Is time money?

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By Dwain Duxson

Is time money? - I had an interesting email from Tom, a Farmer from Henty, NSW, who bought up the topic of the value of time after spending what added up to 16 hours he and his son spent putting into buying a Bull. The time included travelling to the sale, attending the sale, studying the catalogue for the right Bull, making phone calls and attending the open day to make inspections.

Tom's question was, is this enough time, too much, not enough, or it doesn't make any difference? Would this be over the industry benchmark if there was one?

The local Plumber has a value on their time, and so does the Dealership when servicing your Header. But valuing Farm jobs is subjective, and it would probably do your head in equating values to work done. I mean, the cost of time when shifting sheep (let's say $10/hour) is different from doing the yearly Farm budget (it might be $2000/hour work or more).

Last summer, we grew a Santa Anna couch grass lawn using runners. The number of hours spent planting and watering that lawn over the summer would run into the days. As opposed to how much time and effort we would have saved using the rolled-up instant stuff. So it wasn't a great use of our time. But when we were watering the lawn, it was after work hours, out in the sun and usually involved a can or two. It was also great thinking time and very relaxing. So in this helter-skelter world where most people are stressed out, I would say that "operation watering the lawn" was time well spent. And also, we now have a ripper lawn for this summer coming. Does any Farmer out there put a value on their time???

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