Cows are gradually coming in for full-time housing and drying off is only around the corner, which means the discussion around staff on the farm for the busy spring needs to start now.
Labour shortage in the dairy sector has been an issue in recent years, with many farmers left with little to no help by the time the calving season comes around.
The expansion of the dairy sector has seen farmers with more cows in the same yard and system, which has made dairy farming a lot more intense, and more than one person is going to be needed during the busy period.
The improvement in herd genetics in the last couple of years has meant that fertility has improved, which means cows are calving down in a very compact time-frames which further emphasises the need for more staff during that period.
Staff
Many farmers are of the opinion that it is far too early to think about staff for the spring, however, what usually happens is, is everyone starts looking for staff at the same time, with not enough staff to go around.
What’s at stake if you don’t have enough help on the help for the coming spring, is as follows:
- Ending up overworked, which can affect your health and safety;
- Your familys’/employees’ health and safety;
- Profitability.
With that much at stake, a farmer needs to make sure that the workers are familiar with the farm system and want to work and earn money from the farm.
If we take a 100-cow herd that is producing 6,000L/cow at 45c/L, the total milk receipts in the year is €270,000, which is income, not profit.
To make profit, there has to be an income, and as people are an asset to the farm, performance will suffer if there is not enough help on the farm.
The implications of not having enough help can be as follows:
- Cows not out to grass as much as they should be;
- Low milk solids from not getting out to grass;
- Higher costs to keep cows indoors;
- Cows not milk recorded;
- Lower body condition score (BCS) animals not corrected for breeding;
- Calves not fed sufficient colostrum and transition milk.
When you are looking for a worker, it is important to outline what their job is going to curtail and how long they will be needed for.
As on some farms, the role may only be for the spring-calving period, and this should be made clear to the worker before they start.
The future employee should be told their exact hours, their roster, their time-off and what time of the day they are starting and finishing at.
A common system on many farms is a five days on and two days off rota, or 11 days on and three days off.
Developing or producing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for jobs on your farm, including feeding calves, milking and machine operation will prove useful in the thick of calving.
Having SOPs will make sure that the jobs will get done to the standard you want as the employee will understand what is expected to be put into practice.