Warning signs

The UK dairy sector will need 20,000 new entrants over the next 10 years and a vision has been launched to address the shortfall in labour.

Already dairy farmers are who can no longer produce milk profitably are leaving the industry in droves and several counties can no longer claim to support a single milking herd.

The dairy industry is facing a severe shortage of new young recruits and a newly-published plan outlines ways for dealing with the staffing and training requirements needed to manage the expanding herd sizes: it notes that this is being driven by expansion in the herd as well as an aging demographic of farmers.

As the dairy industry expands, there will obviously be a greater requirement for highly skilled people and, with the average age of the senior partner in each business currently around 58 years, this report

Dairy farms across West Wales are already heavily dependant on EU workers, but perhaps the most notable way is to source labour Post Brexit is from outside the EU, where there are more skilled people. The report looks to countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia as a way of dealing with the shortfall.

However, EU citizens currently enjoy greater access to other countries within the union so calls are being to make it easier for farms to hire non-EU workers.

Professor Gerry Boyle is actively encouraging young people to consider a career in dairy farming. He says: “Dairy farming can be a financially rewarding and enjoyable business which provides a good standard of living and a good work life balance. This can be achieved by having labour-efficient setups that make the day-to-day workload easier.

“There are opportunities for people to follow an attractive career in dairy farming and the opportunity for family farms to expand to improve their viability in the future.”

Workplace challenges

Most farms have a very limited workforce ranging from one or two to half a dozen but, when a key worker if off sick, there is a much greater burden on those that remain.

In most cases, all the work has to be done seven days a week every day of the year.

Bearing this in mind, an estimated 137.3 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury in the UK in 2016, which is equivalent to 4.3 days per employee - on the whole, sickness absence levels are experiencing a downward trend, which is a positive sign, but more still needs to be done to reduce sickness absence.

Data just published shows that short-term, one-off, often unavoidable illnesses such as colds and flu cause the greatest proportion of sick days. However, these short-term absences can actually have a less significant impact on small businesses and individuals than long-term conditions such as mental ill health or musculoskeletal disorders.

The impact of long-term absence cannot be underestimated and it brings with it a unique set of challenges: 1. It can be a real struggle for organisations to cover the workloads of absent employees for extended periods; 2. In general, the longer a person is off work on sickness absence, the harder it is for them to return; 3. It is difficult for GPs to make decisions about their patients’ return to work without a full understanding of their jobs and working conditions and 4. The management of long-term sickness absence presents problems for employers in terms of implementing adjustments tied in with a person’s rehabilitation, and dealing with the uncertainty caused by the lack of defined recovery period.

Lessons learned

Taking a break from dairy farming can make a person return more focused and motivated than ever, according to an award winning student Shane Fitzgerald, 26, who is currently milking 165 cows on a 250 acre farm, which is made up of both owned and rented land.

Shane believes it is imperative for any young farmer to take a break to travel or to even work on another farm, in order to broaden their horizons.

“The advice given to me by several just a year or so senior to me was don’t rush home too soon - try and travel if you can; try and broaden your horizons.”

He travelled to Canada as part of an exchange programme while he was at college; spent time in the US on a J1 visa; and also worked in New Zealand.

“It doesn’t have to be anything to do with agriculture, it hasn’t done me any harm. I’ve got away and I’ve taken a break from farming. I was more focused and driven when I came back, after getting the break. Maybe if you stay at it too long, you could get driven into the ground too young and you could lose interest.

“It was probably the best thing for me - I came back more motivated and focused. I knew what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. Since then, I’ve driven on.”

He considers the advice to spend some time away from the family farm applies even more so for young people whose parents may only be in their 40s or 50s, he said.

“They’re not going to hand over too much responsibility too soon. If you end up staying there, you could be 40-years-old yourself before you get the farm.

You’re going to be there long enough; there is no point rushing back - in 10 or 15 years time you could have regrets about why you didn’t travel or see the world.

At the moment, Shane is keen to expand his own dairy operation: “We are planning, hopefully, over the next five years to get up to 200 cows; that’s the aim. We would still be keeping our heifers and cutting our own silage.

“We would be aiming to stock our land out to the max. The five-year plan was to get to 200 cows by 2019 - we’re trying to maximise what we have; we’re not renting any more land or buying more land. We’re just trying to do all the basics right,” he said.

Shane claims he has his mother to thank for advising him to enrol in a business degree.

Farming at the time wasn’t stable; there was no guarantee that you could make a livelihood out of it - I was really focused; I had all my plans written down. I worked hard towards that for the past couple of years,” he said adding the need to highlight the importance for any farmer to write down the goals they’re working towards, even if they never reach them.

If anyone has the interest and the passion they can achieve anything - nothing is impossible.

“I always try to keep learning and improving. I try to get to as many farm walks and discussion group meetings as I can - you’ll always learn something - I’m trying to work smarter basically and to be more efficient - not work as long hours, but still have high profits and results. It’s all about striking a balance,” he concluded.

Larry 1

A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses.

She started her class by saying: “Everyone who thinks they’re stupid, stand up!”

After a few seconds, Little Larry stood up.

The teacher said: “Do you think you’re stupid, Larry?”

“No, ma’am, but I didn’t like to see you standing there all by yourself!”

What ‘Ex’

Jack decided to tie the knot with his long-time girlfriend.

One evening after the honeymoon, he was cleaning his golf shoes. His wife was standing there watching him. After a long period of silence she finally speaks.

“Honey, I’ve been thinking, now that we are married I think it’s time you quit golfing. Maybe you should sell your golf clubs.”

Tim gets this horrified look on his face.

She says: “Darling, what’s wrong?”

“There for a minute you were sounding like my ex-wife.”

“Ex-wife!” she screams, “I didn’t know you were married before!”

“I wasn’t!”

Faith

Whatever the future holds, there need be no fear - God will keep us safe.