tractor drivers all equal ?

[schw84]

As with all farming tasks its all becoming computerised. e.g. our sow barn is computer controlled, the feed systems in the growing sheds are liquid and computer controlled, the mill is completely computer controlled and that's just the pigs. There's over 5000 pigs on the farm at any one time all done with 2 men, all indoors and they don't know how any of the systems work as they don't understand computers its not their fault but its just the way things are.

Then you get onto tractors. I'm 26 been brought up with computers but also tractors. If i was to go out and someone criticise me for my age and potential lack of experience I would laugh at them, not because I'm arrogant but because few years doesn't count for little experience.

I started on a Mf35, but then moved onto 120hp machines then crawlers etc, each one has got more computerised and whilst i think straight forward the days of get on, turn the key and go have gone.

Whilst at uni I continued to work during the summer, i used to build the straw stacks on the airfield with the teleporter as I was the best one, reason was it was like a flight simulator so I was better with the controls as i played games all the time. The older generation were used to individual levers and a simple change can be a giant leap.

You still need the skill for ploughing etc and the experience to either plough in or out the headlands etc but our masseys have the computers on them which mean you programme it so the operations are done in sequence with one button. skills not gone, but life made easier, but also if u dont like computers your stumped.

[Deere-est]

hit the nail on the head i think robert, i know a fair few lorry drivers , myself included that would have loved to stay on the farms , but unfortunately the wages are awfull & hours are either full on or nothing , of which we know anyway  lorry drivers are getting in short supply as well from rural parts as years back tractor drivers made the move from one to the other , but now there arnt many left to make that move & if they did think about it the haulage industry seems to suffer from government programmes that make the move financialy difficult 

Are you on an hourly rate for driving mate? I worked out the hours I did on the brick and block across a year including nights out and did the same across a farming year and there was very little in it to be honest. Nowadays, I don't want to be up the road away from home night after night. (Some nights I wish I was mind!!) I love the farm work and I love it enough to bust my balls when I need too. Take September, I earned £200 more in three weeks than I did in a month harvesting at the height of the summer! I needed the money and the opportunity was there to do it. It wouldn't have been possible had I been on a lorry to the restrictions.

But the question in hand - no, all tractor drivers are not equal. Had I stayed in the job I was in back when I was in my late teens/early twenties I would be further on than I am now. I was drilling, spraying, combining, fertiliser spreading on a 500ac farm, often on my own. Instead, the bright light bars of the lorries attracted me and I jumped ship. I don't regret what I am doing now and believe all things happen with good reasoning but maybe I could be more involved with those jobs on a big farm now if I had stuck with it.

Machinery has taken the art out of many farming jobs, if you want to get romantic about it. Others have been made more complicated with no real gain from them. The fact is, there is more output required in less time now. The physical workload is not half what it is used to be but years ago many farms had Sunday off, stopped for lunch and tea and were done by night fall... Now you start at the crack of dawn and at times are still going the next time the sun comes up!! Responsibility is dished out like it's not worth anything any more. £100,000's of pounds of machinery are left to the 'capable' hands of inexperienced people these days and if you're driving a Fendt, apparently. . .  You've made it!

[MJB1]

Are you on an hourly rate for driving mate? I worked out the hours I did on the brick and block across a year including nights out and did the same across a farming year and there was very little in it to be honest.

Machinery has taken the art out of many farming jobs, if you want to get romantic about it. Others have been made more complicated with no real gain from them. The fact is, there is more output required in less time now. The physical workload is not half what it is used to be but years ago many farms had Sunday off, stopped for lunch and tea and were done by night fall... Now you start at the crack of dawn and at times are still going the next time the sun comes up!! Responsibility is dished out like it's not worth anything any more. £100,000's of pounds of machinery are left to the 'capable' hands of inexperienced people these days and if you're driving a Fendt, apparently. . .  You've made it!

no mate salary. but having ben offered a few dractor jobs in the past few years i worked out i'd be about 4000 per year down & that averaging out the overtime from the farms .  thats a lot of money  but i was tempted .

as for the romantic side of the job ? i know what you mean all's good when the work is shared out & right what you say , during busy times you expected the weekend work , but for many now sunday is just another day . i once headed up a team of four that was reduced to two , we kept up quite comfortably till i was left on my own with a bigger tractor & plough etc , the kit can get as big as it like , but there's still only 24 hours a day & it just seemed i was working them all. 

[Light Land]

It's not so much time behind the wheel but life skills that are lacking in alot of young people these days.

[archbarch]

for me the fun and satisfaction has gone out of farming, i would love to return to farming but technology has made the job boring, also the hours are too long.

I think working for a contractor your views on farming change especially if you cover a large geographical area, because things do change from region to region, county etc. The 150 acre council let farm with no technology on it becomes a pleasure to work on compared to a large estate  where everyone is a number. Of course there is good and bad in everything, in my experience technology and the so called skill we see nowadays  can make the job harder.

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