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<blockquote data-quote="The Agrarian" data-source="post: 3394790" data-attributes="member: 3656"><p>When I started full time 16 years ago I was just out of education, wasn't courting steady, had no ties and no pressure outside of farming. It didn't strike me that I might be working harder than I needed to, and there were no conflicting forces to draw my attention to it. Fast forward to today and things are very different. Wife, three young children, and aging parents with only me to keep an eye on them, so the work/life balance needs to be different. </p><p></p><p>Farm demands - 180 milkers, 30ish drys, AYR calving and housing, robots, all followers reared, AI heat detection and stock work done by me, average two vet calls per year, only work subbed in is feet trimming. 500 acres grass ensiled by the two of us over four cuts with wagon, slurry and all field work also done in house. Machines all serviced, dig our own drainage, reseeding and grow 30 acres winter cereals ourselves. Only contractor brought in is combine and baler. Farm repairs and welding too etc</p><p></p><p>Summary of our input -</p><p></p><p> Full time man and me as the only labour apart from a few hours here and there in the summer from a local lad to go on rake if there is one around. We have every other weekend off, and the weekends are usually 2 hrs morning and evening if we set it up right on Friday. I always turn up on the two mornings of my weekend off to see the stock, feed the babies, and do AI if necessary. He gets the usual 5-6 weeks holidays off and I cover him. Our working weekday in the winter is quite manageable, 8-6 with an hour for lunch. We do whatever crazy hours we need to do to get grass in when the weather is there, but try my best to stick to normal hours the rest of the time. </p><p></p><p>The issue still to resolve - I don't take as much time off as I should. I do try to do stuff with family in the afternoon of my weekends off, and we go away for a week in summer between cuts. Apart from that, if I'm in the country, my brain is constantly switched on to the farm. I think we are running the labour aspect pretty lean to be honest, and there isn't much more in it. Dropping all the field and forage work isn't an option as it's a major cost benefit for me at this stage. If I get to my final decade in the job and there isn't a successor, then I'd definitely take the handy route on silage. For now, we are able to work it in, and with our lower and more volatile milk price here we need to put the effort in to stay lean. So there's no magic bullet really, just pursuing the never ending grind to take unjustified time out of the system, and to keep streamlining things.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Agrarian, post: 3394790, member: 3656"] When I started full time 16 years ago I was just out of education, wasn't courting steady, had no ties and no pressure outside of farming. It didn't strike me that I might be working harder than I needed to, and there were no conflicting forces to draw my attention to it. Fast forward to today and things are very different. Wife, three young children, and aging parents with only me to keep an eye on them, so the work/life balance needs to be different. Farm demands - 180 milkers, 30ish drys, AYR calving and housing, robots, all followers reared, AI heat detection and stock work done by me, average two vet calls per year, only work subbed in is feet trimming. 500 acres grass ensiled by the two of us over four cuts with wagon, slurry and all field work also done in house. Machines all serviced, dig our own drainage, reseeding and grow 30 acres winter cereals ourselves. Only contractor brought in is combine and baler. Farm repairs and welding too etc Summary of our input - Full time man and me as the only labour apart from a few hours here and there in the summer from a local lad to go on rake if there is one around. We have every other weekend off, and the weekends are usually 2 hrs morning and evening if we set it up right on Friday. I always turn up on the two mornings of my weekend off to see the stock, feed the babies, and do AI if necessary. He gets the usual 5-6 weeks holidays off and I cover him. Our working weekday in the winter is quite manageable, 8-6 with an hour for lunch. We do whatever crazy hours we need to do to get grass in when the weather is there, but try my best to stick to normal hours the rest of the time. The issue still to resolve - I don't take as much time off as I should. I do try to do stuff with family in the afternoon of my weekends off, and we go away for a week in summer between cuts. Apart from that, if I'm in the country, my brain is constantly switched on to the farm. I think we are running the labour aspect pretty lean to be honest, and there isn't much more in it. Dropping all the field and forage work isn't an option as it's a major cost benefit for me at this stage. If I get to my final decade in the job and there isn't a successor, then I'd definitely take the handy route on silage. For now, we are able to work it in, and with our lower and more volatile milk price here we need to put the effort in to stay lean. So there's no magic bullet really, just pursuing the never ending grind to take unjustified time out of the system, and to keep streamlining things. [/QUOTE]
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