Editor’s notes

Every job on the dairy is important. Whenever I spend time visiting dairies, I am reminded of the variety of jobs it takes to make a dairy run smoothly. Without the experience and expertise of many individuals, a dairy would quickly run into the ground, unable to survive.

One thing I do notice from time to time are some facilities where people are moving quickly, performing urgent tasks. People there have no lack of things to do and the speed at which they move from one problem to another is admirable. However, there are times I do stop and wonder if all the urgency could be replaced with doing the important things first.

An example would be the need to pull a calf from a heifer. While this will happen from time to time, could the A.I. technician have chosen a better bull for calving ease, resulting in an easier delivery for the heifer, less stress on the calf and more time for the maternity team to spend on other tasks? If the importance of bull selection were taught and implemented, the urgent delivery could have been avoided.

Because so many tasks on a dairy are dependent on several people to accomplish, it is critical that everyone do the important part of their job. If everyone does, the urgent tasks that take us away from the important ones diminish and everyone does a better job. I challenge everyone to find one area where they can move from urgent to important. If we do, we will all benefit in the long run. EL