The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: sokel on January 31, 2014, 08:41:17 pm
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Anyone else got snow ? It started mid morning and has snowed most of the day, its been blowing off the field so there is a good 18inches of snow at the top of the drive tonight :-\
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Still mild and (very) wet in south wales
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ohhhhh... I so didn't want to hear that...
First off, hope you're all coping ok and have enough in stock! and snow shovels!
We went across to Stocksfield today, via Hexham (out on the military road, back on the A69) - no snow at all. Cold, and a bit of density in the rain, but no snow.
(My - slightly early - birthday treat : lunch at Wheelbirks! Came home with a goodie bag too :excited:)
Some pals and I were planning on heading across to Morpeth way tomorrow... wonder what it's like up on the military road now... :thinking:
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only 1 deg here tonight or at least it was at 7pm
Just had the dogs out and at least its only drifting at the top of the drive, further down its only about 4-5 inches ::)
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ok so what did you come home with :D live or frozen ?
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Oh, there was a lovely one... and a very nice angus cross too... but no, two of mine are due next month :excited:.
We just had the Jersey Beef main meal and a pud each, splurged on a nice Jersey mug (BH couldn't resist - reminded him of ours, he said) and some cakes, milk (ours are dry at the mo - bad planning to have them both dry at the same time ::)) and butter to bring home. We weren't coming straight back so I couldn't bring ice-cream home :( - but I have promised not to leave it so long next time! :yum:
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I love going there and TBH apart from our goats milk that's the only milk I drink. The icecream is great aswell .
The place we got the angus x calves from also do icecream from their jerseys and the tiramisu one is to die for
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Still wet and windy in wiltshire, no sign of snow.
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BH made me laugh - we were sitting with our backs to the very end bit, where the kids' play area is. There were quite a few kids in, mainly screeching having fun with the occasional squawl of frustration - pretty normal for little kids who've been eating ice-cream! :D Anyway, BH commented that he thought they must be wrecking the place ::) which made me laugh, saying if it had been able to withstand generations of cattle beating it about I thought it'd cope with a few hyped-up kids! :D
Sorry for the thread-jack everyone, back to the weather reports :)
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We have snow this morning. Only a light scattering down with us, but lots on the hills :thumbsup:
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Here in Essex it's not been below freezing since last year. It should be between 5 and 7....
But it hasn't stopped railing for 36 hours and the fields are underwater.
We haven't been hit like other parts of the country, but January is that miserable time.
NEVER MIND, WE ARE IN FEBRUARY NOW.... SPRING IS IN SIGHT!! ;D
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NEVER MIND, WE ARE IN FEBRUARY NOW.... SPRING IS IN SIGHT!! ;D
Indeed :thumbsup:
Sunny here with blue skies; water levels are dropping :thumbsup:
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No snow in Shropshire - it's actually quite a nice sunny day after all the rain x
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Sunny here too and blue skys :thumbsup: Cold wind but you can still get your chores done :)
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Pinch punch 1st of the month to you all, a nice dusting here in Scottish Borders, enough to make our place look tidy as it's a building site mud bath again, oops just looked out and it's all gone - back to mud bath ::) f
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Rain, sun, rain, wind, ginormous puddles, mud, river at top of banks, full ditches. But - the poor people on the Somerset Levels are worse off, so mustn't moan too much.
roll on Spring!
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where do i sign up for snow?
one of my reasons for moving to scotland was for proper winters... i have been disappointed so far...
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My father-in-law just rang to say that somewhere in Austria yesterday thay had two and a half meters of snow in 24 hours :gloomy:
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theres supposed to be 12ft drifts in glenshee.
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where do i sign up for snow?
one of my reasons for moving to scotland was for proper winters... i have been disappointed so far...
One of my main reasons for moving to the Central Belt was that i was pretty sure there'd be a lot less snow than where I came from - Aberdeenshire. :innocent: Hate the stuff. Got snowed in on important occasions too many times for me to like it AT ALL! - Like not getting to Crufts in March! And nearly missing my nephews wedding in Inverness - got there by the skin of my teeth courtesy of a friend in the village with a landrover, an other neighbour who is a signalman and held teh train fro me, and a 4 x 4 taxi at the other end. :rant:
Did I mention I hate snow? :innocent:
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Winter oh yes but not a white one but a very wet one from Llyswen Powys.Surely we wont hear the word DROUGHT in 2014. :gloomy:
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A bit of snow here this morning but it didn't settle. I am now officially FED UP with the weather. I know this because my language through the day, trekking through mud with rain being driven horizontally down the valley courtesy of 45mph gusts, has steadily deteriorated from the polite to the scurrilous. Have you seen the weather forecast for Wednesday ....?!
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where do i sign up for snow?
one of my reasons for moving to scotland was for proper winters... i have been disappointed so far...
Oh, David... be careful what you wish for!
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43 days of winter left 2 weeks more of the same 3 days snow cover just fantastic .Iv had the burners on 11 weeks 24/7 iv onley got a months wood left.I just hope march is ok as last time we were cort out .
