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Young men want their weekend on the beach, not in the tractor cab

Hi, just back from a lovely weekend at the south coast in Ireland for the bank holiday weekend. When I arrived at the holiday village on Friday night the tractors
where still going, trying to get through the city cars. Fair enough, the weather was great for the first time in a month, and silage season is well under way. On Saturday morning I ran down to the shop for a few messages and the tractors where still going. Sunday morning, sun shining, everyone out heading for the beach and now the tractors were trying to get through with slurry tankers, and Monday was no better with all the city girls holding their noses with the smell of slurry.

My point being, how do we expect young farmers to have any ambition to farm when the see they have to work when everone else is out enjoying themselves? How can you expect a young fellow to want to work at home when he see's his friends out at the beach messing with the girls and he's told to spend the day spreading slurry? It must be better to leave the silage till after the busiest weekend in the year, go and have your fun, and start the silage on Tuesday.

It's bad enough to be expected to work for a lesser wage, money isn't everthing, but nobody wants a life of hardship. It's no wonder 75% of farmers in Ireland over 55 years of age don't have a son or daughter to take over the farm. To a large extent farmers only have themselves to blame. There should be a proper working structure for working especially at weekends. Working late at night and on Sundays and bank holidays is just bad planning nothing else, although I'm sure you wouldn't have to look to far to find excuses. Luckily I spent some time on a farm in Holland where we worked regular hours and 4 hours on Saturday morning. When I asked the boss what was Important about the farm , he told me the farm wasn't important, his family was. Going out with his wife for a meal, going to a football match with his son, going away for a weekend. thats important. Farming was a job to earn money to do the good things in life.

All this is aside from what kind of impression it makes on the non farming community. I'm pretty sure they aren't to impressed either. Maybe that's why the French like their farmers better - they seem to have a better work practice as well.

Graham Ferris bri1234@vodafone.ie