Hired labour

Over the last few years I have pulled back working hours here by 2.5 hrs a day here as we have young kids and as a family we wanted more balance. Did it by simplifying our system (avoiding unneceasary complications on things like number of ingredients in diets, numbers of stock groups) and spending modest money on reducing labour. A simple GPS so we can spread fertiliser at bigger widths, A bigger bucket on the loadall and a bigger diet feeder ( not big money, bought a relined feeder for €8000). You don't think you'll get everything done but you would be amazed how you can prioritise and become more efficient. Especially when you have the reward of finishing earlier, it motivates you to get the jobs done. Just my experience, you might be able to take something for it, the biggest saving is definitely simplifying your system, bigger gear does very little if your system is too complicated to take advantage of it.
Exactly my point previously. Little bits of time saved over a day add up quickly. Spend a bit to save a lot, pricing labout at 15/hr and you only need 533 hrs to pay for, quickly saved over two years!

And I'd agree with earlier starts. You get far more done of a morning somehow.

And with both ends of the day drawing in, it's easy enough to milk under a bulb then get things done in daylight.
 
Jesus KTM that’s a great wage in construction and that’s 5 days a week ?if you added up the hours worked in dairy farming there would be know way you would get that kinda money an hour.

I think some 1 said earlier to put my day up here to see what ye think of it so
7.30 up bit of breakfast get cows out of shed and scrape and lime beds 8.30 -10.30
Milking,washing,housing cows again .
The usall stuff then during the day silage,etc

5.45 repeat the above .
I remember you posting your day on here before.
I don't think it has changed much since.
I not going to preach because my own days are pretty long.
But just a general points, from my experience.

The first few hours in the morning are usually the most productive of the day
I have pretty rigid times for milking ,clusters on morning 6.30
Evening 4.30
More or less all through the year. If I'm very busy or going somewhere, I'll bring the milking forward.
The late milking in the evenings is a killer.
 
Alarm goes at 5.30am here. Have a cup of tea and then out by 6.15. Milking etc normally finished by 8.30am. Start evening milking at 3.30pm. Never in yard after 5.30pm unless there's a disaster
 
Ya the 5.45pm was just going for them by the time they are out of the shed and scraped and limed it’s 6.15pm going milking .
Well I do think we could start a bit earlier alright but I think the 6 o clock finish time is a bit unrealistic, if a lad was finished for 7 or half past it would be alright I think anyway .
 
What is taking up the rest of the day between 10.30 and 5.45, someone had as their signature " loose an hour in the morning and spend the rest of the day looking for it"
 
The biggest influencing factor for finishing time on a dairy farm is the time evening milking starts. 4pm is the latest it should start imo. Would see no problem starting cows at 3pm if morning milking started before 7am
 
Alarm goes at 5.30am here. Have a cup of tea and then out by 6.15. Milking etc normally finished by 8.30am. Start evening milking at 3.30pm. Never in yard after 5.30pm unless there's a disaster
Persume that during calving and breeding season your hardly gone from yard every evening at 530
 
Me and the ould lad work together like we do it between the 2 of us the milking and liming etc I suppose we are working the milking times that he always done ..
 
Don’t take this the wrong way now @podge 23 but do you actually want to be a farmer?

I don’t know you from Adam but from what I see on here I’m not sure you really want to be a farmer, certainly I would question if want to be a dairy farmer

I think you need to have a long hard chat with yourself and decide what you want to do it at least know what you want to do

you don’t want to reach 50 (I think you’re a fairly young chap) and have spent the best part of your life hating farming and the land you have, it makes people bitter and resentful.

if I can make a possible suggestion. Hire in a farm manager on a year long contract - go out and get yourself a job and see how you like it, factory or construction or whatever. If you don’t like it try something else, or travel the world if you haven’t already.

at the end of the first year reasses what you want to do, do you like the job etc and then see what you want to do, at that point you could keep the farm manger, go into some share farm thingy, lease it out, get rid of the cows and have cattle with the job

there has never been so many options to a lad in your situation, either with the farm or with regards to off farm

you’re in an unbelievably lucky position really where you can have a great life - don’t blow it by being afraid to try something. Get a farm manager for a while, try something different. If you like it then decide how to proceed with farm, and if you don’t like the off farm job just go back to farming yourself.

but YOU need to decide and YOU need to make it happen, we are only lads on a site chatting who can give you a few ideas

but it’s clear to me from on here that you need a change - do it while you’re young

again it doesn’t need to be hugely dramatic or a forever ever change - get a manager in for a year and let him take care of the farm and you try something different. Very easy to go back from that

just my thoughts
 
Jesus KTM that’s a great wage in construction and that’s 5 days a week ?if you added up the hours worked in dairy farming there would be know way you would get that kinda money an hour.

I think some 1 said earlier to put my day up here to see what ye think of it so
7.30 up bit of breakfast get cows out of shed and scrape and lime beds 8.30 -10.30
Milking,washing,housing cows again .
The usall stuff then during the day silage,etc

5.45 repeat the above .
Podge, if you were down south I would give you a job in construction for 12 months to give it a shot to see if it appealed to you.
 
Jesus KTM that’s a great wage in construction and that’s 5 days a week ?if you added up the hours worked in dairy farming there would be know way you would get that kinda money an hour.

