Regaining control

As a wife and mother of three, I have come to realize my life is not always within my control.

Managing Editor / Progressive Dairy

This morning was a prime example. Among Mother Nature’s dose of freezing rain, my husband’s job to salt and sand the roads, and the school system reacting to road conditions, I was quickly abandoning my best-laid plans for the day so I may react to the situations around me.

Multiple decisions made throughout the morning were re-evaluated and altered as circumstances changed from one hour to the next. By 10 a.m., I was wishing I could be like Bill Murray’s character in the movie Groundhog Day.

If I could go back to the moment my alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. knowing what I knew five hours later, my morning would have definitely been better.

Granted, it would not have been perfect. There were situations out of my control that would have still occurred, but I could have chosen better reactions knowing the final outcome of the morning.

While I succumb to the fact I cannot always be in control, it certainly is preferred. I’m sure most people would rather be in control than not.

This issue takes a look at the topic of control in a few different ways.

Elaine Froese takes control issues head-on in her article Which shade of control is blocking your farm transition?. She wants you to look at who is controlling the decisions made on your farm and how that is impacting your farm transition plan.

She begins by looking at four different types of control and then suggests several ways control can be transferred from one generation to the next.

For those who put a seasonal pause on control, the article How hard will you work this February? by Mark Andrew Junkin may have you rethinking what needs to happen in the off-season.

He says February is the best time to seize control of the farm’s profitability picture so it can be better positioned to take on obstacles that are bound to happen as the year progresses.

Beyond the business side of the farm, this issue also takes a look at how you can gain more control in two areas of farm management: calving and hoof health.

When and how a cow calves is not something that can be controlled; however, how you or your employees react to the labour process is something you can control.

Read the article We're having a baby: Tips for training employees on the signs, stages and protocols of the calving process to learn how to recognize the signs and stages of parturition so you can implement the proper training on when and how to assist cows through the calving process.

The hoof care section from Motivation and mindset influence action on the farm offers a variety of ways to control lameness issues on your farm.

From understanding how mindset motivates change and proper trimming techniques for effective results to record-keeping by hoof zone and footbath design and use, there is a lot that can controlled in trying to maintain proper hoof health.

Lastly, hear how a dairywoman from Pennsylvania rebounded from a situation that was out of her control. When her family decided to sell their cows, Raechel Kilgore Sattazahn was distraught, but 13 years later, she has a different perspective of that life-changing moment. See her story HERd Management: There is life after cows.

Even if you feel like you are losing control more times than not, know there are steps that can be taken to regain that feeling in your life.

Take one or two management tips from this issue to put you back on track and, before you know it, you’ll have regained control – at least for now!