Working hours.

cows sh#t me to tears · Jan 22, 2017

You blokes are lucky you don't have irrigation to deal with. Take your normal 13 / 14 hr day and just add water....autumn is rapidly approaching and here that means flood irrigating 850 ac ( and sowing down same). Last year was 116 hrs a week for 6 weeks straight. Changing water knows no rest. Day or night it needs doing when it needs doing. Doesn't matter how good your staff are. At the end of the day your going to struggle to find anyone but yourself to get out of bed at 10pm / 1am / 3am and then 5am again and still turn up to milk.

Ducati899 · Jan 22, 2017

alarm goes off 4.20 every morning,time I've driven in its 5ish (keep quiet jimmer) normally done by 6.15pm and have 1hr for brekkie and a hour for lunch,i have one monday off a fortnight and alternate weekends with the young lad we have here,relief milker covers dad 3 days a month and then i milk if he wants any more days away,apart from my every other monday we dont have set days off,if the young lad wants a day off he asks i say yes and were all happy,if i want a afternoon off i take it..lad goes to college on thursdays so he's away that day as well,the weekend work is only routine yard work in winter so you can be done by 9am and then dont start again until 3pm

thewalrus · Jan 22, 2017

Maybe we should have a thread how much sleep do you try and get a night

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

Ducati899 said:
alarm goes off 4.20 every morning,time I've driven in its 5ish (keep quiet jimmer) normally done by 6.15pm and have 1hr for brekkie and a hour for lunch,i have one monday off a fortnight and alternate weekends with the young lad we have here,relief milker covers dad 3 days a month and then i milk if he wants any more days away,apart from my every other monday we dont have set days off,if the young lad wants a day off he asks i say yes and were all happy,if i want a afternoon off i take it..lad goes to college on thursdays so he's away that day as well,the weekend work is only routine yard work in winter so you can be done by 9am and then dont start again until 3pm

Ought to move her closer to the farm, extra half hour in bed.

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

thewalrus said:
Maybe we should have a thread how much sleep do you try and get a night

I need 7 hours. End of.

Headless chicken · Jan 22, 2017

Beef farmer said:
I need 7 hours. End of.

I need that uninterrupted. 8-9 if I get woken up

George from SJM Planning · Jan 22, 2017

8 hours sees me right. Any less and I'm grumpy. Much more than 9 hours and I just can't get my arse into gear afterwards.

jimmer · Jan 22, 2017

Aim for 7 hours sleep
get closer to 6
tried 5 for a while , not advisable

Ducati899 · Jan 22, 2017

Beef farmer said:
Ought to move her closer to the farm, extra half hour in bed.

Not yet as every time I mention it,horses donkeys goats and pigs get mentioned [emoji15]

Sparkymark · Jan 22, 2017

Always try to get 6.5/7 hrs then im fine. Religiously go to bed by 10pm.
Nowt like getting up early to cure insomnia!

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

Ducati899 said:
Not yet as every time I mention it,horses donkeys goats and pigs get mentioned [emoji15]

Yeah keep driving.

DairyGrazing · Jan 22, 2017

Beef farmer said:
The op, get contractors to do the tractor work. You then have a more simple life.

Only tractor work we do is fert, tedding and we mow the outside 3 swaths when silaging.

Thinking about dropping wheat as we are not geared up to handle 600+tons of grain its always a rush to get sheds clean etc. We have to tip on the yard then shove it in with the merlo.

Im thinking about going to just maize and grass. The only downside is wheat is a great entry and exit crop. So may grow a few acres for wholecrop just to facilitate rotation.

I'm taking another employee on and we're going to fence the rest of the new land so we don't have to make any bales for 3rd and 4th cut on silage ground. We made 1000+ last year we wasted 7+ working days moving them last year.

Now we gave a shed for every animal things should be easier. We're also carrying too many young stock at the moment. We have 240 and we only need 170. Once we've got rid of johnes and a few of the big cows I hope we can reduce that number.

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

DairyGrazing said:
Only tractor work we do is fert, tedding and we mow the outside 3 swaths when silaging.

