According to Pat Dillon, head of animal and grassland research at Teagasc, research completed by Paidí Kelly shows that an extra 5,000 people – at least – will be needed to work on Irish dairy farms by 2025. There are simply not enough skilled and experienced farm managers and general farm workers in Ireland to meet current needs.

Farm Relief Services (FRS) is at the coalface of the demand. This farmer-owned co-op provides skilled people to meet its clients’ needs – often farmers themselves. By the end of spring 2017, FRS will have filled between 150 and 200 roles – for relief milkers and general farm workers.

Overall, FRS reports a 15% to 20% year-on-year increase in demand for its workers, but it is also reporting a shortfall in the number of people from Ireland and abroad available to work as FRS operatives. On the day of the Agri Careers Fair, FRS will be recruiting to fill between 30 and 35 on-farm roles.

SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS

FRS chief executive Peter Byrne and business development manager Padraig Madden met with Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed in January to highlight the shortage of skilled labour and proposed a number of potential long-term solutions. However, something needs to be done in the short-term, because the labour crisis is an issue right now.

Padraig Madden co-ordinates the recruitment and training of people to work on farms through FRS, and he is making a broad appeal to people who could potentially do this work. “Really and truly, if you become an operator with FRS your job is flexible – it’s as flexible as you want it to be,” says Padraig. “It’s your choice, really, how much work you want to do, how often you want to do it and what’s suitable to yourself.”

Padraig highlights several potential candidates for this type of work: the part-time farmer with extra time on their hands, the student with evenings or weekends available, those who drop their kids to school, or nurses who work different times or shifts.

“If that’s what suits and they have time available to come and work, and if they feel they’re happy to do so, then why not?” asks Padraig. “I mean that work is there. We try and facilitate them as best we possibly can.”

So what sort of availability should a person have to be eligible for this kind of work?

“The busy time on any farm is probably morning and evening, especially on dairy farms,” says Padraig. “That’s when cows are milked, that’s when calves are fed, that’s when yard work is done.

“Whether it’s eight or nine o’clock in the morning or six or seven in the evening, that depends on the farm or the farmer and their system. But those are the kind of time frames you’re talking about.”

Students are typical candidates for this type of work, as many of them have part-time availability. However, while students are great for weekend work they don’t tend to be as available during the week.

Reasons for the crisis

Why are we in such a crisis in the first place? Padraig attributes it to the economic recovery and the ensuing drift away from agriculture and into other industries, such as construction.

Padraig also notes that many of the people who emigrated – to Australia or New Zealand, for example – would be about 25 to 30 years old, ideal for this type of work.

Of course, the big increase in cow numbers post abolition of quotas is adding to demand generally. Padraig also refers to the fact that workers are no longer coming to Ireland in their droves from Eastern Europe, because Eastern European economies are improving. He says these workers are drifting toward Germany instead, in his opinion because “it’s a little bit closer to home”. He also points out: “It’s possibly because there’s a bit more work outside of agriculture readily available in Germany to them.”

Farm Solutions Ltd

Another company recruiting for on-farm roles at the Agri Careers Fair is Farm Solutions Ltd. This is an agricultural recruitment company, which has been providing workers to the Irish farming industry for the last 35 years.

For the last 10 years, it has also been filling positions in the UK and has set up a UK office. It will be recruiting to fill 47 jobs across Ireland and the UK at the Agri Careers Fair. Farm Solutions Ltd hopes to fill over 100 roles altogether in 2017.