The Rural Voice, 1983-08, Page 55YOUNG FARMER
Saving 268 hours
by Perry Van Osch
Nothing adds up more than cutting a
few minutes off daily chores on the farm.
It all started when I was given a project
at high school to do a time and motion
study for my agricultural class. I was ask-
ed to minimize the time spent on daily
chores, so I decided to do my project on
the feeding program of my dad's dairy
herd.
But first a little about what a time and
motion study is: it is an efficiency study to
reduce the cost of doing work and the
number of steps to do the job. Our tex-
tbook said to waste material resources is
bad, but to waste human resources,
through spending unnecessary time and
effort on our work is even worse. In a way,
it is an insult to the human intelligence.
To get back to saving 268 hours out of a
year, it started with us buying a feed cart
and another shovel. The old method of
feeding the cows was by wheelbarrow. We
had a conveyor running from two silos in-
to an auger, which we turned down to fill
the wheelbarrow. It required fifteen trips
to and from the auger to feed the thirty-
four cows. After the roughage from the
silo was fed, we then fed ground ear corn
and mixed grain to the cows with five -
gallon pails. But before we could feed the
chop, we had to find the one shovel which
was downstairs in the main barn.
With three people using one shovel, it
was hard to find and it was not always
available for use to shovel the chop in the
grainery. The old method of feeding the
cows took up to forty-five minutes timed,
at twice a day, 365 day/year, which
amounts to 547.5 hours of work. If a hired
man was being paid to do this work (there
isn't), it would amount to a lot of un-
necessary money being spent.
The new method of feeding, with two
feed carts and an extra shovel has greatly
improved the situation. Instead of fifteen
trips, it now requires four trips. The first
feed cart is filled from the auger. Then,
while the second feed cart is filling, I feed
the roughage from the first cart, dumping
it in front of half the cows. This allows us
to leave the feeding system running,
where before it had to be shut off. After
feeding out the second feed cart, it is then
put under the chop box; but this time,
there's a shovel upstairs for shovelling the
chop, not downstairs, with the hunt on for
it. After the box is filled and the cart full, it
only requires one feed cart to complete
the feeding. Before, numerous pails of
chop were carried. This new method of
feeding, after the time and motion study
a year
Perry Van Osch: "The improvements have more than paid for themselves as the
same chores are now being done more efficiently in less time."
was done, took twenty-three minutes. This
cut the time down to about half, which is
quite a help when you spend up to two
hours in the barn.
In conclusion, we started out with a
forty-five minutes task and cut it down to
twenty-three. A saving of twenty-two
minutes at twice a day and 365 days/year
comes to a saving of 268 hours.
It only required the purchase of a feed
cart and a shovel to save that much time.
The improvements have more than paid
for themselves as the same chores are
now being done more efficiently in less
time. It may seem a little silly about the
shovel, but the project turned out to help
substantially, where at first, I thought it
was going to be pretty dull. H
The Gree -Bruce
CANADA FARM
LABOUR POOL
has students available to help you
with haying and all your summer
needs.
WALKERTON 881-3671
OWEN SOUND 371-9522
Canada
Farm labour Pool
THE RURAL VOICE, AUGUST 1983 PG. 53