From her first job in high school working for a New Hampshire truck farmer to owning and operating Bread and Butter Farm in Shelburne, Vermont, fostering a connection between the community and the land that feeds it has remained a major focus for first-generation farmer Corie Pierce.

There are many overlapping systems in play on a family farm. Your family circle is your nuclear family which relates to your parents or in-laws, and your siblings, who may also be business partners or farm heirs.

In this episode of the Progressive Dairy Podcast, host Kimmi Devaney visits with Kansas dairy producer Lee Holtmeier from Linn Willow Creek Dairy about their employee culture, what they do to mentor and empower employees, and how they keep employee turnover low. 

Your farm can exceed all the industry benchmarks for production, but if someone is severely injured, those production benchmarks are suddenly not important. Effective leaders incorporate building and maintaining a safety culture into their farm management strategy.

Narcissism is the mental disorder of “you.” People with this disorder are arrogant, self-centered, manipulative and demanding. They are convinced they deserve special treatment. They have difficulty tolerating criticism or defeat. Sometimes, it’s not fun to be around them.

If talk about farm culture leaves you feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and pick just one aspect of your culture to improve. Start with one small thing you can control, whether it be clarity, organization or belonging.

“I always wanted to be a farmer,” says Brice Mosekian of BnB Farms in Cambridge. “I didn’t want to do it in California.”