Working hours.

[yin ewe]

Well I said in my post that I thought my weekday hours were quite manageable. Being critical (and we need to be) I also said I thought I should be taking more time off, but I also said it was up to me to organise that through freeing up more time for myself.

I'm not long back from a short trip away with 30 other dairy farmers. Can't recall anyone complaining about working hours, or the poor profitability for that matter. Mood positive and everyone happy to be away from the farm for a couple of days. I think you are being a bit negative about our industry. We are entitled to have a chat about these things without doing it in a complaining manner, as perhaps something good can come from it with renewed focus or a better perspective.

We do get money from the government, but it's not quite free, and we certainly don't get to keep all of it. Also, any time we take off is technically unpaid. I could happily argue that those drinking mates get free money for not turning up to work six weeks a year.

Do you think there would have been the same positive mood had you been on the trip a year ago? Easier to be positive when milk prices are improving.

 

[holywell farmer]

Ive been looking at our labour bill. It's under budget but I still don't think we are getting great value for money. I think we're using and paying relief too much. Meaning we don't have enough people during the day so we're stretched and find ourselves rushing.

There's only really the herdsman and me who are full time. He have every other weekend off and a day a fortnight but never stays past 6pm.

I have every other weekend off and I cover all holidays. I also do all my paper work in the evenings. I also work late and weekends off when we are mowing, fert spreading combining etc. It sometimes takes me all day Saturday to recover.

It means I work 60 hrs ish one week and 74 hrs the other.

I'm trying to get to a 60 hr week. When I talk to my father or consultant their line is well you have to pay your dues when your young!

I just think we shouldn't be subsidising a profitable business.

Has anyone restructured their labour after being in a similar situation? Or broken away from the every other weekend off model? I like 5-2 where you have fri sat off one week and sun mon off the next. Just relies on you doing your big jobs tues-thurs.

Seems to be no such thing as set hours on farming

 

[The Agrarian]

It could obviously be a factor. You only have to ask reps how they are finding farmers now versus spring and summer.

But I still don't think time spent would have entered conversations. Milk price obviously gets mentioned, but most guys are realistic about the prospects for it and any time it's mentioned is usually in a matter of fact manner.

The one thing farmers in Northern Ireland will predictably complain about is the rain! (And quite often with just cause .). But it's been a good winter so not mentioned on that trip.

 

[lazy farmer]

Ideal see you then...... Will miss your inflammatory posts.
Looks to me the less people work the higher their cost of production

may I respectfully disagree.

 

[DairyGrazing]

Why can't you do the caustic treating all at the one time? Does it not store well in large quantities? Only ever done a small amount before.

It does not keep that well for some reasons you mix it drier than normal then add water back to it. When we run out of our grain we do 18tons or 28 tons loads

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

I don't think you were complaining, just think you are doing crazy hours

My point is when the job needs doing you just get in and do it. If I had waited till the worker was back I would only have got 30 ac done before it dried out. I can't afford to have a spare $50 000 a year worker in the cupboard to pull out on rare occasions when they are needed. And you have to be very very very careful what hours you ask people to work here. Even if they're more than happy to do it,you never know if they're keeping a log and one day you get a visit from Fair Work Australia.

 

[DairyGrazing]

may I respectfully disagree.

Definitely disagree there are few units round here where the owner has never stepped o

My point is when the job needs doing you just get in and do it. If I had waited till the worker was back I would only have got 30 ac done before it dried out. I can't afford to have a spare $50 000 a year worker in the cupboard to pull out on rare occasions when they are needed. And you have to be very very very careful what hours you ask people to work here. Even if they're more than happy to do it,you never know if they're keeping a log and one day you get a visit from Fair Work Australia.

Really we worked 18 hr days on the combines in Aus. It was all logged on time sheets and pay slip I think? Never a word of worry. Same on the daries as well from what I remember. The platforms were very strict, shame it didn't apply to muggins sat in the office in Perth!

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Doesn't happen very often. But yes, occasionally you will hear it on the radio news. More often it will be Fair Work Australia targeting an area at random with both employee and employer unaware of any wrong doing. Yet the fines are unforgiving....

 

[Durry cows]

Ideal winter ration
75% grass silage
25% wholecrop
1kg rape meal
1kg maize gluten
6kg caustic
8kg brewers

Dry cow ration
20kg silage
5kg rotogrind straw
minerals

Fed to far offs and to the close to calving cows but they are grouped separately.

I would prefer to feed the far offs bales but we cant make poor enough silage they put too much weight on.

Looks an appetising winter ration would that be plus dairy cake in the parlour at all?

 

[Durry cows]

Does anyone ever buy sodawheat from kw?

.
Have fed it here in the past both home mixed and bought from kW. Not fed it for a couple of years but priced a 10 ton load today it was £159 hope that helps

 

[Baling Hay]

.
Have fed it here in the past both home mixed and bought from kW. Not fed it for a couple of years but priced a 10 ton load today it was £159 hope that helps

Thats very expensive on a DM basis!

 

[Durry cows]

That's why I'm not feeding it

 

[DairyGrazing]

Looks an appetising winter ration would that be plus dairy cake in the parlour at all?

Fed to yield in the parlour max 6 kg. HDF 18% I think.

 

[Durry cows]

Fed to yield in the parlour max 6 kg. HDF 18% I think.

Cheers was just curious, should think they milk well off that (Apologies this is way off topic btw)

 

[DairyGrazing]

Thats very expensive on a DM basis!

Great margin on it for them. Always seems wet when I've seen KW caustic wheat on other farms. Our arable neighbours will drop any size load for spot price which is very continent for us. Some times have an artic from NWF close to harvest if they have emptied their stores to clean. Don't know why I bother growing it myself really.

 

[DairyGrazing]

Cheers was just curious, should think they milk well off that (Apologies this is way off topic btw)

31.5kg at the moment 4.02% bf 3.48% p.

We've seen massive yield gains from feeding more kgs of cheap simple ingredients.

 

[Durry cows]

We won't bother growing wheat again anytime soon don't see the big attraction with it personally or wholecrop for that matter surely your in a good area for maize? Back on topic of saving time plough/shakerate/power harrow then phone contractor to drill then shut gate til harvest (nearly!) with maize

 

[Zippy768]

Is caustic wheat not dangerous to handle?

Yes. I got a nice chemical burn on the top of my foot from one grain of caustic going down my boot. Took off boot and emptied but it was stuck in my sock. Hate to think what it would do if you got a grain in the eye. I think water makes it react

 

[pappuller]

Yes. I got a nice chemical burn on the top of my foot from one grain of caustic going down my boot. Took off boot and emptied but it was stuck in my sock. Hate to think what it would do if you got a grain in the eye. I think water makes it react

@Zippy768 you must be on the go 24/7 looking at your posting time, big hitter

 

[Kingofgrass]

We're up at 3.45 but done finished milking by 5 normally but in summer most nights I'm not back home till 9/10 running from farm to farm silaging,muck,fert doing 4cuts a year.we do everything bar chopping and trailers,and 1 lot of pumping through the winter!next thing I wanna do is my own scanning,I have Saturday afternoon off and the odd afternoon off when we're not busy me dad has the same but Sunday afternoon.i love it Nothing more satisfying than seeing good crops and a good job done!