Attracting and retaining people on dairy farms has been a challenge for many farmers in recent years.
The growth of the national dairy herd has seen an increase in herd size on many farms, resulting in more staff being required.
On the recent farm walk that took place on the farm of Henry and Enda Walsh, Martina Gormley, a dairy specialist with Teagasc, outlined the results of some research conducted by Teagasc.
Attracting and retaining people
Martina explained that the research found several factors regarding what employers and employees are looking for.
The research found that the most important thing farmers are looking for in a potential employee is a good attitude.
According to Martina, farmers were willing to take someone on without experience if they had a good attitude.
A willingness to learn was another factor that was highlighted by potential employers and that the potential employee is reliable.
Martina also stated that communication comes up time and time again. Farmers she said, appreciate a potential employee that is willing to ask for help or say when a mistake has been made.
From the employee’s point of view, the main factors they look for are good working hours, respect and training, communication and good facilities.
Martina explained: “The farmers that are retaining staff are really honing-in on those key points.
“The way herd sizes have gone, there are more and more people coming onto farms that aren’t related to [the farmer] and aren’t willing to put in extra hours or put up with more hardship.
“Going forward, the employers that hone-into these findings will find it easier to – not saying that it is easy by any means – find people.”
Milking time
The length of the working day was also highlighted as a key issue with many potential employees.
Commenting on this, Martina said: “Outside of the calving season, milking time defines the start and finish of your day.
“Honing in on what employees are saying; ‘the working day is too long, it’s not fixed and we don’t know where we stand at times’.”
Continuing, Martina said: “We looked at 2,400 that were milk recording over a number of years, to look at start time for evening milking.
“The starting time will dictate the finishing time, 21% of farms start at 3:30p.m and were out of the yard by 6:00p.m or before it.
“But we can see a bigger percentage of milking is finished after 6:00p.m in the evening and if you are trying to compete with other businesses, you will not be able to.”
Adding to that point, Martina said: “77% of farmers are finishing after 6:00p.m, with 36% finishing after 7:00p.m in the evening.
“Interestingly enough, this was consistent; milking time on these farms did not change based on the time of year.”
Commenting on the concerns farmers may have regarding changing the milking time on their farms, Martina said: “One of the concerns among farmers is milk yield, and [if] changing milking time will reduce yield.
“But the research found that there was no difference in yields in herds that changed their milking interval.
“Changing the milking interval is something that won’t cost you any money.
“A lot of this is more about changing the mindset on farms and changing from the way you learned how to farm to compete with other businesses for staff,” she said.