How many hours per week do you work?

Siamsa Sessions · 09-06-2021 4:58pm #1

Hi all,

I started tracking how many hours per week I spend on the farm last September when I was doing homework on converting to dairy.

The image attached is a snapshot. A few notes:

* I farm part-time and work off-farm 3 days/week. I consider Thurs/Fri as "farm days" and all other days as "off-farm days"

* I only include hours actually worked on the farm, not breaks for the tae or a bit of lunch

* Time is tracked to the nearest half-hour, and even then it's an estimate some times. It might not be 100% accurate some days but it's ball-park all the same.

I'm only sharing here in case it might be of interest or of use to anyone else. I use a Google docs spreadsheet and am happy to share if anyone wants to send me a DM.

squinn2912 · 09-06-2021 10:35pm

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Hi all,

I started tracking how many hours per week I spend on the farm last September when I was doing homework on converting to dairy.

The image attached is a snapshot. A few notes:

* I farm part-time and work off-farm 3 days/week. I consider Thurs/Fri as "farm days" and all other days as "off-farm days"

* I only include hours actually worked on the farm, not breaks for the tae or a bit of lunch

* Time is tracked to the nearest half-hour, and even then it's an estimate some times. It might not be 100% accurate some days but it's ball-park all the same.

I'm only sharing here in case it might be of interest or of use to anyone else. I use a Google docs spreadsheet and am happy to share if anyone wants to send me a DM.

Very interesting idea. Am I reading it right? I think you’re doing around 19/20 hours per week now? If you don’t mind the question what is your set up in terms of ground and stock? Do you have help?

In our group we were encouraged to work out how much a kilo of beef is costing to make or a cow per year with benchmarking etc… I suggested we should be looking at our time spent on farm and what we’re being paid an hour. I got some very funny looks

Base price · 09-06-2021 11:42pm

squinn2912 wrote: »

Very interesting idea. Am I reading it right? I think you’re doing around 19/20 hours per week now? If you don’t mind the question what is your set up in terms of ground and stock? Do you have help?

In our group we were encouraged to work out how much a kilo of beef is costing to make or a cow per year with benchmarking etc… I suggested we should be looking at our time spent on farm and what we’re being paid an hour. I got some very funny looks

Realistically that is what livestock farmers should do. If we included a charge/cost per hour worked then in reality when you crunch the numbers we should all quit and sell up. I'm referring to cattle/beef farming as opposed to dairy.

I mentioned Siamsa's post to OH earlier and his comment was "at least he's working 3 days a week in a proper job"

Pinsnbushings · 10-06-2021 7:01am

Base price wrote: »

Realistically that is what livestock farmers should do. If we included a charge/cost per hour worked then in reality when you crunch the numbers we should all quit and sell up. I'm referring to cattle/beef farming as opposed to dairy.

I mentioned Siamsa's post to OH earlier and his comment was "at least he's working 3 days a week in a proper job"

I'd hazard a guess it may be the same for dairy truth be told.
Great idea for a thread I think, time efficiency is where I've focused A lot of my attention over the past 5 years. The key things that have helped here I think are roads, hanging every gate, good fencing and water infrastructure. And the big 1 in our own scenario is changing to oad milking. trying to keep everything as simple as possible and something I've learned since first starting out in farming not necessarily chasing that last 10-15 percent of production.
Having said that I worked 44 hours on farm since Saturday and 2 days at work, but we were at bales and my father was caught with other issues.

Siamsa Sessions · 10-06-2021 9:37am

squinn2912 wrote: »

Very interesting idea. Am I reading it right? I think you’re doing around 19/20 hours per week now? If you don’t mind the question what is your set up in terms of ground and stock? Do you have help?

Yeah, doing 20-ish hours/week. Have sheep and cattle. Not fenced for sheep really but spent loads of time and money on it the last few years. More to do so I’m not throwing more good money after bad, and getting rid of the sheep.

Plenty paddocks and roadways for cattle thou so trying to focus on them and reduce hours. I’m buying calves the last 2 years and selling in Oct/Nov the following year. Nice few euro out it for less work.

No help apart from my OH who would help bring in sheep or cattle but doesn’t do any yard work. My brother used to help a little but he moved to Spain last week

Siamsa Sessions · 10-06-2021 9:40am

Base price wrote: »

I mentioned Siamsa's post to OH earlier and his comment was "at least he's working 3 days a week in a proper job"

100% true. I wish farming was not the same but at least comparable to proper paid jobs.

But whatever happens, I’m not going back to being chained to a desk for 8 hours/day, 5 days/week for the next 25 years.

Dinzee Conlee · 10-06-2021 9:53am

Following a thread or comments on here about how much I make per hour, I decided to track my hours this year...
Just downloaded a tracking app onto my phone, a 'clock-in/clock-out' kinda app

Anyways, when I go out farming, I clock in, and clock out when am done. I sometimes forget, but am fairly good at it now...

I have set various tasks in the app - like herding, fencing, etc. So I log my hours against these...

You can then view reports, it gives your average times and the likes... Its interesting to see what you spend time on...

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Siamsa Sessions · 10-06-2021 10:51am

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Following a thread or comments on here about how much I make per hour, I decided to track my hours this year...
Just downloaded a tracking app onto my phone, a 'clock-in/clock-out' kinda app

Anyways, when I go out farming, I clock in, and clock out when am done. I sometimes forget, but am fairly good at it now...

