Rural delivery: Need for officer class dairy recruits

By LOUISA HERD*

There has been much speculation by agricultural pundits lately on the labour problem within dairy farming.

All the farming magazines carry at least one article by farm consultants, "farming leaders" or employment specialists on this vexing topic.

Oddly enough for such otherwise switched-on journals, there is little comment from the farm workers themselves.

I suppose that in an industry which refers to its workforce as "labour units", little else can be expected.

The "bad employers" scenario has been done to death by commentators. Certainly, as a farm worker who has attended numerous day-release courses, I have heard tales of worker woe that would make the average urban employee's hair stand on end.

Yet there seems more to this issue than a few bad-apple farmers spoiling the labour market for everyone else.

I believe dairying is trying to recruit the wrong sort of people. Contact with other farm workers has reinforced my view that a 16-year-old boy does not make the best sort of employee for the 21st century dairy unit.

The trouble seems to be that farming has been sold to myriad grunting lads oozing their sluggish way to early school-leaving as an ideal career for a boy of little brain. Perhaps it was 20 years ago, but it sure ain't now.

The colossal paperwork requirement on farms and the fact that many farm owners demand a high standard of agribusiness management skills from farm and herd managers means that numeracy, literacy, and the ability to present oneself well are requisites for any beginner in the dairy industry.

There's a host of people, city dwellers, semi-retired folk and women like myself - a former health-care professional - who would jump at the chance to work on a farm.

I did seven years ago and have never regretted it. I'm still with the same farmer, have gained a herd manager's certificate, and have embarked upon an extramural agricultural science degree.

I love my job and thank the man who took on me, a complete beginner who knew only that cows went moo.

Sixteen-year-old boys may be the cannon fodder of the cowshed, but isn't it time to try a new tack and recruit some officer class material?

Older people (I'm 37) from other walks of life have already well-developed work habits, respect for employers' investments (stock and machinery) and are adaptable and willing to learn.

Often, skills learned on previous jobs can be utilised on a farm; for example, as an ex-podiatrist used to filling out hospital patient records with scrupulous care, I have been given responsibility for our farm's herd records and for keeping the dairy company's Best On-farm Practice Handbook up to scratch.

There will always be the cockies who like to do everything on the cheap and will continue to employ dull-witted youths who can be reimbursed in leguminous products, but astute farmers must surely see that reliability and intelligence in a worker are things to be valued.

The old adage of peanuts and monkeys holds truer than ever. Pay a decent wage, offer a professional package of conditions and get a top-rate employee you can trust.

It works for every other business. Why not for farming too?

On a final note, there seems to be an insidious drive to make farmers sport flash mocker when going into town for a bag of calf meal.

For heaven's sake, anyone with a modicum of common sense would realise that you don't finish your day's work on a farm radiantly clean and smelling like budget night in a Turkish brothel.

The work is dirty and physical. Animals do not poop nicely into sterile receptacles. Hay does not make your hair look good.

You can't milk in a Hugo Boss suit. I don't advocate walking with townies in your smelly calving overalls, but if the young ones the industry is so desperate to attract are turned off that easily by the sight of a farmer in his/her working clothes, then they're not worth having on a farm.

* Louisa Herd is a Wellsford farm worker.