Rough week of haying

[Robert_in_NY]

I went out and cut 15 acres of hay on Wednesday, on the way home I noticed something spritzing like water on the road coming off the tire. When I got home I saw the rear tire had the sidewall split and it pinched the tube and caused a leak. So I parked it with the leak on top and blocked the tractor up to keep the fluid from leaking out. Well it was 9pm when I got home so I called the local tire dealer first thing Thursday as I had to go to Buffalo for the day and couldn't mess with that tire even if I wanted to. I told them the situation and that I needed a new tire and tube and it had to be done before Saturday as I needed to bale with that tractor. So they ordered the tire and show up Friday to fix it. Put the new tire/tube on and refill the fluid and air and take off leaving the bill for $1k on the seat. I get home that night and see the shiny new tire squating down and see calcium coming out around the valve stem. So I call them first thin Saturday morning, they send their guy back out and he tells me that the tube seperated around the valve stem and that they quit using these tubes because they had to replace 60% of them (yet they installed this tube in my tire the day before). The good news is they will fix it, the bad news is they don't have a tube so it won't be fixed till Monday so I am out a tractor till Monday.

So I called up my friend and he gave me a choice of which tractor I could borrow (Ford 3930, Ford 5000, Ford 7000 or International 485). I took the Ford 5000 for the weekend and managed to get the fields baled up but without the electronics to run the thrower or moisture tester so it was a little more work.

Then the guys I normally use to unload my wagons decided to not show up even though he kept telling me they would be there. So I had to unload the wagons with help from a friend and a friends kid. The kid is 12 and he did a great job yesterday stacking as I tossed off the wagon to him. He did good keeping up with me. So today I had him, his brother and cousin and told them to unload one and a half wagons. (220 bales roughly). Well after 3.5 hours they had half of the first wagon done and I had to finish tossing the bales off for them. I took off baled up another wagon for a different customer and returned and hour later and they had about 20 bales unloaded out of 80. So I had to hop up and finish unloading that wagon for them as well. I am not that fast or that strong anymore but I had three guys on the stack and I had to stand there and wait for them to get the bales moved so I could toss more up. Finally I got tired of waiting and just stacked them myself then tossed more up to finish the wagon. So after 5 hours they finally unloaded 220 bales of which I had to help with about 120 of those.

I went from feeling good about finding a potentially good worker to wondering what the heck happened to this kid in less then 24 hours. I left him in charge to show the other kids how to stack the pile since I just explained it to him the day before and maybe that was the mistake as today he just seemed to act like a lazy boss. What really pushed me over the edge is when he decided he was going to take a break with 10 bales left on the last wagon. Then proceeded to do so after I told him to finish stacking first so I could get the last bales off the wagon. Then he decided he would be more useful pushing the bales forward from outside the wagon instead of getting back on the stack. I didn't need help on the wagon, they couldn't keep up with me as it was. Its just very frustrating trying to find good help. The migrants don't understand haying and don't show up when you need them to. The kids around here just don't seem to want to work and then you find some that do and their all but useless.

I took this kid with me tonight to unload a wagon in a different barn. All he had to do was slide the bales across a smooth floor and start stacking from the floor up while I unloaded the wagon onto the elevator. After 45 bales I couldn't get any more up because the pile was too big at the end of the elevator, I get up there and he had 5 bales stacked so I had to help stack the rest then go put more up of which he managed to get 5 more stacked out of 50 so I had to go help again. I finally had a talk with him and let him know that today cost me way too much for what little work was done and that it can't happen again if he wants to keep working. I paid him $15 for the first day of which we worked one hour, then gave him $10 an hour the second day for three hours of work and today I over paid him at $8 an hour. I don't mind paying them $10-12 an hour if they work hard but when they don't actually accomplish anything then what did I pay them for? I didn't feel right paying the one kid who did work harder today more then the other two because they are all related and I knew it would cause hard feelings if one got more then the others. But two of them didn't really deserve to get paid a dime for what I saw today

Luckily I have one more field to cut then I am done with first cutting so hopefully the headaches will disappear for a little while.

And except for the tractor tire the only other repair I have to make is one wagon tire is showing excessive wear so I have a new one ready to go on as soon as I get a chance in the next couple days and one wagon needs a corner welded on the rack.

 

[seymojo536]

Grandpa always said;

One boy, whole boy.
Two boys, half boy.
Three boys, no boy at all.

They don't get to be folklore without some ring of truth in them. My son blames air conditioning. We don't have it and the heat really doesn't get to us like those "city" boys.

 

[zzvyb6]

The people down the road who buy hay from me sent their daughter and her new boyfriend to help me put up 120 bales the other night. She's been doing it with her mom for about 15 years, so I figured it was a safe bet to let them upstairs by themselves. Mom makes the kid help as part of keeping her horses and to get a discount on hay. Afterwards, I found out they had 'tiled' the loft, with one bale layer on the floor for as many bales as there were. I had to restack into piles all by myself after they left.

Today I put up 200 with help from a man down the road who has never done it before and needs some financial help. He loaded the lower elevator in perfect timing sequence, spotted the bad extension cord, pulled aside some heavy bales and had the lower deck swept up before I could get down to see how big the mess was. It was a perfect day. I pay $20 per hour in 15 min, blocks to get help. The word has spread, I've gotten calls from 3 neighbors this morning. All adults.

