Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) Executive Director Shelly Mayer set the tone for an engaging three days when she stated, “You can’t have a winning team with a losing mindset.”

Lameness is an issue that impacts every part of the supply chain – not just the welfare and health of cows but also the farmers and their teams working to maintain herd productivity, as well as the dairy processors and retailers seeking to build trust in their brand.

They say that any two people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. In agriculture, I’d swear it’s two.

Sometimes, we look at neighboring farms that seem to have a secret sauce to their success. They make success look easy. They get a lot of work done. But just like great barbecue, there are no shortcuts and no single secret sauce. Success on these top-tier farms is a series of repeatable elements that work together.

The reasons dairy farm families continue to invest and grow are rooted in the nature of dairy farmers and fundamental economic drivers. It is important to understand the drivers for investment decisions – both for planning on your own farm and for the industry overall.

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.

I’ve been blessed to know many successful farmers, entrepreneurs and business leaders who always seemed to be a step ahead of the herd. What are the common threads among these folks? What core set of traits did they share? I came up with three traits and one overarching theme.