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where do i sign up for snow?
one of my reasons for moving to scotland was for proper winters... i have been disappointed so far...
Oh, David... be careful what you wish for!
i was so excited the first winter at the prospect of snow, not knowing that it was all actually a big lie, i laid in emergency supplies for a month just in case...
please remember my nearest shop is all of a 5 minute walk in even bad weather....
this is my third winter and so far in scotland I have seen about 1 inch of snow total.
Oh and to cap it off last winter the midlands we had left as it never gets snow had 8inches that stayed for a fortnight...
I feel my complaints are justified, it was false advertising I tell you...
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No snow in Shropshire - it's actually quite a nice sunny day after all the rain x
Didn't last long though. Most of the day it rained.
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Started bright and sunny this morning, since then poured down, scary high winds in afternoon, white stuff tonight but I think it was turning to mush as I gave the goats their late feed.
Apart from a heatwave I think that covers everything in one day.
Having been flooded for just a few hours, I really don't know how those poor people in somerset are managing to cope with it, I know you do because you have to, but I really feel for them, it's weeks now.
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Well this morning was a nightmare as it changed to rain during the night then froze so we had thick ice on top of the snow :o
its been heavy rain most of the day today so most of the snow and ice has gone :thumbsup:
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:idea: Hosepipe ban imminent in Somerset?
For the last 36 hrs it's been pretty gruesome cold fine rain , cold hard rain , cold stair rods , light sleet, heavy sleet hail and any combination that you care to think of.
It's become a bit brassy tonight , just taken the dog out to be clean and wished I'd have been clever enough to put a hat and heavy jacket on, I looked like a page three gal with chapel hat pegs after just a few minutes outside waiting for him to finish . :roflanim:
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It's hovering on the edge of snow and rain, so for a few hours it snows, then it rains on top of it.......Just had a sleet downpour. Gotta gather sheep for scanning in a minute, please let it stop for a while.
My poor sodden, limping sheep.
I'm so sick of mud.
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I'm so sick of mud.
:hug:
Same here; Meg-pig hates it too, the little stones get between her cleats if she walks about, so she doesn't, much :( I took pity on the ponies so they have access to a bit of well-draining ground so they don't have to be paddling all day every day. The sheep will miss that grass come lambing, though... :(
Good luck with the scan :fc:
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It's hovering on the edge of snow and rain, so for a few hours it snows, then it rains on top of it.......Just had a sleet downpour. Gotta gather sheep for scanning in a minute, please let it stop for a while.
My poor sodden, limping sheep.
I'm so sick of mud.
A couple of miles from here the low land area has sheep on it up to there ankles in water .. there is no sensible dry ground for them . Yet the farmers are happy to see the stock in water , I wonder how many will get foot rot and half starve or die of hypothermia trying to eat the small amount of grass available whilst on their knees .
It wouldn't be quite so bad if the farmers used hay tumblers & raised troughs to put in some dry fodder or feed for the sheep.
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:wave: Beautiful sunny day in Essex. Blue sky and not a cloud in it. I've almost finished putting my secondhand shed up. Its absolutely glorious. A bit nippy but your spirits lift in the sunshine :)
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Yet the farmers are happy to see the stock in water
Don't be ridiculous, of course they're not happy to see their livestock in these conditions.
It wouldn't be quite so bad if the farmers used hay tumblers & raised troughs to put in some dry fodder or feed for the sheep.
They may be constrained as to how they can feed the stock, very often environmental schemes prohibit any feeding and certainly the use of feeders and troughs.
Plus, unless you can provide the correct amount of space for each animal, the use of feeders and /or troughs can be very unpleasant for the livestock, some may even get trampled and/or suffocated. It's generally better with larger numbers to spread hay out along the ground, and if feeding hard feed, use pellets that can withstand being on wet ground for a few minutes.
Even if you have the space for feeders / troughs, they can cause their own problems, such as poaching of the ground and the resultant foot problems, not to mention the length of time it can take for the ground to recover.
Please do not assume that because you see farmed animals being treated differently to how you would treat your small number of animals, that the farmer is doing anything other than the best that can be done for those animals in those conditions.
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Absolutely. We need to move field hayracks but they're axle-deep in mud and we won't be able to until we get a heavy frost. We can't feed hay on the ground - it would just get submerged. The scanner is due tomorrow and I found myself thinking that if the stock rams had been infected with Schmallenberg at the wrong time and were infertile I wouldn't be that fussed. It would take away my main headache, of how to keep the ewes from eating a lot of mud in with their grass - our soil is high in molybdenum and iron and inhibits the uptake of copper, which can lead to swayback in the lambs. We bolused them before tupping but it may not be enough in these conditions.
I always shut up the turnout field in September but I've let the ewes in to graze it for the first time ever, on the basis that if the grass rots in the standing water there will be nothing for them to eat anyway.
