Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Dan, Dan the Maintenance Man

Once we were more or less up to speed on the stock management; or as up to date as is possible with sheep, repairs and maintenence became the priority. The major project in the "plan" was to subdivide the main stock handling area into smaller pens, all interleading and gated, so the flocks could be split up, for various procedures. This was accomplished rapidly, and we then moved onto windmill maintenance. For some reason, there would be a windmill breakdown at least once per week. Critical as they are, one just has to put up with their temperamental nature, and fix them as soon as they break down.
Fences and gates were also a priority, and several gates were taken down and rewelded and rewired at the house. The main irrigation system suffered a lightening strike, so that meant a huge amount of expense and frustration.
The biggest frustration came not from the farm directly, but from the local farmer who grazed cattle for a fee on the property. It was a 'grazing only' contract; no management by the farm staff was included in the fee, but this guy would frequently arrive and insist that the staff help him with whatever needed doing - dosing dipping feeding etc. Not wanting to antagonize him, he being a stalwart in the community! I let it go for a month or two. The final straw was when he was busy, in my absense, with his bulls, and the broke the main gate to the handling facility. No note, no phone-call, no offer to repair.
I let it be known in the 'community' that this was not the right thing to do, and a couple of days later he arrived with a new gate which was installed until he returned with the old one, fully repaired. Shortly thereafter, I gave him notice of termination mid month, and he moved the cattle a few days later. He even had the temerity to ask if I was going to charge him for the half-month grazing. Definitely! He paid up without a problem. Such are the joys of living in a small community.

Getting to Grips

I soon settled in, and started getting organized. One thing that I abandoned very quickly was the old "Store". For generations, the staff were able to 'buy' basic commodities ( mealie meal, sugar, yeast, cooking oil, soap washing powder etc) from stocks kept at the house. It soon became clear that it would be a nightmare keeping track, and worse - it was obvious that the staff would spend a large portion of their wages at the store during the month and then have very little left at month end. Inevitably this would result in them requiring a loan which would have to be rolled over the following month. In consultation with brother R, it was decided to pay a portion of salary at mid month so that incidentals could be purchased. We further abandoned the practise of dishing out loans. Once the staff became used to the new system it worked without further problems.
There were several labour issues that had to be dealt with, most were resolved amicably. It was made quite clear that whatever was done in the past would only be continued if it were efficient and reasonable. The staff, as was to be expected, 'tried it on' to their benefit. Farmer I had never been, people manager I have been my entire working life.
The first issue was the Gardener. Like most farms in the area, the staff members all are either closely or not so closely related. This particular man used the fact that he was related to most of the other members to do as little as possible. Since the farm took precedent over the domestic chores, very little time was spent on monitoring his output. It was quite obvious that he was doing nothing, and after about two months, I took the day off from farming, and supervised him directly. It was amazing what he achieved that day. Sadly the work output was never repeated, as he resigned the following morning.
There was a large amount of 'jockeying for position' between the two most senior men, and also between the two wives, who were employed in the house. Again, I tried to ignore most of it and was successful unless it impacted on the operations.
Still the first few months gave a clear indication how hard the staff worked, and how capable they were at the many tasks, both stock management and maintenence, involved in farming in the area.