In the last week, I have had three discussions about the future of professional development for farm owners and leaders. In each discussion, I have suggested that a part of their professional development in supervision, strategy and leadership should be outside of agriculture. Why would I make that suggestion?

I’m not a big cycling guy, so I never really followed the Tour de France. But I love to see people overcome adversity and achieve greatness. So, like many people, I admired Lance Armstrong’s courage to beat cancer, and I paid attention to his cycling career. Year after year, I wanted Armstrong to get the yellow jersey and win the Tour.

A common question I receive is: What is the relationship between my milk price and dairy commodity prices trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)? In answering that question, let me begin by saying the California state order does use CME cheese and butter prices in determining a portion of that state’s milk prices. But federal milk marketing orders do not use CME prices.

The profit margin landscape continues to look favorable for dairy producers as we head into the second half of the year. While down around $1 per hundredweight (cwt) from their highs back in April, forward margin projections remain very strong from a historical perspective, existing at or above the 80th percentile of the previous 10 years through the first quarter of 2014.

Kim Koehn grew up on a dairy near Copeland, Kansas. Today, he manages High Plains Dairy near Plains, Kansas. The two dairies are about an hour and 4,000 cows apart.

This article is the first in a series of online exclusive columns from Lori Lennard, the founder of AgProvise Consulting. Check back monthly for dairy employee management advice, leadership training and farm/family business strategies. Do you ever feel you are the only one thinking on your team? The rest of the group is simply going through the motions without providing extra effort? I hear this complaint on farms all the time. I often get the question, “How can I get my team to care about the business and act like an owner?"

In 1945, 80 percent of U.S. jobs were in businesses that made things. The remaining 20 percent were in service related industries. In his latest column, John Frey talks about how this has changed and the risks and rewards associated with the dairy business. PD Click here for the column.

You’ve probably heard the saying “Life’s a race,” right? So what do you think? Is it? Or do you tend to think of life as more of a journey?