The farmer had to plan the work, pick the stock for market, look after his animals and workers alike.
The farmer’s wife had to make meals for everybody on the farm every day, and help on the farm whenever she was needed. She was usually responsible for the diary.
The farm servant usually lived in as farms were remote. Everyone would have a Sunday off as no work was to be done on the Sabbath day, but farmers were allowed to tend their animals - so the farm worker never really had a full day off.
The agricultural labourer or ag lab for short did all sorts of outdoor work. A young man could learn many country skills like hedge laying, stane dyke building, ditching and draining and ploughing, and how to look after animals, and fix machinery.
The ploughman was a skilled job but ploughing was only done at certain times of the year, so at other times he was a general ag lab. He was very proud of his skill and they had ploughing matches.
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| 1930s competition with John Howat |
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| 1950s |
The byreman or bower or dairyman looked after cattle for another owner, and the owner was often paid in milk, cheese, or butter
The shepherd looked after sheep. He may have been a tenant farmer but was still referred to as a ashepherd. eg John Todd Craigdarroch
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| John Todd and Bob at Craigdarroch |
Busiest time of year was spring and summer work when the ewes had their lambs, needed their wool clipped, and feet tended to, then back onto the pasture for the lambs to grow ready for market
The cows needed to be milked twice a day, usually by women and girls. They separated the milk and cream and made butter and cheese. The day started early - maybe 5am, and then all day would be spent cleaning pails and milk cans and making the butter and cheeses, then do it all again at 5pm.
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| 1922 Changue |
Women were also outdoor workers in the fields. They picked weeds out of crops, they raked the hay and gathered it in, alongside the menfolk.
Children as young as 10 would help anywhere on the farm that they were told to. They picked stones off the ploughed fields, helped herding animals, fed the calves and mucked them out alongside the other workers.
The vet was called in to tend the sick animals
The blacksmith to make and mend implements, and shoe the workhorses.
Seasonal workers at harvest time eg tattie howkers often from Ireland. Miners would put in a shift after work. (Ian Howat interview)
Friends neighbours and family were roped in at harvest time. The farmer's wife had to cater for all the extra helpers especially on big mill day.
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| Big mill day at Bankend, Cumnock at least 8 people involved in this |
