I’m an awful man for reading. If I could, I’d read in my sleep. Let me explain why; I never read a book, outside of being forced to in school, until I was 23. I was immediately hooked and I’ve been trying to catch up since.I usually read two books at a time. I also read the Irish Farmers Journal, various political magazines, lots of on-line discussion forums, and most of all I read technical farming publications from Teagasc and the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Being a recent returnee to farming, I’ve a lot of learning to catch up on.
I’m an awful man for reading. If I could, I’d read in my sleep. Let me explain why; I never read a book, outside of being forced to in school, until I was 23. I was immediately hooked and I’ve been trying to catch up since.
I usually read two books at a time. I also read the Irish Farmers Journal, various political magazines, lots of on-line discussion forums, and most of all I read technical farming publications from Teagasc and the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Being a recent returnee to farming, I’ve a lot of learning to catch up on.
Part-time vs full-time
This is where the problems start. We’re small part-time farmers but most, if not all, publications seem to be written with big full-timers in mind.
What’s best practice for someone with 100 ewes does not automatically make economic sense for his neighbour over the ditch with 50 ewes.
Take stocking rates for example. The advised rate for sheep is five ewes per acre, or 12-13 per hectare as the professionals say.
Most of what we’re farming at the moment is wet, heavy ground. There’s not a hope we’d carry five ewes per acre on it. Yes, we might average five/acre when we’re farming the rest of the home farm but I’ve yet to see soil type accounted for when the magic figure of five/acre is bandied about.
Faecal egg tests is another subject that should carry a caveat, leaving aside the issue of anthelmintic resistance. For someone with 200+ lambs, this makes economic sense. Test a sample and then decide what to do.
But for those of us with 40-odd lambs, you’d have them dosed for the price of the test, which in all likelihood will just confirm that they need a dose.
Hidden labour costs
A big increase in output for a small increase in input costs is another bug bear. I’ve no reason to doubt this as I’ve seen it first-hand. Yet, the extra labour involved is rarely mentioned when the profit monitor is totted up.
Your output might increase, but your hourly labour rate might actually decrease. In relative terms, are you doing more work for less money?
I’m not for a second saying people should reduce their stocking rate but they should consider the hidden personal costs of constantly pushing themselves.
In this regard, it’s encouraging to see the IFA pushing for labour costs to be included in future margin and profit calculations.
We’re not all big, full-timers with plenty finance for investment
The technical publications are fantastic reading and do a great job of disseminating good ideas on all aspects of farming. However, they should carry a large, prominent health warning to the effect that the information provided must be localised for each and every farmer.
We’re not all big, full-timers with plenty finance for investment, despite this seemingly being the ideal we’re told to strive for.
Technical publications should state up front that ‘one size does not fit all’.
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