Farm children working hours

[glasshouse]

Looking back my dad was kind of an ass. He started getting me up at 2:30 am on weekends and summers when I was 8 or 9. I wasn’t happy about it. Usually about 4 hours after school every day. So pretty quick I was around 40 hours a week. At 15 I started getting up before school as well and the hours went up accordingly. At 16 nobody could handle me anymore and I did what I wanted, as long as I was there for work. I had my own money, paid my own bills, and bought my first truck. It didn’t kill, damage or stunt me, but it was unpleasant at times.

I probably missed 10 days of school in the 12 years i went. Going to school was like vacation! I could sleep, read, socialize, torment teachers etc for 8 hours a day.

I definitely think how I grew up had a huge influence on me and I have no ill feelings towards my father about it. I do admit it may have been more than necessary. Being pushed hard does show you that you can go farther than you thought. Even now my cruising speed it still faster and longer lasting than most around me. It makes life easy

2.30am??????????????????????????????????????????????
to do what?

 

[Highland Mule]

I could not like this enough, all this shite about needing sleep is rubbish! I would be up at 4 to get some fishing in before bringing the cows in for milking. We are doing todays generation no favours by following the trendy ideas promoted by many educationalists

Curious, where did you study medicine?

 

[glasshouse]

Sometimes , from youngsters i've spoken to over the years, they consider their "education" finished when they can
read the tractor reviews. And i've ceased to be amazed at the number of farmer's who think that the only reason
to keep animals is to get a subsidy cheque, which is then spent at the machinery dealers. If, at some point in the
future you will only recieve farm support by signing up to an enviroment scheme, which limits your stocking rate,
the Sh*t will hit the fan.

Its about 20 yrs since you got a subsidy cheque for keeping animals. Keep up.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

2.30am??????????????????????????????????????????????
to do what?

We milked at 2:45, so I would scrape out freestall beds and reshape the sand while cows were out. Then help milk a bit, feed calves, then feed heifers and dry cows.

 

[The Fenster]

Adding the opinion of one of the snotty teenagers you all mention I see a lot of students at my school sickened quickly by pushy parents whatever the industry they desire their children to work in , most commonly Doctors and lawyers pushing children into the same industry as them or sporty people pushing children into particular sports . The most successful student are those generally with freedom ( to an extent ) and parents who give encouragement and help to facilitate There children’s aims and dreams , without going over the top. I feel this applies to farming as well. I’m mad keen on farming and always been lucky to have bosses that have tonnes of work whenever I want it but always freedom , always try and push myself as much as possible though and appreciate there generosity and hence try to pay them back with as much hard work as possible .

 

[glasshouse]

We milked at 2:45, so I would scrape out freestall beds and reshape the sand while cows were out. Then help milk a bit, feed calves, then feed heifers and dry cows.

Thats the earliest milking i ever heard of. i thought 4 am was bad. 5 is about the norm for early birds is it not.

 

[Exfarmer]

Curious, where did you study medicine?

What has sleep got to do with medicine?
There is no evidence children need more than 8 hours. As any other human does.
The main problem today is children are staying up till the small hours .
So they do not want to rise till 8 - 10 am the screens whether tv, phone or tablet are the cause of needing a lie in nothing more , nothing less.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Thats the earliest milking i ever heard of. i thought 4 am was bad. 5 is about the norm for early birds is it not.

Where I work we milk at 2 am most of the year. Not sure what normal times are.

 

[Highland Mule]

What has sleep got to do with medicine?

Given 'sleep' returns over 37,000 entries on the BMJ website, I'd say quite a lot, although I am not medically qualified.

 

[Beowulf]

What has sleep got to do with medicine?

Do you actually believe that? For a minute I thought you might be serious, but even I doubt there is someone that stupid sharing the air I breathe.

There is no evidence children need more than 8 hours.

Once again, you aren't that brainless are you? Have you actually researched any of this? You do have some peer-reviewed evidence to at least partially support your senile delusions, don't you?

 

[Red Fred]

Getting up at 4 to go fishing isn't the same as being dragged out of bed by your dad and forced to go to work. Going fishing is a healthy leisure pursuit (unless you were the Son of Hickory Hollers' Tramp and had to feed the whole family at the age of 5 )

 

[fgc325j]

Its about 20 yrs since you got a subsidy cheque for keeping animals. Keep up.

