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Know How / Staff management

A motivated, well-trained team can be the key to running a successful agricultural business, but people management can be a challenge. Get expert advice on how to recruit and retain the best farm staff, plus tips on staying on the right side of the law when it comes to employment issues.

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NEWS

How a post-Brexit staff shortage could affect horticulture

When award-winning vegetable grower Joe Rolfe needs his brassicas weeding, an army of people descend by the busload on the farm. Horticulture is notoriously labour intensive – and even more…

LIVESTOCK

New Zealander helps Oxford farm cope with shearing season

Shearing is a specialist skill, and one that takes many years and thousands, if not millions, of sheep to master. For Oxfordshire shearer Stuart Connor, being able to hire a…

Practical advice

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STAFF MANAGEMENT

Tips on staff management from 4 dairy farmers

Dairy farmers could be facing a worsening labour shortage on UK farms post-Brexit, with 56% of farmers employing people from the EU. The findings of the RABDF survey show the…

STAFF MANAGEMENT

Legal tips when taking on a new member of staff

What legal procedures need to be followed when taking on a new member of staff? Farmers Weekly asked Jeanette Wheeler, partner and employment law specialist with Birketts, to go through…

STAFF MANAGEMENT

Holiday entitlement: Guide to the law for farm employers

The Trades Union Congress recently published figures suggesting that many agricultural workers are not getting their full annual holiday entitlement. Farmers Weekly asked Natalie Ward of law firm Thrings to…

CAREERS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

How experience outside farming improves your ag career

Gaining experience in a non-agricultural profession often gives returning farmers a new outlook and makes them more innovative and open to new ideas. That’s according to Claire Wright, rural surveyor…

STAFF MANAGEMENT

5 tips for improving staff retention on your pig unit

The UK pig industry is making good progress with improving staff retention rates but attractive salaries alone won’t necessarily help businesses hold onto their best employees. Incentives including additional paid…

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Why farmers need contracts for family workers

Failing to create official contracts for family members that detail the terms and conditions of employment could lead to legal problems, succession planning issues, and even the break-up of families,…

Insights

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CAREERS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Farm manager salaries stagnate but benefits rise

Farm managers earned an average of £52,268 in 2017, just £30 more than two years earlier. This was made up of a £48,760 gross salary plus an average £3,508 bonus…

NEWS

Shocking extent of modern slavery in agriculture revealed

The shocking extent of labour exploitation and modern-day slavery in agriculture has been laid bare in a new report by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA). Drawing on its…

BUSINESS

What the EU agreement on citizens’ rights means for farmworker...

Last week the government announced to great fanfare that it and the EU had come to an agreement about citizens’ rights post Brexit. This will have a big impact on…

BREXIT

Analysis: Access to farm labour if the UK left the EU

Migrant labour plays a key role in agriculture – but could farmers, especially in the horticulture sector, access enough labour if the UK voted to leave the EU? Under the…

BUSINESS

Analysis: How the new wages rise will hit horticulture hard

The UK’s horticulture sector wakes up today, Friday 1 April, to what some predict will be the biggest upheaval in a generation – the introduction of the national living wage…