“What’s your why?” Heath Slawner, a member of Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” team, says. “And by why, I mean what’s your cause? What’s your purpose? What inspires you in the morning to wake up and go to work?

Whether you have five employees or 50, employee management is no easy task. However, some systems work better than others. During the 2017 Dairy Calf and Heifer Association Conference this past April in Middleton, Wisconsin, three producers shared some insight into how they work with and manage their employees.

Why? Why do consumers choose to buy a particular product? Why do they avoid others? What motivates their food-buying decisions? Where are consumers having conversations about food and who is leading those conversations?

Building the right calf barn may mean looking outside the dairy industry for inspiration. For Dave Endres, owner of Endres Jazzy Jerseys, a 900-cow Jersey dairy in Lodi, Wisconsin, this meant borrowing the all-in, all-out style commonly seen in hog operations.

Clinical mastitis is an ongoing problem on almost every dairy. We know what causes it, but prevention is another story, according to Dr. Nigel Cook, a professor at the University of Wisconsin. In his experience, around 15 percent of cows on dairies have clinical mastitis, but Cook sees opportunities to reduce that incidence with proper barn design and management.

Raising heifers can be a challenging business, especially when you’re doing it for someone else. Not only do you have young, vulnerable calves to raise, you have calves with the added stress of being shipped from the dairy to your operation, and you need to make sure you pick up right where they left off.

Can you imagine only getting one cup of milk out of each of your cows every day? For many people in Kenya and South Sudan, that is reality. Not only that, but many of them have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, let alone the Gospel.

When Bob and Beth Kennett opened Liberty Hill Farm, a B&B and dairy farm in Rochester, Vermont, they did it out of necessity due to low milk prices.

Thanks to technology, we can talk to each other any time and pretty much anywhere, but what good does that do? Have you ever stopped to think about the difference between communicating with someone and just speaking at them? I didn’t – or at least I didn’t realize how big that difference is until recently.

After seeing how popular his daughters’ (Anne Doe and Susan Blouin) maple products and goats’ milk soap were at the local Vermont farmers’ markets, Robert Gervais joked with them that they needed to open their own store. They responded, “Yeah, right.”