It’s fitting that Progressive Dairyman include a marketing article in the issue focused on peak milk production and quality. After all, these days, dairy producers need to have as much confidence in handling markets as they do handling their high-producing cows. To gain that confidence, it’s best to examine what success looks like. Much like dairy producers group cows to manage their care, we could group our clients according to the characteristics they have as marketers – from the high-confidence group that has been through many market cycles on through to the newest clients who are still learning.

When was the last time you stopped to think about your personal “business philosophy?” In other words ... when it comes to work, what do you value and focus on the most? Regardless of how often your day-to-day challenges change, your “business compass” should remain pretty constant as you navigate through these ups and downs. So what’s at the center of the way you make decisions and prioritize your time?

Low milk price, high costs of feed, an employee with a really bad attitude – now SCC has spiked for the week – can you take all the pressure? All of a sudden, someone comes and adds to the bad news; you react and you unleash a reaction all human beings have been dealing with since humankind has been around. Even though the thinking human brain has somewhat evolved over thousands of years, there are parts of the human brain that haven’t had a hardware upgrade in about 100,000 years. According to world-renowned emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, most of us are still acting out of the ancient fight-freeze-or-flight response, and an upgrade is long overdue.

One of the things dairy farmers have had endlessly drummed into their consciousness in recent decades is the importance of getting their cows to reach maximum milk peaks at the onset of lactation. Nutritionists, feed salesmen, extension agents, veterinarians, accountants, bankers, semen salesmen and even hoof trimmers all get on the bandwagon of encouraging high milk peaks – because, theoretically, the more milk your cows give, the better your chances of staying in business tend to be. Of course, all those aforementioned professionals have a very biased financial stake in a dairy farm’s financial health.

The following article is the second in a series of three regarding direct tanker loading systems. Click here to read the first article by Earl Biggers in the November 1, 2011 issue of Progressive Dairyman. In a previous article, we provided an overview of some of the criteria a producer should consider when planning for a milk cooling and storage system for the farm. Probably the most significant factor in deciding whether or not to go with a direct tanker loading (DTL) system, is the requirements of the actual market (or plant). After all, installation costs are meaningless if no processor is willing to accept DTL shipments. In this article, we will take a closer look at those market considerations.