Farm Sitting?

[kathy_s]

Our usual go to person for taking care of our horses is moving out of the area and I have been searching for someone I can trust to feed while we are away in a few weeks. It appears there is no-one advertising in our part of the world and that has me considering offering a service that fills this gap.
Has anyone here ever done this type of thing? What are your fees? What are your limits?

 I want to limit the coverage to a 30 mile radius, no stallions, and don't want to deal with guard dogs or guard donkeys.   I don't mind light stall cleaning but will want to see the stalls prior to accepting the job. When I was younger, I agreed to clean a six stall barn sight unseen, and discovered 6 stalls 2 feet deep in manure. Never again.

  Thanks for any advice and tips.

[skipollo]

It depends on how far you are from the sitter’s work/own home, how many animals you have and which kinds, if any are special needs, and how much work exactly is involved. Two ponies with a run in shed in a pasture that just need water and checked over will cost less than horses who are stalled and involve more work.

When horses are involved, my fee is minimum $70 per day. Location and # of animals increases it. $70/day is the “two ponies with a run in shed” scenario I used above.

I also stay over at clients’ homes with the exception of one, so that is part of why the rate is higher.

I don’t have many exclusions, but special needs/additional requirements increase the price. I wouldn’t exclude all stallions, but if it feels like I’m leading a tiger during the meet and greet then I won’t do it, especially considering I’ll be there by myself.

Distance is the big deciding factor. I won’t go more than 30 minutes, and if I’m going close to 30 minutes away, then the cost increases a good bit.

[kathy_s]

@skipollo

It depends on how far you are from the sitter’s work/own home, how many animals you have and which kinds, if any are special needs, and how much work exactly is involved. Two ponies with a run in shed in a pasture that just need water and checked over will cost less than horses who are stalled and involve more work.

When horses are involved, my fee is minimum $70 per day. Location and # of animals increases it. $70/day is the “two ponies with a run in shed” scenario I used above.

I also stay over at clients’ homes with the exception of one, so that is part of why the rate is higher.

I don’t have many exclusions, but special needs/additional requirements increase the price. I wouldn’t exclude all stallions, but if it feels like I’m leading a tiger during the meet and greet then I won’t do it, especially considering I’ll be there by myself.

Distance is the big deciding factor. I won’t go more than 30 minutes, and if I’m going close to 30 minutes away, then the cost increases a good bit.

Thank you for your response. Since I have our own farmette to take care of, I’d rather be home every evening. Is your $70 basic fee just for a single trip per day, or several? Do you also clean the stalls and/or runs? Finally, are you paid upfront, half and half, or ?

[Dutchmare433]

For horses I start at $60 per day, but that’s for horses in turnout, so throwing grain and hay, fly spray but no mucking. If I have to muck, change around blankets, fly sheets, do medical care, I charge more. I find staying overnight easier because it ends up being less driving when you have to be there early morning and evening anyway.

I have had one horse client who I farm sat for once and refused to go back. I met her as she was leaving and she threw in last minute, “oh, while you’re here can you just muck out the run in shed.” Hadn’t been done in weeks. I did it, but I never went back.

I also almost exclusively house-sit for people I know, people referred to me by my vets, or people who friends have sat for. Weeds out some of the real crazies who expect a lot of work for not a lot of money. I had an awesome client before I moved, their kids did the Big Eq, so they were gone all the time…they had dogs and cats, I gave them a $10 per day discount because I was there minimum 8 days per month, they were wonderful people who always paid on time, their animals were easy-ish, and they left the fridge stocked.

[kathy_s]

@Dutchmare433

For horses I start at $60 per day, but that’s for horses in turnout, so throwing grain and hay, fly spray but no mucking. If I have to muck, change around blankets, fly sheets, do medical care, I charge more. I find staying overnight easier because it ends up being less driving when you have to be there early morning and evening anyway.

