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New Article: Improve profitability by monitoring feeders' performance
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Nuevo Artículo: Mejore su rentabilidad mediante el monitoreo del desempeño del repartidor.
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Dairy Employee Workshops a success: Last July 28th and 29th a series of workshops were organized along with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, and Poulin Grain. Spanish speaking employees from different dairies in Vermont attended the workshops, that were taught in Spanish. The topics that were covered during the meetings were:
* Proper cow handling
* Milking practices and the reasons of these practices
* Heat detection
* Strong communication skills and their value
If you would like more information or would be interested in organizing a workshop for your employees or customers please contact Felix Soriano @ felix@apndairy.com or call him at 717-738-9130.
How to lead your team during unpredictable times
I hear many dairy owners and managers preach about the importance of “consistency” when it comes to managing a dairy. In fact I also preach about this when I talk to front line workers and employees working at any dairy operation.
But yet, some of those same managers and owners that preach about the importance of consistency, are the first to become inconsistent with their decisions and make unpredictable changes during unstable economic times. They typically ask their nutritionist to make changes in the diets without evaluating the effect that these changes will have on IOFC, or they may layoff employees without evaluating how these layoffs will affect herd health, labor morale and productivity, and bottom line profitability of the dairy.
Instead, what great dairy managers do is anchor themselves in ideas, plans, and goals that are solid, even during uncertain times like the ones we are living today. Great managers know and understand that the dairy industry has become very unpredictable but still they lead in a consistent manner and therefore, they get more predictable results.
How do they do it?
Great leaders follow these 4 things that lower performance managers don’t:
1. They define and focus on their top goals – There are 2 main issues that I typically find when working with some dairy managers. Either a-they don’t have any defined goals, and if they do they are not communicating them properly to the rest of the employees, or b-When they have goals that often times get distracted from their goals.
a. No defined goals: Too many dairies have no goals to speak of. In some instances the manager or owner may have a set of goals defined but when I ask the employees about those goals they look at me as if I were an alien. It is very important for any organization to have 1, 2 or 3 clear, well-defined measurable goals that can be shared with employees. Examples of well-defined and measurable goals can be found on my website @ www.apndairy.com. Of course, these goals will vary from dairy to dairy and it’s always recommended to have your key employees, nutritionist, veterinarian, and consultants involved when defining those goals.
b. Managers get distracted from the goals: read more
Felix Soriano, MS, PAS
President
