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Penn State Department of Animal Science Senior Project Associate Rebecca White talks with Progressive Dairyman about the DairyCents mobile app. Find out what makes the app unique. PD
The USDA recently completed an analysis of potential economic and productivity impacts from changes to the availability of farm labor. Their results found that dairy would be one of the sectors most affected by changes.
Although the study did not review one specific policy or any proposed legislation, the model does seem to compare the potential outcomes of mass deportation of unauthorized workers, the expansion of a guest-worker program for agriculture and doing nothing. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley followed up with the study’s authors.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series on developing middle managers. The next article will discuss how to develop protocols and provide training. It will be followed by an article describing employee evaluations.
As dairy operations reach a certain size, it is inevitable that the owners can’t be everywhere and do everything.
Middle managers become a necessary and important part of the future of the farm.
It is amazing how much the current and future outlook for dairy production has changed since I last penned an article for Progressive Dairyman in June. At that point, experts were forecasting a record crop and producers’ attention was focused on where the milk price might be for the rest of 2012 and into 2013.
As I write this, we now are wondering just how small the crop might be. By the time you read this, we will know with much more certainty what to expect corn and bean yields to be once they are harvested.
Have you ever wondered if you were saving money in the most tax-efficient way? People like to talk about asset allocation (the mix of stocks and bonds in your investment portfolio), but few ever talk about asset location.
Asset allocation is important to a client’s portfolio – but just as important is what type of account those assets are in. The reason for this is taxation. How are accounts like IRAs, 401(k)s, SIMPLEs, SEPs, pensions and profit-sharing taxed differently than life insurance, Roth 401(k)s and Roth IRAs?
Livestock held for draft, breeding or dairy purposes that are sold as a result of drought or weather-related conditions may qualify for favorable tax treatment.
Gain does not have to be recognized on these sales if the proceeds from the sale are used to purchase replacement livestock within two years from the end of the taxable year in which the sale takes place.
Selection indexes are great tools and there is certainly no shortage of them available.
Most countries have at least one, and many have two or more nationally published indexes – as is the case in the U.S. with Net Merit (NM) and TPI.
NM incorporates what USDA-AIPL considers economically important traits into one index.
When asked to write this piece for Progressive Dairyman, I was asked to write about the misconceptions about organic dairy farming. The main thing I want you to know is: We are not crazy.
Well, maybe we are, slightly. But show me one dairy farmer who isn’t. You almost have to be slightly crazy to do what we do day in and day out. We dairy farm because we love what we do, because we care for the animals and each day we all produce a wholesome product that nourishes billions of people. That doesn’t change whether you are conventional or organic.
Due to the economic and social situation that our industry faces and to our active participation with PeopleFirst, today we receive many comments and questions about the challenge of developing, maintaining and retaining a solid workforce.
We know this is not easy to achieve, but it isn’t an impossible task either. The first step that we can take to pull together a solid workforce is to obtain commitment from the employees within our operation.
In this article we would like to express and describe a series of answers to questions that we constantly hear regarding what employee engagement is and how it influences the success of the farm.
From 2007 to 2011, an average of 108.5 million tons of whole-plant corn was harvested annually for silage in the U.S. The majority of corn silage was stored in bunker silos and drive-over piles.
But filling bunkers and piles can pose serious risks to employees, especially those who operate the pack tractors, unless safety guidelines are put in place in advance.
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