I get $3 - $4 for a horse hay bale. For this price and for the limited volume I have, its worth the investment in help to get the stuff put up on time.

 

[hawkeye08]

We saw the change start 30 years ago, seems the "farm" kids knew how to work, the "city" kids were lazy and had no desire to work. Today, we have many more "city" kids. My 3 daughters can do the work and 2 of the 3 can outwork young men their age.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Wish I lived closer... $15 an hour sounds good... especially cash.
My wife and I plus one friend load onto a 14' trailer(150 bales per load) and unload 300+ bales of hay into our barn. It takes two trips and driving time is about 45 minutes out of a total of 3 hours.

My grandfather had a saying and I tell my kids it now: "when you are taking break from doing that... go do this!" Never one to slow down.

Good luck.

Lloyd

 

[slowzuki]

We've had terrible luck too, the only guys that worked hard were the convict workers out on day pass (seriously, they were good workers) but they always managed to screw up something and get their passes revoked. One stole a chocolate bar while out, other got in fist fight over something silly)

To be fair to the 12 year old, at that age I didn't last long lifting bales or pulling apart thrown on wagons. By 14 us kids were hay moving machines though!

I'm looking at acculator and tarp building to match.

 

[RichZ]

Finding kids who want to work is my biggest problem on my farm. I had a great kid for the past 2 years, but his family is moving out of state, and finding someone to replace him is tough. I pay my kids $10/hour, and I tell them to take breaks as often as they need to, and I don't give them unreasonable assignments. I pay them while they take their lunch and other breaks, and I often sit and talk to them for a long time several times druing the day. When I get a good kid, they tell me they love working for me, but getting a kid who is actually willing to work is hard. Farm work is hard work, and I tell my kids that upfront, but I treat them and pay them well. But most kids don't seem willing to work for their money. I guess they expect their parents to give them whatever they want.

 

[Egon]

At 12 those Bales would have weighed more than myself.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

At 12 those Bales would have weighed more than myself.

Not my bales, my customers are mostly women and they want the bales in the 35-40 pound range so their not out of line. I don't expect the kids to toss them up in the air and such but I try to teach them work smarter, not harder but they don't understand. They stack the pile in tiers and no matter how many times I explain it to them they still don't grasp the concept. They get the stack high then have to struggle to get the bales up higher and higher instead of stacking up as they come forward.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Finding kids who want to work is my biggest problem on my farm. I had a great kid for the past 2 years, but his family is moving out of state, and finding someone to replace him is tough. I pay my kids $10/hour, and I tell them to take breaks as often as they need to, and I don't give them unreasonable assignments. I pay them while they take their lunch and other breaks, and I often sit and talk to them for a long time several times druing the day. When I get a good kid, they tell me they love working for me, but getting a kid who is actually willing to work is hard. Farm work is hard work, and I tell my kids that upfront, but I treat them and pay them well. But most kids don't seem willing to work for their money. I guess they expect their parents to give them whatever they want.

Im the same way, I started working for my neighbor when I was 12 on his fruit and vegetable farm (which I bought 5 years ago). I worked there till I was 16 so I knew how hard farm work was. I also know how hard haying is so I don't mind paying my workers $10-$12 an hour as long as they work hard and don't complain. I started these three out with a day they only had 220 bales to stack, I set up a large barn fan also so they had a breeze in the barn. Told them to take breaks as they saw fit and I left them to manage themselves. I thought (sadly it was a mistaken thought) that showing them trust and faith would be rewarded by them working well. I don't think they were screwing around but they just didn't seem to do anything.

I miss my old crew, Alicia could run every aspect of my operation. cut, ted, rake, bale, stack, pull wagons.... heck, she even organized the stacking crew and ran it. She worked for me from age 16-19 till she got too busy with school and other more steady jobs. She was a pretty girl so it was not hard for her to get strong kids to come work for her :laughing:, granted most of them didn't return (well except for the boy allergic to hay, he came back three times till his parents made him quit as he kept breaking out). She was easily worth $20 an hour. Her last year with me I was paying her $15 an hour as I was still making money and she allowed me to take time off from the busiest time of the year and after my injury she was a god send as I could rest when needed and know the work was getting done.

If I was big enough and could hire a full time employee I would hire her without hesitation and keep her on full time but sadly I barely make enough for me to survive right now.

I am hoping that these kids I am trying to teach now will be able to come back next year and keep coming back the next 6 years till they move on to better things. I guess I need to expect a few headaches but I am hoping they end up being good workers in the long haul. What I learned is that I need to leave an adult there to help them along.

One thing that really makes me mad is when I hire someone to work for me and they get mad at me because I am not stacking hay along with them. Granted, they don't realize these wagons don't fill themselves but regardless, I hired them to do this work. Even if I wasn't baling or anything else I hired them to work. Tossing bales is hard for my back now, I hire help so that "I don't have to stack". If I was healthy I could do this work alone but regardless, I get tired having to explain to some kid who I am paying that they are not the boss and shouldn't question the guy paying them to do what they were hired to do. I pay the kids cash at the end of the work day and its up to them if they want to come back or not.