Off farm/full time employment

Kevhog1988

Have noticed a lot of posters on here seem to have some form of off farm income also or are working full time a d farming part time. Was just wondering what sort of employment others are in and how it suits their farm.

Im a quantity surveyor so only work 8 to 6 for 5 days. (With 5 hrs overtime in that) keep sheep at home

Genghis Cant

I'm a public servant. I ramble in the odd day around noon, couple of hours surfing the interweb, home by half two.
Top of my salary scale now. €87,775 pa, 28 days hols. Top of the range pension. Max out on sick leave. Living the dream. ;-)
Thinking of going dairying.

darragh_haven

Project manager for a German construction company. Most work is in Northern Ireland or Scotland, with some in England. Usually away 2 nights a week and work from home the other days.
Thinking of packing in the farm and leasing 50% to 70% of it out.....
Then go off and live the Public Service dream like Genghis.....

anthony500_1

Carpenter here work 8-5 Mon 2 Fri, I'm lucky I DO actually work for local authority in the housing section doing mantanince on the council houses. It's a great job in some respects in others it's a nightmare. I'm farming 44ac in total 30ac in one block, 14ac in another. Mix of sucklers and beef. The council is great in respect to time off, if you need a day off it's not an issue or in my case if I see on the camera I've one in bother calving I can ring the foreman and just get put in for holidays for 1,2 or what ever hours I need and go home and make sure all is ok.

On the flip side we deal with all sorts of Tennant's and everything from spotless houses to houses where wellies and white suits are required.........

90% of the time we spend dealing with issues from the same 10% of the Tennant's

simx

Small time dairy farm here and ai man, ai works well with cows imo, great to get out and about talking to other farmers, seeing different ideas, hearing different opinions etc.

_Brian

simx wrote: »

Small time dairy farm here and ai man, ai works well with cows imo, great to get out and about talking to other farmers, seeing different ideas, hearing different opinions etc.

I could see that working well ok.

_Brian

Not so much work along with farm here, it’s definitely that we part time farm along with full time work - the real job is the priority as it pays the bills.

I’m lucky in that the job is flexible. I do my 39hours but in the main I get to do the hours as I please and move the projects in the direction that suits me.

While I have a desk in an office which is 25miles from home, maybe 90% of the time I work from home, going straight to sites etc and doing most of my paperwork at home. This has been a huge boon for family life and the wee bit of farming - it’s what attracted me to this modest paid job over many much better paid factory based jobs I was offered. I still get head hunters calling sometimes to rejoin the rat race but I’m not interested.

I travel round lots of sites but get civil service rates to do so, within limits.

Edit: I dabble with a small online business - it profits a wee bit but mostly it’s for personal learning and interest.

simx

_Brian wrote: »

I could see that working well ok.

It does alright, only thing is no time to do anything on the weekend with kids or that from April till late June, hard to plan anything, when quieter can get other ai man to cover me and viseversa, was working for another dairy farmer and do an odd day for him still, while he was a1 to work for he needed me more in the spring when I'd have enough to be tipping at at home nearly, with ai when ya start getting really busy, cows should be at grass, calves should be more or less reared etc. It's a job I enjoy

carrollsno1

simx wrote: »

Small time dairy farm here and ai man, ai works well with cows imo, great to get out and about talking to other farmers, seeing different ideas, hearing different opinions etc.

Plan for myself is when i go farming on my own is OAD all year round and to do an AI run for the busy season would like to do 2-3000 cows if it allowed, €20 a cow minus expenses goes a long way towards paying off farm debt and leaves me more time to spend with whatever family i have by then

Mooooo

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Plan for myself is when i go farming on my own is OAD all year round and to do an AI run for the busy season would like to do 2-3000 cows if it allowed, €20 a cow minus expenses goes a long way towards paying off farm debt and leaves me more time to spend with whatever family i have by then

Would you get 20 a cow, thought it was a 10 arm fee so to speak? Haven't had ai man here in a few years as I do my own so dunno rates at the min?

carrollsno1

Mooooo wrote: »

Would you get 20 a cow, thought it was a 10 arm fee so to speak? Haven't had ai man here in a few years as I do my own so dunno rates at the min?

