Relief milking - more than just holiday cover

While many dairy farmers employ someone to complete a number of milkings each week, many others have no ‘set time off’ in the normal week, and possibly only take a week’s holidays in summer and some time in winter.
We have surveyed quite a number of dairy farmers this spring to gauge labour structures on farm.
While many dairy farmers employ someone to complete a number of milkings each week, our initial results show that many others have no ‘set time off’ in the normal week, and possibly only take a week’s holidays in summer and some time in winter. Difficulty in securing relief milking is one of the main reasons given – a high proportion of farmers complete two milkings per day even on their ‘days off’. On the other hand, when prospective employees were surveyed, one of the main issues they faced is lack of regular work.
If this sounds familiar to you, it is worth considering this month how you can improve your situation regarding relief milking cover. The first step is to begin to look at milking cover not just as a cost per hour or per milking, but as an investment in your own time. Table 1 outlines examples of how time can be freed up from a number of relief milkings, e.g., for around 8-10,000 of tax- deductible spending on wages, you can free up about seven to eight days a month.
Table 1: Example of time saved by money invested in relief milking for average scale herd. | ||||
Relief labour budget* | 5-6k | 10-12K | 15-18K | 20-24K |
Approximate number of milkings | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
Percentage of milkings per year | 15 | 30 | 45 | 62 |
Hours saved | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 |
Milking per 46 weeks | 2.2 | 4.3 | 6.5 | 8.7 |
Time freed up to take time off or do other work | One day/week | 2.2 days/week | Three days/week | 4.5 days/week |
*For illustration only: table does not represent recommended rates of expenditure or pay – these are subject to individual farm circumstances.
You can use this time to take regular time off or to get development tasks done on the farm, depending on the circumstances. The key point though is that getting some milkings done creates more time than just the time spent milking; for example, if evening milking is covered then it frees up the entire day and not just the two hours spent milking. Another key benefit of regular milking cover is that you have someone who knows your farm and parlour. In the event that you are sick, etc., there are people who you can be call upon at short notice. Finally, farmers with regular help in place find that students, neighbouring farmers and neighbours can work well for
part-time work on dairy farms, but you must be proactive in seeking help.