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We've had a strange winter here too....only 8 days long so far and now we are back in the +'s and the snow has almost gone. In our bit of Germany its normally 6-8 weeks of snow with highs of -2.
The long range forecast says that there should be more snow here for the locals to enjoy their cross country skiing during the two week school break in mid Feb.
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Yet the farmers are happy to see the stock in water
Don't be ridiculous, of course they're not happy to see their livestock in these conditions.
Oh good, I'm glad someone else has said it, I was coming back to say just that, that comment had bothered me since i read it. I know how stressed I am about trying to keep my animals healthy, if not hapoy, in these conditions.
It's a good plan, it seems to me, of beginning with the assumption that other people are as well-intentioned and intelligent as yourself - and only budging from that with firm evidence. I often say to a certain person in my life 'well, since you know me to be both intelligent and capable, there must be a good reason for me doing X mustn't there, even if you can't at this precise moment, see what that reason is'.
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It's a good plan, it seems to me, of beginning with the assumption that other people are as well-intentioned and intelligent as yourself - and only budging from that with firm evidence. I often say to a certain person in my life 'well, since you know me to be both intelligent and capable, there must be a good reason for me doing X mustn't there, even if you can't at this precise moment, see what that reason is'.
:thumbsup: Abso-bloomin-lootley! :D
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I presume as this weather seems to be worse/wetter than a lot of people remember, most farmers just haven't the facilities to cope with the wet, and I would think if someone offered them some higher ground they'd have their animals loaded before the phone was put down.
As was said on the TV tonight, more attention should be paid to humans and livestock (our future food!) than the little feathered things that would adapt with just a little consideration anyway.
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Yet the farmers are happy to see the stock in water
Don't be ridiculous, of course they're not happy to see their livestock in these conditions.
It wouldn't be quite so bad if the farmers used hay tumblers & raised troughs to put in some dry fodder or feed for the sheep.
They may be constrained as to how they can feed the stock, very often environmental schemes prohibit any feeding and certainly the use of feeders and troughs.
Plus, unless you can provide the correct amount of space for each animal, the use of feeders and /or troughs can be very unpleasant for the livestock, some may even get trampled and/or suffocated. It's generally better with larger numbers to spread hay out along the ground, and if feeding hard feed, use pellets that can withstand being on wet ground for a few minutes.
Even if you have the space for feeders / troughs, they can cause their own problems, such as poaching of the ground and the resultant foot problems, not to mention the length of time it can take for the ground to recover.
Please do not assume that because you see farmed animals being treated differently to how you would treat your small number of animals, that the farmer is doing anything other than the best that can be done for those animals in those conditions.
Why else would a farmer leave livestock in a submerged field if they are not happy doing it.???? Seeing is believing..
Yes I totally agree not all people have the same levels of stockman ship .
Around here it seems that the subsistence farmers & smallholders really push the envelope to the extreme limits.
More and more sheep are showing classic foot rot signs and are eating whilst on their front knees because of painful feet.
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I presume as this weather seems to be worse/wetter than a lot of people remember, most farmers just haven't the facilities to cope with the wet, and I would think if someone offered them some higher ground they'd have their animals loaded before the phone was put down.
As was said on the TV tonight, more attention should be paid to humans and livestock (our future food!) than the little feathered things that would adapt with just a little consideration anyway.
Good post PHB , compassion in farming does not mean we mollycoddle the animals ..
It should include the five freedoms though .
When you see the area I'm on about it does make you wonder about the large area of ungrazed high common land a few Km away.
No doubt we'll read of a few prosecutions before people wise up and do something for their stock .
One of my friends has 19 acres of decent fenced grazeable land that is normally paddock land , there are lots of those around here .
Think I'll have a chat with her tomorrow and see what she knows of or if she is wiling rent out grazing then go an approach a few other people ..
Another friend has 26 acres of dry hillside under grazing grass close by .
I know for sure that when we had animals on the farm I'd move hell & high water for my stock as it was my living I didn't get any EU grants or government assistance when things went wrong .
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They may be constrained as to how they can feed the stock, very often environmental schemes prohibit any feeding and certainly the use of feeders and troughs.
Even if you have the space for feeders / troughs, they can cause their own problems, such as poaching of the ground and the resultant foot problems, not to mention the length of time it can take for the ground to recover.
I havn't looked at my book, but I'm sure on the scheme I'm in you can use feeders but have to move them to prevent poaching. (my upland scheme may be different to lowland) BUT what he heck I can't really see the land being up to much anyway by the time that lots gone. (if the army does get involved, I'd try and get some feeders dropped, if only to supply some dry feed to the poor beggars).
Yes I'm sick of mud as well, tripped inthe house last week, hit my head on the freezer, my knee hit a step, looked like a tennis ball was stuck on the front (knee and forehead!), knee still purple and now all down the front of my shin, couldn't use my arm properly, then at the weekend, slipped in some mud caught my arm (again) and my jaw on a cement mixer. I want to wrap myself up and stay in bed for the rest of the winter :( .