So we all know how unprofitable it is to sheep farm atm

[Grubber]

That funny because after a few years working as an agricultural contractor the majority of farmers I worked for always called it seed drunkeness due to a fermentation stage that occurs during crop growth

Sheep farming since i was knee high and still got shares in the Family farm (not too far from where you were or are actually) Fellas you work for may call it Sleep drunkiness but if you google you will see what i mean.
As for the fermentation of crops....hmmmm...not too sure about that one.

[Grubber]

That funny because after a few years working as an agricultural contractor the majority of farmers I worked for always called it seed drunkeness due to a fermentation stage that occurs during crop growth

This may help..think your sleep drunkeness may have been a crop farmers name for this....

Introduction: Sleep drunkenness
Description of Sleep drunkenness
Sleep drunkenness: a half-waking condition in which the faculty of orientation is in abeyance, and under the influence of nightmarelike ideas the person may become actively excited and violent. SYN: somnolentia (2).
Source: Stedman's Medical Spellchecker, © 2006 Lippincott Williams


It's a human condition!

[T.W.R]

Sheep farming since i was knee high and still got shares in the Family farm (not too far from where you were or are actually) Fellas you work for may call it Sleep drunkiness but if you google you will see what i mean.
As for the fermentation of crops....hmmmm...not too sure about that one.

so being a sheep farmer you know absolutley nothing about rye grass staggers & Phalaris staggers
you should do a bit of research

and I didn't say sleep drunkeness........SEED DRUNKENESS & yeah it's slang term used by cockies

[Grubber]

so being a sheep farmer you know absolutley nothing about rye grass staggers & Phalaris staggers
you should do a bit of research

and I didn't say sleep drunkeness........SEED DRUNKENESS & yeah it's slang term used by cockies

As it so happens i do...it's due to the content of Alkaloids in mainly fresh new grass. It occurs at the 6 to 8 week stage of growth and is caused mainly by the meteorological status at the time.
In older grass the Alkaloids are mainly perlolene which has no effect. In early seedlings halostochine may be present and this is the one that causes ryegrass staggers. due to the fact that GOOD sheep farmers don't graze on these early grasses, it seldom occurs nowadays.

It has no relation to fermentation of any sort.

Anythiing else you would like to know?

[F5 Dave]

. . .
Sleepy sickness actually is what it is called. It's caused by the lack of Nutrition in the last 4 weeks of pregnancy thus causing the body to utilize their fat to provide nutrition and the side effect of this is the production of ketone's which is toxic and this causes the stagger effect known as sleepy sickness. Most common is from being cast (rolled on side and not able to get to feet) for too long thus causing them to wander sideways for a while till they get there brain in gear again , so to speak. Also from someone who knows!

Bleeding 'eck. I think I've been suffering from this! I'm not pregnant, but the symptoms are similar. Maybe I've got Angry Sheeps Disease (ASD). Mind you I didn't have that mutton last night, couldn't eat anything. & the small person in the other room waking up several times didn't help much.

[F5 Dave]

. . .
We agreed that probably the main reason (other than dairy conversions) the flock numbers are down & dropping is the low wool price. Half of what the cocky used to get from a sheep was the wool return - with this gone they have to get more for the meat - or go dairy....

ahh, now that is a good point.

[T.W.R]

As it so happens i do...it's due to the content of Alkaloids in mainly fresh new grass. It occurs at the 6 to 8 week stage of growth and is caused mainly by the meteorological status at the time.
In older grass the Alkaloids are mainly perlolene which has no effect. In early seedlings halostochine may be present and this is the one that causes ryegrass staggers. due to the fact that GOOD sheep farmers don't graze on these early grasses, it seldom occurs nowadays.

It has no relation to fermentation of any sort.

Anythiing else you would like to know?

you took over 30mins to google that

[Grubber]

Bleeding 'eck. I think I've been suffering from this! I'm not pregnant, but the symptoms are similar. Maybe I've got Angry Sheeps Disease (ASD). Mind you I didn't have that mutton last night, couldn't eat anything. & the small person in the other room waking up several times didn't help much.

