Night lambers wage 2021

[DanM]

So what would expect to get paid or pay?

For a 12hr night shift I’d be charging £16/hr minimum. There’s some folk paying that for daytime work, so why would you stay up all night for any less

 

[Englishscott]

If your self-employed you should be setting your own rates! As @tepapa said £11 is too low for a dayshift if your decision making calibre.

I am just after some ideas on what I should be asking thats all, I agree £11 is too low and I can set my own rate, its clean here, good people to work for, facilities good, local to my family etc etc.
So I don't want to price myself out of the job, I dont want to take the p or have the p taken.

 

[Englishscott]

For a 12hr night shift I’d be charging £16/hr minimum. There’s some folk paying that for daytime work, so why would you stay up all night for any less

Ok thanks for that.

 

[DanM]

I am just after some ideas on what I should be asking thats all, I agree £11 is too low and I can set my own rate, its clean here, good people to work for, facilities good, local to my family etc etc.
So I don't want to price myself out of the job, I dont want to take the p or have the p taken.

All valid factors and ultimately the rate you charge is negotiable on both sides. The fact the farm is a good place to work means you might compromise a little.

 

[Skintagain]

Your problem is there isn’t enough ewes. 1000 and you could command more.

What do you do all the time?

 

[DanM]

I am just after some ideas on what I should be asking thats all, I agree £11 is too low and I can set my own rate, its clean here, good people to work for, facilities good, local to my family etc etc.
So I don't want to price myself out of the job, I dont want to take the p or have the p taken.

if your looking for a stint, outdoor lambing, 2500 ewes, 15th April for 3/4wks, in Wiltshire send me a message

 

[CopperBeech]

This is one of the issues with it all. I would charge £15/16 an hour, but bearing in mind he accommodation and feeding, I could see that would be hard to stomach across 400 ewes. Three weeks of nights on the number isn’t going to be 3 weeks of flat out lambing. I’ve done 1800 inside on my own on a night shift and it wasn’t too much hassle if system is set up right.

That was my comment re paying and charging. I know I’m worth 15/16, but I think I’d have to be pretty impressed to pay that to someone first off. Or rather if I paid it I’d expect a lot, I certainly wouldn’t be paying it to a day lamber who wouldn’t skin or wet foster!

I suppose you also have to consider you aren’t using your truck, any equipment, dogs etc.

£150 a night ? £12.50 an hour. ?

 

[Englishscott]

if your looking for a stint, outdoor lambing, 2500 ewes, 15th April for 3/4wks, in Wiltshire send me a message

Next lot start at home indoors on the 1st April only 100, then start outdoors with 1400 on 15th April.
So this place is currently the only other lambing I do, I would possibly do another one but early for just a couple weeks

 

[Mc115reed]

I had 2 people help me this year a girl did 4 8hour shifts in the day a week for £10 a hour... you had too give her specific instructions and even then only half of them would happen and quite often there was chaos too sort when I got there at 9pm or I’d have too come sort something out... but she saved lambs I’d of lost by trying too so everything on my own so paid for herself..
and a girl did 4 night shifts for me so I could have a good nights sleep every now and then and she charged £14 a hour and when I got there in the morning I had a big list wrote out for me of what everything was, what had gone on, everywhere was clean and pens mucked out ect and bedded down ready too go no drama what so ever... I think for the extra £4 a hour I’d rather have the expensive option too know that I didn’t need too worry about what sort of chaos I was coming in too later on...

 

[kiwi pom]

A little off topic but, if you checked 400 ewe's at say 9pm and left them alone until 7am what sort of loses would you see in 3 weeks?
I know nothing about sheep other than my mother in law owns a sheep farm.

 

[farmerm]

I wouldn't do if for less than £20 but I wouldn't want to pay more than £10, that's sheep farming economics for you!!

 

[farmerm]

A little off topic but, if you checked 400 ewe's at say 9pm and left them alone until 7am what sort of loses would you see in 3 weeks?
I know nothing about sheep other than my mother in law owns a sheep farm.

in NZ I think the norm would be check 4000 ewes at say the 9th and leave them alone until 7 weeks is it not? At prices not long ago it wasn't worth staying up to save a life but with cull ewes making up to £160 yesterday and lambs also flying, loosing a bit of sleep is a little less painful than loosing a ewe and twins.

 

[simon-0116]

At £11 time you Payed tax etc your on less than minimum wage.

 

[Muddyroads]

The real problem isn’t yours to fix, it’s the fact that there aren’t enough sheep to justify the wages. What I can’t get my head around is the idea of around 100 pet lambs from 400 ewes scanned at 207%, watched over 24/7.
So 1 out of every 8 lambs born is a pet lamb?
How is this happening? The milk powder cost alone would be a fortune, never mind the labour.

 

[farmerm]

At £11 time you Payed tax etc your on less than minimum wage.

and no employer pension contribution either

 

[CopperBeech]

Ask for £20 and go in as an advisor

 

[ollie989898]

I honestly don't know who is dafter. Folk who are prepared to work for the sums quoted (self employed as well) or the folk who are saying livestock don't stack up if you pay folk any more than that. Jesus wept.

I don't know how the industry got into this situation but it will all end in tears. No one will do it in the years to come and who can blame them.

 

[Al R]

A little off topic but, if you checked 400 ewe's at say 9pm and left them alone until 7am what sort of loses would you see in 3 weeks?
I know nothing about sheep other than my mother in law owns a sheep farm.

That’s why I put above we’ve never had a night lamber, only triplets and singles on my biggest flock are in ( currently 125 ewes due tomorrow came in yesterday) I check at 8am, 12noon, 5pm and 10.30pm, at night I literally tube what I have to keep them alive until morning and do any adoptions. I expect to lose 1 lamb a night inside, sometimes it’s none but I bargain on 1 lamb a night at least for a period of 10-12 hours that I’m not there and you can tell with most that I’ll find dead they were born dead to so they would have been born dead while paying someone too I think you’ve got to be up big numbers per day to justify night lambers.

 

[Al R]

I honestly don't know who is dafter. Folk who are prepared to work for the sums quoted (self employed as well) or the folk who are saying livestock don't stack up if you pay folk any more than that. Jesus wept.

I don't know how the industry got into this situation but it will all end in tears. No one will do it in the years to come and who can blame them.

Any livestock experience at all Ollie? Milking ? Lambing?

 

[CopperBeech]

I honestly don't know who is dafter. Folk who are prepared to work for the sums quoted (self employed as well) or the folk who are saying livestock don't stack up if you pay folk any more than that. Jesus wept.

I don't know how the industry got into this situation but it will all end in tears. No one will do it in the years to come and who can blame them.

Just to muddy the water further, it’s ok and it does stack up to lamb 400 ewes inside with 100 pets and pay something like £400 a day/night in staffing...... because the tax payer bumps up the farms profits through sub.

It’s just not really enough ewes to be lambing inside as late as April, paying staff and associated indoor costs.

It’s all very well saying you have to pay x to get people into the industry, but I think the issue is much deeper.