Thats what a mate of mine was getting with one company, however another company pays €12 plus diesel. Each company is different. Company we use is generally €27 first shot with three repeats at €8 IIRC

Mooooo

Doing diy course has a quick payback at those rates in fairness, think it was 500 for course and another for the gear, depending on year would use 200 straws here a decent saving

carrollsno1

Mooooo wrote: »

Doing diy course has a quick payback at those rates in fairness, think it was 500 for course and another for the gear, depending on year would use 200 straws here a decent saving

Only thing with doing diy is that you pay the full price for the straw whether its a first serve or repeat

tomwaterford

Off farm work and part time farming (even on farms where would prob be viable full time)

Suits some people as people are proportionally likely extraverted and farming can be isolated at times??

Whereas I love the quite time and working on me own in the evening's

valtra2

Work 8 to 6 in construction. Farm 80 acer with father. 56 cows sell weanling bulls at end of year and hefeirs in April may. 2 young kids and a contraery wife. Hope she is not on boards. In fairness father dose most of the feeding and work in general but is getting on so will be a discussion sonnet about what will happen. Downsize or lease.

squinn2912

Work as an Irish teacher quite local so it's not so bad. Farm 150 acres with my father who like above poster does most of the work. Holidays are great. Split on 3 outfarms and main block so difficult in winter with half light. Plan to do the ai course but don't think it'll be a career change. If I take to it then we might adapt our system. Run 2 bulls with 60 suckler cows and sell from weanlings to forward stores, finishing maybe 10% per annum.
Engaged to a wonderful lady who is very supportive but I'd like more time to spend with her

simx

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Plan for myself is when i go farming on my own is OAD all year round and to do an AI run for the busy season would like to do 2-3000 cows if it allowed, €20 a cow minus expenses goes a long way towards paying off farm debt and leaves me more time to spend with whatever family i have by then

Are you in a very cow dense area? 2-3000 cows is alright going to get started at, I don't get €20/cow anyway,then repeats if the said company you talk about charge €8 you can imagine what the ai man gets, later in the time when you could drive 10/15 miles to do one repeat it's a killer but goes with the job, would it be as easy as that get an ai run just for busy season? Not too easy an job to get around these parts here anyway

simx

Mooooo wrote: »

Doing diy course has a quick payback at those rates in fairness, think it was 500 for course and another for the gear, depending on year would use 200 straws here a decent saving

500 for the course, 550 for tank, 120 year nitrogen service, then buy straws-beef straws min of €10/straw and dairy ones circa min of €17/18 I think, saving on a nice few cows, seen a few lads go about doing their own but got ai service back after a couple of years as probably not doing enough cows to keep their hand at it or keep confidence in themselves, if a lad had a v large herd it would eat an hour + easily in the morning too

carrollsno1

simx wrote: »

Are you in a very cow dense area? 2-3000 cows is alright going to get started at, I don't get €20/cow anyway,then repeats if the said company you talk about charge €8 you can imagine what the ai man gets, later in the time when you could drive 10/15 miles to do one repeat it's a killer but goes with the job, would it be as easy as that get an ai run just for busy season? Not too easy an job to get around these parts here anyway

Tis fairly cow dense in parts, i know well what you mean with repeats think they give €4 a repeat.

simx

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Tis fairly cow dense in parts, i know well what you mean with repeats think they give €4 a repeat.

If you had big herds you'd do alright in the busy time I suppose, when I went for the job there was 5 others going for it, like any job it has pros and cons, I personally have a great interest in breeding etc. some companies make the ai man go collect the money too so mightn't be that simple either, sus all them things out day one and if you go down that route best of luck

grassroot1

simx wrote: »

500 for the course, 550 for tank, 120 year nitrogen service, then buy straws-beef straws min of €10/straw and dairy ones circa min of €17/18 I think, saving on a nice few cows, seen a few lads go about doing their own but got ai service back after a couple of years as probably not doing enough cows to keep their hand at it or keep confidence in themselves, if a lad had a v large herd it would eat an hour + easily in the morning too

yes DIY is ok but would you serve enough cows to keep your hand in

simx

grassroot1 wrote: »

yes DIY is ok but would you serve enough cows to keep your hand in

I suppose it would depend on the individual and how handy they are etc. if you finished up say start July ai and didn't serve a cow till 1st may again it's a nice window too

grassroot1

simx wrote: »