I have had one horse client who I farm sat for once and refused to go back. I met her as she was leaving and she threw in last minute, “oh, while you’re here can you just muck out the run in shed.” Hadn’t been done in weeks. I did it, but I never went back.

I also almost exclusively house-sit for people I know, people referred to me by my vets, or people who friends have sat for. Weeds out some of the real crazies who expect a lot of work for not a lot of money. I had an awesome client before I moved, their kids did the Big Eq, so they were gone all the time…they had dogs and cats, I gave them a $10 per day discount because I was there minimum 8 days per month, they were wonderful people who always paid on time, their animals were easy-ish, and they left the fridge stocked.

Thanks for your response, Dutchmare. I’ve thought of several more questions: Do you have a contract, and what does it cover? I’m thinking not only covering trips per day for X, what is expected, extra services for Y, and are the animal (s) insured. If so, with whom, etc. If not, in case of an emergency and the owner is unavailable, what is the maximum $$$ the owner wants to spend.
It appears you have established clientele, but when you were just getting started, did you get paid up front or ?

[Dutchmare433]

I don’t have a contract, probably should, but I do get all vet info (contact info and what to authorize if unable to contact) written down, with credit cards on file at the various vets’ offices. Ditto if horses are insured. I’ve had to call the vet twice, the first was for a cat, but I got in touch with owners first. The second was a horse who had had laminitis a few months prior, I called the vet as I was cold hosing, and called the owner after.

I always get paid after…and have done so since I started. I inherited my base of clients from a friend who moved away, so I wasn’t taking on unknown quantities. I don’t know what I’d do now…maybe taking a deposit would be safest? I do understand clients not wanting to pay beforehand, particularly for someone new.

[kathy_s]

@Dutchmare433

I don’t have a contract, probably should, but I do get all vet info (contact info and what to authorize if unable to contact) written down, with credit cards on file at the various vets’ offices. Ditto if horses are insured. I’ve had to call the vet twice, the first was for a cat, but I got in touch with owners first. The second was a horse who had had laminitis a few months prior, I called the vet as I was cold hosing, and called the owner after.

I always get paid after…and have done so since I started. I inherited my base of clients from a friend who moved away, so I wasn’t taking on unknown quantities. I don’t know what I’d do now…maybe taking a deposit would be safest? I do understand clients not wanting to pay beforehand, particularly for someone new.

I agree, but I also don’t want to get shortchanged either. I think you’re right, I’ll add something into the contract that covers a deposit and pay at the end of the job.
Thanks so much for the advice. If you can think of anything else I didn’t know to ask, let me know.

[skipollo]

@kathy s.

Thank you for your response. Since I have our own farmette to take care of, I’d rather be home every evening. Is your $70 basic fee just for a single trip per day, or several? Do you also clean the stalls and/or runs? Finally, are you paid upfront, half and half, or ?

$70/day is the rate for me taking care of the animals and also staying overnight at the house (this is for when owners are out of town.) Yes I do clean stalls, but if there are a lot of them the cost will go up because that’s a big chunk of time spent doing stalls (I also work full time.)

Generally I’m paid up front, although clients on occasion forget to leave a check and just mail it to me after they get home. I have no contract, and I only advertise by word of mouth.

[Libby2563]

@kathy s.

Since I have our own farmette to take care of, I’d rather be home every evening. Is your $70 basic fee just for a single trip per day, or several? Do you also clean the stalls and/or runs? Finally, are you paid upfront, half and half, or ?

For whatever it’s worth, I recently inquired with a farmsitter near me and her minimum was $40/visit (so $80/day). Since one visit would take less than half an hour (bring in 4 horses and drop already-prepped morning grain in buckets), this was way more than I could justify paying. My neighbor was also unable to use her due to the cost.

