DairyCo

Out sourced Labour

Published 24 September 10

The use of outsourced labour on farms

As technical advances are made in dairy farming - often necessitating specialist skills and equipment - coupled with the increasing unavailability of employed farm staff, the use of outsourced professionals as an important means of acquiring skills and labour in the agricultural sector increases.

Outsourced contractors, mostly working on a self-employed basis or provided by a company offering a fee-based service, tend to specialise in a particular field, and are used for specialist activities such as:

• Foot trimming.
• Artificial insemination.
• Heat detection (fertility management).
• Pregnancy diagnosis.
• Cattle clipping and sale preparation.
• Freeze branding.
• Concrete grooving.
• Parlour cleaning.

There is also the obvious variety of roles on-farm where expensive machinery is required, such as slurry, manure and fertiliser spreading, and silage making, where outside contractors have been traditionally used by farmers for some time.