Struggling to get or retain good staff ?

[Gapples]

So your saying a herdsman/tractor driver/farm worker is worth more than a time served manufacturer trained agricultural engineer ? Interesting.
If those wages you quote are correct then they are probably paid more, certainly are when you start including the free house etc.

Still, even though I was brought up on a farm, my grandfather had a small farm & dad worked on farms I had no desire to work with the four legged shitting machines so got an apprenticeship in ag engineering to work on the four wheel oil leaking machines.
Retired from engineering now though due to ill health. With hindsight though in the 1970s it was a mugs game, I should have gone into the public sector, had weekends & evenings to myself plus of course a dam good index linked pension.
Hey ho such is life.

 

[Will 1594]

@student101 Have you the skill to do the two jobs you have quoted ? They will be for the well seasoned operators who have " the nack" what ever age they may be ,the top operators can demand a premium

 

[Chasingmytail]

https://www.totaljobs.com/job/360-operator/humres-recruitment-job76274279?entryurl=/jobs/360-excavator-driver/in-hertfordshire?radius=30&s=header&page=2#76274279

https://www.totaljobs.com/job/360-machine-driver/jark-milton-keynes-job76758007?entryurl=/jobs/360-excavator-driver/in-hertfordshire?radius=30&s=header#76758007

Yes I can spend all day on the net finding admin jobs for £30k - and yes you can find higher paid jobs in areas but these are few and far between. As for permanent they are to the end of the project - ie not self employed. This spec isnt the full story. Again dependant in the areas of the south - you wont get that around here. Pay is also dependant on having the quality skills and personality to win the job. You can be chucked off site the min they want. The construction industry can be dirty and unpleasant dont beleive its a nice family it can be bitchy and rough as f@ck.

Construction is also very very profitable, companies put in prices to cover all eventualities we have put in prices less than half of the bigger boys because we graft longer hours and dont allow for half days and chillin days. Construction is priced up for endless disasters and unforeseen. There is no comparison - too much watching of Crossways the railway project on TV will prove this.

 

[B&B Pig Man]

Am just sorting out employing someone. H&S man asked about welfare facilities, so I have spent some money on making a farm office with somewhere we can all sit / put packed lunches / use an actual toilet / put notices up. Wage not massive, but over minimum wage and we will be footing the bills for:

Manual handling, abrasive wheel, 3-day loader course, working at height, first aid, ATV, PA1, PA2, PA4 and PA6

the bill for which is fairly steep.

Failing that, I am available for employment if anyone want to pay me £25/hr - tbh if I could get it I would grass the farm; let it out for sliage; go and earn my £25/hr driving someone elses sprayer and using their welfare facilities.

Did you get my application?

 

[lim x]

Dennis Penberthy, an elderly Cornish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions, stating that they suspected he was not
Paying his employees enough and they would send an inspector to interview them.


On the appointed day, the inspector turned up.

"Tell me about your staff," he asked Penberthy.


"Well," said Penberthy, "there's the farm hand. I pay him £240 a week, and he has a free cottage. Then there's the housekeeper. She gets
£190 a week, along with free board and lodging. There's also the half-wit. He works a 16 hour day, does 90% of the work, earns about £25 a week, along with a bottle of gin every week, and, occasionally, gets to sleep with my wife."

"That's who I want to talk to," said the inspector, “the half-wit."

"That'll be me then," said Penberthy.

 

[An Gof]

Dennis Penberthy, an elderly Cornish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions, stating that they suspected he was not
Paying his employees enough and they would send an inspector to interview them.


On the appointed day, the inspector turned up.

"Tell me about your staff," he asked Penberthy.


"Well," said Penberthy, "there's the farm hand. I pay him £240 a week, and he has a free cottage. Then there's the housekeeper. She gets
£190 a week, along with free board and lodging. There's also the half-wit. He works a 16 hour day, does 90% of the work, earns about £25 a week, along with a bottle of gin every week, and, occasionally, gets to sleep with my wife."

"That's who I want to talk to," said the inspector, “the half-wit."

"That'll be me then," said Penberthy.

He must have been one of Denzil's relations ........



....... one of Jethro's best mates

 

[franklin]

Did you get my application?

You'd get the Shaguar too muddy down my lane.