I suppose it would depend on the individual and how handy they are etc. if you finished up say start July ai and didn't serve a cow till 1st may again it's a nice window too

The first cow of the season is never a good serve for me anyway takes one or to to get back in the swing.
A AI man would serve more cows in a day than I would in a year. If I am doing a large number of cows for ftai I get a fulltime AI man in.

kollegeknight

Full time teacher and OH is part time lifeguard. As of now we take nothing from the farm- whatever I’ve left over I try to improve the place a bit.
Land will hopefully be transferred in Janruary.

whelan2

simx wrote: »

If you had big herds you'd do alright in the busy time I suppose, when I went for the job there was 5 others going for it, like any job it has pros and cons, I personally have a great interest in breeding etc. some companies make the ai man go collect the money too so mightn't be that simple either, sus all them things out day one and if you go down that route best of luck

Was talking to our Ai man the other day, he's still owed money from the spring from farmers. Alot to be said for contra off the milk cheque

carrollsno1

whelan2 wrote: »

Was talking to our Ai man the other day, he's still owed money from the spring from farmers. Alot to be said for contra off the milk cheque

All fine and dandy until next may

simx

whelan2 wrote: »

Was talking to our Ai man the other day, he's still owed money from the spring from farmers. Alot to be said for contra off the milk cheque

Yeah i know some other companies the technicians have to go collect money, with my employer they do that and I get paid regardless so happy days, good few have it coming from milk chq alright, most beef farmers very good to pay too anyway

whelan2

simx wrote: »

Yeah i know some other companies the technicians have to go collect money, with my employer they do that and I get paid regardless so happy days, good few have it coming from milk chq alright, most beef farmers very good to pay too anyway

Ai man finished winter ai here on Friday. I gave him a cheque then. He's with dovea. Use pg for spring ai and they take money by contra. Can arrange how much comes out each month rather than a big lump

Mooooo

simx wrote: »

500 for the course, 550 for tank, 120 year nitrogen service, then buy straws-beef straws min of €10/straw and dairy ones circa min of €17/18 I think, saving on a nice few cows, seen a few lads go about doing their own but got ai service back after a couple of years as probably not doing enough cows to keep their hand at it or keep confidence in themselves, if a lad had a v large herd it would eat an hour + easily in the morning too

Winter milk here so would be at ai in jan and then from may to July. Cows no problem heifers seem to go fine or dont when starting again. If im away or whatever I get ai man otherwise I do em myself after milking

trg

I've a 40 hour week job that's fairly intense though enjoyable. We've a 70 acre block at home that we run 28 sucklers on. + another 60 acres or so of a hill that's good for water and fencing so the yearlings go over there.

The father does almost all the work being honest which I know he's ok with but can't go on forever nor do I want it to. I don't see any hope of continuing with the sucklers long term. My job has to come first. I look after the evening and night calvings now but cos of him I'm still at my desk at 9

Any thoughts on what might work in my scenario? Don't want to lease it.

I've 3 small kids as well so time is getting much more precious!

Bullocks

trg wrote: »

I've a 40 hour week job that's fairly intense though enjoyable. We've a 70 acre block at home that we run 28 sucklers on. + another 60 acres or so of a hill that's good for water and fencing so the yearlings go over there.

The father does almost all the work being honest which I know he's ok with but can't go on forever nor do I want it to. I don't see any hope of continuing with the sucklers long term. My job has to come first. I look after the evening and night calvings now but cos of him I'm still at my desk at 9

Any thoughts on what might work in my scenario? Don't want to lease it.

I've 3 small kids as well so time is getting much more precious!

