No job suits farming

Agree.no wonder we've such volatility in farm gate prices for so long. Part time farming was a nod & a wink to the beef & dairy processor's that "we'll be here anyway lads, no matter how bad price gets " marts at night was also another one.

Unfortunately also, see alot of lads, over the years putting money from paye jobs into farming. Facilities,machinery,stock.another nod & a wink.slippery slope it's been.

Reap what you sow as they say.

Ah lads!

In a world of WFH, hybrid work and flexible work hours there is plenty of work to suit part time farming.

I currently work from home with flexible hours, I can work anywhere from 20 to 40 hours as I like, but would rarely do a full days work between the farm and the day job. I work in a software support role. Probably a better quality of life than commuting to a full time office job or doing field service work like I used to. I've more time at home with the kids too and no childcare costs. I've even found time now to do a remote part time college course in software development.

Neighbour in his mid 50s, milking 85 cows, works weekends in the local Hotel doing porter or doorman for functions and Weddings. Wife works as primary School teacher, gives Irish and Maths grinds to leaving certs in the evenings and weekends. No kids. Their parents live with them in the old part of the house, one of them on a defined benefit pension the other gets the state pension. Both fine and healthy the father keeps a large garden, spuds, cabbages, onions and carrots mainly, the mother rears about 15 of the bull calves by bucket to keep on "her" bit of the land that her family had.

I often wonder whats it all for.

Same. Many struggle with the concept of having nothing to do

No time with the wife and kids you say, eh?

Cue loads of lads googling how to start their own garage

I have a well paid full time job. I don’t know why I farm it’s not for financial reasons but purée because I enjoy it. I have stepped back a good bit in the last two years. Sticking date down, thjngs not kept as well as I would like but still enjoyable. The kids are at an age that they are at matches a couple times during the week and I coach one of the teams .

I could work all the hours in the week with my full time job but what’s the point . I like to be busy but love the variety of farming. Love doing diy projects etc.

so you can do anything if your heath is in it. But id it’s hardship your as well out of it as you are only doing both jobs half arsed.

Teagasc advisor seems to work well with cows, I see a nice few of them at it. Probably can do alot of their work online from home now, a few meetings during the day, and farmers busy times match up with the advisors so they won't be ringing at milking times etc

Work smarter not harder. I do see lads about here deciding that contracting or plant hire will suit. The problem with that is that if your arse is not in the seat of the machine, you ain't earning. An office/professional (whatever that means) type job with flexibility is ideal.

Nephew here draws house plans and farms as well. It doesn't matter if he draws them at 9am or 9pm once they get done the client is happy. He could do a planning application for a garage in a couple of hours and get hundreds for it. Retention is another winner as the bigger firms don't want it.

The thing I can't understand is what is his tax bill. It's amazing how/why people work so hard and work a second job with every euro being taxed at the high rate

Maybe they should reach out to the social welfare population to figure out how they do it. Afterall if you are working all the hours with full time job and farming then you are effectively paying for that

Yeah, only someone that never done it thinks its 20hrs a week.

Yep - the sister is a teacher married to Guard outside Oughterrard - he farms 30 acres of drystock so its a nice stress free way to do it

That's true, obviously no 2 situations will be the same, but someone with 130 acres would be more likely to require less off farm work hours than than someone with 30 or at least be more likely to be working towards reducing them. Not all off farm jobs need to be the typical 35 - 40 hour week.

Work and trade union activists are mutually exclusive and incompatible. I came across a good few and most never did a stroke of work. So actually doing a second job that actually involved work and being self employed would be completely outside there comfort zone

The vast majority of dairy farmers are full-time. There is a reason it fairly incompatible with a full time job. It's just too demanding on time milking. Having said that an account too farm from me has go e at it. He just couldn't handle the profitably if beef. Mind you he was into it fairly intensively. Finishing at 20-22 months.

Definitely would not go contracting. Adding another irregular payment job to a job where profit varies a lot is not ideal. Too many kids think you need to fit the farm before everything else rather than have it last in terms of priority.

