Christmas is one of the only days in the year where the majority of the workforce gets the day off, but of course there is never a day off when it comes to farming.

Despite it being Christmas, essentials need to be done, such as feeding animals, milking the cows, and cleaning out the sheds.

However, this does not mean farmers need to spend the day slaving away down in the yard.

Getting on top of jobs now over the next few days should help minimise the workload for the day.

Workload

Doing the extra bit over the next couple of days will be worth it to set yourself up and reduce the workload down to the bare essentials on Christmas Day.

For the farmers who love the hardship of milking cows through the winter, they will still need to milk.

However, doing little things such as setting up gates the night before will save those extra few minutes on Christmas morning.

Another timesaver may be having a mix already done for calves with water and powder already in the buckets, ready for hot water.

All teat troughs should be cleaned prior to the period and ready to go on Christmas Day.

For the spring calving herds, cows are dry but, along with the autumn calving herds, cubicles still need to be brushed and limed.

However, make sure any big dirt is cleaned out the day before in hopes of making it a small job.

The same goes for any animals in straw bedded pens - double up their bedding to have one task less on Christmas Eve.

Also on Christmas Eve, double up on the silage fed in the passageway; this will save you some serious time on Christmas Day by just going out and pushing in what is already there.

The same goes for farmers who are feeding a total mixed ration (TMR) diet - feed the herd on Christmas Eve and refill the wagon straight after so it is ready to go on Christmas Day.

If any of the cattle are getting concentrates, have bags or buckets filled the day before.

If the parlour or tractor has been acting dodgy and you are waiting on a breakdown, try and fix it before Christmas Day or else you will more than likely get hit with Murphy's law on the day (anything that can go wrong will go wrong).

When I was working on a dairy farm in New Zealand, all the workers got Christmas Day off as the owner had all of his family down in the parlour milking together.

That's a tradition full of fun, but many hands made light work and the parlour was finished up early.

Why not use the same idea here - if the kids are off school bring them down and have the job done quickly while doubling up on the fun-loving family time.