Best ye check the pregnant bit first.....you know, just to rule out the obvious!

[Grubber]

you took over 30mins to google that

HaHa. didn't need to google that. I'm trying to do some work here too. But this is all just too interesting to be honest.
You are right in what you say about the ryegrass but it's hardly very prevalent now days. Have to admit i didn't think about it because of the name you mentioned (seed drunkeness) but i have always found it interesting how different types of farms (crop, Cattle Dairy etc) all have there own idiosyncrasy's when it comes to all these things.

The sleepy drunkeness from me was a tad tongue n cheek.

[T.W.R]

HaHa. didn't need to google that. I'm trying to do some work here too. But this is all just too interesting to be honest.
You are right in what you say about the ryegrass but it's hardly very prevalent now days. Have to admit i didn't think about it because of the name you mentioned (seed drunkeness) but i have always found it interesting how different types of farms (crop, Cattle Dairy etc) all have there own idiosyncrasy's when it comes to all these things.

The sleepy drunkeness from me was a tad tongue n cheek.

It's been nigh on 15yrs since I was wrapped up in the game, even though contracting was a good way to make money fast (only due to the fact there wasn't any time to spend what you were making), farmers think they've got it tough & work hard well try being on the contracting side of it when the Harvest is in full swing I went on to better things (driving Earth Movers).
All the farms I've been on (a farkin huge number) I can honestly say that a GOOD farmer is a very rare thing...what's seen from the roadside only hides whats actually going on within the guts of the farm away from prying eyes

[avgas]

A friend was down in the Gisborne area last month and on the side of the road were boxes of free Kiwifruit. Turns out the grower was being paid 8cents a kg by the supermarkets but was required to pay the freight costs to get to the supermarkets. In the end the grower just decided to give the fruit away for free because the freight costs would have caused him to be out of pocket. Friend paid the grower for the box just to help him out...

Old man "leased" his orchard out last few years.
Last year his return was -$2000 for 20 acres
I was very tempted to cut the whole lot up for firewood - makes me fucking mad when I see only reject kiwifruit sitting out NZ shelves and the growers are still getting fucked.
I give Zespri 5 more years before they fuck-up and sell their new, yellow formula to the Chinese. History repeats here.

[Grubber]

Old man "leased" his orchard out last few years.
Last year his return was -$2000 for 20 acres
I was very tempted to cut the whole lot up for firewood - makes me fucking mad when I see only reject kiwifruit sitting out NZ shelves and the growers are still getting fucked.
I give Zespri 5 more years before they fuck-up and sell their new, yellow formula to the Chinese. History repeats here.

Same here. totally stupid idea that was. We had the monopoly with the kiwifruit and then they go sell plants to the very place we exported to.
how bad is that.

[Grubber]

It's been nigh on 15yrs since I was wrapped up in the game, even though contracting was a good way to make money fast (only due to the fact there wasn't any time to spend what you were making), farmers think they've got it tough & work hard well try being on the contracting side of it when the Harvest is in full swing I went on to better things (driving Earth Movers).
All the farms I've been on (a farkin huge number) I can honestly say that a GOOD farmer is a very rare thing...what's seen from the roadside only hides whats actually going on within the guts of the farm away from prying eyes

As much as i hate to admit it, you are right in saying that.
My family farm is up in Mayfield and we can see over the neighbors fence too often. I am still very proud of my brothers as they do keep very good techniques and very tidy farms, but alas they are few and far between.
I too used to be heavily involved in Cropping as are my brothers now. We didn't use contractors though, we had and still do have our own harvesters etc. Much better option.
I went out of the frying pan and into the fire. In Transport now and have the same problem with the seasonal timing. No holidays here in the summer.

[F5 Dave]

Best ye check the pregnant bit first.....you know, just to rule out the obvious!

Well the wife is considerably pregnant & I do sleep in the same bed. . . do you think I could have caught it from her?

[F5 Dave]

Same here. totally stupid idea that was. We had the monopoly with the kiwifruit and then they go sell plants to the very place we exported to.
how bad is that.

Didn't the Chinese have Gooseberries before?