Fluctuations in the prime rate are of great concern to agricultural operations. The prime rate has traditionally been the interest rate that banks charge their best customers, and it strongly influences the setting of other interest rates. The prime rate varies little among banks, and banks generally adjust their rates at the same time. As a result, agricultural managers are among the many now asking: “Where are interest rates headed?”

Only 115 shopping days until Christmas! I’ll bet you can hardly wait! Likely, you have been losing sleep over what gifts you will buy for those special people in your life. Perhaps you are spending endless hours combing through catalogs and surfing the Internet for ideas. Maybe you have even begun scripting your first rough draft of your own list. Sound ridiculous? Quite! … at least to me. However, it is this same kind of spirit that should be applied when talking about milk marketing.

We all know and sorely miss the “good old” days in which a dairyman was able to call his banker and ask for more money to purchase cows, feed and rolling stock, etc. and then to plan on the money being in the account by the time he hung up the phone. Now the approach of doing business as a dairy is evolving and involving more financial players actively at the table. Eighteen months of low milk prices has drained generations of equity from a dairy’s balance sheet and called for critical changes in business practices.

Planning is one of the most important but poorly utilized management tools of businesses. This is true whether the focus is on planning a start-up business, operations planning, expansion planning, strategic planning or other planning. Below are a dozen keys to successful planning that you should focus on before and during the planning process. The planning environmentBefore you begin the planning process you need to create the proper environment within your business. This will increase your chances of having a productive planning effort.

Too often, dry cows get minimal herdsman attention on many dairies. Drying off cows can be accomplished through routine protocols that minimize risk and maximize results when done correctly. When done poorly, mastitis, lameness, low-quality colostrum and open dry cows can result. I wrote an article for herdsmen in the August Issue 4 of El Lechero to help them understand facts regarding dry cow management. I’d like to summarize that information for you and suggest that you tighten up implementation of your dry cow protocols as necessary.

How many of the following statements apply to you and your farm? • Working as hard as you can but always one step behind. • Frequently caught between work and personal/family expectations and obligations. • Often cannot find time for things you know are important. • Constantly focused on crises and emergencies. • Rarely have time to think and plan ahead. • Not able to implement what you already know.

Upton Sinclair’s 1906 political novel, The Jungle, quickly became a best seller. The fictional novel was based upon extensive research done by Sinclair in the meat packing business. The novel exposed the nation to the poverty, terrible living conditions, unsafe and unsavory working conditions and the hopelessness of the working class in the cities. A socialist, Sinclair wanted to raise concerns about workers, and his book’s focus was on those who worked in or owned the meat packing plants. But it was not the workers that got the public’s attention. Rather it was the unwholesomeness of the meat that came from the plants to the American table that raised the most concern. Even when hapless workers were killed and became part of Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard, a fictional product the plant produced, it was the product rather than the workers themselves that raised the greatest concern with readers.

Do you remember the first time you learned the valuable lesson of surrounding yourself with good people? If you think hard enough, you might just realize that you first experienced this on the playground. Although it’s tempting to tell a little white lie, I admit I was never the first person picked. But I learned quickly that if I called ‘captain’ first, then I could choose my team and avoid any chance of being left until the very end. Even as kids we quickly noticed there is a clear difference between performers and non-performers. When it was time to put our teams together, the captains chose the best kids first and left the worst ones until the end. And like life in the grown-up world, there was even some “popularity contests” or “politics” going on back then as well. But for the most part, the same top athletes were always the first to be chosen.