The farming and smallholding thread

[Ravers]

Cold shitty day to be moving cattle.

 

[Londo]

Cold shitty day to be moving cattle.

View attachment 523311View attachment 523312

If it's cold and shitty why are you wearing sunglasses ?

 

[Ravers]

If it's cold and shitty why are you wearing sunglasses ?

To look cool.

Obviously.

 

[RCT(V)]

I'm not going to apologise for re-posting this . . .

Published - AGAIN - by: Compassion in World Farming, on 26 November 2020.

Hopefully, others will also Sign & Share . . .

It’s a disgrace: the UK Government is still blocking attempts to legally protect animal welfare in trade deals.

Under relentless pressure from Compassion supporters, other campaigners, and the House of Lords, the Government has committed to increase parliamentary scrutiny of new free trade agreements.

Yet it refuses to require, by law, that food imports meet British animal welfare standards.

We cannot allow the UK to import cruelty.

https://action.ciwf.org.uk/page/70739/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=email-action&supporter.appealCode=CAPEM_UK1120a_R3&utm_campaign=politics&utm_source=email-action&utm_medium=email&mode=DEMO&ea.url.id=5027499

Posted on: the "All Inter-web videos and links" thread; the Smallholding/Farming thread; the Cat thread; and, the Dog thread.

 

[RCT(V)]

The same, but different . . . .

Published by: Compassion in World Farming, on 26 November 2020.

Thank you so much for signing our open letter demanding that UK food imports meet domestic farming standards.

Shamefully, the Agriculture Bill, which has now completed its journey through Parliament, will allow the UK Government to negotiate trade deals that could undermine British animal welfare standards.

We will not stand for this. We will make our voices heard.

We’re holding a virtual event to honour over 68,000 compassionate people who’ve signed the open letter and send our united message to the Government.

We’ll hear from supportive MPs, high profile signatories, and Compassion staff and volunteers about why we must keep up the fight against cruelty.

Date: Tuesday 8th December

Time: 12:30 GMT

Location: watch live on Facebook or YouTube.

Thank you so much – I look forward to joining you online on Tuesday 8th December.
With my best wishes,

James
Compassion in World Farming.


Posted on: the "All Inter-web videos and links" thread; the Smallholding/Farming thread; the Cat thread; and, the Dog thread.

 

[Cloth bomber]

Can’t remember if I mentioned these before.

We got about 60 Rough Fell lambs earlier this year to put through the pubs and hotel.

To be honest we’ve just chucked them in a field and let them get on with it. Like our Herdwicks, Rough Fells are a local breed that thrives on grass and needs very little human interaction.

Just done the rounds and all looking nice.

Definitely my second favourite sheep after Herdwicks.

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iMHO what you want is North country Cheviot put to a swale for mothers
put to a Cheviot/ Suffolk cross tup.
we lambed 800 on ground very similar to yours, As good to lamb as pure Swales but 50 % more twins and ours nearly all graded on grass ( no store lamb sales f#ckwittery for us) .
The non experimental old traditionalists used to look glum into their pints at troutbeck sales when ours used to allways make top prices for 35 days work a year.
( crikey I’m showing my age now as troutbeck auction has long gone ).

 

[Ravers]

Cold one this morning.

 

[Ravers]

Ryelands and ponies.

 

[Ravers]

And a fucking goat with a bucket stuck round its neck.

Obviously.

 

[CptDanjou]

And a ******* goat with a bucket stuck round its neck.

Obviously.

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Goats seem to be the smartest in the farmyard and sheep the most stupid.

 

[9.414]

Goats seem to be the smartest in the farmyard and sheep the most stupid.

With the farmer somewhere in between?

 

[CptDanjou]

With the farmer somewhere in between?

Whats @Ravers ever done to you ?

 

[vinniethemanxcat]

Cold one this morning.View attachment 524340View attachment 524341View attachment 524342View attachment 524343

It's an enviable life your nippers lead........

 

[Ravers]

It's an enviable life your nippers lead........

I know.

Spoilt little fuckers.

It makes me sad that they will miss out on some of the simple pleasures of growing up down south.

They will never know the joy of riding stolen mopeds around an abandoned industrial estate at night.

Or shooting up bus shelters with air rifles.

 

[CptDanjou]

I know.

Spoilt little *******.

It makes me sad that they will miss out on some of the simple pleasures of growing up down south.

They will never know the joy of riding stolen mopeds around an abandoned industrial estate at night.

Or shooting up bus shelters with air rifles.

Thats one of the reasons why I`ve always lived in rural areas both overseas and the UK , it gives kids a better chance in my opinion , they can do the Big Smoke thing when they are old enough to think for themselves.

 

[Ravers]

Thats one of the reasons why I`ve always lived in rural areas both overseas and the UK , it gives kids a better chance in my opinion , they can do the Big Smoke thing when they are old enough to think for themselves.

Completely off thread, but in all seriousness I’m amazed me or any of mates reached adulthood.

We lived a couple of miles from the old Castle Cement works where they made all the cement for Heathrow Airport.

It was long abandoned and guarded by a single security guard who basically couldn’t be arsed to chase a load of feral kids around. He just left us to our own devices.