What kinda bull are you running ?
We have a very easy calving limo and pushed calving back to april/may .
Found it was very easy to calve them out on grass , just pen them once a fortnight or so to tag or dehorn them .
Gonna wean them this week and feed on the calves to get a bit of weight into them for when grass buyers are about in feb/march

I suppose thats if you dont get rid of the sucklers , if you do then its drystock

trg

Bullocks wrote: »

What kinda bull are you running ?
We have a very easy calving limo and pushed calving back to april/may .
Found it was very easy to calve them out on grass , just pen them once a fortnight or so to tag or dehorn them .
Gonna wean them this week and feed on the calves to get a bit of weight into them for when grass buyers are about in feb/march

I suppose thats if you dont get rid of the sucklers , if you do then its drystock

It's an easy calving limo as well. I see your point but still depending on the old man to be there though.

Dry stock it is I suppose. Not into it. Will have to study up when the time comes as to what type, age, breed etc.

Would there be a market for rearing high star hereford heifers for breeding I wonder?

Buy as calves and sell after 2nd winter. Fair old cash deficit til that point of course

august12

Genghis Cant wrote:

I'm a public servant. I ramble in the odd day around noon, couple of hours surfing the interweb, home by half two. Top of my salary scale now. €87,775 pa, 28 days hols. Top of the range pension. Max out on sick leave. Living the dream. ;-) Thinking of going dairying.

If you are a moderator on this forum, then for me, Boards has lost all credibility and my vote of confidence,

CloughCasey1

august12 wrote: »

If you are a moderator on this forum, then for me, Boards has lost all credibility and my vote of confidence,

If you were on here often enough you'd know that his was tounge was so far in his cheek it was sticking out his ear!!!

Bullocks

trg wrote: »

It's an easy calving limo as well. I see your point but still depending on the old man to be there though.

Dry stock it is I suppose. Not into it. Will have to study up when the time comes as to what type, age, breed etc.

Would there be a market for rearing high star hereford heifers for breeding I wonder?

Buy as calves and sell after 2nd winter. Fair old cash deficit til that point of course

Around here the place is full of high star herefords (I think most herefords off the dairy cows have good stars )
I'd say they will be a hard sell next year of so
As you say about cash being out when buying stock for a year or two , its one thing I like about the sucklers , you can build up a nice herd and always have a few followers coming through .
If needs be and you need cash its easy enough sell an old cow anytime of the year and replace her next year again from the herd without having to dip into the pocket and buy a replacement

Bullocks

august12 wrote: »

If you are a moderator on this forum, then for me, Boards has lost all credibility and my vote of confidence,

There should be a strongly worded letter sent somewhere to someone about Ghengis alright :rolleyes:

Bullocks

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

If you were on here often enough you'd know that his was tounge was so far in his cheek it was sticking out his ear!!!

Ghengis wont be too happy to read this when he comes back from his three weeks in the Maldives

CloughCasey1

Bullocks wrote: »

Ghengis wont be too happy to read this when he comes back from his three weeks in the Maldives

Christ it was nearly as sarcastic as Bass's post on Reggies future in contracting in the mower choice thread.☺

Genghis Cant

Bullocks wrote: »

Ghengis wont be too happy to read this when he comes back from his three weeks in the Maldives

Four weeks....... I'll get back to you when I'm back in the office.... In February :-)

Cavanjack

Know a few lads working Shift, seems to fit in well with drystock farmers. You're off a good bit during the week to go to marts etc.. can feed cattle for 2 or 3 days during the winter so not much to do in the evenings or mornings when working days. You could also work night and day for a few years until you are whipped!!!
Also you can do school runs quite often, something lads in regular jobs rarely get/have to do.

Dakota Dan

simx wrote: »

Are you in a very cow dense area? 2-3000 cows is alright going to get started at, I don't get €20/cow anyway,then repeats if the said company you talk about charge €8 you can imagine what the ai man gets, later in the time when you could drive 10/15 miles to do one repeat it's a killer but goes with the job, would it be as easy as that get an ai run just for busy season? Not too easy an job to get around these parts here anyway

Same here in Cork, next to impossible to get a decent size area for ai run.

Dakota Dan

valtra2 wrote: »

Work 8 to 6 in construction. Farm 80 acer with father. 56 cows sell weanling bulls at end of year and hefeirs in April may. 2 young kids and a contraery wife. Hope she is not on boards. In fairness father dose most of the feeding and work in general but is getting on so will be a discussion sonnet about what will happen. Downsize or lease.

I know the feeling too well, a contrary wife is more tiring than milking an extra 100 cows.