4xtrahands / farm employee

jjm

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
It is proving to be incredibly difficult finding a decent person to come and work here. There seems to be a serious shortage of people wanting a job in farming around here which is compounded by the fact that there are other farms in a similar position as me with regards to labour. Has anyone had any success in recruiting someone from the “4xtrahands“ website?.
Finding someone locally remains preferable but failing that what would be a fair and reasonable contribution for me to pay towards rented accommodation for the right person .
If anyone knows of someone with experience and loyalty who wants to work on clean, tidy and progressive arable, sheep and B&B pig farm please send them my way!. Thanks .
 

The Son

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Good luck!
I have tried 4 xtrahands twice neither time have i managed to get what I want.
It really does astound me the number of people who don't read the job description before making an application.
There is a desperate shortage of people who want to work in agriculture at the moment.
 
Good luck

I have advertised on 4xtra hands a few times for ourselves and a dairy unit. Never really had any luck - loads of wannabees and people with some faintly believable backgrounds - although have had a couple of people who came via other contacts who were excellent, who had been on 4xtra hands, seen our adverts but not available to apply at the time - so there are good people on there.
 
Always used them years ago around 2002. Don t think they were going long back then? Mary seemed quite a nice lady. Don t know if it is the same people running it now? Skilled arable guys don t bother with it much by all accounts nowadays? Same jobs advertised over and over again. Getting a reply 2 or 3 months after it was forgotten about!!. I did find looking at the CV list and buying individual CVs a better job as you can pick the ones you want? Plus you can figure out the dreamers from the genuine ones very quickly!
 
It is proving to be incredibly difficult finding a decent person to come and work here. There seems to be a serious shortage of people wanting a job in farming around here which is compounded by the fact that there are other farms in a similar position as me with regards to labour.

If anyone knows of someone with experience and loyalty who wants to work on clean, tidy and progressive arable, sheep and B&B pig farm please send them my way!. Thanks .

Have you tried getting down wiv da yoofs and putting an advert on the local YFC group page on Faceache?

Or keeping it old school, does the local livestock market have a notice board for jobs/wanteds/for sale etc?
 

kfpben

Member
Location
Mid Hampshire
Try YFC and local ag colleges.

If you need staff to do seasonal jobs involving livestock grunt work rather than anything too technical I have had success with vet students, work experience kids and even one off the back of the job centre queue.
 
I've noticed on FB jobs pages their are usually loads of people looking for tractor driving but very rare people looking for milking/ livestock jobs. Alot now don't want to get their hands dirty.
Completely agree with that! Seems to be mainly seasonal/student placements on the arable side on FB. Indeed alot of people use that now as far as I m aware? And that's free to advertise!
 
It is proving to be incredibly difficult finding a decent person to come and work here. There seems to be a serious shortage of people wanting a job in farming around here which is compounded by the fact that there are other farms in a similar position as me with regards to labour. Has anyone had any success in recruiting someone from the “4xtrahands“ website?.
Finding someone locally remains preferable but failing that what would be a fair and reasonable contribution for me to pay towards rented accommodation for the right person .
If anyone knows of someone with experience and loyalty who wants to work on clean, tidy and progressive arable, sheep and B&B pig farm please send them my way!. Thanks .

Nightmare at the moment, loads of people "wanting" work.

Seemingly most either don't actually want to work, don't want the hours or have zero skills or braincells.

There was a lad on Facebook recently who was looking for work locally, I messaged him that evening, said he'd call tomorrow.
Never did 🤷‍♂️
 

had e nuff

Member
Location
Durham
Nearly all of the jobs advertised,especially the arable and contractors jobs only want experienced people.
How are people supposed to get the experience if nobody will give them a chance to learn on the job.
Most employers will have got their experience from working along side their father. You aren't born with it!
@jjm maybe take on a youngster and train him to how to do the job.
 

jjm

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Nightmare at the moment, loads of people "wanting" work.

Seemingly most either don't actually want to work, don't want the hours or have zero skills or braincells.

There was a lad on Facebook recently who was looking for work locally, I messaged him that evening, said he'd call tomorrow.
Never did 🤷‍♂️
I’ve had the same twice in the past month!.
Nearly all of the jobs advertised,especially the arable and contractors jobs only want experienced people.
How are people supposed to get the experience if nobody will give them a chance to learn on the job.
Most employers will have got their experience from working along side their father. You aren't born with it!
@jjm maybe take on a youngster and train him to how to do the job.

I would be happy to do that if the right one comes knocking.
 
We used 4 xtra hands twice, people who applied seemed credible and had good references. First one ended up doing time for fraud and the second one could be in the same place, I sacked him because he was a heroin addict. I may have driven him to it)
Got a really good herdsman through an agency.
Used another internet job market this year for a part timer. No one read the advert properly.
Invited two for interview, only one turned up.
WTF
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
I've a mate who's currently looking for a 2ic on a dairy youngstock unit. Finding staff drives him mad, advertising and getting applicants isn't a problem, it's when you start asking them to fill in permission forms for criminal and ACC checks along with contactable references that the fun begins. Once you get down to a few for an interview contacting them is a big problem, despite everyone having a phone, no one actually answers it, if you're lucky you get a "who's this" text.
It's a battle to give someone the job, then you have to wait and see if they actually turn up.
A good bit of sport is to ask him how recruiting's going, then stand well back (y) :sneaky:
 
Always used them years ago around 2002. Don t think they were going long back then? Mary seemed quite a nice lady. Don t know if it is the same people running it now? Skilled arable guys don t bother with it much by all accounts nowadays? Same jobs advertised over and over again. Getting a reply 2 or 3 months after it was forgotten about!!. I did find looking at the CV list and buying individual CVs a better job as you can pick the ones you want? Plus you can figure out the dreamers from the genuine ones very quickly!
Think nigel and mary ,sold out and retired , they where good 20 year ago , ,they started a dating thing too ,back then ,to keep office staff busy ,
debbie harrison on f b , runs a good labour page , think its rural careers ,
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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