In week seven of our 11-week BETTER Farm beef challenge review, we are putting the labour and farm structures challenge under the microscope. In essence, there were two objectives. The first goal was to quantify the labour hours on participant farms and evaluate the results. Secondly, in terms of farm structures, the objective was to show that successful family and non-family partnerships can become established businesses which can provide a viable future for young farmers. Ten farmers signed up to the challenge.

Labour hours

The labour hour statistics presented in Figures 1 and 2 are for the period July 2017 to June 2018. Farmers were tasked with recording their working hours on the first week of every month in order to give a good reflection of the hours they are putting in at the various times throughout the farming season.

As can be seen from Figure 1, the average number of hours worked per farm over the course of the year was 67 hours/week.

The lowest hours came in January, with 53 hours/week, while the highest number of hours worked per week was in March, with 80.

Delving deeper into the hours, of the 10 farmers which signed up to the challenge, five of those had off-farm employment. The remaining five were full-time farming and in some cases with more than one labour unit.

This sample is a fair representation of beef and drystock farming at a national level, where 40-45% of farms are being run on a part-time basis.

The red line in Figure 2 represents the total hours input per week on full-time farms. However, the average labour units (LU) on full-time farms was 2LU, so the blue line represents the hours/LU on full-time farms.

The quietest and busiest months on full-time farms were January and March, respectively. In terms of part-time farms, April was the busiest month while August was the quietest. All of the part-time farms only had one labour unit.

Cathal Breen, Co Wexford

Who is working on the farm?

It’s myself and my father Peter on the farm. He is part-time farming as he is also a local councillor. I have been full-time for over the last year. I was part-time myself before that and, to be honest, I’m going to be going back working in the spring again. The margins just aren’t in it at the moment so I’ve something in the pipeline where I’ll be working a couple of days per week off-farm.

What way is labour structured on the farm?

It’s very flexible here with us. It only takes one person to do the daily tasks and that’s usually me. But of course, if I’m not there, there’s no bother to Peter to fill in and keep the show on the road.

And then obviously if were are doing a bigger job like weighing or dosing, we will organise it so that both of us are on hand.

Have you reduced labour input since the start of the programme?

The paddocks have been a big help for us purely to get cattle moved. Before it was a big job getting cattle in and out of fields – now they just follow us which is great.

But without doubt, the biggest addition has been the new shed. I built it with a TAMS grant and we have only got cattle into it in the last couple of weeks.

I can notice the difference already in terms of how quick I can feed and then the reduction in bedding thanks to the extra slatted tanks.

Do you have a clear vision on the future of the farm?

In terms of labour, I’m quite happy with the way things are on the farm.

For the last number of years we have been very busy setting up grazing infrastructure and then the new shed but they are complete now.

It means that the work should be pretty streamlined and I should also be able to manage going back working off-farm. I wouldn’t have dreamed of going back working before that.

In terms of the system, I’ll be keeping at 70 suckler cows and then I’ll be more flexible with the dairy calves, somewhere from 30 to 60 every year.

If I pushed up numbers, I’d have to stay full-time but I’d be at the mercy of the beef markets. The reality is I’d make more money with the off-farm job.

Dwayne Stanley, Tipperary

Who is working on the farm?

There are three people – myself, my father Raymond and my uncle Gilbert. Raymond and Gilbert are full-time. I’m about 75% full-time but also do rugby coaching and more recently I have started relief milking.

What way is labour structured on the farm?

We have a pretty rigid stricture when it comes to labour on the farm and it means we work together but don’t get in each other’s way at the same time. We all have our daily tasks to do but for big jobs we all come together. For example, at this time of the year, in the mornings Gilbert looks after the weanling shed on one part of the farm and Raymond looks after the main suckler shed. I do all of the feeding.

Then in the afternoon we will all come together to do any main job like dosing or moving cattle.

It’s the same in the summer – I do the herding, Raymond does the fences and Gilbert is in charge of machinery. Any big jobs we work together then.

Have you reduced labour input since the start of the programme?

The biggest saving on labour has been vaccination. Before, we would often be bringing in sick animals or maybe running fire-fighting with antibiotics in the winter time.

Pneumonia and scour were big ones. The vaccine does require work initially to do them, but in the long run it leaves life so much easier.

Tightening up the calving spread has also been a big contributor to streamlining the system.

To be fair, things such as paddock grazing and added attention to detail all over has probably increased the intensity of the work a little bit, but it’s worth it for the performance we are getting on cattle now.

Do you have a clear vision on the future of the farm?

I would have had a clearer picture two years ago. The margins are so tight now over the last two years that we have had to make some adjustments. I don’t see suckler numbers changing too much.

The dairy calf-to-beef job was starting to work well but there’s little-to-no margins there now. For the short-term, I’ve stopped buying beef calves and in 2020 I might contract-rear dairy heifers instead. It makes sense for cashflow. If beef prices can improve, there’s nothing to say I wouldn’t go back to the beef calves.