Agriculture must work to meet skills and labour shortages

Agriculture is one of seven Irish sectors facing skills and labour shortages, Teagasc researcher Marion Beecher told the Teagasc National Dairy Conference, while highlighting the need for the sector to 'work harder' to ensure the correct steps are taken to make farms a more attractive workplace.

Not just an issue on Irish farms, Marion explained that in a global context, there has been a total decrease in the number of people working in agriculture, which has led to a 30% reduction in agriculture’s share of the total employment in industrialised countries globally.

“In many of those industrialised countries, farm expansion has increased the demand for non-family workforce and we are also seeing a decrease in the availability of family members due to alternative employment options as well,” Marion said.

This change in dynamic has resulted in an increased requirement for the likes of assistants and farm hands, as well as farm managers. As Ireland is one of seven industries facing skills shortages, she noted that attracting people to work in the dairy sector is likely to be consistent challenge in the coming years.

She added: “There is overall increased competition for workers globally. We are also seeing an increased demand on Irish farms. It is something that farmers and the industry are going to have to work hard on to make workplaces attractive for new skills and new people to come in.”

To aid the Irish dairy industry in its endeavours in making it a more attractive place to work, Marion touched on the People in Dairy Programme, which has identified five key areas in order to improve the situation within Ireland. These include: farm system; practices and technologies; work organisation; facilities; and outsourcing.

Focusing on the topic of work organisation and presenting data from Conor Hogan’s PhD study, which examined labour efficiency on Irish farms from the February to June period, Marion said: “Overall, farms with good work organisation have a shorter working day, an overall shorter working week and they are completing fewer tasks per day.”

She added: “If we compare the top 25% and bottom 25% of farms in terms of labour efficiency, the more efficient farms had less hours per cow, had a higher six-week calving rate, their herds had a higher Economic Breeding Index (EBI) and there was no difference in milk solids between them between the February to June period. The more efficient herds were also more profitable.”

Table 1: Farm performance indicators among the most and least labour efficient farms (n=72) (Feb – June)

Presenting an additional study on labour efficiency, Marion noted that for herd sizes of <150 cows, there was a massive variation in the hours worked per cow. The average farm surveyed under this study worked 23.8 hours/cow/year, while the maximum worked 38.9 hours/cow/year.

On this, she said: “Reducing the hours per cow is important for two reasons. It can reduce the overall demand for labour - if the requirement for hired labour is based on inefficient practices and facilities - and thus reducing the overall estimation of the labour required.

“It can also reduce our overall labour demand – combined with having good practices and technologies, facilities, and outsourcing – it can actually make your workplace a more attractive place, which can actually be a benefit in terms of attracting people to work on the farm.”

More information on the People in Dairy Programme is available on the Teagasc website.

Photo caption: Dr Marion Beecher spoke as part of the ‘Getting to grips with labour challenges on dairy farms’ session as part of the Teagasc National Dairy Conference. Pictured from left to right are: Richard O’Brien, Teagasc; John Whelan, dairy farmer; Dr Marion Beecher, Teagasc; and Brendan Joyce, dairy farmer.