Local Farming: One-day strike leads to 11-day payment delay!

There are plenty of things in farming that can be delayed by a day or two without causing too much difficulty.

Silage can wait for a dry spell, cattle can be left another day before going to the factory, and a field that needs topping will generally still be there next week.

Farm payments, however, are a different matter. Apparently, a one-day strike can potentially lead to an 11-day delay in farm payments.

I must admit, I find that difficult to get my head around. I know farming is a complicated business, but I would have thought that if someone missed one day of work, the job might be a day behind, rather than nearly two weeks.

Perhaps there is something about the workings of the Department of Agriculture that I don't understand. Maybe there is a special filing cabinet somewhere that locks itself for ten days after a strike, or perhaps the computer system takes a week to recover from the shock of staff not being in for a day.

Whatever the explanation, it's the farmer who ends up waiting.

Most farmers have little difficulty understanding why workers would take industrial action, and everyone is entitled to stand up for their own interests. But it is worth remembering that the farmer waiting for a payment has bills to pay too.

There are feed bills, fertiliser accounts, contractor charges, diesel, electricity and loan repayments. None of these seem to come with an 11-day grace period if we happen to be a day late paying them.

The irony is that farm payments are often money that farmers have already planned around. It might be earmarked for paying the co-op account, buying fertiliser for the spring or simply keeping the bank manager happy for another month.

A delay that might look relatively small on an office calendar can be a considerable inconvenience on a farm.

We are regularly told about the importance of cash flow in running a successful business. Farmers are expected to budget carefully, plan ahead and manage their finances efficiently.

We are encouraged to submit forms on time, meet deadlines and make sure every box is ticked correctly. Miss a deadline ourselves and there is generally little sympathy from the Department.

It seems reasonable, therefore, to expect the same level of efficiency from the systems we depend on.

I am not suggesting that every payment can be made instantly or that the Department can operate without staff. There will always be genuine reasons for delays, and nobody expects miracles.

But if one day of disruption can result in 11 days of waiting, surely there’s a question to be asked about how resilient the system is in the first place.

Farming is full of uncertainty. We can’t control the weather, the price of beef or the cost of fertiliser. It would be nice if we could at least have a little more certainty about when the money we are due will arrive.

Perhaps the next time a farm payment is delayed, we could all be told to blame the weather. At least farmers would understand that one!