Pricing for this stuff is tough because the actual workload can vary SO MUCH depending on the farm setup and the specific needs. Morning feed at one farm may take 10 min (drop grain in buckets on fenceline for horses that live outside, eyeball auto waterer to make sure it’s working) whereas at another place it could be an hourlong production for the same number of horses (soak feed, prep stalls, bring in, drop feed, fill water buckets, give meds, etc). I honestly have no idea how people who farmsit determine pricing accurately except by visiting the farm and going through the routine with the owner–which could turn out to be a massive waste of everyone’s time if they cannot afford to pay you enough to make it worth your while.

[beowulf]

It’s not worth my while if it’s less than $100/day… but I also am the type to do the extras: clean the hay off of the stairs, drop extra hay for you so you don’t have to when you come back, tidy up the barn, etc…

A lot of people here do want to pay less than that a day, but it just isn’t worth it: factor in the time it takes to get there, the gas, the time it takes to do the work, any extra duties you have to do, etc.

For instance, I house+horsesit for a family friend - includes AM feeding, turnout, and stalls – and those stalls take me (someone who is fast at stalls) at least 20m each because the owner wants absolute free-choice hay in the stalls at all times (but doesn’t want hay nets). I completely understand why she wants that and I follow what she wants but it adds tremendous time to your chores… So it takes me about 1.5hrs to do the stalls alone, then you have to dump/scrub/fill, set up feed for tomorrow, put hay in all the stalls, and then before I know it, it’s been 5 hours… then I have to come back at 5PM to bring in, dump grain, top off any waters, and then I do night-check at 10pm which includes topping off hay, water, and picking the stalls… so it’s about ~7hrs of work not including the gas and the time it takes to get there… and $100 starts to look much more reasonable. Family-friend pays me about $250 for the weekend (Fri-Sunday) – a little less than what I normally want, but she is a family friend. It is HARD work and IMHO, for anyone else I’d expect much more.

I also learned the hard way to not agree to anything until you go over the routine with the owner. You also need to eyeball for yourself the logistics and layout of the farm: some things make chores so frustrating, and others so easy – and that should factor into your base charge for services. There are some things I just do not want to do; things like cleaning out chicken coops, removing days worth of manure/hay from a stall, etc – and no amount of money makes me want to do it… I’ve been unpleasantly surprised a few times to see a note saying “oh also, can you do this…”

I also only housesit now for people who are friends of family or people who come “vetted”… People are CRAZY and can expect the most unreasonable things… and even having them be friends of family is no guarantee they’ll be reasonable… For instance, once my sister agreed to dogsit for a friend of the family who wanted her to stay at the house Christmas weekend - sister only agreed if she could have her long-time BF stay with her, as you know, it’s a holiday and you should spend it with loved ones… friend-of-family said “sure, that’s fine”… The day she left texted sister and said “you know I’ve been thinking, I’m not comfortable with that so no he can’t stay at my house…” Something like that would have been perfectly reasonable and fair if it was laid out before my a housesitter took the job, but it was not, and my sister spent Christmas Eve alone for something like $20 a day…

If it something light work, no stalls, and extremely local, something like $40 per visit is fair. If it is something with stalls or stacking hay or regular barn chores, 100/day is much more fair.

[kathy_s]

Thanks everyone! You all have given me a lot to consider and I will have to think about how to handle those types of situations. The last minute changes are definitely things I will include in my contract, e.g. “any task not discussed and agreed to 24 hours prior to job start date will result in an additional fee of X…” or something like that. I’ll name an amount that will dissuade the owner from expecting freebies. I’ve had that happen before and it’s no fun.
Again, I really appreciate the input!

[Pocket_Pony]

I pay my farm sitter $100/day and she stays at the house. She leaves the place cleaner than when she found it, which is so lovely for me! My horses don’t use their stalls, so she only has to clean paddocks, which is a lot easier I think. I leave her a clean barn/paddock to start with, and I come home to it being even cleaner. I scrub all the buckets before I go anywhere, I clean the paddocks, the barn aisle, clean the house, prepare all the horse feed/supplements, dog food, clean the cat boxes, etc. I don’t expect her to take the horses to their usual big dry-lot turnout, but she can move them in and out of a smaller shared sacrifice area by just opening and closing gates. I leave her very detailed instructions on who gets fed when and how and who the vets are and who horsey neighbors are and she can call me/text me at any time. I make sure the fridge has food and let her know she can have whatever she wants. I don’t expect her to strip the bed and do the laundry, but she always does.