 

[Sonoftheheir]

As in driverless trucks I think robotic machine will be the normal on farms , ie weeding, spraying etc, even harvesting spuds.

I guess my son (8) is getting in plenty of training with his ipad. He’d be on it all day if you let him.

 

[bantammatt]

@student101 Do you want a sprayer operator job £40000 and a house ?

Yes please!!!!!

 

[Will 1594]

Yes please!!!!!

Really Live in it for ten months of year any day or hour it will go if so will pass your details on

 

[bantammatt]

Do I get the other 2 months off?

 

[multi power]

From what hear and read many farms struggle to get good staff so I thought I`d start a discussion as to why this is , its pretty obvious why to me and many others .

• Crap pay is the first one , agricultural rates are about half of what the construction industry pays , construction machine drivers can get £25.00 ph and labourers around £14.00, I use construction for a comparison as its generally outdoor heavy work and varying skills are required.
• Welfare facilities , weve been through this and many still think its a joke https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...es-do-farmers-even-know-what-they-are.192544/
• Health and safety , only in agriculture can you get away with such a disregard for health & safety ....currently , it will change .

My take is if you want to stay in agriculture you have to move into the 21st century , failure to do so will result in the big corporate farms buying you up / closing you down, directly or indirectly, I understand that if pay was bought in line with construction food prices would have to rise , food has never been so cheap and never has so much been wasted .

Can you please tell me where these £25 an hour machine operator jobs are ?

 

[Ducati899]

Can you please tell me where these £25 an hour machine operator jobs are ?

one of my uncles has civil firm and his machine operators don't get that much but they are on a good wage….but all they do is moan about everything,OH is on £20+@ hr as a vet nurse and all her and her mates do is moan about the job…says it all really,good money means feck all if you ain't happy in you're work

 

[Lofty1984]

one of my uncles has civil firm and his machine operators don't get that much but they are on a good wage….but all they do is moan about everything,OH is on £20+@ hr as a vet nurse and all her and her mates do is moan about the job…says it all really,good money means feck all if you ain't happy in you're work

Spot on

 

[Chae1]

one of my uncles has civil firm and his machine operators don't get that much but they are on a good wage….but all they do is moan about everything,OH is on £20+@ hr as a vet nurse and all her and her mates do is moan about the job…says it all really,good money means feck all if you ain't happy in you're work

Those employees sound like farmers.

 

[Chae1]

GENERALISATION ALERT !!!

No doubt there's a few running around in Range Rovers. If subs finish that'll end sharpish.
There's no money in producing food with 21st C costs, whilst getting 16th C prices for produce.
I notice James Dyson has had a go at running a ' perfect ' farming operation ( probably paying staff above average pay ) and lost a bloody fortune.
A big farming company arrived in Pembrokeshire in the mid 80's, spent £120k on canteens / toilet facilities, and paying staff 3 times the rate that other farms locally were paying. They lasted 3 years......

The farms that will survive in the future will be the one man band outfits IMO.

 

[multi power]

I'd still moan if I was on £50 an hour !

 

[Henarar]

I'd still moan if I was on £50 an hour !

how about 50 quid as long as you don't moan

 

[S J H]

Property developers manage to make good money and they sell to the public and pass it down the line because they have to or they would have a staff shortage , the same appears to be happening in ag , admittedly at a very slow rate .
When the supermarket buyer comes out there has to be a point where the grower/farmer says "no we cant do it for that price" , that price will/is very very slowly rising.

They really don't. You need to get into the real world. I applied to tender for a job for persimmon homes. Instead of a covering letter they might aswell of posted me the fecking voilin. I didn't bother tendering because there's no money in it.

Also in construction, they're tends to be a lot of bell ends and grief, where as in farming there's a lot less of them ime.

 

[S J H]

As Ive said Im happy in what I do .

You seem to be saying theres a more stupid people in agriculture than any other industry ?

"‘Highest fatal rate’
With a fatal injury rate of 7.61 workers per 100,000, agriculture is six times more dangerous than construction and 18 times higher than the average industry."

http://www.fwi.co.uk/news/30-farm-deaths-in-2016-17-with-transport-the-biggest-killer.htm

Does that include forestry and gamekeeping?