training people to milk and how do you renumerate them?

dairyrow

Member
Had a non farming person come in and help milk for a day. Gave a brief explanation of things and preping and putting on cups. He was surprised how technical the work was and said he quite enjoyed it. The problem ive got is ive already got a trainee who i think will be with me for another year and hopefully might relief milk for me when she goes away to college. My milking parlour only a one man unit really.

Its got me thinking how i can future proof my business for relief or hopefully employing people full time so i can get off farm to see stuff and actually just have a better social life. Has anybody got any suggestions and how do you pay them?
 

Loner

Member
Location
South Manchester
Had a non farming person come in and help milk for a day. Gave a brief explanation of things and preping and putting on cups. He was surprised how technical the work was and said he quite enjoyed it. The problem ive got is ive already got a trainee who i think will be with me for another year and hopefully might relief milk for me when she goes away to college. My milking parlour only a one man unit really.

Its got me thinking how i can future proof my business for relief or hopefully employing people full time so i can get off farm to see stuff and actually just have a better social life. Has anybody got any suggestions and how do you pay them?

Maybe someone would help out just for the experience, especially if they were going in to the Dairy Farming industry. The thing as regards to paying somebody,maybe there is a scheme to help with that through the job center. I am sure other farming agencies may have some information for you .
Hope it works out for you ,and get you plenty of quality free time.
 
Location
cumbria
I had someone here for work experience.
As soon as she was able to milk solo, she was paid.
As her experience and ability grew, so did the rate. She came in as a relief milker at this point.
She worked here all last summer. Raised all my calves this year to an excellent standard and got to the point I could leave the spot in her hands.

Gone to uni now:(.
My loss is the veterinary professions gain.
 
I had someone here for work experience.
As soon as she was able to milk solo, she was paid.
As her experience and ability grew, so did the rate. She came in as a relief milker at this point.
She worked here all last summer. Raised all my calves this year to an excellent standard and got to the point I could leave the spot in her hands.

Gone to uni now:(.
My loss is the veterinary professions gain.

That's the nub of the problem - The good ones are nearly always ambitious.
 
Location
East Mids
He said he enjoyed it.......wait to he's been in the parlour 40 years. I'm at the age now that I've less patience and therefore have to do it myself
I hope you only mean less patience with trainees and not less patience with the cows, in which case you should be leaving it to someone else. But it amazes me how many farmers expect to be able to find relief milkers at the drop of a hat and aren't prepared to teach anyone who is keen and give them a chance to get a foothold.
 
I hope you only mean less patience with trainees and not less patience with the cows, in which case you should be leaving it to someone else. But it amazes me how many farmers expect to be able to find relief milkers at the drop of a hat and aren't prepared to teach anyone who is keen and give them a chance to get a foothold.
Plenty of patience with cows,I still enjoy milking . The thing that gets me with dairy farming today is so many dairy farmers with robots who don't want to milk the cows
 

clem dog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co Antrim
Plenty of patience with cows,I still enjoy milking . The thing that gets me with dairy farming today is so many dairy farmers with robots who don't want to milk the cows
So really you are saying you think anyone putting a robot in amazes you that they don't want to stand in a hole in the ground for 5 or 6 hours a day!
For me it means flexibility to spend time with my family then spend time with the cows when it suits me.
Certainly the management style is different, not worse or better, just different. Sick cows can be easily spotted if you pay attention and this is true whatever the regime. Mastitis can be missed in the parlour too if you are in a hurry to get to an appointment or are busy at silage or other field work. But I suppose it takes different strokes for different folks as they say.
If we were all the same it would be boring as there would be no one to argue with!
 
That's the nub of the problem - The good ones are nearly always ambitious.
I had a vet studnet do a calving with us, she was mustard and i offered her a job to stay and become a herdswoman, understandably she wanted to continue her studies to become a vet, but my herdsman is earning more than my vet....... if you learn a skill in ag, you can.be very much in demand and inturn demand a good wage.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I had a vet studnet do a calving with us, she was mustard and i offered her a job to stay and become a herdswoman, understandably she wanted to continue her studies to become a vet, but my herdsman is earning more than my vet....... if you learn a skill in ag, you can.be very much in demand and inturn demand a good wage.

Word.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I’m not sure if homeschooling is a thing in the UK, but over here it tends to be larger families that for whatever reason don’t like the educational system. We have two homeschooled families that we employ. Start with the older ones who then train the younger ones. It works really well for us.

We have four from one family, one is calf manager, two assist her and one is a relief milker.
 

clem dog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co Antrim
A farmer without a bot can be well organised too, my computer is between my ears,worked well up to now. I'll not be working for lely
If I've too much work,I'll reduce stock and carry on
I'm not working for lely either;)
I know that lots of farmers can be good at organising their workload. Now I'm just better at it :p
Joking aside, I needed major expenditure on a parlour anyway so it was a no brainer for me once I did a few sums.
To keep on topic, relief milkers and the ongoing cost were a part of my envelope calculations. Being a small herd, training relief and giving them enough work to keep them up to date on the routine was a major cost to my business. Then if I needed help on the day to day running, it was costing me anway so I went down the route I did. Like I said, it doesn't make my way better than yours. (y)
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
needs schools to tell leavers that there is good money in farm work, that it is a really skilled industry, that there is the chance to move upwards and onwards, very often accommodation is offered.
it is not a career for the not so bright (P C non quote)
that it is a job that you can really see the fruits of your labour

What, lie to the kids? Good money in farm work? That's not what I read on here.
 

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