Staffing levels

[sidjon]

7 minute rows, for 20+ hours a day, that is going some. Obviously no cow health issues or machine problems.

They were spilt block which helped on milking times, think they were surprised the wheels didn't fall off, three years later they only milk 500.

 

[DairyGrazing]

My boss in NZ milked on one of his farms 1200 cows x2 a day cows then 1400 once a day cows washed down and rinsed the rotary with cold water then milked the 1200 x2 a day cows again. Share milker took over and put more cows on!!!!!!

 

[dinderleat]

Myself, two full timers and one relief, 1600 cows...doddle

Probably take 10minutes just to get them in the £100 crush for foot trimming, hats off to you though

 

[DairyGrazing]

No irrigation, rotaries yes and i imagine 1/2 of them would of been doing the budgets but a more senior management team above them also because of the size of the whole operation

Yeah so its a bit miss leading. Its hard to get to the bottom of it all on a lot of farms. We were on a farm walk and the farmer was like yeah we do all this with just the 3 of us and you think wow they are doing well. Only for two relief milkers arrive at milking time and then the dad rolls in to feed the calves. 3 all of a sudden has turned into 6!

 

[Beef farmer]

Where is the beef man? Likely running the lowest labor ppl in the northern hemisphere. @Beef farmer

Without digging cfp form out I think its 4.34ppl
1000 cows with 7 full time and a relief. Do a fair chunk of field work in house but calves have been going at 14 days old.
Will look for another person full time I think to add some flexibility.

 

[Chimera]

400 autumns. All youngstock reared and beef kept till 18 months. 200 acres arable. Myself, 3 full time and 2 reliefs. But we are still establishing, putting in tracks, fencing etc. Should be up to 520 next year, which will max out the parlour, but should not need an extra labour unit. Toying with replacing reliefs with 1 full time. Contractors bills feel too high, and we have most of the machines, just not enough time!

 

[Princess Pooper]

As well as the obvious differences in use of contractors for field work, and beef calf/heifer rearing v sell at 10 days and a flying herd, lots of other variables for in house/contracted out in the equation, some of which highlighted above.
Foot trimming?
Heat detection/AI
Mobility and condition scoring?
Disbudding and heifer weighing?

Admin - accounts, VAT, payroll, all the other admin for Defra/BPS/CS etc
Farm costings and budgeting
Fert /muck planning/recording for NVZs

In reality 100 cows per labour unit is often not far off.

 

[Keep On]

It can be a false economy running a tight labour situation. Zero correlation between labour cost and net profit in our discussion group.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

It can be a false economy running a tight labour situation. Zero correlation between labour cost and net profit in our discussion group.

Labor cost per what though? It certainly can be misleading but I definitely wouldn’t say there is no correlation between labor efficiency and profitability. There is definitely an argument that less labor isn’t always a good thing if it costs performance to do so. That would be inefficient I think

 

[Beef farmer]

Away from calving we do a 5 day week, on a 50 hour contract. I doubt we average 50 hours but that's whats written in.
To retain staff we need to make milking cows as normal as any other job as we can.

 

[Headless chicken]

Away from calving we do a 5 day week, on a 50 hour contract. I doubt we average 50 hours but that's whats written in.
To retain staff we need to make milking cows as normal as any other job as we can.

100% the reason why I like everyone off the yard latest 5pm. All the kids clubs etc are set up for people to finish at 5 o’clock not 7/8 that a lot of dairy farms seem to think is normal

 

[Cowman31]

Some questions.
How many groups?
How many people milking and how many milkings per day per person.?
Are you doing all administrative work? Wages, bill pay, taxes, budget, records etc
A.I in house?
Much technology in the parlor?

No Ai, all natural service, night shaggers and day shaggers. one person milk, mostly me,cows in one groupa, missus does all paperwork, and no technology in parlour...zip

 

[Beef farmer]

No Ai, all natural service, night shaggers and day shaggers. one person milk, mostly me,cows in one groupa, missus does all paperwork, and no technology in parlour...zip

How many bulls? 60?

 

[Ducati899]

No Ai, all natural service, night shaggers and day shaggers. one person milk, mostly me,cows in one groupa, missus does all paperwork, and no technology in parlour...zip

Super impressive pal,where abouts in the world are you to be able to graze for 11 months as well? Sounds dreamy

 

[DairyGrazing]

 

[More to life]

yes

Super impressive pal,where abouts in the world are you to be able to graze for 11 months as well? Sounds dreamy

in the vale with you and Lazy

 

[Dead Rabbits]

No Ai, all natural service, night shaggers and day shaggers. one person milk, mostly me,cows in one groupa, missus does all paperwork, and no technology in parlour...zip

Thanks

That’s a serious number of bulls if you are after a tight block. 1 per 50?

How long is a milking? I haven’t managed to max a rotary with no technology and 1 person, how do you do it?

With 1600 in 1 group how do you contain them for milking? You would have them standing on concrete for the duration of a milking? Massive holding pen? Wouldn’t 3 groups pay for themselves in terms of production and fertility in one year? That’s serious herd pressure for everyone to get equal intake.

Paddocks would have to be around 20 acres on 2x milking assuming 14kg grass.

 

[Ducati899]

yes

in the vale with you and Lazy

 

[vantage]

No Ai, all natural service, night shaggers and day shaggers. one person milk, mostly me,cows in one groupa, missus does all paperwork, and no technology in parlour...zip

Go on, spoil us with a few pictures.

 

[Beef farmer]

Go on, spoil us with a few pictures.