Friday, March 29, 2024

Staff – more important than cows

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It’s still feeding cows and making milk but today’s dairy farm has changed from the one we made milk from 30 years ago. The average herd size in New Zealand has gone from 140 cows to more than 400 cows. With the smaller herd there were more owner-operators and fewer employed staff, but as herds have got bigger we have seen a shift, so the person doing the milking and managing of the cows often isn’t the owner (Figure 1).
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Staff play an important role in today’s farm, but have we got staff management right? Our staff are a more important asset than our cows. 

Now I can hear the herd owners arguing with me, but I think the difference between good and poor (the people and the management of them) is more important than any BW or PW.

I think we generally pay well for farm positions but do we manage well enough? 

A dairy farm assistant, aged 20 with three years’ experience, can earn more than $45,000 a year, with free house, milk, firewood and often some meat worth another $12,000. This beats what they could get in town.

But, and there is always a but, with bigger farms the hours on concrete are getting longer, there are more people in the business, and competition for time makes dairy farming not as attractive as it should be.

It was described to me once as the more staff you have the more relationships you have, and we know the more relationships, the trickier it gets (Figure 2).

We need to think smarter about how we manage this very important asset. Having turned 40 recently I feel old saying this, but younger people like to be managed differently than we did and they have different motivators. We need to be aware of this and use it to our advantage in business, not our disadvantage.

Our traditional 12-and-2 roster system doesn’t suit today’s farm. We have seen the use of lots of different rosters including: 

  • 11-3Allows for a weekday as well as a weekend
  • 8-2 + 8-3Works on a 21-day cycle so rests every three weeks, includes one weekend break and one week-time break
  • 11-3 and 6-1Similar to above, slightly better weekend time off
  • 6-2Doesn’t fit the calendar so well, less work time in the year

With this change we now offer more days off than we used to. The traditional 12-2 has 15% days off, 11-3 + 6-1 has 19% off and 8-2 + 8-3 has 24% off, for example. Do we do a good enough job at selling the more days off to our staff? Or do we just work them harder on those other days – I hope not. I was asked by a client’s staff member (11-3 system) about a position on another farm recently and was told “they are paying more so I am going to leave”. I asked about the roster they would be moving to and the answer was”12-2, why, is that different?” The person still left, but hadn’t considered the difference.

Looking at dairy farm assistant jobs on Farm Source, there is a correlation between rosters and different parts of the country. The North Island is advertising more with 12-and-2 and the South Island more alternatives like 8-2 + 8-3. This could be linked to herd size but also might be food for thought – there is often a better way of doing something.

We need to offer technology in the work place to stimulate staff more. How many staff have access to Farm Source products, use apps like Cowculate to manage cow feeding, use tools for pasture measuring like AgHub or are signed up to AgRecord? These are all ways we can involve our staff in the decision-making processes, use technology and make better decisions. 

The other change with longer milking times is using more shifts, with some farms having early starts and finishes, and others with late starts and finishes. Some staff would love the option of starting at 3.30am in summer and finishing at 3.30pm.

The move to once-a-day (OAD) milking is a tool that can be used to reduce cow walking hours and also reduce staff numbers and working hours. 

One farm I know went to OAD milking to reduce the number of staff because of a shortage of houses. This also allowed for fewer relationships, and a more low-cost system. 

What about going OAD after Christmas and reducing the need for relief milkers? Some staff will be happy working more days if they only have to milk in the mornings. Given the current payout, with more than half the milk produced by mid-December you could save costs without sacrificing much milk production.

Every farm is different – number of houses, system choice, and distance to services, dairy size – but I challenge you to think “Am I doing enough for my most important asset?”.

The essentials checklist

Employment agreement and job description. A legal requirement.

The right presentation of the offer including non-cash benefits. How much is the overall package worth? Put a value on the firewood, milk and so on.

Involve staff in some of the decision-making process.

Correct care and communication with health and safety. Is the right equipment provided, do we do ongoing training and monitoring? It is a must, not a privilege.

Introduce technology to stimulate and challenge people to make better decisions.

  • Gary Massicks is a dairy and sheep and beef consultant with Stantiall and Partners Agricultural Consultants based in Feilding, and a member of NZIPIM.
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