We’d head over there on our BMXs after school and play in the crumbling buildings and machinery.

There were flooded tunnels to explore and control rooms to smash up and loot. The entire place was knee deep in jagged rusty metal, broken glass, asbestos and dead pigeons.

About 6 storeys up there was a conveyor bridge that linked two buildings. It was made out of rusty corrugated metal and we’d dare eachother to run across the top of it.

And that was before you even got to the flooded quarry with it’s chemicals and many submerged hazards. We’d swim in it in the summer, diving head first off the cliffs.

One year we found a Ford Orion dumped in the bottom. About 20 of us spent a week diving down to it, attaching ropes and pulling it out.

Afterwards we realised it was much better as an underwater attraction so we pushed it back in.

As we got older, we graduated to riding motorbikes around the place and making bombs. We all had air rifles or air pistols too. Usually ones we’d frigged to make more powerful, by stretching the springs.

Apart from some kid from a rival school losing his leg in a motorbike crash there, the injuries were mostly superficial. My best mate got knocked out underwater, when he swam down to the old Ford and opened the boot. The spare wheel had obviously become buoyant and floated upwards into his grid. But we rescued him and he was fine.

I have no idea how any of us survived. This is where I grew up...

 

[Londo]

Completely off thread, but in all seriousness I’m amazed me or any of mates reached adulthood.

We lived a couple of miles from the old Castle Cement works where they made all the cement for Heathrow Airport.

It was long abandoned and guarded by a single security guard who basically couldn’t be arsed to chase a load of feral kids around. He just left us to our own devices.

We’d head over there on our BMXs after school and play in the crumbling buildings and machinery.

There were flooded tunnels to explore and control rooms to smash up and loot. The entire place was knee deep in jagged rusty metal, broken glass, asbestos and dead pigeons.

About 6 storeys up there was a conveyor bridge that linked two buildings. It was made out of rusty corrugated metal and we’d dare eachother to run across the top of it.

And that was before you even got to the flooded quarry with it’s chemicals and many submerged hazards. We’d swim in it in the summer, diving head first off the cliffs.

One year we found a Ford Orion dumped in the bottom. About 20 of us spent a week diving down to it, attaching ropes and pulling it out.

Afterwards we realised it was much better as an underwater attraction so we pushed it back in.

As we got older, we graduated to riding motorbikes around the place and making bombs. We all had air rifles or air pistols too. Usually ones we’d frigged to make more powerful, by stretching the springs.

Apart from some kid from a rival school losing his leg in a motorbike crash there, the injuries were mostly superficial. My best mate got knocked out underwater, when he swam down to the old Ford and opened the boot. The spare wheel had obviously become buoyant and floated upwards into his grid. But we rescued him and he was fine.

I have no idea how any of us survived. This is where I grew up...View attachment 524513View attachment 524514View attachment 524515View attachment 524516View attachment 524517View attachment 524518View attachment 524519View attachment 524520View attachment 524521View attachment 524522View attachment 524523View attachment 524524View attachment 524525View attachment 524526

I may have been the security guard for a few weeks .

 

[Ravers]

I may have been the security guard for a few weeks .

If it was in the mid to late 90s and you recall your portacabin being shot at with a .22 air rifle, and the sniper making a hasty getaway on a yellow Yamaha TY250, that was me.

 

[Londo]

If it was in the mid to late 90s and you recall your portacabin being shot at with a .22 air rifle, and the sniper making a hasty getaway on a yellow Yamaha TY250, that was me.

TBH Ravers I think I spent a couple of weeks at a different cement works entirely but you brought back a couple of long forgotten memories

 

[Oops]

Well, speaking of 'Up North' and being a bit fed up of nowt but cloud and rain for days, I ventured out with my Farm Butchery Mate to that place @Ravers keeps putting pics up from, where the weather always matches the scenery, Coombria I think they call it, eh.

Xmas Show Day is still a 'bit of a thing' with Livestock Men.( It's all men except the clerk and the wagon driver)
This feckin Virus has decimated the day as the traditional highlight of the year and festive gathering, only the buyers and sellers are allowed in.
Anyways..
This is the winner of the Beauty Contest, an absolute stunning Redhead who deservedly took the Champion Rosette, despite fierce competition from over 100 others...

A beast worthy of winning in any show ring anywhere. She went to a local butcher for over £5 kilo coming to more than £3000.
Mate bought seventeen of her competitors, who arrived in their five star accommodation, 120 miles further south several hours later.

They'll thrive down here, in the oxygen rich sea level atmosphere, not sure about their life expectancy prospects however, since Covid, Farm Shop trade has climbed even higher.
To think we cut the first one up on his kitchen table, for his Missus to sell at school less than 15 yrs ago..
He now employs over 50 staff and thinks nowt of buying cattle by the artic load, all to go out of the yard in carrier bags.
It's a lot less stressful standing on the outside of the ring looking inwards, rather than the opposite way around, you even get brews and cake brought to you, all you've got to do is keep nodding at the nice chap in the Rostrum.
Oh, and possess an exceedingly decent chequebook....
He only needs to sign his name nowadays, the nice lady behind the desk even fills in the numbers for him!
Eta.
It was still bloody well raining when we got back home.