Dairy farming is a labour-intensive job and certain parts of the year require higher amounts than others.

Following the increase in the national herd, many farms are now milking more cows than ever before and therefore the need for labour on farms is also higher than ever before.

At times like these farmers should look at improving labour efficiency, rather than just on increasing the number of labour units.

Labour

The key aim for any dairy business is maximising efficiency and profitability on a sustainable basis.

However, they need to ensure the production model is socially sustainable and it enables an appropriate work-life balance.

Some questions farmers can ask themselves when it comes to improving labour efficiency are:

  • How efficient is my dairy farm in terms of labour input?
  • What areas or tasks within my farm business need to improve in relation to labour efficiency?
  • How can I make work practices on the farm more efficient?
  • Can I prioritise capital investment to improve labour efficiency?
  • How can I attract highly skilled people to commit to the farm?

The first thing that should be done is reviewing how efficient jobs are currently completed and checking if there is room for improvement.

Where there is room for improvement, changes should be made.

For example of a possible improvement could be having hot water in the calf shed for feeding calfves. This would save a trip outside of the shed and speed up the entire feeding process.

Capital investments

Capital investments should be considered, but only if you have thoroughly planned for them.

Automatic calf feeders are a good labour-saver on farms, but they do require a lot of planning to ensure they will work on every farm.

You need to ensure that you have the shed set-up correctly for them, so that the maximum efficiency can be obtained from them.

Other investments that could be considered are heat/health monitoring systems for cows and automatic drafting systems, all of which should improve labour efficiency on farms.

Dairy farms

Although large investment can lead to improvements, sometimes making a number of small changes can have as big of an impact.

So, before deciding to make a large capital investment, farmers should first look at small changes that can be made.

On farms with staff, there should be a way that staff can offer suggestions on how improvements can be made.

Often someone else can spot areas that can be improved quicker than you can.