Summary
This survey of 313 Irish pasture-based dairy farms identifies key factors contributing to improved workplace effectiveness for farmers, including work organisation, farm facilities, labour-efficient practices, and human resource management. The most effective quartile of farms demonstrated substantially reduced working hours (58.6 vs 82.6 h/week), greater holiday allocation (16.6 vs 5.1 days/year), more frequent weekends off (8.3 vs 2.4/year), and earlier finishing times compared with the least effective quartile. The findings suggest that deliberate work organisation and management practices can materially improve farmer wellbeing and work-life balance on pasture-based dairy farms.
UK applicability
The findings are directly applicable to United Kingdom pasture-based dairy farming, as farm structures, herd sizes, and labour availability challenges are comparable. UK farmers and farm advisors may benefit from adopting the labour-efficient and human resource management practices identified as associated with improved workplace effectiveness.
Key measures
Weekly hours worked, annual holiday days, annual weekend days off, spring finish time, farm size (herd number), farmer age, farm facilities quality, adoption of labour-efficient practices, and human resource management practices
Outcomes reported
The study measured workplace effectiveness across 313 Irish pasture-based dairy farms using indicators of productivity, flexibility and standardisation, and compared hours worked per week, holiday days, weekend days off, and finish times between the most and least effective quartiles.
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