Employee management

By Ann Hoskins | There are many ways to show your employees appreciation.  Showing employees that you appreciate them will help them feel good about themselves and their work.  Recognition also creates an atmosphere of trust between employees and managers, which builds a positive work environment that fosters collaboration and innovation.

Bethany Dado-Senn, Ph.D. | Watch this video to see how Kendra Agachi's "Lazy Genius" approach can help you prioritize, focus on, and improve your calf care management.

Dr. Noah Litherland | A challenging heifer cycle occurs when a portion of the heifer development phase does not go as planned and results in heifers that have lower-than-expected rates of growth, lung consolidation, or increased rate of non-completion of first lactation. The net result is often a reduced return on investment from the heifer program. This article, the second in a two-part series, discuss the impacts of management, labor and facilities.

In this edition, Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf program manager, discusses the factors that affect passive transfer beyond how much IgG is fed to the calf.

We can often gain helpful knowledge, awareness and practical tips when we look outside of our day-to-day activities. Pat Bane was named America’s Pig Farmer of the Year in 2018. In this article, he shares his insights for successfully raising nursery piglets. By Pat Bane, Bane Family Pork co-owner and manager There is not a more stressful time in a pig’s life than the days following weaning. Anything we can do to lessen that stress is a benefit to the animal.

By Dr. Noah Litherland, dairy technical services specialist
Heat stress can have significant impacts on dairy calf health and growth.  Here are eight action items to reduce the negative impacts of summer heat.

By John Tramburg, Vita Plus vice president operations
How you practice defines how you play.  How you feel defines how you perform.  Culture can be described as the feeling we have about different aspects of our lives. How does culture affect a business?  Significantly.

By Scott Schwefel, Discover Yourself, Inc. CEO, CSP
Imagine going to the hospital and learning that the doctors hadn’t received any training since their first day on the job - would you stay?  Continual employee training to stay up to date in job skills, new technology and new processes is absolutely vital for every business. 

By Nellie Mitchell, Granular group customer success manager
If you have ever participated in an unsuccessful team meeting, then you may want to try the G.O.A.L. method to help run an efficient team meeting.

By Dr. Sara Barber and Dan Bakker, Foundation Livestock Service
The secret to a best-cost calf program is simple, repeatable systems with timely feedback to frontline staff performing the work. Every problem is the result of a broken process. Fix the process and the problem will go away – every time.

In this edition of A Day in the Life of a Calf Raiser, Heidi Fischer of Fischer-Clark Dairy Farm Inc. discusses the tools her team uses to communicate with each other.

By Dr. Melissa Haag, Lodi Veterinary Clinic
Ensuring a smooth and healthy pregnancy for the calf and its mother is important, but it is also important to do the same for pregnant female farm workers. Here are four ways to accommodate a safe human pregnancy on the farm.

By Brittany Olson, contributing writer
While cows crave routine in their daily lives, so do calves and heifers.  Hoskins spoke about the need to dial in on quality control for calf nutrition to help improve animal health and performance.

By Peter Coyne, Vita Plus dairy field consultant and sales manager
If you are considering implementing an incentive program for your calf team employees as a motivation tool, I would ask you to think again.

By Peter Coyne, Vita Plus sales manager and dairy field service specialist
Our high school football team had a very successful season last year and only lost one game.

Unfortunately, it was the biggest game of the year; the winner goes to state and the loser goes home. We lost by one point.

Eleven seniors were on that team and I suspect we will need to do some rebuilding this year. Fortunately, we have a great coach who understands kids as well as he understands football. As he and his assistant coaches work with our young, inexperienced team of kids from our community, they will do the same things I see the best dairy managers do on their productions on a daily basis.

By Progressive Dairyman Editor Peggy Coffeen
“Labor management, procuring employees … if it is not your biggest issue today, it will become one of your biggest issues,” Peter Coyne, Vita Plus dairy field service specialist, warned dairy producers at the Vita Plus Calf Summit.

Coyne moderated a panel of three Wisconsin dairy producers who shared how they creatively and successfully recruit, manage and retain a solid team of farm employees. The panel included Laura Finger, Finger Family Farm LLC; Theo Scholze, Scholze’s Family Farm LLC; and Sherry Arnold, Busse’s Barron Acres.