Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Massive self-incrimination fail.
Do any arable farms employ someone specifically for the night-shift?
- Thread starter Feldspar
- Start date
Massive self-incrimination fail.
Daniel
Member
- Location
- Mildenhall, Suffolk
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
I've said this before, but I did my BASIS course with a farm manager who I remember saying something along the lines of: "Double shifting machinery is an easy decision when peering a spreadsheet. In practice, you want your best people on the night-shift, and they are the ones who least want to do it. In the end the day shift ends up sorting out the problems caused by the night shift."
Don't mean to say it can't be done, but does highlight the challenges.
Don't mean to say it can't be done, but does highlight the challenges.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Is any of that rubbish true?? ie his barn breaking yields??
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
I think the term is "reasonable"!
FWIW I think heavy land has done well this year, and those yields might have been achievable over smaller areas. I wouldn't immediately discount them as blatant falsehoods, but when you here farmers on here complaining that their words have literally been changed as they go into print, pinches of salt must be kept at the ready.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
You wont hold onto good staff for long if you expect them to work all nighter's for months on end!
Would have to be a single bloke/ woman, once they get a partner/ kids etc they will soon say that's it I have had enough of night working.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Drilling 1500 acres of wheat and only using 1200 acres when quoting yields is more like it
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
As @Chae1 said though, there are lots of people who work night shifts around the country. Some of them must be married! As I said, the utopian ideal is someone who would like to do a sprinkling throughout the year. I reckon, at a stab, 20 in a year would help smooth out peaks in workload nicely.
Daniel
Member
- Location
- Mildenhall, Suffolk
No idea, i'm a humble chicken farmer who plays at a bit of arable.
Its the magazine of the 'progressive arable farmer' apparently. I loathe the word progressive, whether applied to politics or farming. Progressing towards what exactly? Its a loaded term used by people with a messiah complex.
We did 12 to 12 worse time was tween 2 and 5 am sometimes had a power nap everyone else was asleep so didn't notice lol
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
What situation were you doing this in? Were you switching between days and nights with little regularity?
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Did you stick it for long? What jobs were you doing? Did the system work?
When on sandwich many moons ago we sometimes ran plough 18 hrs a day, main driver 6-6, me 6 to midnight and I would fill up from bowser ready for morning again. I would go about lunchtime and do whatever jobs needed doing rolling etc. Seems like a good compromise to proper double shifting. I did hit a main sewer drain once that no one told me about and was covered in soil, went straight between wheels and broke shearbolts on first three furrows sure woke me up!
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Better than people working 18 hour shifts IMO.
One of our local dealership guys used to work for an outfit where they were blowing down combines at 6.30am and then going until past midnight not infrequently. I'd rather the 6-6 then 6-12 arrangement than this.
- Location
- Northumberland
Having worked in the model of shift work (car factory), you'd be surprised how many actually like it. I know a few that have worked continuous nights for years and get on fine with it, helped by the fact that their pension will also attract a nightshift premium. Some just remain on 'nights' during the off days, so no jet lag effects. Most alternated days/nights fortnight about to share the load/reward, but I've seen every variant of pattern imaginable. The most difficult for me was long Sat day (6-7), followed by long Sun night (5-6); there were a lot of zombies around at 4am Monday morning. Managers not only had to fight it themselves, but keep a beady eye for striken staff.
On the eating front, there was a twisted logic to having 4 main meals per day; have breakfast after getting up, have tea at teatime before work, have 'lunch' in middle of shift, have something else when finished & home. Couldn't see which one I wouldn't miss.
It must be acknowledged that it puts extra strain on the day crew as well. It takes some time to assimilate and deal with the problems from the nightshift and it was often frustrating that more time was wasted on this than a phonecall in the night, but there lies the slippery slope. Shift working breeds resentment and I banned the phrase 'the other shift did/didn't' in my teams as it is too easy to say what was/wasn't done without understanding the situation. It would be very easy to loose your best operator just because their counterpart didn't work in the same methodical, tidy (= slow, fussy from the opposite viewpoint) way.
On the eating front, there was a twisted logic to having 4 main meals per day; have breakfast after getting up, have tea at teatime before work, have 'lunch' in middle of shift, have something else when finished & home. Couldn't see which one I wouldn't miss.
It must be acknowledged that it puts extra strain on the day crew as well. It takes some time to assimilate and deal with the problems from the nightshift and it was often frustrating that more time was wasted on this than a phonecall in the night, but there lies the slippery slope. Shift working breeds resentment and I banned the phrase 'the other shift did/didn't' in my teams as it is too easy to say what was/wasn't done without understanding the situation. It would be very easy to loose your best operator just because their counterpart didn't work in the same methodical, tidy (= slow, fussy from the opposite viewpoint) way.
ollie989898
Member
That kind of shift system is practised a lot in other industries. They will recruit a larger than normal labour pool, and of course recognise that it is preferable from an output (and safety) point of view to have people working dedicated shifts rather than someone trying to do stupidly long shifts instead.
Humans need to sleep, even the military recognise this, and unless you are drugging them, people are going to begin to make mistakes in a big way, and a cultivator/pylon interaction is the inevitable result.
It is probably ok from a short term point of view, perhaps over harvest or the cultivations period, but long term, it would take some serious management.
Humans need to sleep, even the military recognise this, and unless you are drugging them, people are going to begin to make mistakes in a big way, and a cultivator/pylon interaction is the inevitable result.
It is probably ok from a short term point of view, perhaps over harvest or the cultivations period, but long term, it would take some serious management.
Derky
Member
- Location
- Bucks/oxon
From a cost point of view the way to get more out of kit is to run it longer and harder i am surprised more dont do it. Plus you dont have to run it 24 hours you could do it for 20 hours with 2 blokes. Done a bit at night and found a kip on the headland about 3 for half an hour helped no end. The issue is having someone just for the night shift not one that gets woken in the day.
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
For me the big plus of having two shifts is it would give a defined end to when you would stop that day. With one person there is the temptation to push it and push it and that can be quite stressful. You know that if you work another few hours you'll get a bit more done. With someone coming in to replace you there is that knowledge that the machine will carry on working without you and that even if you did stay up longer it wouldn't make a difference. Under this system I think it would be easier to plan your life outside of work and I think knowing that you finish at x o'clock would probably make you work fresher throughout the day.