Getting a job drawing silage at 16???

AgriLad

I’ll be 16 later this year and be hoping to get my tractor license. However I’m not from a farm or don’t have relations in farming although grandparents both used to be farming. Have a huge interest in it though. Big interest in machines etc and last summer I visited a local contractor a few weekends during the summer to see silage and stuff like that.

I’ve never properly drove a tractor before but would love to draw silage next year (2020) as I’ll be in TY so no exams or anything. Was thinking if I kept visiting the local contractor (my father knows him well) and learnt more things etc and maybe do a little bit of driving, would there be any chance do Ye think I could get a job driving for him next summer?

Can drive a car fairly well I would say, and wouldn’t be cocky on machines like some lads

What do Ye think? Thanks

893bet

Unlikely you will be trusted with 200k of machinery. Most drivers would have been driving tractors since they were strong enough to press the clutch.

Grueller

AgriLad wrote: »

I’ll be 16 later this year and be hoping to get my tractor license. However I’m not from a farm or don’t have relations in farming although grandparents both used to be farming. Have a huge interest in it though. Big interest in machines etc and last summer I visited a local contractor a few weekends during the summer to see silage and stuff like that.

I’ve never properly drove a tractor before but would love to draw silage next year (2020) as I’ll be in TY so no exams or anything. Was thinking if I kept visiting the local contractor (my father knows him well) and learnt more things etc and maybe do a little bit of driving, would there be any chance do Ye think I could get a job driving for him next summer?

Can drive a car fairly well I would say, and wouldn’t be cocky on machines like some lads

What do Ye think? Thanks

Any tractor and trailer combination with a decent contractor is probably over €50,000 and maybe north of €100,000. Based on your lack of experience I would say your chances are slim.
For your own safety going up on hilly land etc. you would be better to try to pick up a bit of work on a farm and learn the ropes of machinery that way before trying to go to a busy contractor.

AgriLad

Grueller wrote: »

Any tractor and trailer combination with a decent contractor is probably over €50,000 and maybe north of €100,000. Based on your lack of experience I would say your chances are slim.
For your own safety going up on hilly land etc. you would be better to try to pick up a bit of work on a farm and learn the ropes of machinery that way before trying to go to a busy contractor.

Yeah thought my chances would be slim , will look into the farm work thanks

Other opinions welcome

visatorro

Sure couldn't you start off tripping in bales this summer or tipping about with a small rake in front of a baler. You're not going to be on the harvester this year and neither should you be. See what he has for you. If he has nothing I'm sure there's farmers who would like abit if topping done or fert spread. Don't be cocky thinking you know it all or expect to drive new machines, as long as they are road legal you'll gather experience.
I wouldn't discourage someone who has an interest in something. Great trait in a young person. Too many useless little bastards around nowadays

alps

Great to see interest and initiative...there is a huge responsibility running a rig like this, and lots of experience is needed, however contractors are critically short of drivers, and new tax rules this year will make the situtation worse.

Summer farm work is your route, or driving that is not as pressurised silage work is best for experience, and your opportunity with a contractor will pop up before you know it..

AgriLad

visatorro wrote: »

Sure couldn't you start off tripping in bales this summer or tipping about with a small rake in front of a baler. You're not going to be on the harvester this year and neither should you be. See what he has for you. If he has nothing I'm sure there's farmers who would like abit if topping done or fert spread. Don't be cocky thinking you know it all or expect to drive new machines, as long as they are road legal you'll gather experience.
I wouldn't discourage someone who has an interest in something. Great trait in a young person. Too many useless little bastards around nowadays

Yeah exactly that sort of work would be ideal, any sort of machine for me would be perfect wouldn’t be a bit fussy and pay would bother me at all just the experience is hard to find. Thanks

AgriLad

alps wrote: »

and your opportunity with a contractor will pop up before you know it..

Yeah hopefully, going to try and get out with the contractor as much as possible during the summer and then see what happens from there, only be getting the license this time next year so will have a fair bit of time to try get experience and learn as much as possible. Thanks for the reply

kingdom fan

Great to see a bit of work ethic and enthusiasm. I'm sure you'll get work with that positive attitude
However, please be aware of the dangers. There are simply no second chances with this type of machinery, ( even with all the glass n new tractors you see shag all really up close. If u don't believe me put a 5 ft 5 inch person standing beside d big wheel) it might look like great craic but 2 days of hard slog on these machines, watching d harvester, d gaps , d walls n d yard, and hills or hollows ( I'm talking on flat ground , anything with a hill is another beast altogether. I remember going down a freshly cut hill, empty !, and the tractor took off, it was a miracle I stopped before d river . ) the noise and vibration even on good tractors and you'll be exhausted. You'll get up to speed though. But the reality of a summer on these machines to someone with no real tractor experience might come as a bit of a shock.
The main point is be safe. A tractor travelling at 40km/it with 20t behind will not stop as soon as you want it to.
A job in a bar or a shop will be better craic, you'll meet nice people and definitely meet some girls. Best of luck having such luxuries drawing silage.

