How much land does it take to pay an employees wages ??

[sticky]

I think @Flintstone does his 1100 acres of arable on his own.

 

[David.]

When we be content that we have won this race to the bottom?

 

[teslacoils]

err, I’m farming 800 ha ( 2000 acre arable ), mostly zero till, with a full time job in town.
I do the planting, but use long term, reliable contractors for spraying, fert spreading & harvest

So, apart from the planting, all the rest of the work is subbed out?

 

[Still Farming]

just pondering
On an arable farm
How much land could one man look after himself ... using an extra driver to corn cart and perhaps using targeted contractors to do certain jobs
From that scenario
How much extra land would you need to justify a full time employee

??

All of it and more if your in a small way possibly .

 

[Derrick Hughes]

just pondering
On an arable farm
How much land could one man look after himself ... using an extra driver to corn cart and perhaps using targeted contractors to do certain jobs
From that scenario
How much extra land would you need to justify a full time employee

??

Can you give me a reason why I would employ a man over using a contractor on an all arable farm , with machinery and wages taken into account

 

[Bury the Trash]

I remember reading few yrs ago about someone who runs just over 1000 acres on his own with basically 2 big tractors ,sprayer and a 36'cut combine and no till kit . 3 crops ..wheat,barley then rape rotated in 3 blocks and his average field size was 63 acres . He will get someone in to cart the corn if the weather is looking dodgy otherwise its all done on his own . It also said he aims to be all planted up by 15 October !
Can't remember where I saw it but I suppose if your kitted out correctly it can be done .

coincidentally, our average field is is 6.3 acres Lol

 

[AJR75]

So, turning that around slightly with those sorts of numbers being suggested, and maybe it's a regional thing but around here much smaller mixed enterprises have full time roles but struggle to recruit anyone. Surely if the opportunities aren't as plentiful as in the past then there should be more staff available?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

coincidentally, our average field is is 6.3 acres Lol

I can trump that by 2 acres lol
But more to the point keeping 3000 sheep was to much for me and at the time the profit payed a man's wage, so running to keep still

 

[More to life]

Rule of thumb is one man to 100 cows
Would suggest that current returns puts that at 1:150

Many say that very few do

 

[Bald Rick]

Many say that very few do

Depends if the farmer sits in the house all day on TFF or not I suppose ..........

We would be 150/labour unit and are crying out for more staff

 

[More to life]

Depends if the farmer sits in the house all day on TFF or not I suppose ..........

We would be 150/labour unit and are crying out for more staff

Rms and foot trimmer included or in the contractor bracket. Young stock or flyers relief included ?

 

[More to life]

Rms and foot trimmer included or in the contractor bracket. Young stock or flyers relief included ?

I forgot forage

 

[7610 super q]

My full time job is 25 acres of barley. Hope this helps.

 

[curlietailz]

Can you give me a reason why I would employ a man over using a contractor on an all arable farm , with machinery and wages taken into account

well I was kind of just pondering over changing our system in the next few years
Currently employ one worker who will be 70 this next birthday so he probably won’t be a full time employee for ever........ question is do we downsize and son and heir do all the work or do we use contractors and keep farming what we have

I’m favouring downsizing and renting half the farm off ( contract farm/cropping agreement) and son farms the other half ( c400 acres)

just wondering how many acres an employee was worth really

 

[Derrick Hughes]

well I was kind of just pondering over changing our system in the next few years
Currently employ one worker who will be 70 this next birthday so he probably won’t be a full time employee for ever........ question is do we downsize and son and heir do all the work or do we use contractors and keep farming what we have

I’m favouring downsizing and renting half the farm off ( contract farm/cropping agreement) and son farms the other half ( c400 acres)

just wondering how many acres an employee was worth really

Its easier to farm 800 acres with plenty of help from Contractors than 400 on your own , a lot of the time I just ride around and keep an eye on them , they call me boss man with a smile , all good friends to be honest , but I do muck in and help

 

[Steevo]

Its easier to farm 800 acres with plenty of help from Contractors than 400 on your own , a lot of the time I just ride around and keep an eye on them , they call me boss man with a smile , all good friends to be honest , but I do muck in and help

This is very true indeed.

Peak times of year like this I'd struggle to do planting, rolling, spraying all on my own....especially as planting and spraying (and occasionally rolling) both need the same tractor. That's not to mention all the running around for seed logistics, breakdowns, working out spray calcs and ordering etc. and trying to run the rest of the business too.

2000ac farmed by 2 people, one on each tractor is a LOT less hassle and stress than half that farmed by one man.

Contractors can bring exactly this and make the job look easy by comparison.....but whilst they can bring the muscle, they cannot do the brainpower, management and decision making. Calling in contractors won't relive you of that and that can be time consuming too - something that the 1000ac/1 man theory doesn't take account of imo.

 

[B R C]

i think on 800 acres if you didn’t want to employ anyone even at harvest I would have one tractor 150hp for fert, spraying, hedge cutting drilling rolling, corn cart. Contractors for heavy cultivation’s and combining, or just go no til and just contractor for combining.

 

[ajd132]

Farm near us is doing 5000 acres with 3 full time staff, students for harvest.
That works out at 1,666 acres per man.

its still hard to work it out truly, do they have a manager or is it 3 tractor driver, do they do their own agronomy as many managers will now do that themselves, are the owners hands on? im trying to work it our for us but its actually not a simple as it first looks! basically are we talking tractor drivers/general workers or are we including things like the agronomist, the book keeper etc

 

[Suffolk Serf]

My full time job is 25 acres of barley. Hope this helps.

You ought to take up no till so that you can get over it all.

 

[7610 super q]

You ought to take up no till so that you can get over it all.

Studies carried out by ADAS in the early 1980's showed that looking after a medieval manor house and grounds is equivalent to farming 35,000 acres. So I win the hardest worker on this thread award. Ya boo, up yours you lazy no till, bad farming practice pussy flaps.