Most high-performance dairies that I work with don’t have superstars.

Rather, they get extraordinary results through ordinary people. Owners and managers of high-performance dairies provide leadership to organize, focus and motivate teams of workers to follow specific work routines and work to high standards.

Dairy owners don’t manage milking and mastitis; they manage milkers. For that matter, they don’t manage fertility, feeding or calves. They do manage herdsmen, breeders, feeders and calf department workers. A philosophical change that owners of large, high-performance dairies make is recognizing the importance of workers as teams, and then providing the structure that allows teams to succeed. Teams have four components; we’ll use milkers as the example. Obviously, all teams have players, your milkers, who may be divided into day, night or morning teams. Then every team must have a coach or supervisor which may be you, your herdsman or head milker(s). The third component is “rules of the game” which is your milking routine, the method to wash-up the parlor, how to handle cows identified with mastitis, etc. The rules are work protocols or “SOPs” and define “this is how we do it here on our dairy.” The fourth component of a team is a goal – to win. Winning may be a somatic cell count of less than 200,000, clinical mastitis less than 2 percent, finishing “on time,” etc. And successful teams need specific goals; it is just not adequate to say that we want to be “the best” that we can be.

High-performance, large dairy owners are successful team managers. Here are a few things I’ve learned from working on high-performance dairies. First, use an organizational diagram to define your teams. I’ve drawn organizational diagrams for two dairies of different sizes. (SeeFigures 1* and 2*.) Teams become evident when groups of people are organized around common activities or when groups of workers care for the same class of animals. For example, the milking teams in both illustrations are very similar for both dairies. But the team headed by the herdsman in the smaller dairy is much different than that supervised by the herdsman in the large dairy. And the larger dairy needs more teams to care for more animals. Size of your dairy, its facilities and competency of middle managers and of workers are all factors that determine who is on what team.

Competency of the middle manager, the coach or team leader is a very important factor in the success of any team. In Figure 1*, the organizational diagram of the smaller dairy, the team leader in almost every case is the owner. Success of team performance is relative to the ability of the owner to get results working directly with his workers. But in Figure 2*, the milking supervisor, dry cow and maternity manager, herdsman, head breeder and head feeder are all the “coaches” of their teams. Team leaders have five responsibilities that distinguish them from the rest of their workers. These are:

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1. Team leaders know how to organize work.
2.
Team leaders train the workers on their team.
3.
Team leaders monitor their team members by watching them as they work with them and by using records to judge performance (e.g., goals)
4.
Team leaders motivate or discipline (retrain) workers on their teams.
5.
Team leaders communicate upwards to their coach or boss and downwards to their team members.

I find that team leaders of average dairies are unclear about their roles and these five principles. But owners of high-performance dairies not only clarify these roles for their middle managers, they teach their key team leaders personal management principles that go beyond pure animal or technical competency. A common error among dairy owners is to promote a good “cowman” to a higher level of team leader based upon his or her cowmanship skills, only to have him or her fail as a supervisor or team leader. I’ll address how to develop team leaders and teach them leadership and managerial principles in future articles in Progressive Dairyman.

Organizing milkers into a team might go something like this. You decide the milking routine you want implemented in your parlor. You then milk with your milkers or explain the details of the routine to each of them (English-Spanish communication may be a hurdle to overcome). You then watch each shift of milkers periodically to confirm they work correctly or to retrain them as needed. You also monitor SCC, bacteria counts, mastitis levels and milking time and make adjustments by talking to your milkers as needed. In this case you are the team leader who successfully implements the five steps identified for team leaders above. In addition, by demonstration, you set the standards for performance, for worker attitude and for the philosophy of your business.

Organizing milkers with a milking supervisor is different.

First, you select the person with some “natural” personality skills to understand and gain the respect of fellow employees. He or she is probably bilingual. You and the milking supervisor discuss the specific milking routine to be used; in-depth discussion assures you that the milking supervisor understands the routine and the “why” behind it.

Next, you delegate authority and responsibility to the milking supervisor. That means you explain to this person that he or she is now responsible to implement the routine you two have agreed upon with the rest of the milking team workers. He or she is the “go-between” between you and the workers. You clarify the standards to which you want the team leader and his or her milkers to perform and you explain the philosophy, ethics and interpersonal skills needed to manage each milker.

Finally, you explain the support and commitment you will provide to assure your milking supervisor of his or her success. You do this through weekly or monthly meetings at which you and the milking supervisor review results and discuss problems and strategies. These are important meetings that you use to teach the milking supervisor the interpersonal skills to deal with tough or uncomfortable people management issues for which he or she has limited experience.

Delegating to middle managers as team leaders is a very different management strategy than most dairymen have been accustomed to. As dairies grow larger and/or as they become higher performing dairies, they require a management strategy that adds another “layer” of personnel between you and your cowside workers.

Team leaders can be a tremendous asset in this “middle layer” in that they can lead teams of workers to higher performance levels than you could do alone. Manage these “managers” to maximize your dairy’s potential. PD

Figures omitted but are available upon request to editor@progressivedairy.com.

Thomas Fuhrmann
President of Dairy Works