Everything is about attitude. I worked full-time and the farm was 12 miles away. I learnt to be very efficient. The two most important things are fencing and concrete water troughs. If both of them are in place then you stock will always be where you left them.

I can understand in places sheep are the only option. But a lot of lads are ar5eing around with sucklers or trying to be mini tanglers. The other big failing is often machinery and deciding that you need to do everything yourself. The two big goinheadaches ( and capital hungry) slurry and silage I contract completely out along with hedge cutting. I have no interest in being a tractor jockey

@mr.stonewall I disagree with bales especially for smaller units. You can feed 3-400 bakes a year in a yards with a 60-70 hp 2wd tractor. Feeding bales is all about organisation. But there flexibility in the smaller beef game cannot be underestimated. The trick is to make them as dry as possible.

Retiring early-ish is also on the cards with the farm. I am semi retired for over four years now. The farm drove the ability to do that. It all about profitability

Couldn’t agree more about the pit. Feed 200-300 of them here along with the pit. I look forward to opening the pit after spending a month feeding bales and I hate to see it emptied coz it means I’m back to the bales again.

I too would rather not be a tractor jockey but apart from silage I can't get people to do things when they should or do a half decent job or do the job for the kind of money that wouldn't tempt me to get the machine myself...

One lad does the hedges around the homeplace (short run) but he's dependable if very late (usually after xmas (but grand, hes doing it from the road not ploughing the place up)....but anything internal or on outfarm they'll either arrive when the ground is too soft and make a shite of the place or I tried a new lad last year and he charged me multiple hundreds for showing the hedge the hedgecutter...I'd have done as much with a pair of hand clippers, didn't cut the top at all...which was the bloody point and cut about 3 maybe 4 inches growth sporadically along the line of the hedge..(I'd sat he didn't want to do it all) ....that's it, the choices are, let it grow wild, pay mad money(in the context of what was actually done) for a **** job or the place ploughed up when fields are at their wettest when yer man has nothing else to do or reluctantly become a tractor jockey and do it right yourself..(some machinery wouldnt be long paying for itself with the kind of jobs some lads do and the rates they charge imo - and tbh I csn understand it from their perspective too ..... its diesel, wear and tear and a man's time at the end of the day)...at least with something like a hedgecutter youll get use out of it if you have a lot of hedging and it comes in handy maintaining fences, cutting back when you want to fence etc

Tis a similar story with dungspreading for me...one lad wants to be at it on the very last week before the closed period when he will nearly sink up to the axels and the good lad has to come from so far away it's close to a grand a pop....sure I might as well do that too, even though Id rather do something else and not have a dungspreader corroding away out in the yard....cest la vie....if you have lads around you that do a decent job for reasonable money it can be a godsend....If you have lads that want it on their terms you probably are better off going at it yourself.

A lad down our way drives a concrete truck, he has a yard and roadways you could land a jumbo jet on them and never paid a euro for them.

I'm blessed in that way with a good local contractor/welder/mechanic.

He'd do anything and won't see you stuck night or day, I'd be absolutely lost without his help over the last few years.

Always try give him a good big hamper or some other gift at Christmas.

I bought one for that reason and it is very convenient but slow work. Also got a few repairs and it turned out expensive. Still handy to have though

Excellent post.

Was going to post something similar but thought I would offend a few.

Some men just make hard work of everything and lack efficiency.

There is a 40 cow suckler farm at home, I'd say the average labor throughout the year is one hour per day.

It's well set up with a clever chap running it. Nothing is a big job.

teacher here , travelling an hour to work at minute but might get closer in a few years, its an unreal job for farming. two days a wekk last year i didnt have to leave until 8:30 and 9:30 other 3 days leave at 7:30, lads on buildings would have half an hour work already done on dublin sites by then. home at 5pm every evening, if timetable clicks this year should have at least one day when im home by 3:30pm. half day every friday finsh at 2 pm. i went for teaching so i could farm its working so well

An hour a day during the week on top of an 8 hour work day plus commute is enough to be doing. I bet there is a few extra hours put in over the weekends though?

At least this is how I did it for years.