Personally, I would not hire someone who wouldn’t stay at my house.

I guess you should decide how much money would make it worth your while and what kinds of things you will and will not do, and what’s negotiable. If you have a DH at home, would you be willing to stay overnight at someone’s house for more money? Do you have another job and would this supplement that, or can you devote your whole house-sitting time period to being in one place (within reason, obviously you’d like to go home and see your DH/dogs/horses/whatever)? What would you require to be in place or prepared ahead of time?

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

I have three dogs, five cats, nine chickens and three horses. I pay $35/trip for morning and evening - which includes throwing feed to horses, letting out or putting up chickens, letting dogs out into a fenced yard and back in again and feeding dogs and cats. I pay $100/day if my sitter is coming morning and evening and then also in the middle of the day just to let dogs out and in.
I prefer not to have someone stay at my house. I’d be OK with the right person, but when I was first interviewing sitters I got lots of folks who thought they could just move in with their kids and dogs and etc. No.

[BeeHoney]

I am not a farm sitter, but rather I use the services of farm sitters fairly frequently.

As far as payments, I would never agree to pay someone in advance. My advice–if you suspect payment issues, refuse the job. I have never signed a contract for farm sitting services, but I put everything that I expect in a written list of all the animals and what they need, and what my regular employees will be doing, etc. I also discuss payment via email. If someone ever needed to come after me for payment they would have plenty of documentation as to what they were hired to do and what I was supposed to pay them.

One side note regarding payment: sometimes emergencies or unusual things happen when you are farm sitting. I always agree upon an extra per hour rate in case extra time/work is required. So, if the farm sitter spends half a day dealing with a sick dog/cat, taking them to the vet, etc., the farm sitter is fairly compensated for that time.

Personally, I would not set out any exclusions. A “guard dog” could be a cuddly great pyrenees. I don’t see the big deal with a guard donkey either. As far as stallions, that could go either way as well. What if someone has a sweet old QH stallion that lives in a paddock with a shed and just gets thrown some feed/hay once a day? I agree that stalls could go either way also, but if you are farm sitting for people with horses, stalls are frequently going to be part of the deal. Just make sure the stalls are starting in good shape and double check that there is a reasonable system for what you are supposed to do with the muck.

I think that a better way to figure things out is to talk to someone over the phone and get as many details as you can about what they need, what animals they have, and what their setup is and then if it sounds okay, make a site visit before you agree to take the job. The site visit can help you estimate the base price that you quote as well. If you go to the farm and there are falling down fences or ill-temepered/dangerous animals or it is in some way a setup for disaster, then you can politely let the potential client know that you aren’t comfortable taking the job. Also, be sure to estimate how long it is going to take YOU to do the work, don’t rely on someone else’s “oh, it only takes 10 minutes.”

Personally, I pay a daily rate that is based on a base “hassle fee” (that could be $30-70) for simply taking on the responsibility, and then add on more to the rate based on how long the actual work should take. So if you took on a client with two trips out to their house per day with an hour of work each time, that might be a $60 base fee for the trips/hassle/responsibility, then $15 per hour for the work, so a total of $90 day. That’s just an example.

Try to get the fee to work out so that it feels right to you, but also keep in mind that when you farm sit, you are agreeing to be available for and to handle emergencies or inconvenient situations. Everything might be a piece of cake, but you might also end up having your day ruined by a colicking horse, a dog that gets loose and runs off, or a tree falling on a section of fence.

[Shine]

You need to be careful - if the animals get out and cause an accident on your watch you can be sued. Make sure their insurance covers this.