Yes - but the SFP in Wales is based on historical payments
and you'd be suprised on how many farmers thinking is stuck in a time warp.

 

[glasshouse]

Yes - but the SFP in Wales is based on historical payments
and you'd be suprised on how many farmers thinking is stuck in a time warp.

it wont be anymore

 

[fgc325j]

it wont be anymore

Yes - there will be an earthquake like jolt when reality hits, but no doubt they hope
that the "senedd" in Cardiff Bay will help out, especially since they can now raise
their own taxes !!
Just remembered, and i hope somebody can clarify this, but didn't they give Welsh
Dairy farmers a few pence subsidy back in 2003/4/5 when milk was down to 16-17
pence per litre???.

 

[Doc]

Some posters need to re read their replies once they have sobered up and checked back into the real world.
If you have spent 10 years of your life finishing work at 11.50pm and starting next day at 3.00am and aren’t as rich as Bill Gates, you are profoundly stupid.
The smart bit is achieving a lot in a little, not the other way round. I hope all your kids realise this, they probably do...

 

[Old McDonald]

Its about 20 yrs since you got a subsidy cheque for keeping animals. Keep up.

Still get headage payments in at least some of the EU, including here.

You are forgiven for not knowing that because none of us can know everything and after todays sad new about WnW I most certainly do not want to cause any distress to another old farming forum friend.

 

[Cowcorn]

Interesting thread.
I never wanted to farm when at school but was keen to earn some money so started out on the potato grader at about 12. By 15 dad expected us to do the same hours as everyone else all through summer holidays which was tough and made me decide Farming definitely wasn’t for me. On leaving school I got a proper 9-5 job which after a year I was bored out of my mind with and went back to the farm.
It’s much easier to work the 100 hour weeks that are sometimes needed in farming once you get to 22/23 and have finished growing!
Now I have kids of my own I wonder what the best approach will be so they learn the discipline needed for the inevitable hard graft during busy times (if they want to farm) but aren’t put off and can have some time off to be a kid and not feel guilty about it.

Its a tough balancing act my son is 14 and helps out at weekends and holidays but his mother makes sure he has time for his drumming and basketball hurling etc
Also she is very health and safety conscious and overrules my more traditional approach to ' making a farmer' out of him.
My father was very old school and considered me a man when i was fourteen and therefore capable of a mans work Like many of my generation i was driving tractors as soon as my feet could reach the pedals .
He also inisisted on me staying at school til i was seventeen .He sent me to england to work with releatives who were in the building business to give me what he called another option before starting farming
That was some year the big money , the drinking ,the women.....

 

[Old McDonald]

The main problem today is children are staying up till the small hours .

You do not know that. See how many old timers are still at their screens late into the night, although I note you logged off from here before 10 tonight.

I have never been an early riser (except to go fishing!!!) but I do tend to work later in the evenings than most folks and have always been able to work with tractor lights or electricity in buildings. Others will know more about this than me, but I understand that way, way back in time it was normal for little groups of folks to have some on "night shift" or doing guard duty whilst the others slept and then the night shift folk would sleep. Could be connected, but my father worked permanent night shift down the pit, 6 pm to 2 am, for over 25 years. He ran his smallholding during the day. He died a week after his 66th birthday, but of course hard work never killed anybody according to some.

 

[wasted years]

Dont be so negative.
i carted all the harvest aged 13 in 76, it was great.
there were plenty folk keeping an eye on me.
kids should only work for about 6 hours max per day, and be supervised.

It is the supervision bit that I keep in my mind, my 16 yr old disced a steep field yesterday and I was 6 miles away sowing turnips.
Now fair enough he has been brought up on banky land and was using a tractor fit for the job but when I was a kid someone would have been near to me doing something else, there was 6 of us then altogether.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Dont be so negative.
i carted all the harvest aged 13 in 76, it was great.
there were plenty folk keeping an eye on me.
kids should only work for about 6 hours max per day, and be supervised.

That was 40 years ago. Agriculture has come on in leaps and bounds since those days.

Those folk to keep an eye on kids working don't exist anymore. Which farm workers would be happy to be responsible for looking out for someone else's kids in the workplace?

First and foremost, kids should get an education, giving more options in later life.

Work smarter, not harder.