They're deluded': Farmer who took on 50 English workers to pick crops just has 7 left - Daily Mail

[GeorgeC1]

Excuse the clickbait title (just wanted to use the actual article title).

Farmer who took on 50 English workers to pick crops just has 7 left

Farmers have half as many workers picking the fields because seasonal pickers can't travel. Edward Spanton Farm in Kent (pictured) has just 40 of the 80 workers it would usually have.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I think the Government should invest heavily into grants, state-backed loans etc.. to encourage further automation - there's machines on the market that harvests asparagus, so why not have the government give grants to purchase these types of machines?

http://www.asparagusharvester.com/

Is an example of one on the market, People don't really dig potatoes by hand no more it's all done via machines, now this would be a good time for the govt and farmers to invest in these sorts of methods? that's just my opinion however.

Because in any other industry if you as a boss lost 43 out of 50 of new hires within a few days you would be dragged through hot embers if you tried to blame the workers for quitting, a few workers quitting because it isn't for them that's fair enough but the vast majority? nah that's Management, conditions and Recruitment practices that are to blame for that imo.

 

[Al R]

Why don’t you go and pick then? It isn’t easy work!
I’ve picked enough new potatoes by hand when I was young and it was soul destroying and hard physical work. Doing a few days is fine, doing weeks or months on end - no thanks!

 

[Chae1]

Why don’t you go and pick then? It isn’t easy work!
I’ve picked enough new potatoes by hand when I was young and it was soul destroying and hard physical work. Doing a few days is fine, doing weeks or months on end - no thanks!

We picked tatties for for about 2 weeks as school children in tattie holidays. Didn't do us any harm. Did it weekends/evenings after if farmer not finished. I didn't used to mind it. Was a good way to meet girls from town.

Tractor lifted 2 drills at a time and we picked them into baskets. Baskets then emptied into tattie boxes and carted back to farm.

Would struggle now.

 

[GeorgeC1]

Why don’t you go and pick then? It isn’t easy work!
I’ve picked enough new potatoes by hand when I was young and it was soul destroying and hard physical work. Doing a few days is fine, doing weeks or months on end - no thanks!

I think it would be a good time for Govt to invest heavily in automation imo.

 

[Al R]

We picked tatties for for about 2 weeks as school children in tattie holidays. Didn't do us any harm. Did it weekends/evenings after if farmer not finished. I didn't used to mind it. Was a good way to meet girls from town.

Tractor lifted 2 drills at a time and we picked them into baskets. Baskets then emptied into tattie boxes and carted back to farm.

Would struggle now.

We had a lot of ransomes diggers, it was much easier being on 1 of the weighing gang’s than it was picking - which was mostly done by paddy’s.
Then you’d have a shower and the bags would go soft on the bottom and break them you’d have to rebag/weigh them all ?

 

[Al R]

I think it would be a good time for Govt to invest heavily in automation imo.

Why is the need though if the Labour is there it just needs to get off its arse! A mass amount of people won’t have jobs to go back to so they may as well make a start now

 

[Lincs Lass]

Why all these office wallers whos only daily exercise is walking to the coffee machine would have even dreamt about standing out in a field ,bent over for hours on end ,expecting it to be a walk in the park is totally beyond me.
The first sign of hard manual work they keel over.
To go from sitting in front of a screen all day to physically grafting was a non starter from day 1

 

[GeorgeC1]

Why is the need though if the Labour is there it just needs to get off its arse! A mass amount of people won’t have jobs to go back to so they may as well make a start now

Why? There's a posibility to save a lot of money long-term via automation - Dragging 50 year old furloughed people onto farms who don't want to be there won't be productive imo.

 

[Chae1]

Why all these office wallers whos only daily exercise is walking to the coffee machine would have even dreamt about standing out in a field ,bent over for hours on end ,expecting it to be a walk in the park is totally beyond me.
The first sign of hard manual work they keel over.
To go from sitting in front of a screen all day to physically grafting was a non starter from day 1

They'll still pay a fortune for gym membership to keep fit.

 

[Chae1]

We had a lot of ransomes diggers, it was much easier being on 1 of the weighing gang’s than it was picking - which was mostly done by paddy’s.
Then you’d have a shower and the bags would go soft on the bottom and break them you’d have to rebag/weigh them all ?

Bags don't sound like much fun.

 

[Werzle]

Excuse the clickbait title (just wanted to use the actual article title).

