Qualities of a good farm employee

In this age of automation and artificial intelligence it is advisable to use machines as much as possible to maximize profits.

Machines such as tractors, motorized grass cutters or spray pumps, and computers can do a lot of work in a short time at relatively little cost.

They are invented to make work easier but also to minimize human labour since in many cases one machine can do work in a single day that would take twenty men to accomplish in an entire week.
However, on most of our small farms it is unavoidable to use human labour and we will devote some thought to the qualities of a good labourer.

A labourer is not an animal and we are expected to treat him as a fellow human being by allocating him work that is reasonably possible to be accomplished in the time agreed upon by both the employer and the labourer.

The labourer should be physically fit and not the type that will be frequently asking for offs to go to hospital. Labour means the application of human energy to perform work and the person doing so should be both physically and mentally suited for the tasks allocated to him.
The labourer should be an honest person.

Remember when he joins your farm he will be trusted with tools and inputs like seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides which may be stolen. He might be put in charge of harvesting crops like maize, coffee, oranges and beans or livestock products like milk and eggs which he might steal if he is not honest.

He should also be intelligent and capable of taking the right decisions during emergencies especially when his employers are away.
It would be better to employ a person that has had some training in farming much as a skilled labourer normally demands high wages.

He should be able to carry out some repairs of farm equipment and he should have an idea about good farming practices and animal husbandry.

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