Farmers discover unexpected benefits of labour shortages
20th October 2021
An imperfect storm of Brexit and Covid, plus a stronger pound making the EU more attractive for European seasonal labourers, saw casual labour disappear overnight. Suddenly, automation is not just a choice, but a necessity.
Some farmers have discovered labour shortage isn’t a crisis – it’s actually saving them money, says Rural Asset Finance founder Matthew Smart.
“A pumpkin farm we support in Norfolk annually paid over £30,000 for 80 workers to hoe crops but when those workers vanished, the farmer invested £28,000 leasing a mechanical hoe mounted on a tractor. It did the job consistently perfectly and has saved £30,000 not just this year, but going forward too.
Rural Asset Finance founder Matthew Smart
“Another client packs and wraps 500g trays of leeks and asparagus for a supermarket. One gram under, and the supermarket penalises them, but every gram over is a gratefully received giveaway. Judging numbers of stems to make the weight was done by eye, but those human eyes have gone. The farmer leased a machine to select, pack and wrap, and found human error resulted in such a large giveaway, the machine paid for itself in one year.”
It’s time to automate, Mr.Smart adds. “Review your casual labour requirements, research newly available machines, crunch the numbers, price up a machine on a leasing plan and see if it’s better. The results may make you wish you’d switched years ago.”