I have set various tasks in the app - like herding, fencing, etc. So I log my hours against these...

You can then view reports, it gives your average times and the likes... Its interesting to see what you spend time on...

That looks a lot easier to use than the spreadsheet I set up. Thanks for sharing. What’s the name of the app?

10-06-2021 11:28am

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Yeah, doing 20-ish hours/week. Have sheep and cattle. Not fenced for sheep really but spent loads of time and money on it the last few years. More to do so I’m not throwing more good money after bad, and getting rid of the sheep.

Plenty paddocks and roadways for cattle thou so trying to focus on them and reduce hours. I’m buying calves the last 2 years and selling in Oct/Nov the following year. Nice few euro out it for less work.

No help apart from my OH who would help bring in sheep or cattle but doesn’t do any yard work. My brother used to help a little but he moved to Spain last week

If its well set up,paddock/roadway wise,would 4-5 strands electic not be a viable option for keeping sheep?

As for OP....19.5 hours a week,for tax purposes!!

Dinzee Conlee · 10-06-2021 11:32am

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

That looks a lot easier to use than the spreadsheet I set up. Thanks for sharing. What’s the name of the app?

ATracker - think it allows you 4 tasks for free... I paid a few euro to allow me to enter more tasks.

Siamsa Sessions · 10-06-2021 1:42pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

If its well set up,paddock/roadway wise,would 4-5 strands electic not be a viable option for keeping sheep?

As for OP....19.5 hours a week,for tax purposes!!

I have 4 strands of electric fence in a few places but it’s not reliable. Sometimes the sheep will stay behind it, other times they just walk thru it. And there’s a good shock but lambs don’t seem to mind it, neither do woolly ewes in dry weather.

Re 19.5 hours: is that a lot then? I have no frame of reference for how many hours other farmers do

Siamsa Sessions · 10-06-2021 1:43pm

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

ATracker - think it allows you 4 tasks for free... I paid a few euro to allow me to enter more tasks.

Thanks. I’ll give it a go

10-06-2021 2:36pm

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I have 4 strands of electric fence in a few places but it’s not reliable. Sometimes the sheep will stay behind it, other times they just walk thru it. And there’s a good shock but lambs don’t seem to mind it, neither do woolly ewes in dry weather.

Re 19.5 hours: is that a lot then? I have no frame of reference for how many hours other farmers do

jesus....find that incredible,i used work in place,when i in school, with 7 or 800 ewes plus lambs and all electic fencing....they would almost never break out

(The fencer there,used be set so high it would burn any grass tipping it,to prevent earthing)

Even best fields at home are electirc as near sheds etc and find it good to train lambs and almost never have a lamb with head stuck in fence on ordinary wire

The 19.5 hours are needed on paper anyway to avail of tax relief on getting it signed over as between working and overseas working,travelling etc,i never did the green cert....so need keep it as agri use for x amount of years

Sacrolyte · 10-06-2021 2:40pm

85-90

Dinzee Conlee · 11-06-2021 8:04am

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks. I’ll give it a go

Its interesting tracking the hours - one thing for me was the time I spent herding in the winter.
Two reasons
The first was I got some beet - but the time to load up the beet, and then throw it out... I knew in the back of my mind that it took some time, but when I tracked the time, I was surprised. Based on the time alone, its not worth me bothering with it again...
Second was not shearing the lambs after buying in September - I didn't this year, and so the impact was I had to do a lot more checking in the winter, as the lambs had a tendency to get stuck in briars...

Again, something I knew, but to be able to work out the impact in hours over 3 months allows you to put a cost on it...

EDIT : I am a bit of a data nerd for this kinda craic though...

squinn2912 · 11-06-2021 10:57pm

I must start doing up some sort of diary to figure it out. My estimation would be in the region of 16/20 hours in an “if nothing happens” week

Saturday 8 hours
Sunday 4
Mon-Fri 2

Seasonally it alters too when we’re calving it could be anything especially if I count time watching the camera!!

40-45 hours at the job but then there’s travel time and whatever I do at home.

When I’m off school I’d say 40/45 hours pw

I do 8-10 hours training per week but I guess it takes double that with prep & recovery

Anyhow I thought I’d chip in with some sort of estimate. Love the idea of this thread.

jimmy G M · 11-06-2021 11:58pm

squinn2912 wrote: »

I do 8-10 hours training per week but I guess it takes double that with prep & recovery

What are you training for? Team sport or marathon?

squinn2912 · 12-06-2021 12:02am

jimmy G M wrote: »

What are you training for? Team sport or marathon?

Yea marathon. Registered for Dublin whatever happens with it

Mooooo · 12-06-2021 12:12am

35 hours a week milking, will speed up a bit when breeding is finished and yields drop a bit.
After that I must measure up, could prob do with spending an extra hour a week in the office.
Spring would be hectic, this time of year grass and breeding would keep ya busy. but since leaving winter milk late summer and autumn are grand.
Had an app, that wasnt very good, but never remembered to turn it off when at tasks may try the one above. Facilities play a big part in it, an area I must invest heavily in going forward regardless of numbers, just hope I'll be able to tag the few extra on to pay for it

How many hours per week do you work?

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