The farm employees who work with our animals are responsible for the primary practices focused on meeting animals’ basic needs, which directly translate to animal health and performance, and therefore, the success of the farm. Having knowledgeable, skilled workers is key for optimal animal welfare and profitability in dairy farms. However, finding, developing and training skilled workers in the dairy industry has become increasingly challenging. It is not uncommon to see entry-level jobs on dairy farms filled by young people with no prior agricultural background. In a recent study from our lab where we interviewed 150 dairy employees, we found that entry-level workers were generally younger, male, immigrants and Spanish speaking. This worker demography may be associated with a lack of geographic ties, which could make it easier for them to leave in search of better-paid jobs, as reflected in high employee turnover rates.
This scenario underscores the importance of having a well-planned personnel management program that prioritizes fostering a positive work environment and conducting ongoing training. As we know, entry-level tasks on a dairy farm are not equivalent to low-skill work. Workers must understand the complex concepts behind these practices, such as animal physiology and disease epidemiology, which enable them to understand the “whys” behind common practices necessary for tasks associated with animal handling and milking procedures.
According to a survey by the FARM Workforce Development Program, only 29.9% of dairy farm employees reported receiving formal training. Training is most commonly provided at the time of hiring (76%), with only 23.4% of farms offering annual retraining sessions. These numbers reveal a significant gap in employees' retraining, which is crucial for refreshing their knowledge and preventing job drift.
We can't ignore that training dairy farm workers effectively presents dairy farms with several challenges. Firstly, it is a time-consuming process in a setting where time is the scarcest resource. Some of the best personnel training and performance monitoring (needed to establish retraining frequency) programs I have seen in the field often require herd managers to dedicate several hours weekly to ensure proper implementation.
Secondly, there are often communication issues. The latest national trends reported that more than 50% of agricultural workers are immigrants, with 80% of them being able to communicate only in Spanish. In the study mentioned above, out of the 150 employees we interviewed at 10 dairy farms, 111 employees (74%) reported that their primary language was Spanish, and they had a very low proficiency in English.
And thirdly, a large percentage of entry-level workers may have limited basic education and reading comprehension skills, making traditional written training materials less effective. It has been reported that oral presentations with visual aids (e.g., pictures, videos) coupled with hands-on demonstrations may be the most effective training approach for this population of workers.
While university extension programs and private industries strive to support dairy farms by offering employee training, finding bilingual educators with technical expertise can often be difficult. This scenario, coupled with remote access to farms and long driving distances, makes it difficult for farmers to maintain consistent and high-quality training for their employees.
To overcome some of these challenges, one promising solution may be the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies. VR headsets are devices that provide users with an immersive 360-degree experience, allowing them to engage in a simulated environment.
Our lab, with assistance from the Penn State College of Ag IT team, has been exploring VR technologies as a tool for educational purposes in different settings, such as youth educational events and university-level lectures, developing 360-degree immersive videos and video games to create more realistic scenarios on common real-life situations to better prepare students for the real world. We have observed increased engagement with activities and assignments, as well as a higher level of satisfaction across all groups.
We are currently developing VR training modules specifically for entry-level dairy farm workers, including milkers and employees in the maternity area. In a pilot study involving VR-based milking routine training, we surveyed 22 participating employees from three large commercial dairy farms in central Pennsylvania. The survey included questions related to their previous experience using this technology, satisfaction with the VR-based videos used in the study and their preferences for training methods. Notably, 86% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the VR headset would enhance their learning experience. However, 70% of participants reported that they would still prefer traditional hands-on training. Nevertheless, when we asked them if they would find it beneficial for their learning to combine hands-on training with VR-based training, 90% of employees agreed with that statement.
These findings suggest that while VR-based training cannot entirely replace traditional hands-on training, it can serve as a valuable tool to supplement these training settings, especially when retraining employees, where brief refreshment materials are provided. VR-based training not only offers engaging, consistent and bilingual training experiences but also can be accessed remotely without the need for an educator to travel to the farm, as these videos can be utilized on smartphone devices with inexpensive cardboard headsets. All of this makes this technology highly applicable to farm settings, and as more materials are developed, its use is likely to increase in the years to come.
Raul Sorto helped write this article and is a Ph.D. graduate student and graduate research assistant in the animal sciences and veterinary and biomedical sciences department at Penn State University. Email Raul Sorto.
