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Given the past year’s milk prices, times are hard out there right now for even very well-managed dairies. Tough times call for hard conversations and difficult decisions, and my role is often to lead the charge through uncomfortable situations in order to find the best solution for a dairy to work its way back into the black.
What would you do with a few thousand dollars extra in the checkbook at the end of every month? Replace worn-out freestalls; start planning a new transition cow barn; add technology to the parlor? What if just a few small changes to one area of your operation could make that possible?
When I get onto a dairy struggling to get cows bred, fingers start pointing. Often, it’s an outside person who is blamed: the nutritionist, the breeder or the veterinarian. From my experience, I can tell you the problems are more likely to stem from within – but then again, sometimes they don’t.
Throughout my experience consulting dairies, I have learned this: Lameness doesn’t just happen; it is a result of what is going on in the cow’s environment or management.
When it comes to maintaining milk production during times of heat stress, we often look for the mechanical fix.
Fans, sprinklers, misters and other heat abatement systems can certainly be effective tools in minimizing the negative effects of hot temperatures and humid conditions, but the root of the problem is not always something adding another fan is going to solve. Sometimes, a few employee management tweaks are just what you need.
