Attendance, shift and leave process for Dairy farms: milking rosters, night calls and festival cover
Cows are milked on time every morning and evening, whoever is ill or away. A dairy farm needs a roster that spreads the early starts fairly and a plan for the days when people go home.
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Share your requirementsWhy attendance, shift and leave process matters in dairy farms
Most dairy farm rosters live in the owner's head. The same two or three milkers take the early shift because they always have, and when one is ill the others learn at four in the morning that they are on. Weekly rest is taken when convenient, and workers who live on the farm are asked to help at all hours.
A written roster fixes who milks when, who covers and who is the backup. It treats night calls and calving as separate from the normal pattern, with a stated way of recognising them. Leave around festivals and sowing is asked for early, so the farm is never left with fewer hands than the herd needs.
How to set it up
1. List the tasks and the hours they must start
Milking, feeding, shed washing, calf care and milk dispatch each have a fixed time. Write them in a column with the minimum number of people each needs.
2. Rotate the early start
Spread the earliest shift among all trained milkers on a published four-week pattern, and name a standby.
3. Set a rule for night calls
Write when a worker is called out, who decides, and how the time is recognised, whether as rest the next day or extra pay.
4. Protect weekly rest
Give each worker a fixed rest day or a rotating one, and make sure the standby is not the same person each week.
5. Ask for festival and sowing leave early
Collect dates two months ahead and plan cover. The HR documentation process helps record the agreed leave.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Count how many days each milker worked without a rest day in the last month.
- Ask who covered the last sudden absence and how they were informed.
- Check whether any worker has been on the earliest start for more than a month.
- Look at festival weeks last year and see how many hands were short.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach attendance, shift and leave process in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
At least one trained milker who can step in for any shift, rotated so it is not always the same person. Size it from how often absences really happen on your farm.
Only after they have been shown the herd and have worked beside a senior milker. Keep a short list of trained cover staff, including part-timers, so an absence does not mean an untrained hand.
Start with a conversation about the reason. Late starts in the dark often relate to transport, quarters or health. Set a clear expectation, record repeat cases, and use the grievance and disciplinary process only where needed.