_Brian

Chat with the contractor now about any work he may have.

You might pick up something.

The big problem is your lack of actual driving experience, this is a big drawback.

carrollsno1

Never got going on machinery much until i was 21 and that was on a 414 and eventually the TW20 that was rough as a bears arse but i learnt fairly quick on it and loved it by the end of the first week. Before that i was just tipping away with the tractor at home topping mowing drawing cattle etc went to england and was let go mowing and drawing bales but then in the biggest shed i ever worked in despite its size it was all awkward narrow passages and there was no place for a 120hp tractor there i just took it easy and slow and did the job right, however i broke an arm on the scraper tractor one saturday morning due to pressure to get the yard scraped and cubicles limed got ****ed out of it for that despite how i should have said there was shag all lights in the yard or shed to see where i was going at 5am on a winters morning that knocked my confidence and took a lot to get my confidence back on another mans machine. After the tw farm i went to nz and was cautious etc but eventually just got more confident and ploughed on 6 months later i was driving a 600hp tractor and a 40ft seeding bar in Australia and im going for my truck licence here soon.
Start at the bottom take youre time and familiarise yourself with the machine, i never spread fertilizer till i was 22 either but i managed it all the same.
Im dreading going home and hopping on gear again because if theres one thing lads do good at home is rough gear and with the roads the way they are in Ireland its a disaster waiting to happen.

bogman_bass

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Never got going on machinery much until i was 21 and that was on a 414 and eventually the TW20 that was rough as a bears arse but i learnt fairly quick on it and loved it by the end of the first week. Before that i was just tipping away with the tractor at home topping mowing drawing cattle etc

It that bit of tipping about that the OP needs to get befor he goes out on the road

older by the day

Start with a transport box, it like asking to drive an arctic before getting your car licence. Maybe get a summer job this year with a local farmer, doing topping, fertilizer ,scraping yards drawing bales ect. And GOOD LAD its nice to hear from a boy who wants to work

Sacrolyte

Oh my god. Capital letters,full stops,commas,paragraphs and your only fifteen. Wow. Most young people I know type in some sort of coded gobble de gook. If you can drive half as good as you type then you got no trouble kid.
Good luck.

Ps. A dumb priest never got a parish.

hopeso

Around here anyway, a lot of contractors would start lads your age on the bale wrapper. The only difference being that those lads would already have tractor driving experience at home. But, if you know a contractor who does baling, it might be worth a shot.....

davidk1394

hopeso wrote: »

Around here anyway, a lot of contractors would start lads your age on the bale wrapper. The only difference being that those lads would already have tractor driving experience at home. But, if you know a contractor who does baling, it might be worth a shot.....

I’d agree with that also. You’d have a better chance wrapping bales or maybe raking or hauling bales than hauling silage

Donald Trump

Best bet would be to get work with decent sized local farmer rather than a contractor. What I mean is that someone who has (some of) the gear himself. So they can let you do a bit here or there incrementally.

What you need at least initially is a few jobs with someone where you can't do any damage to yourself, the machine or anyone else. Unfortunately these are few and far between.

You might find some fella willing to let you drive around for a few hours doing some boring job like rolling a field. Although not too many people do that now.

What about a golf course or something like that where they have the little tractor things. You'll be starting early in the morning but will be finished your days work by afternoon

Donald Trump

893bet wrote: »

Unlikely you will be trusted with 200k of machinery. Most drivers would have been driving tractors since they were strong enough to press the clutch.

I doubt I'd be the only person on here who was put sitting on a tractor with instructions on how to pull out the stopper in case I needed to stop it because I wasn't heavy enough to depress the pedals :pac:

Joe Daly

Silage is an expensive game its team effort the farmer needs his crop harvested in the best way it can, you can have bad field conditions, road traffic can be a bugger now a days. I am speaking from somebody that cuts a couple of thousand acres a year. As somebody said if you got expierence on a wrapper, rake or other farm machinery judgment of traffic coming against you or going in and out gateways awareness whats going on around you its a start.

Limestone Cowboy

Joe Daly wrote: »

Silage is an expensive game its team effort the farmer needs his crop harvested in the best way it can, you can have bad field conditions, road traffic can be a bugger now a days. I am speaking from somebody that cuts a couple of thousand acres a year. As somebody said if you got expierence on a wrapper, rake or other farm machinery judgment of traffic coming against you or going in and out gateways awareness whats going on around you its a start.

I'd rather a 22ft silage trailer on a narrow road any day to a rake. It's one machine you'd really want to have good judgement with.