Farmer who took on 50 English workers to pick crops just has 7 left

Farmers have half as many workers picking the fields because seasonal pickers can't travel. Edward Spanton Farm in Kent (pictured) has just 40 of the 80 workers it would usually have.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I think the Government should invest heavily into grants, state-backed loans etc.. to encourage further automation - there's machines on the market that harvests asparagus, so why not have the government give grants to purchase these types of machines?

http://www.asparagusharvester.com/

Is an example of one on the market, People don't really dig potatoes by hand no more it's all done via machines, now this would be a good time for the govt and farmers to invest in these sorts of methods? that's just my opinion however.

Because in any other industry if you as a boss lost 43 out of 50 of new hires within a few days you would be dragged through hot embers if you tried to blame the workers for quitting, a few workers quitting because it isn't for them that's fair enough but the vast majority? nah that's Management, conditions and Recruitment practices that are to blame for that imo.

Too easy for people to walk away knowing the state or food banks will feed them. I also think the fruit/veg farmers have had it too good for to long, foreign workers thousands of miles from home with no money or anywhere else to live have no choice but to stick the job out and endure the conditions. Uk growers will have to pay more and improve conditions to keep british staff, i havent seen a poor grower yet and most are toffs. Madness to have people sat idle, getting fat and losing skills while machines do the work.

 

[Lincs Lass]

They'll still pay a fortune for gym membership to keep fit.

Strange though that lots of them die young from over exertion .

 

[Frodo2]

Working in a kitchen is hard work, with a lot of knive skills which should transfer to veg harvest.

The casual labour situation for fruit and veg has always been a big issue. Our farm had dormitories for school kids during the war, but I can guarantee the farmer wasn't keen and neither were many kids.

Tbh the Eastern European Labour pool has been an easy solution, but it was never sustainable. Going forward labour will probably come from a range of sources and some crops will not be economical in uk.

 

[GeorgeC1]

Too easy for people to walk away knowing the state or food banks will feed them. I also think the fruit/veg farmers have had it too good for to long, foreign workers thousands of miles from home with no money or anywhere else to live have no choice but to stick the job out and endure the conditions. Uk growers will have to pay more and improve conditions to keep british staff, i havent seen a poor grower yet and most are toffs. Madness to have people sat idle, getting fat and losing skills while machines do the work.

Automation is the future for many industries, society will need to adapt for it, otherwise other countries will and our economy will suffer.

 

[Gerbert]

I think it would be a good time for Govt to invest heavily in automation imo.

Why, if there are not enough people to do it will happen without government interference. Get the government in and it will become a money redistribution racket with less result.

 

[GeorgeC1]

Why, if there are not enough people to do it will happen without government interference. Get the government in and it will become a money redistribution racket with less result.

Then the Farmers should better get on with it then Currently the one the papers like to interview are still going on as normal and wondering why it ain't working for them.

 

[Werzle]

Automation is the future for many industries, society will need to adapt for it, otherwise other countries will and our economy will suffer.

I personally think automation has led to over production of many things that we do not need and led to many people having no skill's at all. I would rather see factorys full of workers than robots. I also think automation has seen a race to the bottom on product cost which has led to the throw away culture we live in

 

[GeorgeC1]

I personally think automation has led to over production of many things that we do not need and led to many people having no skill's at all. I would rather see factorys full of workers than robots. I also think automation has seen a race to the bottom on product cost which has led to the throw away culture we live in

I would rather have those workers doing something that's more productive then being low skilled workers in a processing plant, imo a UBI in the future is essiential to encourage people to be entrepreneurial as they'll be free to set up small businesses as they know at least they'll get food on the table.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Automation is the future for many industries, society will need to adapt for it, otherwise other countries will and our economy will suffer.

I completely agree about automation, however one of the major issues with Asparagus is making sure the machine selects the right spears, I could not find any independent referee for the effectiveness and the last thing you want are Spears that are not ready.
The price of the machine is high for a short season, Most Asparagus here is only cut from the end of April to June 21st, the longest day.

Some countries, especially in South America have very cheap labour and a much longer season so it is unlikely to have much demand there.
I did have Steak last night with Asparagus, the Asparagus cost more than the Steak!! It was very good Ribeye courtesy of Pickstocks which my butcher had bought out of Smithfield and was only £3.00 a pound, the Asparagus was £5.75 a bunch.

 

[Lofty1984]

I would rather have those workers doing something that's more productive then being low skilled workers in a processing plant, imo a UBI in the future is essiential to encourage people to be entrepreneurial as they'll be free to set up small businesses as they know at least they'll get food on the table.

Your dreaming if you think the whole population is fit for skilled work some people are just suited to low skilled jobs which is fine