The challenge of getting and keeping workers on dairy farms

The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) in partnership with the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) and Dairy Council Northern Ireland hosted a webinar at the end of last year on attracting, training and retaining staff to address the challenge dairy farmers are having in getting workers.

Modern milking facilities attracts young staff.

Mervyn Gordon, chair of the UFU Dairy Committee, opened the event by quoting results of a survey which found that 63% of dairy farmers in GB were having problems recruiting workers and another survey which found that only 5% of people surveyed said they were prepared to work on a dairy farm. Lack of skilled labour has encouraged many dairy farms to consider robotic milking. Mr Gordon also called for the industry to promote dairy farming as a good career.

Dr Marion Beecher, from Teagasc, spoke on improving labour efficiency on dairy farms. She noted a range of conditions that potential farm workers were looking for in a job, such as set start and finish times, regular hours, a fair wage, responsibility, good farm facilities and rewards or bonuses. Dr Beecher went on to highlight features of a labour efficient dairy farm including a simple system, well organized, well-designed yard, block calving, healthy cows, modern milking facilities and good communication with workers.

Results from Teagasc research work also highlighted the difference in labour efficiency between dairy farms with the top 50% operating at 14-21 hours per cow per year compared to the bottom 50% having up to twice those number of hours per cow.

Joe Delves, a dairy farmer from Sussex, who completed a Nuffield Farming scholarship entitled “Why some farmers succeed in dairy farming and others do not” spoke on his experiences in managing staff. Joe took over the family farm in 2005 which had 150 cows and family labour only. Joe is now managing four farms with a total of 940 cows, a small cheese business and 12 staff. In terms of labour efficiency on his farms, he initially calculated the labour efficiency at 30 hours per cow per year but has now nearly halved that.

Overall he aims to run his farms at 100 cows per full time equivalent labour unit. His advice to farmers on managing staff is to be ‘slow to hire and slow to fire’, put new workers on a 3 month probationary period with agreed simple targets, train new staff, set standards for work, offer bonuses and rewards based on performance targets. Mr Delves advises that WhatsApp or texting is excellent for communications but not for concerns or recriminations and always speak directly to staff about concerns.

It is important for dairy farm owners to keep in mind that staff cannot be expected to have the same commitment to the business as the owner would have. It is not reasonable to expect workers work as many hours as the owner might be willing to do and will appreciate regular scheduled working hours with flexibility if possible. It is difficult to get workers for a dairy farm, so applying patience, training and agreed working conditions will go a long way to keeping them.

To view this webinar, visit CAFRE TV on YouTube.

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