Thinking about dropping wheat as we are not geared up to handle 600+tons of grain its always a rush to get sheds clean etc. We have to tip on the yard then shove it in with the merlo.

Im thinking about going to just maize and grass. The only downside is wheat is a great entry and exit crop. So may grow a few acres for wholecrop just to facilitate rotation.

I'm taking another employee on and we're going to fence the rest of the new land so we don't have to make any bales for 3rd and 4th cut on silage ground. We made 1000+ last year we wasted 7+ working days moving them last year.

Now we gave a shed for every animal things should be easier. We're also carrying too many young stock at the moment. We have 240 and we only need 170. Once we've got rid of johnes and a few of the big cows I hope we can reduce that number.

So your problems are over. Extra staff, simplify cropping and more grazing avaliable. Due to tb we have dropped a lot of cropping from the rotation, and are talking of dropping it completely. Grass from one wall to the other, makes for a very simple system.

multi power · Jan 22, 2017

cows sh#t me to tears said:
You blokes are lucky you don't have irrigation to deal with. Take your normal 13 / 14 hr day and just add water....autumn is rapidly approaching and here that means flood irrigating 850 ac ( and sowing down same). Last year was 116 hrs a week for 6 weeks straight. Changing water knows no rest. Day or night it needs doing when it needs doing. Doesn't matter how good your staff are. At the end of the day your going to struggle to find anyone but yourself to get out of bed at 10pm / 1am / 3am and then 5am again and still turn up to milk.

I know border dykes are a pain but irrigation in the sunshine is a lot more fun than being in mud up to your ankles half the year , why do you need to be attending to water at 3 am ? I always set enough clocks after milking to last until next morning

DairyGrazing · Jan 22, 2017

Our system relies on milk. I want milk every day of the year 30l average. So I don't I could do it cheaply enough without maize . We were doing it with grass only but it was costling a lot.

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

DairyGrazing said:
Our system relies on milk. I want milk every day of the year 30l average. So I don't I could do it cheaply enough without maize . We were doing it with grass only but it was costling a lot.

My mistake, with a name "dairygrazing" and breeding smaller cows I imagined a less intense herd.
If maize is needed it's not too much agro.

Bruce Almighty · Jan 22, 2017

I need 6 hours sleep. At least in the winter I can deliver milk in the evening as its cold enough. That's twice a week on the longer round. I can get away with less sleep in the summer.

In the summer when we're busy & there's milk to do I don't go to bed, just sleep on the sofa & I'm awake & ready to go quicker.

I struggle with evening meetings, Parish Council at 10pm & I'm ready to come home !

Beef farmer · Jan 22, 2017

One thing I have learnt about myself is that, when working for myself and making key decision and thinking all day, I need shut eye.
When in the past I've worked else where, especially in Oz or nz, all I had to do was what I was told, no key decision to make and no stress or worry, then 5 hours would be ample.
I without doubt done more physical work in Oz than I ever have done in my life, but no mental energy was exerted at all. Combine that with great weather and I felt invincible.

DairyGrazing · Jan 22, 2017

95% of heifers calf before 24.5 months. No concentrates after 4 months. Big bale silage and grazing only. Cows out in March and housed by end of November. Limited grazing acreage, small parlour, need to maximise output. Feed costs 5p, culling 18% so it works in principle we just need to simplify and streamline

ollie989898 · Jan 22, 2017

Ducati899 said:
alarm goes off 4.20 every morning,time I've driven in its 5ish (keep quiet jimmer) normally done by 6.15pm and have 1hr for brekkie and a hour for lunch,i have one monday off a fortnight and alternate weekends with the young lad we have here,relief milker covers dad 3 days a month and then i milk if he wants any more days away,apart from my every other monday we dont have set days off,if the young lad wants a day off he asks i say yes and were all happy,if i want a afternoon off i take it..lad goes to college on thursdays so he's away that day as well,the weekend work is only routine yard work in winter so you can be done by 9am and then dont start again until 3pm

Yeah I'll come and drive your robot but it would have to wait till around 10am in the mornings.

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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