Do any arable farms employ someone specifically for the night-shift?

llamedos

New Member
In other industry I have worked permanent nights & week on days, week on nights rotating - that is horrible, you simply do not get used to it.

As @e3120 most of those who work permanent nights love it. But it does spill over into their normal life routine.
Worst time is between 2-4am and you brain gets a lull, a dangerous period of time at anywhere doing shifts.
Given the choice of say lambing shifts now, I would prefer night work over days.
 
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.

You could imagine a scenario where farming margins became very tight. You could not afford to employ two people full time on normal hours with the same amount of kit, but you could cut your machinery down and employ them both on shift patterns and basically avoid a redundancy.
 
In other industry I have worked permanent nights & week on days, week on nights rotating - that is horrible, you simply do not get used to it.

As @e3120 most of those who work permanent nights love it. But it does spill over into their normal life routine.
Worst time is between 2-4am and you brain gets a lull, a dangerous period of time at anywhere doing shifts.
Given the choice of say lambing shifts now, I would prefer night work over days.

What about setting up the shift pattern so that it's not truly 24 hours, but more like 20 (perhaps with some overlap during the crossover period)? Would that make it a lot more pleasant?
 

DRC

Member
:)
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.
I'd agree with that , but maybe I'm just old fashioned and have managed a farming career, mainly as a tenant, without working anywhere near the hours the big progressive farms do. Lambing time was about the only time you'd see me on the farm in the small hours.
 
:)
I'd agree with that , but maybe I'm just old fashioned and have managed a farming career, mainly as a tenant, without working anywhere near the hours the big progressive farms do. Lambing time was about the only time you'd see me on the farm in the small hours.

I understand the sentiment. I suppose though as @Chae1 said, when you start to think about it, there are a lot of businesses that work nearly around the clock. The guy who comes pigeon shooting on our farm working in the printing industry and always works nights. Seems quite cheerful about it. NHS obviously is another example.
 
I also think this sort of idea might work if you had someone wanting to retire partially -- i.e. still wants to work, but doesn't want to work crazy hours. You could then have them do an earlier portion of the day, say 6am to midday, and then have someone else take over from midday to midnight.
 

llamedos

New Member
What about setting up the shift pattern so that it's not truly 24 hours, but more like 20 (perhaps with some overlap during the crossover period)? Would that make it a lot more pleasant?

I would say that would be feasible, but I would think it better to find someone who would do the late shift on at least a full harvest basis, rather than ask men who are normally day men to swap shifts iycwim

I would also exclude anyone who can not think for themselves from doing it too.
 
I also think this sort of idea might work if you had someone wanting to retire partially -- i.e. still wants to work, but doesn't want to work crazy hours. You could then have them do an earlier portion of the day, say 6am to midday, and then have someone else take over from midday to midnight.
only one thing wrong with your scenario,getting people 2 people to do what one has normaly done most farm workers look to the long hours to make up there wage unless they are on a salary,18 hour days from july to November always have seemed normal to me:)
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
The main difference in farming, compared to other industries, is obviously the weather effect. The night man is less likely to other jobs if his field work gets rained off, but the day man always has plenty he can do. In a catchy season that can have a big financial affect.

We try to stick to 7am-9pm in grain harvest (finish earlier if poss), 6am - 8pm taty lifting (daylight hours dictated mostly) If we combine a bit late on occasion, we'll have a later start the next day. Many operators are happier to run a few more hours themselves than have someone else drive 'their' machine. We're not really of a scale where we need to run all night, though I have done so on an odd occasion, usually with the sprayer.

We also have Keith (the legend) - one of our retired truck drivers, who does the goforing, and will occasionally turn straw, pulls the pipe trailer round when we're collecting irrigation pipes, toddles along with transport box when pulling weed beet etc, and does most of the rolling - he doesnt do big days, nor is he here that many days really, but that sort of back up is invaluable to me at times.
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
even if on a part-time / opportunistic basis.

that will be me on occasion then !

I purposely don't have a machine driving job meaning I am available to relieve / back-up or extend working hours if needed

thankfully doesn't need to happen very often these days

I actually prefer to work at night than in the day
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
that will be me on occasion then !

