Working day for farmers longer than most

Farmers work an average of 48 hours a week, but as many as 55 hours on average in dairying. That is much higher than the average for workers in most other employment sectors.

Tillage and livestock farmers in comparison work an average of around 46 hours per week, and others 44 hours and 10 minutes.

All respondents were asked how many hours they worked on their farms. But with 23% of farmers also having off-farm jobs, and 21% of farmers’ spouses having off-farm jobs, household work hours are likely to be much longer in many cases than the farm work average of 48 hours and three minutes each week.