In a breakout session presentation at the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, last February, Sarah Moag discussed management transitions and employee management strategies that have worked for her business, Noblehurst Farms, in western New York.

“I couldn’t get it out of my head,” says Jarvis. “One day I sat down with Justin and told him, ‘I think we need to act on this. There’s a lot of opportunity here to help create a stronger industry – both in the present and in the future.’ We both decided to go all in on that. From June to December we spent our time building the platform that is Of The West and then launched in January of 2021.”

Higher wages being paid across the country create a disadvantage for an industry that already fights to keep margins at a profitable point. Those who do a good job recruiting and taking care of qualified employees will have the upper hand.

“Onboarding" refers to the process in which new hires are integrated into the organization.

“The process of ensuring the new employee has a great start, becomes engaged and stays is called onboarding.” Onboarding is more than just the orientation and training that have traditionally been our focus for new employees.

Ag wages have seen an increase of seen an average of 15% to 20% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hiring practices for reaching and attracting female candidates to work for you and build your dairy’s workforce and management team.