Successful Dairy Systems

1. Successful Dairy Systems Neil Broadwater, Regional Educator Dr. Marcia Endres, Dairy Specialist Dr. Jeff Reneau, Dairy Specialist Jim Salfer, Regional Educator Chuck Schwartau, Regional Educator

2. Coordinated Program Offerings • Train the Trainer series for professionals serving the dairy industry • On-farm field day series to highlight “systems that work”, demonstrating a variety of systems Minnesota dairy operators have adopted

3. Supportive of Related Programs • Intended to be supportive of the Minnesota Dairy Initiative (MDI) dairy profitability team efforts • Desire to make profitability teams more effective by increasing their skills, knowledge base, and bag of tools available

4. Objectives “Successful DairySystems” • To help Dairy Advisors working with their customers in an ever changing dairy industry. • To provide Dairy Advisors with tools to help their clientele achieve high levels of success.

5. While most advising focuses on the environment and equipment – there is another important factor affecting outcomes: Grothus – Eliminate the Real Root Causes of All Quality Defects

6. Success Pyramid Ultimate Success Success Goals Building Blocks (steel & concrete) Foundation

7. Too often we start in the middle…

8. …after we have clearly defined our goals we need to assess the…Foundation …determine how solid… how strong… how complete each critical foundation block is! Finance Vision Operational System Key People Values Bus. & Org. Structure Management Team

9. Program Outline • Offered as a 3-day workshop with one or two weeks between sessions; or two consecutive days format • Classroom time and on-farm and “practice your learning” time • Notebook of presentations, support materials and tools

10. Intended Audience • Lenders • Veterinarians • Nutrition Consultants • Dairy Profitability Team Leaders • Dairy Plant Field Representatives • Building and Equipment Suppliers • Other Dairy Advisors

11. FINBIN Summarieswww.finbin.umn.edu/

12. S.W.O.T. • S – Strengths • W – Weaknesses • O – Opportunities • T -- Threats

13. Roadmap to effective farm interviews • Try to always begin with open ended questions; • Or initiate area of discussion with a fact finding question. • Follow when possible with an open ended question. • Continue with clarifying and probing questions until you get to the important facts / issues.

14. Socratic Questioning • Questions to: • Raise basic issues • Probe beneath the surface • Clarify • Pursue problematic areas of thought • Help producers become sensitive to the need for clarity and accuracy • Help producers arrive at a judgment of their own thoughts

15. Why Invest Time and Effort for Strategic Planning? • Agriculture is changing, how will you adapt? • Need a plan to get where you want to go • To determine your position in the industry

16. Tools for Operational Excellence • Task identification • Prioritization • Training • Activity flows • Standard Operating Procedures • Communication skills on the farm

17. Standard Operating Procedures

18. Labor Issues • Determine labor needs • Type of labor needed • Job descriptions • Can the owner manage labor? • The right person for the right job • Legal issues of being an employer

19. Farm Visit to Practice Skills

20. Farm Visit Follow-up

21. Resources for Advisors/Farmers

22. Participant Distribution • Lenders 34% • Nutritionists 16% • Dairy Plant Field staff 9% • Others (DHIA,Educ.) 36% • Veterinarians 5%

23. Challenges • Narrowing the focus • Marketing to the audience • Providing follow-up to the audience • Resource intensive

24. Objectives “Successful DairySystems” • To help Dairy Advisors working with their customers in an ever changing dairy industry. • To provide Dairy Advisors with tools to help their clientele achieve high levels of success.

25. Thank You Regional Extension Educators Neil Broadwater broad007@umn.edu Jim Salfer salfe001@umn.edu Chuck Schwartau cschwart@umn.edu Campus-based Specialists Dr. Marcia Endres Dr. Jeff Reneau