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Employees, Staff and Dealing with a labour force

Turns out I was wrong our farm employs 154 people, and the vast majority work part-time.  Based on 40/w we have 62 full employees. for a combined wage of more than ￡ 2.5 million per annum.  It adds up quickly.

Part of our milking parlour staff (4) only works on weekends.  They work 16 hours a week (cows and goats).  The work fits a specific demographic, they have expressed zero interest in full-time work.  Whenever one leaves there's already someone ready to take over.  Over five years turnover has been one.  100% women.  

Our milking parlour staff of eight (two crews of 4) and two cattle handlers take care of the milking during the week.  The Animal handlers are two crews of 4, they take care of all feeding watering the animals, moving the cattle and ensuring that their stables are clean.  Our cattle crew is 75% male don't know why. it's a seven-day-a-week job, so the farm manager my wife, myself and the cattle and goat foremen participate in this activity.  When we moved our neighbours' cattle a few days ago, it was two foremen, myself and an animal handler were involved.

Our slaughterhouse consists of 12 workers (all men), that work on two shifts of six hours a day (the plant operates from six am to four pm Monday to Saturday).  That team is specific, there is a certification that needs to be obtained, and the guys (meat is surprisingly heavy) are paid on a full-time basis.

We now have four foremen (Cattle, Goat, Fields/high tunnels and now Porc).  Foremen are full-time salaried employees the days are long since they are responsible for every aspect of their sector.  The Porc foreman just started this week... it's a 50/50 team.  Jennifer is the Farm Manager and is responsible for all aspects of the farm.

The maintenance staff is headed by David (our broken-footed head mechanic) it is a team of 20, but they all (aside from David) work part-time on three shifts.  The maintenance team is part plumber/electrician/welder/mechanic/safety and inspection and they cover each other. Maintenance is mostly men (right now) but some of our pickers are transitioning.  This is a 24/7 operation so aside from nights we also have staff during the weekend.  It is a farm maintenance woman who verified the electrical supply in my new office.

Pickers are the largest group.  We have 60 people who work in our high tunnels.  On average they work 16 hours a week.  Gender in this group is highly screwed to women; about 80/20.

The last group of 30 we call warehouse people.  They have the weirdest hours because they are dependent on many outside factors.  Lorrie loads have to be ready for the scheduled pick-up time.  Most of our warehouse staff is older and generally very flexible.  The gender split is about 50/50.  The monthly average is about 100 hours, but it can be all over the place, day to day.  

Sometimes I make it sound as if farming is easy and simple, that there are no conflicts with our employees, or that everything is rosy and perfect.  That is not the case.  We have created a very effective team leader system (it rotates) where problems are escalated all the way to the farm manager (Jennifer is the ultimate boss now) if needed.  In the past, I would spend anywhere between two and four hours a week on labour issues.  Most of our pickers are women and sometimes face challenging family situations.    We pay above minimum wages in the UK, and both my wife and I have a hard time seeing how a family can live on less than￡500 a week (gross).  It is unclear how much more staff we will have in 2024/25.  We are in discussions with our wholesalers to introduce certain new products and grow our current production.  

We are contemplating setting up a daycare/nursery on the farm.  The addition of the new farm means that our staff count will rise.  We are not too sure by how many.  Jennifer told me last week that she has been approached by several staff members about the possibility of having something on site.  We have two small buildings that could be converted from the old farm to a work-based daycare.  Something to explore in the next few days.

Note:  I want to be clear, aside from the pickers where the jobs are part-time, all other jobs can be full-time. The reason they are part-time is that people who came to work for us "wanted" part-time work.  We get the feeling this is changing a little bit.  Jennifer thinks that maybe 15 to 20 of our current employees will shift from part-time to full-time.   We are seeing how we need to change the business to accommodate everyone's schedule.  The only unmovable items are milking and early morning picking...picking in a high tunnel in the afternoon is too brutal.  Milking is dictated by the herds and their comfort.



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