I recently chatted with Dr. Danelle Bickett-Weddle of the Center for Food Security and Public Health in Ames, Iowa. Bickett-Weddle helped develop a questionnaire for dairy producers to assess the biosecurity risks on their operations. Her current doctoral research is looking for correlations between risk management practices and production parameters. She hopes her current research will help dairy producers identify risk areas that, when improved, lead to increased profitability. The following is a portion of my interview with her.

Cows look forward to eating every day. Do you look forward to having all the feed ingredients available to put into a mix and feed the cows each day?

Editor’s note: The following is the second of a two-part series discussing basic financial statements and analysis tools.

I have been a Spanish teacher for 20 years. A while ago, I was asked to help local dairy producers with their Mexican employees. I started working and have never, ever looked back. I love what I do. As I gain experience in this world of milking cows, scraping estiércol (es-dee-air-col) or manure and pushing up feed, I am beginning to form an image of what makes a good patrón (pa-drone) or boss.

Marketing is becoming an important tool to help dairy producers reach maximum profitability. I interviewed Scott Stewart who recently wrote a book, New Times, New Rules – Take Control of Your Farm Marketing, about agriculture marketing. I asked him how dairy producers should approach marketing and how agriculture markets have changed in the last 25 years.

Today it takes more than hard work to operate a profitable dairy. Financial measurements help make it possible to not only understand and measure but to sustain profitability despite expense rates that have risen from 50 percent of gross income in 1980 to 70 to 80 percent of gross income today.

Most individuals who work with large domesticated livestock will encounter situations where an animal is unlikely to respond favorably to treatment. The likelihood of treatment failure, the potential for animal suffering and the presence of drug residues are considerations that can make euthanasia of an animal the best available option. This [article] is designed to aid producers, livestock market operators, animal transporters and veterinarians in making the appropriate decisions regarding euthanasia of cattle.

It is extremely important that agricultural workers have the proper knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform well in their jobs. Knowledge, skills and attitudes are the internal competencies that workers bring with them to the job or that they must learn through training. They are not, however, the only factors that go into success at getting the job done. Furthermore, they are the most difficult performance factors for a manager to change.

Whenever farm owners and managers get together, the conversation often turns to the topic of recruiting and hiring of employees. As we traveled the country to visit with managers and discuss their supervisory practices, we asked them to describe the different ways they locate new employees. Managers report a variety of ways they recruit, hire and place new workers.

Editor’s note: The following is the first of a two-part series discussing basic financial statements and analysis tools.