I purposely don't have a machine driving job meaning I am available to relieve / back-up or extend working hours if needed

thankfully doesn't need to happen very often these days

I actually prefer to work at night than in the day

For similar reasons, the only job that soley I do now is the spraying, which fits in around other jobs well enough. Last couple of seasons I have done the majority of the combning, but normally I am the relief man for everyone. I can and do do every job, but that doesnt mean I should, but handy if someone needs a day off or whatever.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
For similar reasons, the only job that soley I do now is the spraying, which fits in around other jobs well enough. Last couple of seasons I have done the majority of the combning, but normally I am the relief man for everyone. I can and do do every job, but that doesnt mean I should, but handy if someone needs a day off or whatever.


you need a bit of slack like that in any system

One of my key guys only gets to see his children on a Sunday (divorce) so through harvest I have a sunday job if we are cutting doing his job for example. You cant retain good staff if you expect 24/7 from them like some do, its simply not reasonable to fail to consider people's life / work balance

when we get behind with harvest or establishment etc I can easy do a few nights or extend the day by a few hours to get back on course, take a lot of risk out of your system

trouble is this isnt the kind of job that anyone can do, its ideally suited to operators that have in the past driven a large selection of machinery, its takes a more skilled man to jump onto machinery he is not using all the time in the dark or less than ideal conditions and operate it without breaking it or making a mess of the job. Its not a role I would feel comfortable getting anyone other than myself to do
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Recently I've been going on the cultivations tractor at night so normal person has been doing roughly 7am-7pm then we fuel up and do maintinence then I'm roughly going from 8pm until whenever I'm knackered which is usually about 3am. Have been doing other stuff in the afternoons aswell but it's not too bad. Think I would really struggle to go straight through the night.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Good point though -- employ a Kiwi and just tell them not to bother dealing with the jet lag!
I never have any trouble at night..

As you poor folk will know by now :oops::rolleyes:

I used to do most of the extra DDing at night purely out of choice, easier to get on without the phone going off all the time etc and I prefer the dark :cool:
As soon as Mrs KP falls asleep I'm off to the workshop to carry on with my project :sneaky:
 

Adam@Rumen

Member
Location
Nantwich/Rishton
Can you explain a bit more about that system? What did the night drive do when there was no cultivations to be done (due to rain or after running out of field)? How well did the system work?

It was a while ago and I didn't take too much notice sorry. I'm pretty sure he was a full timer and wanted to do the nights. There was no risk of running out of work to be done but I can't remember what he did if the weather turned.

Seemed to work well - he was always happy when I filled him up with diesel in the morning. Never moved during the night, always transferred to different blocks in daytime.

The farm manager at the time has retired otherwise I'd give you his number, he was a grand chap.
 

General-Lee

Member
Location
Devon
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.
I've never worked stupid hours just the normal mixed farm peaks and lows.

Have done a few early hours silage and occasional when combining but on the whole senisble 22:00-23 during harvest, apart from harvest, stockrounds and occasional hiccup don't work Sundays.

But found since getting married and daughter don't have the same desire to work silly hours, have moved closer to work and been going home for tea putting little one to bed then go back working ground for couple hours.


Not tarring all lorry drivers as farmers etc must be the same, have found talking to various ones at mills, coming on farm they're glad of overnighters or even choose to drive somewhere just so they're away from home.
 
Location
Devon
I have on good authority that what you read is true ,,,a very good manager with the backing to do his job well ,,,,,, we have the sister farm in our area but I believe on not such good land ,,,,,, every thing over a weigh bridge ,,,,, and the farms owners are on here as well I should think ,

Fair play if they are getting those yields, must be very good dirt or a very good manager or a combination of both.

Would be intresting to walk that place a few times a year if it was a AHDB monitor farm.
 
Location
Devon
I've never worked stupid hours just the normal mixed farm peaks and lows.

Have done a few early hours silage and occasional when combining but on the whole senisble 22:00-23 during harvest, apart from harvest, stockrounds and occasional hiccup don't work Sundays.

But found since getting married and daughter don't have the same desire to work silly hours, have moved closer to work and been going home for tea putting little one to bed then go back working ground for couple hours.


Not tarring all lorry drivers as farmers etc must be the same, have found talking to various ones at mills, coming on farm they're glad of overnighters or even choose to drive somewhere just so they're away from home.

Most lorry drivers get paid extra to stay out on overnighters ( ie say £35 a night )

I know one chap who transports new cars all the time, his lorry had its 6 weekly check on the Sat ready for the Monday and they found a couple of problems, for various reasons there wasn't a spare truck for him to take on the Monday and his wasn't repaired until the Friday, he spent every night in the truck at the yard instead of going 20 mins to home, asked him why, said because he didn't want to lose his £35 night and the company would pay it as long as he was in the depot.
 

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