The parlor is a critical place on a dairy to have productivity and efficiency dialed in 365 days a year. When it comes to leveling up your parlor output, audits are a helpful tool in finding ways to fine-tune and uncover areas for improvement that drive milk harvest success – ultimately impacting the dairy’s bottom line. 

An important and often overlooked ingredient for skilled and engaged employees is investing in their growth and development.

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.

Those in charge of a business and its employees have a direct influence on the culture and ethics of the workplace. Leaders should pay close attention to the culture they create. 

Beef production business and ranch managers have been anticipating and preparing for the fall busy season including weaning, selling calves, vaccinations, fall calving, etc., for weeks. Now it is time for managers to be doers. Right? Well, yes and no.

There are six main hazards when it comes to silage: 1) complacency and fatigue, 2) entanglement by machinery, 3) rollover by machinery, 4) fall from heights, 5) crushing by silage avalanche or collapse, and 6) silo gases. By regularly taking safety precautions at each of these hazard points, we can ensure that our farm workers return home safely at the end of the day.

Protocols on a dairy farm are essential for a smooth, organized workflow, ensuring safety and efficiency for cows and farm staff. They maintain high health and well-being standards by supporting proper animal care and management.

Retaining employees is critical to the long-term health and success of a dairy operation. Therefore, failing to create the right environment to retain employees will affect the bottom line of the business and create organizational issues, such as worker insecurity, excess duties that workers must absorb and time invested in recruiting, hiring and training new employees.

When immersed in a new culture, language, location and lifestyle, accessing health resources can be infuriating and confusing. Routine tasks, like setting up a dentist appointment and attending doctor’s visits, can be daunting, if not impossible, under these circumstances.