20 July 2010 Fatigue in dairy farming

International research has found links between workplace health and safety and the performance and productivity of businesses.

Lincoln University's Dr Rupert Tipples is leading a programme working with industry to investigate how to make dairy farming a more socially sustainable, productive, innovative and efficient industry. This team is one of the few working on the social aspects of dairy farming at present, and is supported by other dairy research initiatives the University is developing.

Dr Tipples says the idea came from a Once-a- Day milking study, which highlighted the damaging effects of long hours of work in dairy farming.

Dr Tipples' initial research and literature review show job quality and satisfaction have fallen with a corresponding rise in work strain from work intensification. Staff can experience feelings of increased emotional exhaustion and diminished personal accomplishment that can negatively affect employees' workplace behaviour.

“The industry has great difficulty recruiting and retaining staff,” he says. “Productivity is growing only slowly and accident rates are high. Counsellors report many dairy workers also have problems with domestic violence and
substance abuse.

“Meanwhile, there is chronic overwork, with nearly one third of the workforce working at least 70 hours per week – twice the normal working week. This research seeks to explore the possible connections between fatigue from excessive hours of work and workplace health, safety, and performance.”

Dr Tipples says that nationally there are now fewer but larger herds. Large herds on irrigated land typify recent South Island dairy developments. These are staffed largely by employees rather than the more traditional self-employed and family staff. Recruitment and retention can be problematic for these large, often corporate, enterprises. New Zealand research conducted in 2003 for all occupations found no one factor explained the intention to leave employment, but ‘interesting work’ was the strongest attractor and retainer of staff. A growing concern with work-life balance and maintaining good relationships with co-workers and supervisors were also important job satisfaction criteria.

Larger farms provide scope for work specialisation, but such rationalisation may lead to loss of work variety and thus less interesting work.

Dr Tipples says the demographic risk associated with declining birth rates and the ageing of the ‘baby boom’ generation is another problem facing the dairy industry.

“The dairy industry has traditionally depended on a high proportion of young workers for basic farm work like milking,” he says. “Not only are these workers difficult to recruit and retain, but they are going to be increasingly difficult to source, especially in districts where the ageing of the population is most prominent.

“The ageing workforce implies a productivity risk, while ongoing recruitment and retention problems suggest a capacity risk. To retain the dairy industry’s competitive advantage in production, new sources of recruits must be developed,” he says.

Dr Tipples says the attraction and retention of talented people continue to be key priorities for the industry.

These problems have been alleviated to some degree by an increased number of migrant workers, but this is thought to be an uncertain foundation for the industry to build on.

“A quality work environment will help ensure continued improvements in dairy farming productivity,” he says. “The aim of research in this area is to explore whether dairy farming could avoid many of the problems described by adopting significant system changes, involving working shorter hours.

“These new systems would provide more choice and discretionary time for people, lifting the resilience of dairy farming and making it and its communities more socially sustainable,” he says.

Dr Tipples says the research project could take a number of years: “Once complete, this research could potentially achieve a significant resolution of many of dairy farming’s current employment problems, including recruitment and retention,” he says. “It might also enable dairy farmers to get a life,” adds Dr Tipples.

The Lincoln University Research Fund is helping to develop the project and assist with obtaining outside finance.

Project: Fatigue in dairy farming
Researchers: Dr Rupert Tipples, Dr Roberta Hill, Associate
Professor Felicity Lamm, Dr Rebecca Lilley, Denise Bewsell
Funding: Lincoln University Research Fund