Human resource management is becoming a bigger issue as we see farms grow from single family units to multiple family and employee dependent operations.
Regardless of the size of the farm, it’s important that all employees and family members know the priorities of the farm and the reasons why particular decisions are made.
Employees and family members who have a stake and responsibility in the operation are more likely to achieve their goals and have a successful business.
Real-life story. The following few paragraphs were written by Bob Parsons, an assistant professor of farm management at the University of Vermont.
This is a real-life story of one dairy farm family he counseled to help correct what the owner thought was a mastitis problem on his farm.
“One farm I knew had constant problems with mastitis. They called their Extension agent to help evaluate the situation.
“The farm had procedures for heat detection, milking, treatment, separating treated cows, and so forth, depending on who was doing the milking.
Finding the problem. “A tour of the barn showed a lot of manure in the free stalls and on the curbs. Some questioning revealed that no one liked to scrape the barn. This was usually done quickly before evening milking by the person who was unable to find something else to do.
“Cleaning off the curbs and cleaning the stalls was usually put off to the next day; which was then again put off until the next day.
“This farm did not have a mastitis problem –
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