I think some 1 said earlier to put my day up here to see what ye think of it so
7.30 up bit of breakfast get cows out of shed and scrape and lime beds 8.30 -10.30
Milking,washing,housing cows again .
The usall stuff then during the day silage,etc

5.45 repeat the above .
What time are you finished milking wit a 5.45 start, would it be around 7.30 or 8.00pm
 
Honestly podge there are lads on here giving you some good advice that I think you need to take
Me and the ould lad work together like we do it between the 2 of us the milking and liming etc I suppose we are working the milking times that he always done ..
I dont get when you say working milking times so he's always done? Can you explain more. Can one not milk and the other lime for example. It sounds both of you have to do each job together.?
 
Persume that during calving and breeding season your hardly gone from yard every evening at 530
Ye. But the point I'm making is I cant understand lads being in the yard milking after 6.30pm especially at this time of year. Getting up at 7.30AM is another story but each to their own. I'm in now for a cup of tea,milking done, calves fed and will drop younger 2 into school. Which is a treat for them as they normally get the bus. They don't know yet....
 
Ye. But the point I'm making is I cant understand lads being in the yard milking after 6.30pm especially at this time of year. Getting up at 7.30AM is another story but each to their own. I'm in now for a cup of tea,milking done, calves fed and will drop younger 2 into school. Which is a treat for them as they normally get the bus. They don't know yet....
For spring calving herds it real quiet now.
Know of 2 lads that would be milking at 11 or 12 at night.1 was a neighbour of me own running to stupid ifa meetings all over the country and milking when he came come, all that came to an end with covid and the dept took the cattle of him in spring time.other lad is fierce sound laid back lad up near @ mixedfleet and is getting on the best.not my type of working day
 
What is taking up the rest of the day between 10.30 and 5.45, someone had as their signature " loose an hour in the morning and spend the rest of the day looking for it"
Was in a yard yesterday and 250 cows were finished milking at 3:45, cows in the parlour at 6:15 in the morning.A lot of dairy around me and all would be finished milking by the latest 9 in the morning and the latest would be 5:30 in the evening. My uncle used to have a routine like you have and might not be finished until 8 some evenings, It
Was not great for his health, he got another man in to milk and everything changed , started an hour earlier in the morning and cows also came in 2 hours earlier in the evening . When that man left the routine stayed and it was a lot better for his lifestyle and his health.
 
For spring calving herds it real quiet now.
Know of 2 lads that would be milking at 11 or 12 at night.1 was a neighbour of me own running to stupid ifa meetings all over the country and milking when he came come, all that came to an end with covid and the dept took the cattle of him in spring time.other lad is fierce sound laid back lad up near @ mixedfleet and is getting on the best.not my type of working day
Stupid ifa meetings, 😂🤓
Could be worse.
He could be going to Teagasc meetings 😱😤☹
 
Was thinking, if you have no construction qualifications and you decide to land on a site in the morning with all your relevant tickets your going to be like any newbe, the go for. Go get me the shovel, tape or mix me a barrow of muck to start with and you will have to earn your stripes. I don't think you realise what you have already. And with some small changes can help you alot. But it's up to you to implement them aswell. There has been loads of suggestions put your way from awhile back now and it seems they have gone by the way side you need to grab the bull by the horns now and implement some of them. I think you need to sit down with your dad also, sooner rather than later to have a chat and change a few things on the farm. Definitely your milking routine/times asap. When he sees how they work out for the better it will set the ball rolling for maybe more bigger steps to be taken. But it's up to you. The longer you leave things go the harder it gets to change.
 
You’d be nuts to walk away from the set up you have you just need to think about everything your doing and how you could make it more efficient. If your milking 120 cows in a 6 unit parlor you need to update money well spent from bringing in the cows till finished washing the parlor you should be no more than an hour and a half. If running a diet feeder is taking 4 hours every day simplify good telehandler block silage every other day and get a silage pusher so no graping. You can get little machines with a scraper and brush that also spread like that will make the cubicles a 10 minute job. Contactor for slurry and as much other stuff as you can if you don’t like machinery. Spend money on fences and passes and hang gates properly money well spent. Hire a young lad to milk in the evenings set it up that it’s a 1 man job. Theirs no medals for doing everything the hard way.
 
Was thinking, if you have no construction qualifications and you decide to land on a site in the morning with all your relevant tickets your going to be like any newbe, the go for. Go get me the shovel, tape or mix me a barrow of muck to start with and you will have to earn your stripes. I don't think you realise what you have already. And with some small changes can help you alot. But it's up to you to implement them aswell. There has been loads of suggestions put your way from awhile back now and it seems they have gone by the way side you need to grab the bull by the horns now and implement some of them. I think you need to sit down with your dad also, sooner rather than later to have a chat and change a few things on the farm. Definitely your milking routine/times asap. When he sees how they work out for the better it will set the ball rolling for maybe more bigger steps to be taken. But it's up to you. The longer you leave things go the harder it gets.
Well we all have to be the newbie at some stage, so I wouldn’t let that put anyone off trying something new, haven’t met anyone yet who knows everything about what they do, although you’ll get a few that claim to know everything, theyre usually best avoided from my experience.
A few small changes will make his working day far more enjoyable and productive.
Gettin up at half 7 is too late anyways, most people are up between 6 and 7, 5.30 for me.
If you got up at 6.30 instead of 7.30, that’s an hour straight away you should be able to take off the evening.

It’s fair to point out as well that the older generation are not that keen on change or implementing improvements unless you twist their arm a bit, I have seen it here meself, poor yard, crush, etc. sometimes you are just as well to go against them and do what’s right even if they tell ya you’re wrong, when you have the change made and it is working well they’ll usually be the first to tell ya it’s a great job!
 
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