmer, a year of graft and extra hours in the evenings culminating in a few minutes of selling.
What is this, a blue convention?
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) July 22, 2019
Go on, get out, the door is wide open! Bet you wouldn't stay in on a bad day ?? pic.twitter.com/WaeF1bfqRfBut as it stands now, how can any feeder or finisher commit to buying a shed of cattle when there’s no guarantee he’ll manage to break even?
Only time will tell how many suckler farmers can weather this latest storm, especially when dairy beef, contract-rearing and forestry are being peddled as the logical switch.
The other proposed option is a drastic cut in stock numbers to help reverse the impact of climate change. Surely I’m not alone in feeling that the environmental burden is being foisted off onto the little guy to deal with?
Every farmer should be doing what they can to mitigate their effect on the environment and lowering suckler numbers is only pruning one branch of the problem.
There’s a whole root to be dealt with yet.
Read more
‘Slash suckler herd’ – climate report
What the Climate Change Advisory Council wants
Paying farmers to exit beef: 'extensification' proposed for next CAP
SHARING OPTIONS: