Dairy farming is a labour intensive job, with long hours being nothing out of the ordinary. Unlike many other careers, it doesn’t usually finish at five o’clock in the evening.

In fact on many dairy farms, the evening milking usually starts some time between five and seven o’clock.

Many farms normally look for a 12-hour difference between milkings, but should this be changed?

Milking interval

The end of evening milking, depending on the time of year signals the end of the working day for many farmers.

Many farmers’ concern with reducing the milking interval is that it may lead to reduced milk yields and increased cases of mastitis.

However, a study conducted by Teagasc determined that a 16:8 interval had no impact on milk yield/cow.

A 16:8 interval represents starting times of 7:00a.m and 3:00p.m.

The earlier start time obviously means an earlier finish time for milking, which means that farmers then have extra time in the evening.

This would allow for more time spent with families, participation in local groups or sports clubs or for other jobs such as spreading slurry or fertiliser to be completed.

Staff

A large number of dairy farms now employ staff and finishing earlier in the evening should also be more attractive to potential employees.

An earlier finish time is more attractive to a employee, who may want free time in the evening.

Working on a dairy farm is labour intensive and at times of the year requires long days, so allowing an employee to finish early when possible makes sense.

Your employee also has a life away from the farm, so finishing earlier in the evening may be of benefit to them.