Cows per labour unit

[Cowski]

Just looking at some details of the Dairy NZ industry award winners, they are running between 125-220 cows per labour unit mostly just under the 200 mark. Production per cow range of 280-565(!)kgMS.

What can we learn from them?

We run at about 105 or 125 if you take out a FT tractor driver doing fert, field work although yard work in winter. All replacements are reared on farm, we use contractors for raking, forage wagon, primary cultivations, most spraying, most slurry and dung spreading and drilling, the rest done in-house. Spring block calving with a mix of dilapidated buildings on 2 sites.

We have made some great progress in other areas of the business in the last 18months to drop our COP but labour is an area that I think we need to re-visit. I think 200+ cows/person is unrealistic but if we could get to 170 that would be a million litres/person which would be quite pleasing. The one proviso is that we are not looking to kill ourselves and contented staff are also a priority.

 

[multi power]

If you want 200 cows per person that's no problem. But you will have to invest in very very good facilities

 

[More to life]

Just looking at some details of the Dairy NZ industry award winners, they are running between 125-220 cows per labour unit mostly just under the 200 mark. Production per cow range of 280-565(!)kgMS.

What can we learn from them?

We run at about 105 or 125 if you take out a FT tractor driver doing fert, field work although yard work in winter. All replacements are reared on farm, we use contractors for raking, forage wagon, primary cultivations, most spraying, most slurry and dung spreading and drilling, the rest done in-house. Spring block calving with a mix of dilapidated buildings on 2 sites.

We have made some great progress in other areas of the business in the last 18months to drop our COP but labour is an area that I think we need to re-visit. I think 200+ cows/person is unrealistic but if we could get to 170 that would be a million litres/person which would be quite pleasing. The one proviso is that we are not looking to kill ourselves and contented staff are also a priority.

Don't forget they don't really have a winter your better comparing with best practice in the uk (like for like).

 

[multi power]

Don't forget they don't really have a winter your better comparing with best practice in the uk (like for like).

Of course they have winter, but they have no farm assurance and similar nonsense

 

[Rossymons]

What way are you measuring labour? Cows per man, litres per man, hours per cow etc

 

[Irish NZ]

Don't forget they don't really have a winter your better comparing with best practice in the uk (like for like).

A Southland/otago winter is like for like. Cold, wet and grey.
West coast winter is wetter.

 

[Irish NZ]

Just looking at some details of the Dairy NZ industry award winners, they are running between 125-220 cows per labour unit mostly just under the 200 mark. Production per cow range of 280-565(!)kgMS.

What can we learn from them?

We run at about 105 or 125 if you take out a FT tractor driver doing fert, field work although yard work in winter. All replacements are reared on farm, we use contractors for raking, forage wagon, primary cultivations, most spraying, most slurry and dung spreading and drilling, the rest done in-house. Spring block calving with a mix of dilapidated buildings on 2 sites.

We have made some great progress in other areas of the business in the last 18months to drop our COP but labour is an area that I think we need to re-visit. I think 200+ cows/person is unrealistic but if we could get to 170 that would be a million litres/person which would be quite pleasing. The one proviso is that we are not looking to kill ourselves and contented staff are also a priority.

I've done similar numbers in UK Ireland and NZ, it's pretty easy you just need simple robust systems, forget doing it all yourself eg silage and slurry.

Heifers have been contracted out in Ireland and NZ it's easier to carry an extra line or 2 in the milking shed than a whole different group of animals.

The biggest thing(which everyone should be doing anyway) is to be fully set up And ready for the next job ie. During winter we're focused on calving prep staff training and time off. In the run up to mating it's the same. So we hit the ground running and we don't have gave an oh sh!t we have started X job and we're not ready moment

 

[jackrussell101]

What £ is a labour unit 25k, 27k or 30k?

 

[Spudman]

There's a guy called Stu Hopkins that I follow on Twitter who runs around 280 cows plus a few followers on a once a day milking system. Think he's in the north island of nz. Seems to be a mostly one man band, so would be a high number of cows even with a part time helper.
http://farmersweekly.co.nz/article/family-first?p=122

 

[Beef farmer]

Can I have a job...

What £ is a labour unit 25k, 27k or 30k?

What £ is a labour unit 25k, 27k or 30k?

 

[lazy farmer]

on our cfps unpaid family labour is costed in at 30k per person.

 

[lazy farmer]

from memory labour costs including unpaid family labour comes in between 4.5p and 6p per litre with in our group . fully agree that we need to work in simplier ways that not only reduce the cost of labour but also the hrs worked by staff. This may mean contracting certain jobs out such as winter feeding ,not doing certain jobs at all such as buffer feeding at grass(took me yrs and yrs and yrs to learn this). The idea of less kit and having to drive it really appeals! It may mean more efficient ways of milking perhaps OAD will become more popular.

 

[Headless chicken]

You would think that as numbers grow in a well managed system you could cope with more cows per labour unit.

I.e it takes one man if you have 60 or 100 cows but 2 men could manage 250 but it never seems to work like this

 

[lazy farmer]

it appears to me the less we do except milking the cows the better off we will be. the cost of kit repairing it etc has totally gotten out of sync with what is affordable

 

[jackrussell101]

2 people can do 3 peoples work easier than 1 person can do 2 peoples work.

 

[More to life]

2 people can do 3 peoples work easier than 1 person can do 2 peoples work.

It's also better to have two men doing 35h week than one doing 70h but can anybody say they do this. There are going to be heroes clocking up big hours this year in a needs must situation but long term it's a ticket to an early grave

 

[jackrussell101]

It's also better to have two men doing 35h week than one doing 70h but can anybody say they do this. There are going to be heroes clocking up big hours this year in a needs must situation but long term it's a ticket to an early grave

I hear what you say but the French only work 30 hours weeks or whatever and there national life expectancy is no better than ours

 

[Rossymons]

It's also better to have two men doing 35h week than one doing 70h but can anybody say they do this. There are going to be heroes clocking up big hours this year in a needs must situation but long term it's a ticket to an early grave

I would argue that this year is actually the year to be thinking "why am i doing it this way?" rather than blindly carrying on before.

 

[bigw]

I would argue that this year is actually the year to be thinking "why am i doing it this way?" rather than blindly carrying on before.

Try telling my father that!!

 

[Clay52]

Just looking at some details of the Dairy NZ industry award winners, they are running between 125-220 cows per labour unit mostly just under the 200 mark. Production per cow range of 280-565(!)kgMS.

What can we learn from them?

We run at about 105 or 125 if you take out a FT tractor driver doing fert, field work although yard work in winter. All replacements are reared on farm, we use contractors for raking, forage wagon, primary cultivations, most spraying, most slurry and dung spreading and drilling, the rest done in-house. Spring block calving with a mix of dilapidated buildings on 2 sites.

We have made some great progress in other areas of the business in the last 18months to drop our COP but labour is an area that I think we need to re-visit. I think 200+ cows/person is unrealistic but if we could get to 170 that would be a million litres/person which would be quite pleasing. The one proviso is that we are not looking to kill ourselves and contented staff are also a priority.

I bet if you convert the figures to litres or solids per labour unit the kiwi numbers wouldn't look that impressive.