We had our monthly management meeting today, with all the heads of the farm (foremen, farm manager, biologist, ecologist, my wife and I), where we spent two hours over three subjects; the short-term, the medium term and the long term.
The short term is the next quarter; this time we covered anything from seeding, maintenance, fleet, herd growth (or shrinkage) and other field management issues. As an example, we have five fields where we need better water management. Of the five fields, two are simple and cheap and three are expensive and complex. In addition, our biologist and ecologist are preparing planning permission to transform part of a six "field" into a permanent pond and watering area for wildlife. Planning permission application is short-term, and the rest is medium and long-term.
Our medium-term issues are threefold; herd growth, long tunnel increase and staff management. These meetings are not really for discussion but really to bring everyone up to speed, advice and impact on other areas. As an example, as demand for butter outstrips supply by a factor of three, how do we respond. The meeting ensures that our field foreman knows how the milk cow herd will grow so that he either has sufficient silage or additional resources (the reason we grew the farm in 2022).
The long-term planning is more the growth of the farm over the next 3 to 5 years. Storage issues for feed, equipment needs, and staffing size. One of the things that our partner university has created (and that we are testing), is a personnel management tool for farms like ours. As an example, we have certain "hard-timed" events on the farm, milking and feeding really cannot be moved around much. Cattle health and well-being stand first in terms of importance. Second, picking cannot be done in the afternoon (it is just too hot in the high tunnels, plus our CO2 dispersion).
Another example is the meat chicken. It takes a solid 8 man hours per day to deal with the meat chicken, Feeding and watering in 20 tractors takes a while (three times a day) plus we move the tractors once a day (yes we are fully aware that this is not counted in our cost of meat birds). The task can easily be spread among many people, therefore reducing each individual's time on the chicken. Last year 15 people took part in the meat-chicken process. Our software allowed us to create a schedule and timing of tasks, and our employees signed up.
In 2023, Four of our pickers will become full-time time employees splitting their days between picking in the morning and warehousing activities in the afternoon. This has been largely self-selecting. Could this function on a bigger farm. I don't know. We have had such a low turnover (five in all) that it's hard to say. Our part-time staff is well aware that we are expanding the farm and they know there are new opportunities.
On a side note, the driver is picking us up tomorrow at 7 am for our 11 am flight out of Heathrow. Tomorrow will be a long day. The weather is good (we had contemplated leaving the farm tonight and sleeping at an airport hotel) it is an almost three-hour drive.
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