It’s been said that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. But I think there’s more to it than that. In my decades of experience, both in the office and on countless farms, people do leave bad jobs. They also leave bad environments, situations with high expectations and little guidance, and meager growth opportunity. This is true for all types of businesses, including agriculture.
Producers face challenges all day long. One of them is labor. But unlike weather, market prices and margins, a farm can gain some control over its labor issues. When I see a well-managed farm, I’m usually looking at an operation that has done a good job building culture.
A strong farm culture can result in highly engaged teams that share ideas to improve work efficiency, increased employee retention and help with recruiting the best future employees, all which fuel profitability. In addition, a strong culture has a hand in creating resiliency. Given the all-too-common challenges we face in dairy production, resiliency is vital to a farm’s business. And strong culture is a great defense against common stressors felt by your employees and your animals.
Your employees matter greatly
When asking producers about the challenges they face, two issues often come up: labor and skid steers. Why skid steers? Because untrained labor, working too fast and often stressed, break things, especially when they are operating skid steers.
Research from North American industries shows conclusively that investing your limited and very valuable “extra” time and energy in creating a strong culture will result in:
- Higher profitability
- Enhanced employee retention
- Reduced recruitment costs
- Teams that share ideas to improve efficiency
- Attracting more top talent
- Enhanced business resilience
At the farm level, I’ll add to that list: less stress, fewer accidents and improved safety.
Your employees, whether family or unrelated, deserve a positive, rewarding work environment, and it starts with a farm culture. This farm culture will establish itself whether you plan it or not. If you don’t purposefully plan, execute and support the culture you want, quite likely a less effective culture will establish itself. Think of it like avoiding a decision – that’s a decision. So why not drive culture instead of allowing it to happen to you?
A farm culture reveals itself in how you, your managers and your team communicate, how your team interacts with each other and with your cows, how efficiently employees work, how you and your employees interact with your community and more.
Maybe this sounds like a culture you know: “At our dairy, we simply get it done; there’s no emotion and no one asks, ‘How are you doing?’ We communicate on the fly and get through our work. Our cows are well managed, healthy and productive, so we must be doing things right.”
We all likely have experienced this or heard about this approach. It is a way of doing business that maybe worked well for the scale of the farm operation, for an owner and manager who are there all the time and for a workforce that doesn’t need nor want personal interaction. While this approach can work for many, the big question is: Will this approach work for new employees or for a farm that wants to grow? Chances are it will not.
Defining culture
Ideals, values, attitudes and practices form the identity of your farm. Done right, the culture becomes the cornerstone of a strong foundation for your team while solidifying the way they work throughout the day. A farm culture gets defined by how employees communicate with one another, including management; how they interact with livestock; and how equipment is maintained, to name just a few. Little things matter because they add up. Where brooms get placed after use, how hoses get stored, how well equipment is cleaned and maintained can affect efficiency, quality and safety within the work environment.
This stuff can’t simply appear in an employee handbook or on posters in the milking parlor or breakroom. How ownership, management and employees talk about the culture and, more importantly, how they ensure their actions demonstrate the farm culture are essential. Ownership and management by their actions must be the drivers. What you say should be done must be what you do.
Ownership and management showing the way forward is vital not only to culture but also to reducing stressors that often challenge your employees and animals. Strong, positive leadership goes a long way to maximizing health, performance and productivity for all involved.
Stress test your culture
How can you know if your farm culture aligns with what you say it is? Stress test it.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the author discussed the concept of dilemma testing. In my world, we call it a stress test: identify the tough dilemmas your employees routinely face, review how they handle them, determine if their actions fit the current farm culture and then clearly document and train them on how they should resolve them.
Example: Our farm mission is that we “milk clean cows.” Stress test: What will the milking team do when a breakdown in the barn results in cows with unusually dirty udders arriving in the parlor? Keep in mind, the parlor needs to run 23 of 24 hours to milk all the cows and there isn’t much room for error. What does the team do? Ask for extra crew members? Slow down the milking process to ensure teats are clean before being milked? Or does the stress of getting all cows milked in the allotted time override your farm mission to only milk clean cows?
In scenarios like this, a "walk the talk" action plan is needed to create and sustain an effective, profitable farm culture. Success starts at the top. Be sure your decisions align with your mission, values and farm culture.
A farm exists for several reasons. Among them, to care for its cows and produce quality milk in the most efficient way possible. When you have a culture of shared values, beliefs and attitudes, it shows in the way your cows are cared for and in how well they perform. When the cows are cared for, you and your team should feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.
References omitted but are available upon request by sending an email to the editor.
6 steps to building a strong farm culture
You can guide your farm’s culture and in the process invigorate employees and reduce stressors that can affect them and your cows. Here are some simple steps to help you get started:
Step 1: Work together to create your farm’s mission and outline core values
- Make sure to consider the dilemmas or challenges you and your team face.
- The values should help guide your employees when making challenging decisions.
Step 2: Lead by example
- Leadership must demonstrate the culture.
Step 3: Communicate your culture clearly and consistently
- Share stories of employees living your values.
- Recognize employees who exemplify the farm culture you have created.
- Make the farm culture part of your hiring process.
Step 4: Stress test the culture – learn and grow from mistakes
- Establish an employee feedback loop – while providing feedback to employees is nothing new, gathering and receiving employee feedback creates the loop.
Step 5: Continuously evaluate your mission and core values
- Know when to adapt or change from a value that does not work to support your growth.
Step 6: Take a holistic approach to building your farm culture
- Ensure every aspect of farm management – from calf care to transition cow nutrition to manure management and so on – works harmoniously.
