The Opportunities & Barriers to Dry Stock Farmers Working on Dairy Farms

Eamonn O’Flaherty joined Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give an insight into the barriers to dry stock farmers taking up part-time employment opportunities on dairy farms. Eamonn identified dry stock farmers as suitable candidates for part-time work on dairy farms given that many of them work off-farm and they possess the relevant skillset to carry out the many tasks on dairy farms. Through discussion with dry stock farmers, Eamonn identified the common barriers including salary relative to alternative employment opportunities, physicality of the work, seasonality of work and farm facilities. Notwithstanding this, dry stock farmers acknowledged the benefits of part-time employment on dairy farms such as an additional source of income to the household, short commute time and the flexibility of working on their own farm as well as a dairy farm. For more information: https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2020/Dairying---Part-time-employment-on-dairy-farms.pdf For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/