A day in the life of a dairy farmer involves wearing many hats. One of those hats is that of human resources. No matter the size of your farm, as long as you have employees, you need to be thinking about human resources.

Change – a terrifying six-letter word that most people hate. It’s no secret that, whether good or bad, change is difficult. Most of us, just like our cows, like routine. We like to know what to expect, and we like our comfort zones. However, as farmers know very well, change is inevitable. And many times, change is good; we just have to allow ourselves to welcome the change. When it comes to expanding your farm, you need to manage your employees mentally through the expansion as much as the physical expansion itself.

Ah, yes, one of the dairy manager’s most cringe-worthy duties, creating the employee schedule. You think you have it all figured out, and then someone needs a day off, or better yet, your employees want a different schedule all together.