“You may not be interested in global macroeconomics, but global macroeconomics is interested in you, your business, your family and your personal lives,” Dr. David Kohl said recently at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Business Financial Decision-Making Conference. A professor emeritus of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech, Kohl explained the new normal is black swans, volatility and extremes. In order to play the game of volatility, it is important to understand the conditions that will have an impact. He went on to highlight six key game-changers to watch as we enter a new year.

Lagoons and ponds are required storage facilities for large cattle operations. Their purpose is to collect watershed from the livestock areas and hold it until it can be properly dispersed according to nutrient management plans. However, as the effluent flows to lagoons, it tends to carry solid particles that over time can fill up the settling basin positioned in front of the lagoon to catch those particles.

Editor’s note: This is the final article in a three-part series on developing middle managers. With the right people on the Scandinavian warship and everyone busy rowing, it is time to see who rows the best, who needs more direction and who might need to find a seat on another ship. “Employee evaluations remind the employee what your expectations are, give you a better handle on performances and provide marching orders for retraining, replacing or rewarding,” said Mary Kraft, a dairy producer from Fort Morgan, Colorado.

The equipment demonstrations at the North American Manure Expo, Aug. 22, 2012, in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, featured 10 different solid manure spreaders. See each of them in action. Video by PD Editor Karen Lee.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on developing middle managers. The first article in this series looked at determining the right ingredients and personality types for middle management roles. Once selected, those middle managers need to be groomed to be able to fill the owner’s or previous manager’s shoes. “You need to teach people to do what you would do if you could be there all the time,” said Mary Kraft, noting it was a favorite quote from Tom Fuhrmann’s Dairy Works seminar.