mini rant , with a question

are you not concerned about the other issues with this worker??.

If I was at home whelan and maybe lived closer to you I'd be sending you a cv! Had to go to nz to get decent work on a dairy farm! You seem to be very unlucky when it comes to finding good people to work for you, they are out there though, we have one on our home farm, they just don't become available very often. Our guy has been with us 25 years! There is no chance that the guy is selling some of the mineral on the side is there? Because I don't see how someone could be giving that much a day??

He told you supplies were running low, so you ordered more... "i couldnt understand... :eek:" Why didn't you question the situation at that point (it was seven times the normal rate, after all)? Also, how come you didn't notice it many weeks earlier? Sounds like it's also hard to get good bosses as well as good workers....

Anyway, he did tell you supplies were running low.

About the worker you let go - might you not have checked the oil level yourself?

The excess mineral intake shouldn't do any harm to the animals.

One thing on your labourer from reading your post I think you are assuming that he will do everything the same way as you would you need to check the work he does more often, this obivously hasn't being happening. You need to take control, a simple rule in management I have is to let your subordinates know that the work done will be checked and supervised, this in itself acts as a motivator to get the job done correctly and the results are amazing after pulling peolpe on mistakes a few times they tend to be more careful in future. Becoming a manager of employees is a steep learning curve it just takes time

foundation10 wrote: »

The excess mineral intake shouldn't do any harm to the animals.

One thing on your laborer from reading your post I think you are assuming that he will do everything the same way as you would you need to check the work he does more often, this obivously hasn't being happening. You need to take control, a simple rule in management I have is to let your subordinates know that the work done will be checked and supervised, this in itself acts as a motivator to get the job done correctly and the results are amazing after pulling peolpe on mistakes a few times they tend to be more careful in future. Becoming a manager of employees is a steep learning curve it just takes time

id have to agree here, managing the farm and managing people are two seperate issues. most of the time is spent correcting their mistakes, picking up after them, and explaining things to them. just because some one has one or two peolpe working for them dose not mean the amount of work done will increase by that amount.

first thing first, make every job "IDIOT PROOF" and remember sometimes the boss can get it wrong too.

for the case in point, in the shed with the minerals put up a board and pencil (the white boards used in the cheap furniture) on it write the amount of minerals/head/day by the amount of cows=xkg/day
every day get him to write down the day and how many cows if the no. changes and how much mineral he gave them.
have a bucket there that is only for minerals and know how much it holds full(usually a small one for minerals) write it on the bucket in pernament marker how much it holds full or weigh in 2kg at a time and mark it each time.

we have white boards in most of the tractors/sheds (in the machinery shed of services done/oil checked). it has been the vain of my father life to get every one using them, but as staff change or the more there is the more valuable these craps of timber become.
the week gone by my full time lad was out for the week sick, he looked after the feeding on the out farm, i knew what they were fed but not the exact quantities. but a 30sec look at the board told me how many grabs of silage to each pen/shed, if they are big/small grabs, hows many bales of straw,how much meal and how much minerals. idiot proof and i was the idiot this time.

whelan1 wrote: »

he was putting wheaten straw in the keenan feeder rather than barley

Hi Whelan1

I know it's off the point, but maybe you can educate me. I know little about the different straw types. Last winter I knew we were low on fodder so bought in Wheaten straw to supplement pit silage purely because i heard it was better feed than barley..... did i make a mistake? Fed to mix of suckler drystock including suckler cows..

Do you use your wheaten straw just for bedding?

Edit: p.s. I wasn't feeding it through a wagon, just on top of silage

Muckit wrote: »

Hi Whelan1

I know it's off the point, but maybe you can educate me. I know little about the different straw types. Last winter I knew we were low on fodder so bought in Wheaten straw to supplement pit silage purely because i heard it was better feed than barley..... did i make a mistake? Fed to mix of suckler drystock including suckler cows..

Do you use your wheaten straw just for bedding?

Edit: p.s. I wasn't feeding it through a wagon, just on top of silage

we feed wheaten straw and use barley for bedding. wheaten has a better scratch factor, and the barley makes a better bed, or thats the way i always understood it.

Hi Whelan1, i feel your pain!! Everyday i am dealing with staff and students and while some are not a problem, some are more challenging... Just because someone is helping you dosent mean that you yourself have to check and recheck things. As a previous poster said i feel it is extremely important to do thing ultra right yourself and then staff expect that standard will be demanded of them(if they are interested in keeping a job)! We try to only use wheaten straw for feeding and barley straw for bedding, good quality wheaten straw is better for rumen function as you can feed more and still mix it properly in the the feeder, we find once you pass 1 kg of barley straw in the feeder, in order to process that straw properly the mix will be over cooked. Our milkers are currently on 1.25 kgs wheaten straw and once the feeder is full it is ready to unload.