Out With the Old and in With the New – Improving Working Conditions – Max Sealy (Chippenham)

We spend a lot of time with our clients at the moment discussing attracting and retaining good quality labour. The issues in the economy with general labour and skill shortage being just as prevalent on dairy farms as they are in many other sectors such as poultry and pig sectors, abattoirs etc.  We expect a lot from our staff on farms.  Many of them working long hours at each end of the day and anything we can do to improve working conditions should be taken into consideration.  More often than not, working and living conditions are equally important, if not more important than money.

A simple example on our own farm is that we have recently swapped our old scraper tractor for a brand-new tractor with shuttle gearbox, a good cab, good lights and an easily operating hydraulic system including a spool valve operated adjustable top link which means that when scraping you can adjust the angle of the scraper to maximise the hold of slurry.  This tractor also does some of the sand bedding in the cubicle passage where it is difficult to get the telehandler.  Since this recent change, this has not only sped up the time taken scraping yards and improved the quality of the scraping, but also has made it a more pleasurable job.  As winter progresses, no doubt this will become even more prevalent.

We are all faced by the same challenges for labour on our farms.  What we need to do is to work with our staff to address issues that mean that we maximise the chance of retaining them.

Another good example of this is our health and safety service, whereby we hold regular meetings with your farm staff to address their concerns about their working conditions, not just from a pure health and safety point of view, but from a general operational point of view.  Simple changes (even ones less expensive than buying a new tractor) can be put in place to benefit both the business and the staff.

Contact Max at maxsealy@fcgagric.com for advice on reviewing your farm Health & Safety Policy and procedures, to ensure that you are protecting your team and your business.