MANY DAIRY farmers are now struggling to find staff – because very few workers are willing to accept the terms and conditions on offer on a dairy farm.

Discussion of this problem dominated the recent College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise webinar held in partnership with the Ulster Farmers Union and the Dairy Council Northern Ireland.

Chair of the UFU Dairy Committee, Mervyn Gordon, quoted results of a survey which found that 63% of dairy farmers in GB were having problems recruiting workers, while another survey had found that only 5% of people surveyed were prepared to work on a dairy farm.

Dr Marion Beecher, from Teagasc, 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.

She did not rule out any of these things being possible on a 'labour efficient' dairy farm, based on a simple system, a 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 to 21 hours per cow per year, compared to the bottom 50% having up to twice that 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. He took over the family farm in 2005, when it had 150 cows and family labour only. Mr Delves 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 Joe 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 three 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 – which should always be relayed directly to staff.

It was also 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.