Staffing levels

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
When we were wanting planning for a 2nd dwelling we were told of a guy who milked 250 cows alone with only one dwelling on farm .
🙊
 
Thanks for the replies. All interesting. @Beef farmer you mention 5 days week and @Headless chicken you mention making it as normal as possible. How would people's rotas look during calving and then for the rest of the year?
Calving 6 on 1 off. Rest of year, every other wkend off and the weekend your on you have fri and Monday off.
2 people per 300 cows, only 2 people on farm on tues,wed and thur.
 
Location
West Wales
Thanks for the replies. All interesting. @Beef farmer you mention 5 days week and @Headless chicken you mention making it as normal as possible. How would people's rotas look during calving and then for the rest of the year?

838B318B-B230-427D-8C98-5D4E188F63C7.jpeg

That’s our rota, it’s not ideal but it works for us. Calving I’m on call for 12 weeks basically but with that said on my weekend off I’ll have a lie in then go out about 7/8ish deal with any problems and then head out for the day with the kids.

the calf rearing is done by amy and Laura, which both had other commitments when we took them on so the split was born. I was sceptical due to continuity but it worked very well. No one had a chance to get fed up with each other as a max they saw anyone for 4 days in a row.

we’ve also gone down the route of having lots doing a little which gives a little extra slack as opposed to being reliant on one or two people and the sh!t hitting the fan if it goes wrong.The only spanner in the works is if I become very ill (covid, broken leg etc) at which point we go to contingency plan where by the wife will take over milking and our contractors will through all the boys in to finish the day jobs and they only loose an hour or two.
 
Thanks for the replies. All interesting. @Beef farmer you mention 5 days week and @Headless chicken you mention making it as normal as possible. How would people's rotas look during calving and then for the rest y of the year?
I work every day during calving everybody else has time off at various times during the week.
the rest of the yr we work 11 day fortnights though I am looking to go to working every 3rd weekend when ai is finished.
 

RJ1

Member
Location
Wales
View attachment 959957
That’s our rota, it’s not ideal but it works for us. Calving I’m on call for 12 weeks basically but with that said on my weekend off I’ll have a lie in then go out about 7/8ish deal with any problems and then head out for the day with the kids.

the calf rearing is done by amy and Laura, which both had other commitments when we took them on so the split was born. I was sceptical due to continuity but it worked very well. No one had a chance to get fed up with each other as a max they saw anyone for 4 days in a row.

we’ve also gone down the route of having lots doing a little which gives a little extra slack as opposed to being reliant on one or two people and the sh!t hitting the fan if it goes wrong.The only spanner in the works is if I become very ill (covid, broken leg etc) at which point we go to contingency plan where by the wife will take over milking and our contractors will through all the boys in to finish the day jobs and they only loose an hour or two.

Thats's great. How many cows, youngstock etc?
 
Location
West Wales
Thats's great. How many cows, youngstock etc?

250 rising to 300 this year 200- 220 head of heifers spread over a 5mile radius. Some days are sunshine and roses. Other days I’m eating breakfast at dinner time. I do the mornings on my own, relief staff get someone else in to fetch cows for them. Up until last year we did it all with me, dad and weekend relief. The spare people in the system have helped a hell of a lot.
 

PDB

Member
Livestock Farmer
Calving 6 on 1 off. Rest of year, every other wkend off and the weekend your on you have fri and Monday off.
2 people per 300 cows, only 2 people on farm on tues,wed and thur.
Tried the day off in the week idea and found that my employee was hardly ever here. It was like having 80 days holiday pay per year

if someone booked a weeks holiday on their weekend on would you make them use 7 days holiday?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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