John Gilliand is the vice president of dairy operations for McArthur Farms in Okeechobee, Florida.
This 8,500-cow dairy operation is comprised of four farms that each operate as individual businesses, as well as a calf enterprise, heifer operation, maternity facility and commodity barns. The farm crops 3,000 acres for forage and more than 1,000 acres of land irrigated with lagoon wastewater. He discusses his essential tools for day-to-day dairy management.
1. Sprint’s Nextel Direct Connect
John’s Motorola cell phone (shown in the picture) is always clipped to his belt or in use. The farm utilizes Sprint’s Nextel Direct Connect plan, which provides direct connections with push-to-talk to various employees on the dairy. “It’s like a two-way radio,” John says. “I can get in touch with somebody just like that.”
John also notes that he can easily see who tried to contact him and simply call back without having to check his messages. On the downside, he doesn’t get very good service when traveling out-of-state, but since most of his time is spent on the dairy, he is very pleased with his phone and service.
2. Toshiba laptop & PCDART
Another item that stays close to John most of the day is his Toshiba laptop computer. The dairy developed its own training programs for milking routines, how to handle gates, etc. using Microsoft Office PowerPoint software. John has these programs on his laptop and with the use of a projector he can easily display them when training employees at any of the four farms.
McArthur Farms also uses PCDART to track cow records and analyze data. John is able to use his laptop for this or access the records on computers at the barns. There, they use Dell desktop computers that John says last about five years, considering the environment.
3. Tungsten T2s
Employees at McArthur Farms use Tungsten T2s by Palm. These handheld devices are also equipped with the farms’ PCDART program and can be synced to the computers. This allows them to see records and make new entries while working in the barns for herd health and breeding. This is an advantage for John because his employees are happier and it allows him faster access to updated records.
4. A Ford truck
Traveling from farm to farm is a big part of John’s job. For this he uses his Ford pick-up truck, which doubles as an office most of the time. He says he likes the Ford brand because it produces a tougher truck than some of the other companies.
John’s vehicle is considered part of his salary and can also be used as a personal vehicle. Therefore, he admits, it is a little nicer than what would be needed for working on a farm.
5. MSN E-mail & www.farmfutures.com
Access to Internet and e-mail also make John’s job easier. On the Internet, he frequents the Penn State website for information on latest research and meeting proceedings. To obtain corn, grain and cattle market information he uses Farm Futures at www.farmfutures.com. John has a MSN Hotmail account to manage his e-mail because it’s the program he started with and has grown accustomed to using. He says his e-mail is like a secretary in that someone can send him a message and it stays there until he has a chance to get back to it. He also receives dairy news updates over e-mail, which help him stay current with the industry. PD
